The Bane That Broke the Bat's Back

Rating: 10/10 (17 August 2016)

More so than any movie in the Nolan-verse trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises requires several viewings for its impact to sink in. As it will always draw comparisons to its predecessor, The Dark Knight, it is worth making some of my own. Whereas The Dark Knight played out like the flash of cigarette dropped into gasoline, The Dark Knight Rises is more like a slow burning cigar making its way to a powder keg of gunpowder.
In this film, the charade of hope that Batman created in two films finally comes collapsing down around him and everything slowly goes to anarchy and hell, as Tom Hardy's Bane plans it. The depiction of Bane, while not on the level of Ledger's Joker, is one thing the movie nails. Instead of portraying the character as a blundering idiot as in previous films, The Dark Knight Rises really allows the psychological as well as the physical strengths of the character to come out.
The usual cast is back, along with the sassy Anne Hathaway as Catwoman and lovely Marion Cotillard as a Wayne Enterprises board member who empathizes with Bruce. After seeing this film several times now, I feel comfortable to give it 4 out of 4 stars.