THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Pre-Release Thread - Page 3

Exactly how much credence did the general public give to the ravings of Charles Manson/Timothy McVeigh/Saddam Hussein during their respective trials? And those guys didn't even have the gumption to dress as homicidal clowns with distinctive scars and send self-identifying home videos of themselves torturing people to major media outlets prior to their capture.

When it comes to TDK, there are plot holes, and there are Plot Holes. This ain't one of them.

So is Ramirez brought in on the conspiracy as well as Gordon's family? Given that Dent only punched her in the face and all.

I admit, I'm being pedantic and I love that resolution at the end of the film. There's just some interesting ramifications there.

Someone who's better at the Internet than me can probably find the exact quote, but I read somewhere legit that that was the case.

ETA: I want to say Empire or Entertainment Weekly. I see an "E".

Nolan's never said that publicly, but Goyer's very early trilogy outline did apparently have the Joker coming back to throw acid in Dent's face in the third film. If they changed that, it's not far-fetched to assume that prior to Ledger's death, Nolan nixed the idea of the Joker appearing in the third film altogether, or maybe not, who knows.

Sure.

Every time I read the title I can't help thinking "If God is Willing da Knight Don't Rise"

That's actually a great idea that would allow some lesser known villains to make an appearance. I'd love it to have Mad Hatter or Killer Croc show up for five minutes then have Deadshot put a bullet in their heads just to piss off some nerds.

For a 5' cameo...is Walken that busy these days?

Walker as Mad Hatter. He goes into a typical Walken spiel and then bang! sniper shot.

Only if Bale gets trapped in a gigantic hourglass.
Echoes of Ra's al Ghul's MO... Good reason to bring in Talia and the League of Shadows again, no?

I want 3 to be BIG. Multiple villain cameos, cops VS vigilantes, Catwoman, mob, assassin/s (Bane/Deadshot/Deathstroke), League, utter chaos. And only Bats can save the day. Stripmine any good elements from Hush, Knight Fall, etc. If escalation is the path, then just go all out with a 2-parter like DEATHLY HALLOWS. Hell, bring in Dick G to take over the mantle (more Nightwing/Batman Beyond than Robin) when/if he's "killed" (fake or not). I want EPIC.

I could really see the next villian as someone who represents Batman's ability to obtain high tech weaponry. Deadshot is the one I would like to see. Have him be a solider of fortune turned merchenary. Obviously, Batman is public enemy number one, but with Gordon being the comishner, you know the Gotham City police force isn't going to be giving it there all to capture Batman. Which could lead to the politicians, or new DA seeking out help from Deadshot. I'd even twist is that Deadshot isn't a bad guy, and is actually out to help Gotham because he believes Batman is a murderer. I would even have him obtaining weapons from an arms dealer known as the Penguin.
I wouldn't mind seeing Catwomen. With Rachel being as someone put it early, fried chicken, you know they are going to insert a love interest into the story, and I think Catwoman would be the most logical. You could twist her story up, by her being a poor married woman, who's husbad was killed by the mob, so she takes to the streets to eliminate the mob.
So, you have Batman, taking on two villians, who really aren't villians.

In fact, if you think back to Batman 1989, the only film villain who's ever fought Batman in hand-to-hand combat was Catwoman, discounting Bruce's training in Batman Begins, of course. Using Bane almost seems too obvious, but killing Batman or at least crippling him would give the fanboys even more leverage than they got out of Heath Ledger in overrating a decent but flawed summer flick.

I hope the third movie ties in more with classic Batman elements, like a sleeker batmobile, some detective work, maybe even the yellow symbol on his chest (explained in the comics as a psychological suggestion to fire at his chest instead of his unprotected face). I guess I just miss the more iconic Batman of the past.

One thing's for sure--we can look forward to more one-liners from generic cop extras.

I know Two Faces return as been shot down, but this movie obviously sounds like, atleast from it's title, that Batman will rise to become the known guardian of Gotham. How can that be done, when the public thinks Batman is a murderer. Isn't Harvey going to have to eventually take the blame for that for Batman to become, Batman?

When I saw the Batmen in the beginning of the Dark Knight, I was thinking that Two-Face could almost use them for his group. Obviously not dressed as Batman, but thugs who want order, but due to Batman's actions towards them (they were most likely arrested) they team up with Two-Face and try to take over the streets, injuring, or killing any villian who gets in there way.

