I'll Always Rise
with The Dark Knight

Now that the hype for superhero movies has calmed down a bit, can we all agree there's only one that stands above the rest? Hand in hand, whether you're a Marvel fan or a DC stan, can we all agree that The Dark Knight Rises is the best superhero film of all time?

Look, I get it. The MCU dominated the box office and pop culture for a time. And there's no denying that Endgame and Infinity War will always be among the highest-grossing films of all time. They're great in their own right, don't get me wrong!

But you can never beat Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, especially The Dark Knight Rises! The Avengers movies may beat them at the box office, but their quality and overall craft will always come out on top. Nolan's films had the potential to be the first comic book adaptations to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

The cast alone already knocked my socks off. Besides Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, and Morgan Freeman reprising roles from the first two films, this third installment also featured Marion Cotillard, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Matthew Modine, Ben Mendelsohn, Juno Temple, and, of course, Tom Hardy as Bane.

If you ask me, I think Hardy should've gotten as many awards as the late Heath Ledger did for the Joker in The Dark Knight. Or, at the very least, earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Oscars. The movie wouldn't be the masterpiece that it is without Hardy's chilling portrayal of one of Batman's most dangerous foes.

The fact that he didn't get any, even more so that the movie earned zero Oscar nominations, is still the craziest thing to me. I remember being up in arms about this, and I rarely complained about that sort of stuff before.

Anyway, I still have fond memories of meeting that awesome cast at the movie's New York premiere on July 16, 2012. It was at AMC Loews Lincoln Square, so there was plenty of room for us fans to go all out shouting for our faves. I loved all of them, so you can imagine how hoarse my voice got the next morning.

Almost all of the main stars were there. Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Marion Cotillard, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt all looked incredible. I could barely recognize Hardy without the Bane bulk.

One by one, they signed my movie poster, and I knew I had an autographed piece of memorabilia for the ages. I can't forget about Christopher Nolan, too. As starstruck as I was to meet the cast, getting his autograph stunned me the most. I'll always appreciate that a filmmaker of his caliber decided to do these Batman films.

Unfortunately, Michael Caine and Matthew Modine weren't there, but I caught up with them and got their autographs afterward. I'm not gonna mention when and where I met them, out of respect for their privacy, but I will say that they were nice throughout our interactions.