 |
| SWEAR TO ME!!!!! |
In case you Bat-fans haven't heard already, there's some interesting news that hit the airwaves this week concerning the third installment of the beloved Bat franchise helmed by Chris Nolan. The bat-tacular director announced the title of his third Batman film, will be aptly called "The Dark Knight Rises." I'll get into my thoughts on the new title in a second, but the biggest news, and most surprising to many speculators out there, is that Nolan himself handed a little golden ticket by saying that the Riddler will NOT be the villain of the new film. Hmm, do I hear an uproar of green suited fanboys ready to overthrow Nolan for cerebral control of Gotham? I hope not...here's why.
If Nolan has taught us anything with his Bat-films, is to never expect the obvious. Over the course of the first two Bat-films, Nolan has redefined the comic book film genre each and every time. With Batman Begins, he taught us that even the most obscure villains can be taken seriously, and with the Dark Knight, well, Nolan showed us that an iconic villain can be made even more menacing than before, but that's due to the excellent casting choice of Heath Ledger. So how will Nolan up the ante from the Joker's reign of chaos? In all honesty, the Riddler wouldn't have been the answer. I've always been hesitant about the idea of Edward Nygma tearing Gotham apart with his narcissistic ways because Nygma was never a physical match for Batman, or cerebral one at that. On top of that, the only way I could see Riddler working in Nolan's universe is if he held Gotham ransom where only Batman could save the city by deciphering an all-too complex puzzle. We already saw something like this in the Dark Knight with the ferry-bomb scene, and it would be too similar in format. Plus Jim Carrey may have left a bad taste in all our mouths after that spectacularly awful performance in Batman Forever. I may have loved it as a kid, but I also loved Power Rangers...you do the math of my incompetence.
So here's where the crazy speculation begins of which villain will appear in the next Bat film. In order to calm the tidal wave of theories, I figured in honor of the world's greatest detectives, I'd do some detective work of my own in zeroing in on just who will go toe-to-toe with the Dark Knight. So here are the clues we have so far....
Clue #1 The Title of the Film
"The Dark Knight Rises" -- A title like this should evoke the greatest emotions out of comic book fans. When we last saw our Dark Knight in shining military flex-armor, he was branded a criminal in Gotham. Now the entire Gotham police force is after Batman, and the whole city probably hates his guts. With a title like the Dark Knight Rises, Batman must be beat down to a pulp and rise out of the ashes as the savior of Gotham, meaning it is not going to be a walk in the park. He must be thrown into the proverbial societal blender, mixing it up with the dregs of society, and becoming his own one man army against Gotham's underworld.
Clue #2 Casting Tom Hardy
The Forger from Inception was hand picked by Nolan to play an unspecified villain role in the upcoming film. If anyone saw Hardy's earlier performances that weren't Inception, such as Layer Cake, and even Star Trek: Nemesis, you'll clearly see a talented Brit with a knack for playing dark characters. Hardy has many qualities to his advantage as a villain: He is young, not a chick (sorry Poison Ivy & Harley Quinn), not fat (sorry Penguin), and not a skinny wimp (sorry Ventriloquist). I could be wrong and he does end up playing one of the characters above (I hope he's not a cross dressing Ivy) but because of this we can probably narrow down the list of possible villainous candidates.
Clue #3 Nolan's Believable World of Batman
Sounds like a good theme park name. Seriously though, the world of Gotham City that Nolan has created is something to treasure. Gotham City is a crime-ridden, dark, gritty world that looks like Chicago. I kid, I kid, it IS Chicago. The world of Gotham isn't what we were used to seeing in Burton-Schumacher land. No more are our villains characatures that would make even their animated series counterparts weep in dismay. No, these are villains that could be considered believable by today's degenerate standards. They are methodical, twisted, and anarchists by nature. So with that being said, you can rule out a couple villains just by this clue alone. While Riddler could've been translated successfully, Nolan hammered the final nail in the coffin with his latest announcement. (Which I called by the way...Don't believe me...check out my earlier blogs ya doubters)
Clue #4 Other Sources
 |
| Batman in the Bayou? |
I added this clue because I overheard through the reliable friend of a friend scenario that some of the production on The Dark Knight Rises is scheduled to film in New Orleans. At his point everything must be taken with a grain of salt, but it does peak my interest. Why? Well, one of the more notorious villains in the Bat-Universe who has some deep comic book connections with the bayou city is none other than Killer Croc aka Waylon Jones. I know, I know, the inclusion of Killer Croc is hard to imagine within the confines of Nolan's realistic Bat-universe, but still, you gotta admit it would be an unexpected, yet welcome curve ball if that's who our villain turns out to be.