I'm really iffy on Talia; it's hard to imagine bringing her back and not having it be really soap opera-ish. "I am....Ra's Al Ghul's DAUGHTER!" The League coming back, in some form, I could buy, but Talia....dunno. Granted, she or Catwoman are the female leads that are the most obvious, but Nolan's not been predictable with his choices and uses of villains.

I also want it to be BIG - but I want the focus to remain squarely on Wayne/Batman, as it was in BEGINS. Devin called Bale a "guest star" in TDK; while I wouldn't go that far, I can also understand why he wrote that. So yeah, bring on the chaos, multiple villains, and escalation of danger.

As has been written, though, I want a villain who can physically mix it up with Batman, and I hope that Nolan takes what he learned from INCEPTION re: filming action and fight scenes. We've had remarkably little onscreen asskicking for films centered around a ninja-trained vigilante who eschews the use of guns. I want more scenes like the nightclub/fire escape scene from TDK.

Ra's Al Ghul is a physical opponent, and was fought outside of the training.

What exactly does this mean, "leverage"?

Its good to hear Nolan talking about finishing the trilogy rather than leaving it open for another director to continue. It'll be cool to see the final chapter of a major superhero. And by trying to do something technologically that's never been done before, I really hope he means shooting the whole thing in Imax. Because that would be simply incredible, personally I found the imax section of TDK more impressive than the 3d of Avatar.

I always thought a trilogy was the idea. He's always said this series is about Batman becoming the Batman everyone knows. So no "Batman dying" or Robin appearing.

Rumor has it Tom Hardy is cast as some corrupt detective. Harvey Bullock.

Just my 2 cents ...

I don't think there's a chance in hell that we're going to get a Nolan 'Killer Croc' or 'Catwoman.'(Thank god) My money is on the government swooping into Gotham to take over from the GCPD, and shady Mercs coming in to collect a bounty from the underworld bosses. My fan-boy wish is Deathstroke as the "villain."

Yeaaaah...no.

Fair enough. Explanation?

That's dumb. Keith Szarabajka basically had the same role in the last movie, and he looked more like Bullock than Hardy does/would. Though not corrupt, which Bullock isn't really.

There was a corrupt Renee Montoya analogue too.

If the movie actually spends time on the "cops chasing Batman" angle, I'd love it if the team Gordon assembles is filled with Gotham Central characters, ones Gordon trusts, perhaps enough to tell them "let's just pretend to chase the Bat and actually solve this crocodile guy* case."

Screw it, let's just make a Gotham Central movie too. Done by Shawn Ryan.

The fact there's no Gotham Central series will never cease to mindblow me.

They can't spare any creative talent from Smallville. All that creative talent is necessary to make Smallville awesome. You wouldn't want Smallville to start sucking now do you?

"Be careful what you wish for", I see. Well played.

Sounds like a 90's Image comic w/ their obsession for shady mercs and their really shady black-ops missions and so on. Deadshot could very well happen, but moving Batman away from costumed villains and toward a bunch of faceless merc stock characters when they've taken pains to show the complexion of crime in Gotham changing dramatically, is unlikely, and boring.

LULZ

Personally I'd like to see Gotham erupt with every single two bit lamo "super villain" trying to outdo the Joker, and being taken out by the Batmen vigilantes, while the real Mob moves in again, all while Batman desperately tries to restore a semblance of order. Scarecrow, Mad Hatter Penguin et al are good secondary characters but can't sustain a movie.

Face it, you are not going to outdo the Joker in Batman's Mythos (the only attempt that worked was Ras Al Ghul, precisely because he was so different from Joker).

You could also have Batman fighting the League of Lame Villains while in the background the Mob gets it's grip on Gotham more tightly than ever, a plot which makes thematic sense and puts Batman at the center of the action.

Interesting. It might be funny to include these hard-to-pull-off silly villains as wannabes, like the Batmen imposters. The movie recognizes how lame they are in real life, by making them even more lame. Chubby guy in hockey pads and bat mask fights cosplay dude in Mad Hatter costume, while Bruce takes on the real threats.

I'm reminded of the auditions in MYSTERY MEN... only for DC bad guys.

You know..

I really would like to see a Ventriloquist nod, similar to the Scarecrow nod in TDK.

