Without a doubt, this is Christian Bale's strongest portrayal of Bruce Wayne, in large part because he spent so much of the film out of his costume. Honestly, any long reprieve from "The Bat Voice" is welcome. But now, a question for Tom Hardy: Did you know you were crafting one of the most controversial representations of a comic book character in movie history? Much can be (and has been) said about the decision to turn Batman's deadliest foe into a mush-mouthed intellectual with a penchant for psychological warfare, and not much of it tends to be positive. But considering The Dark Knight Rises' extravagant runtime, did we really need to see Batman battle a one-dimensional, musclebound henchman-gone-rogue for nearly three hours? Really, the biggest problems with The Dark Knight Rises have nothing to do with Bane or Batman, but with the set pieces Christopher Nolan puts him in for much of the film's flabby second act. It's Bane against the world, with nary a Bat-turd in sight. Pitting Bane against the people of Gotham is fine for a bit, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Gary Oldman simply do not present an interesting enough set of good guys for him to play off. Hardy's backbreaking Irish-Gypsy with a history of asthma was almost interesting enough to forgive The Dark Knight Rises' many, many plot contrivances. But just almost.
