The real upset for me, is Bane. Now I think Christopher Nolan has done masterful things with the series so far and I have every confidence that he will create a nuanced Bane. This Bane perhaps beginning as a small time crook and compelled to elevate himself to higher heights and rule the various families of Gotham, and so forces upon himself an untested steroid, Venom.

Inevitably, this will culminate in Bats and Cats joining forces to bring down Baney, or perhaps Batman wanting to avenge her death at the hands of Bane or perhaps instead Cats, being employed by Bane, teaming up with the muscular villain to fight off Batman. Or at least some sort of similar climax. And this’ll probably be pretty darn good as it is.

But I’m upset because I don’t want Bane. I heard a lot of rumours amidst the interwebs suggesting Tom Hardy would play Hugo Strange, a mad scientist/professor capable of wielding various perception/emotional changing chemicals, so not unlike Scarecrow really. And I think that could have been pretty interesting too, perhaps moreso than Bane.

But the mastermind I personally think should’ve taken the place as the main villain in The Dark Knight Rises, is The Riddler. Now, don’t get me wrong I think Jim Carrey’s Riddler was down right camp, but there was something interesting about the dynamic set up. He challenged Bats intellectually with his puzzles, toying with him, and through the very non-linear approach Nolan loves to tell his stories with, this could’ve been displayed absolutely perfectly. One such way this story could’ve been initiated is, that Dr. Edward Nigma, the state’s finest forensic/psychological/cryptanalysis consultant (perhaps think of a much more bad ass Charlie Eppes off of Numbers) has been asked to bring down the Batman, and hence lays traps and tries to get into the mind of Batman. But eventually the job becomes an obsession and Mr Nigma is willing to do anything solve this maddening puzzle, and prove to himself he is smarter than the Batman.

I just think that would’ve made a much much more compelling film than the threat Bane is likely to produce.

On a side note, I’m still hoping for a small cameo of The Penguin. At the start of the film as a pre-main-arc part of the story (much like how Bruce tried to stop Scarecrow at the beginning of The Dark Knight), Batman could be trying to take down a well-renowned upper-class supplier of weapons to the mob bosses of Gotham, aka Mr Cobblepot. So we get a nice bit of action with some shooting etc. and it could finish with the police running in and hence supplying the media with the idea that the Batman is trying to gather more firepower off of the mob, hence solidifying the outlaw persona he has become.

And on an additional sidenote, the idea of including either, Clayface or Killer Croc, in Nolan’s universe very much based in a quasi-reality is very ill-fitting. The only way this could ever truly work is making their monstrous appearances come from a genetic deformity, which in turn is based on real-life cases. Or by merely making their names nicknames applied to their brute force and botched nose job respectively.

Bane is a cool choice though.

@ Ben: Tom Hardy looks like a mean tough guy, not some crazy psycho crackhead

I do not like Anne Hathaway and I do not think she has the acting chops compared to some of the other female actors he must have considered. Sure she had a part in Brokeback Mountain but unless Heath Ledgers ghost appeared to Nolan and said “She will do” then I don’t know what he is thinking. 90% of the films she has been in were mediocre rom-coms from or she had bit parts as somebody’s love interest….I see a lot of people are saying she was really good in that one film, Rachel got something-or-other but of all the actresses he could have picked for arguably the most important installment in one of the most commercially and critically successful franchises in recent years, Is she really the best possible choice?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS0u_uY-mSk