Will It Be Knight Fall?

contains comic storylines, which you could consider spoilers

The Dark Knight Rises
opens July 20th.

In 2008, Christopher Nolan followed up his 2005 film Batman Begins with the super-hyped The Dark Knight. It was the first movie in the long running series that used a title without the name “Batman”, but his nickname was didn't shun audiences as they shelled out over $1 billion dollars worldwide. On July 20^th, The Dark Knight Rises will hit the theaters and promises to be the conclusion to the Dark Knight Saga. Will it deliver the thrill that captivated audiences for the last seven years or fall short like so many other “part three” films have in the past? One more question lingers...how far is Nolan going to take this story?

Bane broke Batman's back
 in the Knightfall series.

This one features Bane, a genetically enhanced super-soldier that dwarfs Captain America with an intellect that rivals Stephen Hawking. Originally, MOVIE audiences got a watered down version of the super villain as a boneheaded one dimensional character in the forgettable Batman and Robin, but some aspects of Bane were true. Bane injects a poison called venom from a tank on his back to boost his strength and even makes him grow in height. Sentenced to serve his revolutionary father's term in a Caribbean prison called Pena Dura, he read as many books as he could get his hands on. His first murder came at the age of eight, growing the hard character's bloodlust. Eventually Bane became the “king of the prison”, which displeased the prisoner's controllers. He was given the experimental drug Venom that killed all the other test subjects and nearly did so to Bane. However, Bane survived and broke out of prison with his unbelievable strength. He sought Gotham because Gotham was ruled in fear, but it was fear of the Batman. In the "Knightfall" series, Bane broke out Arkham's deadliest criminals for Batman to round up. Exhausted from rounding up Gotham's filth, Batman retired back to the Batcave where Bane was waiting for him after concluding he was Bruce Wayne. The battle resulted with Bane breaking Batman's back becoming the man who "broke the bat."

Tom Hardy's Bane will be much better than the
one Joel Schumacher gave us in Batman and Robin.

Now to the films. At the end of The Dark Knight, Batman makes a decision that made him an outlaw in Gotham to preserve the image of Harvey Dent. As a result, Batman goes into hiding and The Dark Knight Rises begins with Bruce Wayne insisting he's retired. It's a time of peace and prosperity in Gotham and you know that won't last. Come on Godzilla eventually has to attack Tokyo, therefore a super-villain will always rise... no pun intended. Shooting Star (better than Rising) Tom Hardy takes on the role of Bane. Hardy has called Bane "meticulous and calculated" as opposed to the crazed and unpredictable Joker audiences loved in 2008. There is no jar of poison on Bane and he is a regular height, fitting how Nolan stayed away from the SUPERNATURAL characters in this series. It's Bane's intellect and ruthlessness that Nolan is showcasing. The trailers show a battle in the Batcave and it refers to this film as the CONCLUSION of the Dark Knight series, but exactly how far is this story going to go? Are they going to cripple the hero? It's hard to imagine ending the series like that, but it's possible. If so, that would be unprecedented! How many superhero movies have ended like that? One thing is certain, Nolan's third part of the series is hyped an incredible amount and is expected to not Spider-Man 3 audiences.