Tom Hardy is looking like Bullock, but I honestly think he's ripe for Deadshot (even though he's a throwaway character, I'd imagine he'd have a lot more to do in a film like this). I could conceivably see Eckhart's Dent actually being kept alive and heavily sedated in Arkham's basement, a really dark secret that only Gordon keeps. There's a theme that could be explored, a rift in the Batman/Gordon relationship.

I don't want to fan wank any further, but I'll end on this - We need Wayne Manor and The Cave back.

Yes, I'm hopeful we get the new and improved Bat Cave.

You shut your goddamn mouth. Shut it hard.

Smallville is righteously awesome.

Really?

Since detours' are allowed here... What about a new love interest for Bruce? It will fell kinda odd. What how would Nolan avoid that stuff?

You know, I originally thought that Nolan would kill off Bats. But maybe he'll end the trilogy with the cave, the manor, the car all "back"/rebuilt, and Batman accepting and embracing his role, rather than looking for an out. It's an ending, and it relates to Bruce's original phrasing of being an eternal symbol.

Regardless of Batman's fate, I think we'll see a rebuilt Wayne manor and Batcave in the next film.

You're right; I forgot about the skirmish before Batman jumped out of the train.

TDK rode a huge amount of hype from Heath Ledger's death, which masked its flaws.

Hunt For Batman Female Lead Begins

Are you suggesting box office performance or why people like the film?

Why people liked the movie so much. I recall the so-called backlash against it being a topic here amidst the posthumous Oscar talk. Ledger's Joker was good, but his death gave his last performance a macabre mystique that drew audiences. The film is average when he or Harvey Dent aren't on screen.

Well as someone that likes the film, it has nothing to do with Ledger's death. I think you would be hard pressed to prove something like that anyway.

Nolan strings together a number of bravado sequences and tells a fulfilling story with good actors doing good work. It's nonsense to suggest that Ledger is the only reason anyone likes the film, I can name a dozen elements off the top of my head w/out bringing up Ledger once. Either way, remember that Ledger and Eckhart are there because Nolan cast them.

Heath's death may've given the movie more publicity, but there's no doubt the movie succeeded because people genuinely loved it.

It's not like his death helped The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnasus make any money. That movie didn't have much appeal. TDK on the other hand was the very definition of a crowd pleaser.

Not gonna say the death had no effect on people's reactions, but Ledger's performance would have stood out regardless. It's simply phenomenal.

Edit: Too slow!

I hate to see Gary Oldman go unmentioned here. He plays the only sane, decent, normal guy, and does it really well while also being kind of badass, no easy feat. The speech at the end was really cheesy, but man, he sold it. At least the first time I watched it. It's less interesting to speculate about for all the superwankery, but I'm intrigued as to where they might take the character.

Gotham Central TV show starring Gary Oldman. DC Entertainment, make it happen.

Never liked Gotham Central much. I like the idea of a Gotham Central tv show even less than the comic. Why would you make a TV show based in the Batman universe, that doesn't prominently feature Batman? Seems like a terrible idea to me.

If the film has Batman at his lowest when he's trying to rise to greatness, I think the only way to take his character is loner territory. Somewhere in the film, Alfred and Gordon's relationship with Bruce/Bats gets strained.

Maybe, The Dark Knight...Rises above his and Gotham's probems, and becomes the legendary superhero that the people of Gotham deserve.

I saw...The Dark Knight, because of the best character in the film. Batman as performed by Christian Bale!

If the Vera Farmiga casting rumors hold any truth, I say it'll be as a younger version of Leslie Thompkins. Fits with the general Denny O'Neil love the filmmakers have shown, and seems right down Nolan's Crime Alley. If Dark Knight Rises is about redemption, it's a short list of people who believe in Gotham more than Bruce does. Thompkins is one of them, and would be one of Batman's few allies in a city full of hunters.* Wally Pfister would no doubt make her luminesce on screen.

I mentioned it a couple years ago in the spec thread, but I suspect Talia will show up, offering Bruce a chance to abandon a city that aggressively doesn't want a Batman, and head-up a rededicated League of Shadows, with the goal of seeding cities around the world with Batman-like vigilantes.

*Thompkins and Gordon are in many ways Gotham City's own mother and father, and if Batman (not Bruce) has surrogate parents, it's them. Have Batman fall for a gorgeous doc/maternal figure and you've got some fun subtext too, especially if there's push/pull with Talia, who has her own parental issues.