It's hard to make a sequel to a masterpiece.  But, all things considered, Nolan did a pretty damn good job.  The story is really good, taking all of the strong elements from the previous entry and using them to progress the world and the characters in interesting and understandable ways.  While the story kind of falters near the end, the beginning of this movie is the perfect successor to The Dark Knight.  The action, visuals, and soundtrack are also very good and in line with the quality of the last movie as well.  The one reason why this movie isn't as good is the absence of some of the most integral parts of the previous movie: the great character arcs and the memorable villains.  While Bane is great, he's not nearly as iconic as the Joker, and the acting is on a much lower level (sorry Tom).  The strong character arcs aren't present either, although Batman's is still very good.  I think this movie is certainly great, but definitely earns most of it's credit due to it's predecessor.