The Dark Knight Rises.

Spectacular finale....Tom Hardy as Bane and Christian Bale as Batman.

Dubbed, 'the most anticipated film of year' means that The Dark Knight Rises has a lot to live up to. Fortunately, it does, and it does it with style. Christian Bale returns to the role except this time as Bruce Wayne more than Batman. In the third of this trilogy he is pitted against British actor, Tom Hardy as Bane, a disfigured warlord forced to wear a respiratory breathing mask. Bane poses a large threat to the Dark Knight but you can obviously see Christopher Nolan had the whole thing lined up for The Joker to be the primary antagonist. Unfortunately due to Heath Ledger's unexpected death in 2008 this idea was binned. Bane was an interesting choice, and rumors emerged that The Riddler might be a good choice with Leonardo DiCaprio as a possible contender for the role. I think The Riddler would have been interesting but Bane is a wise decision. He is a large bulky, muscular man and makes his presence known to everybody in the room. Bane poses a tough enemy for Batman and at several times, Bane defeat Batman but everyone knows Bats will win or will he?
The real scene-stealer for me has to be Anne Hathaway, she has style, charisma and very funny lines. Hathaway plays Selina Kyle, a young cat burglar that proves to be a bit of a antihero assisting Batman/Bruce Wayne and then turning against him. Gary Oldman is superb as usual while Michael Caine as Alfred is a bit irritating. Marion Cotillard's character, Miranda Tate is a bit more interesting than you first think. Morgan Freeman has a more physical role than in The Dark Knight and Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Officer John Blake, a strong admirer of the Batman.
The first hour of the film is a bit padded and flabby but the second half is brilliant, you will be blown away by the might of it all and the final five minutes will hit you like Sherlock Holmes' fall from Reichenbach Fall. 






4/5