Hypothesis of Possible Villains
So with the clues that we have, we can start to pinpoint closer to who our villain could be, and here are my guesses beginning with the most likely:
Hush
If it were up to me, Hush would be the perfect villain for this movie. 'The Dark Knight Rises' will be a film about the struggle Batman will go through in order to win back the people of Gotham. In order to portray this film in the grandest of fashions, Nolan will need to introduce a villain that knows every move Batman will make, and that's where Hush comes in. Hush, aka Thomas Elliot, was a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne who grew up under similar circumstances with wealthy parents. However in Elliot's case, he hated his parents, and was jealous of Bruce. Nolan and crew could play with this relationship in a number of ways on screen, which could allow for furthur character development for Bruce Wayne. Elliot is also a master strategist, and according to the comics, he's known to have been an equal to Batman in both physical and mental prowess, and is a superb marksman. One of Hush's story arcs even had him manipulating some of Gotham's most vile criminals for his own purpose of ridding Batman, including Riddler, Joker, and even Killer Croc (wink wink). Plus Tom Hardy has the same charming looks as Christian Bale, and can easily be identified by audiences as the anti-Bruce Wayne.
Black Mask
Black Mask could be a major possibility within the context of Nolan's universe. Roman Sionis was another rich kid but his story is sadder than Hush. He was hated by his parents and he was bad from the get-go. A failed businessman, Sionis later turns to a life of crime, becoming a mob leader of the "False Face Society," where every member must wear a mask of their choosing, and he subsequently becomes the Black Mask after an incident with Batman, where his face was melted onto his Black mask...duh. I can see Black Mask in a Nolan film, especially with Hardy's casting, however the only problem I see with this is the whole mob connection. It's been done already in the first two films with Falcone and Joker, and I don't really see a chance for Nolan to add onto the emotional development of Wayne.
Ra's Al Ghul/Talia Al Ghul
If Liam Neeson makes a surprise appearance, I will officially s**t myself. If anyone analyzed the ending of 'Batman Begins' the way I did, you'll notice how Ra's peacefully closed his eyes before the train derailed, as if to say, "this will be merely a flesh wound!" Ra's al Ghul is immortal in the comics due to the mystical powers of the Lazarus pits. If Nolan wanted to up the ante of this film he could bring Neeson back, and maybe introduce Ra's daughter, Talia al Ghul as the new love interest because remember, Rachel went boom-boom in The Dark Knight. It would be nice, but that leaves the casting of Tom Hardy a mystery, unless he of course plays someone else we don't expect.
Killer Croc
As cool as Croc is in Batman lore, I am only including him based on clue # 4. It would be really difficult to include a character like this, mostly because it would either require an unbelievable amount of prosthetics or CGI to create, and I know Nolan won't be too keen on that. Plus, it doesn't really fit well in the believable realm of Nolan but hey, you never know.
=============
So those are my 2 cents on the possible direction of the new Batman film. I am thrilled that production is finally taking off with this film after a two and half year wait since the release of The Dark Knight. As great as Joker was, he should be left out entirely in the new film due to the tragic passing of Heath Ledger, and if anything, only be mentioned in an off manner. Maybe something like "Holy Shit, Joker escaped Arkham. We'll never find him." Maybe not exactly word for word how I put it, but you get the idea. Whatever the case may be, we're still a year and a half away until the Summer 2012 release date of The Dark Knight Rises, and anything could happen between now and then. Still, all the elements are starting to come together, and I know Nolan will make this a worthy third entry into a mainstream series. I wish I could say the same thing for Spider Man 3. I was seriously going into cardiac arrest when I saw Peter Parker dancing down the sidewalk. Hopefully Alfred won't bust out with a konga line.
No comments:
Post a Comment