[Mild spoilers below]

 

This is it folks and having already seen the film myself, I promise you it is well worth the wait. Dark Knight Rises picks up the story of Bruce Wayne eight years after Batman takes the fall for the murder of Harvey Dent. Gotham is at peace and all is well on the surface, however lurking beneath the façade, an unknown force headed by the ferocious and mighty Bane.

 

Director Christopher Nolan has very easily pulled off one of the greatest trilogies of all time. With Dark Knight Rises, Nolan’s darker and more realistic take on the character of Batman is taken to its ultimate, staggering conclusion as all the underlying themes, and dilemmas of the series are tied up with a resounding finality.

 

And then there is Bane... Tom Hardy is an unstoppable force of nature as Bane, however for all its extremes; Bane is a highly nuanced character. The comparison between Heath Ledger’s Joker and Bane is as inevitable as it is unfair, but I will say this much; Ledger was riveting as the Joker, riveting, but he was given a lot more to work with than Hardy who manages with ease, to portray Bane as not only an overwhelmingly ruthless juggernaut, but also a calculated thinker and ultimately, a tragic human being in his own way, all while wearing a mask that would stifle expression were it any other actor.

 

I would strongly recommend that you go out to see the Dark Knight Rises, but if you’re not already excited to the point of delirium, then you clearly haven’t watched the other two films, or the horror that came before Christopher Nolan descended unto the franchise. In any case, don’t worry about what the critics say, most of they don’t know what they’re talking about, our faith in Nolan’s direction brought us this far and soon it will take you to the end…of the legend…of Batman.

 

 

 

By Channa Fernadopulle