Not Traditional Fire

I’m surprised that I haven’t talked about this yet, but…

I read on Yahoo the other day that Christopher Nolan has settled on the two villains for The Dark Knight Rises. At least, the article was written without the implication that it was speculating rumors, so I’m guessing the following is, in fact, true.

Anne Hathaway will be cast as Catwoman while Tom Hardy from Inception will be Bane.

At first I was like,

not about the cast choices (because I believe Anna Hathaway and Tom Hardy will be phenomenal) but about the villain choices. I’ve never really felt that much affinity for Catwoman, especially after the failed attempt with Halle Berry, bless her heart, and the idea of Hathaway playing such a character seems kind of strange. Very out-of-character for her. But, then I realized, that’s probably why it’s going to be great. After all, no one thought Heath Ledger would deliver such a legendary performance as the Joker, but he did, and I have no doubts that Hathaway will deliver as well. Plus, it’s Christopher Nolan. I’m pretty sure he’s shown that he knows what he’s doing. We have no right to question his genius anymore, I should think. Given these two things, I think we can be certain that Nolan and Hathaway’s combined interpretation of Catwoman’s character will give us all a new scope and respect for this villainess than what has previously been felt. This is a good thing. Plus, Batman needs a good, twisted relationship with someone who won’t die on him. In all respects, I certainly prefer Catwoman over choosing the Penguin. Though, for a moment there, I thought Nolan was going to tie the series together and bring Thalia Al Ghul, the daughter of Ras Al Ghul, into the mix. That would have been interesting. But, alas… 

And then, there’s Bane. I’ve never read any of the Batman comics so this character is a complete unknown to me. All I know is from what the article said, that Bane is a big, hulk-like figure, eight feet tall at least. There was some speculation on whether CG would be used on Tom Hardy to get that look for him, and while I think he and Nolan would be able to pull it off, I’m not sure if they would choose to do that since the entire series has refused to go the paranormal/super-human route. We’ll all just have to wait and see. I just… I don’t know. I’m not as enthused about this villain as I would be if Nolan had gone with choosing the Riddler instead, which I truly wished he would have. While I love Jim Carrey’s take on him, I know that he would be a total sexy badass in the Nolanverse, and no doubt utterly charming to boot. I mean, really, imagine Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the Riddler. Oh? Suddenly realizing you’ve been cheated, have you? Yeah. Me too. Oh, well. Maybe next remake. T_T I guess part of my reluctance on this particular villain is that I just don’t know that much about him, and I really don’t feel any inclination to research it, either and by research, I mean “pull up Wikipedia”. Then again, Nolan chose villains that were widely unknown to the mainstream audience, including myself, in Batman Begins, which were Ras Al Ghul played by Liam Neeson and Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow played by Cillain Murphy. I think we can all agree that they were both incredible, engaging, and complex villains that really contributed some depth to the overall Batman universe, while also helping to set the dark tone Nolan wanted for his own spin on things. All I can really say at this point is that, on the whole, I trust Christopher Nolan’s judgment.

He hasn’t let us down so far. Still…

It’s going to be almost fucking impossible to top Heath Ledger’s Joker. OMG! This is going to be crazy!