The Dark Knight Rises- Alex Larson review

For my review, I am going to review a movie, The Dark Knight Rises, which came out in the summer of 2012.  The Dark Knight Rises is the third installment in director Christopher Nolan's trilogy, and is the sequel to the wildly popular, The Dark Knight, which will always be remembered as Heath Ledger's last acting role. 
The Dark Knight Rises takes place 8 years after the events of the Dark Knight.  After capturing The Joker and taking the fall for Harvey Dent's crimes, Batman vanished into the night, and was not heard from or seen for nearly a decade.  Gotham had experienced a time of peace, but it was all built on a lie.  The Harvey Dent Act had kept thousands of criminals locked up in Blackgate prison, but the truth can't be hidden forever. 
After 8 years of peace, Bane, a terrorist leader, makes his way to Gotham, and is determined to restore balance to the world.  A former member of the League of Shadows, the same group that trained Batman himself, Bane made his way to Gotham for one reason, to destroy the city.  Bruce Wayne, now much older and more damaged, thinks that stopping Bane will be an easy task.  He was gravely mistaken.  After disposing of the Batman and trapping the city's police officers underground, Bane and his men established a strong hold, and cut off the city from the outside world.  In order to have a chane at stopping Bane, a broken Bruce Wayne must learn how to embrace his fear.  However, as the film goes on, we discover more about what drives Bane, and if Batman wants to defeat him, he must first understand how connected they really are.

The Dark Knight Rises is a powerful conclusion to one the best film trilogies of all time.  Not only does the film stand on its own, it also demands multiple viewings because of how much it intertwines with the previous two films.  After the success of the first two Batman movies, along with Inception, The Prestige, and Memento, director Christopher Nolan wasn't sure if he wanted to return to the Batman franchise.  But after developing a satisfactory story, he decided he would return to Gotham and complete his vision.  Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, and Tom Hardy lead an all-star cast in this epic econclusion to the Dark Knight legend.