On September 3, the epic conclusion of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy reached the 1 billion dollar mark. If anyone hasn’t watched the Dark Knight Rises then they must have been in some forsaken jungle, blistering desert or desolated glacier because there is no excuse for not watching these 165 minutes of pure dramatic, gritty, superhero realism.

The Dark Knight Rises is set eight years after the events of The Dark Knight. Through that time, Batman (Christian Bale) has been blamed for the murder of Harvey Dent (Two-Face). In turn, Commissioner James Gordon (Gary Oldman) used the Dent Act to make it impossible for criminals to use the insanity plea. What followed was a peace time free of organized crime for Gotham, except for the Catwoman Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), but then evil came back with a new face. If Batman Begins followed the theme of fear, The Dark Knight had chaos, and then Rises is made of pain. Bane (Tom Hardy) has come for Gotham’s reckoning.

The Dark Knight Rises was exactly what fans were hoping for it to be. Bane is a smart, brutal mastermind (definitely better than the Batman & Robin version). Catwoman is the sexy anti-hero person she is in the comics, and she is the one who finally gave Batman his own dose of people disappearing when he talks. The plot twists are as expected of Christopher Nolan, there are bad ones and there are good ones. And exactly like his style, the ending is as ambiguous as the top spinning in Inception.

Credit has to be given to the actors to produce such great acting. Bane is a very believable creation, even if his voice matches nothing with his physique. Of course Heath Ledger’s Joker is still the best villain around, but Bane proves to be the best match for Batman in this final movie. The music by Hans Zimmer is just as riveting as his previous scores, the punches, the action, the speeches; each scene gets its own perfect sound.

The Dark Knight Rises is a great movie; it is definitely worth wasting your weekend watching. Even then, you might want to watch it again. There can be no better recommendation to make for this truly wonderful film. (To all those who doesn’t know what “deshi deshi, basara, basara” means then I guess you’re still in the Pit. Sorry, bad Batman joke.)