Better Late Than Never.

So, I know that I’m pretty far behind the times on this one, but I just got finished watching the latest installment of Chris Nolan‘s Batman opus, “The Dark Knight Rises.” Yeah, yeah, I know…like I said, I’m coming in late with this.

Anyway, I just wanted to take a moment to remark on the performance of Tom Hardy, the British actor who played the role of Bane in the film. His odd, Sean-Connery-on-crack voice characterization was much maligned by most people that saw the film (at least those that I know,) and was the subject of all sorts of mockery on morning radio shows and comedy television.

When I say, “maligned” I mean that people fucking hated it.

And, as usual, people were wrong.

I happened to like Bane in the film quite a bit, and the I-can-see-you-coming-from-a-mile-away “twist” ending still managed to catch me off guard just enough to make everything that much better. Also, it occurred to me that Tom Hardy is something of a bad ass for taking the role in the first place, and here’s why:

You’re offering me a role in which the audience only sees my face once, I have to make a funny voice the entire time, I’ll always be wearing a funky, uncomfortable mask during the shoots, I need to train really hard in real life to get in shape, and to prepare for the physical rigors of numerous fight scenes and action sequences, and I could probably get injured doing some retarded ass crap while we’re making this thing….

…but I get to play the only evil henchman in all of cinema history to even begin to compare with the ultra-minion excellence of Darth-Fucking-Vader?

I’m in.

Well played Tom Hardy, well played.