The Dark Knight Rises

It's been said that a little white lie never hurt anyone. The problem with lying however, is you have to continue over time to keep your story straight so that no one figures out the deception. It is this deception that can be detrimental to both the person who is lying and ultimately to the one(s) being lied to. Gotham City has been living such a lie. Eight years prior to the events of The Dark Knight Rises Gotham City's greatest district attorney named Harvey Dent suffered an immeasurable amount of grief and rage when his fiancee died at the hands of the Joker. As a result he vowed vengeance on the ones who he believed had wronged him, both criminal and police officer alike. Harvey's path of vengeance led to his death during a confrontation with Commisioner Gordon and Batman. To preserve the "white knight" image that Harvey had made for himself Gordon and Batman devised a plan to allow Batman to take the fall for the crimes Harvey had committed and to also be blamed for his death. Fast forward eight years: Batman/Bruce Wayne has gone into hiding, and Gordon and the Gotham Police have enacted laws in "honor" of Harvey Dent to remove every dangerous criminal from the streets of Gotham. Things seem to be going well until the lie these two men forged eight years ago catches up to them in the form of a man who makes the Joker seem like a teenage hooligan: the masked terrorist named Bane.

The third and final chapter in Christopher Nolan's trilogy portraying his vision of the legend of Batman is without a doubt one of the best comic book adaptations I have ever seen. Tom Hardy (who plays Bane) gives Heath Ledger a run for his money as the best onscreen villain. To me it would have been better if Bane had been in the second film in the trilogy The Dark Knight, but he does an extremely great job here. Where the Joker waits until a building is empty to blow it up, Bane shows no such restraint. Bane is not in it for the money, or even in it for the fun of watching stuff blow up. Bane wishes to make Batman pay dearly physically, spiritually, and mentally for past "sins". For this reason Bane becomes a more formidable foe than any Batman has ever faced before. Bane has nothing to lose. My favorite line is when Bane stares at Batman and calmly tells him "When Gotham is ashes...you have my permission to die." The Dark Knight Rises has a couple surprises up its sleeve that after seeing it a couple times I realized were a little predictable, but this is a movie that is worth seeing multiple times. It is a great ending to one of the best, if not THE best comic book adaptations ever done.