The Dark Kinght Rises: Anne Hathaway as Catwoman? Tom Hardy as Bane?

In 2005 when Batman Begins came out I was not overtly excited about it. I had seen Christopher Nolan's previous work and while I enjoyed Memento his next movie Insomnia left me a little cold. Also, and this is the real rub of it, I felt Hollywood would never get a better hold on Batman then it did in 1989 with Tim Burton's interpretation. Even that did not compare with Kevin Conroy and Paul Dini's work on Batman: The Animated Series which outside of the comics themselves has been, for me at least, the definitive version of the character. I thought that the true depth of the character was beyond Hollywood's grasp.

Then the movie came out. When I saw it I remember walking out of the movie thinking "Finally, they got it right." While Batman as a character is widely open to interpretation this was the first time that they had gotten the core of the character almost perfect. From Christian Bale's performance to Nolan's direction and script it was almost pitch perfect.

When The Dark Knight came out I dropped the almost. It was by far the greatest, deepest and most complex superhero movie that had ever been made. Growling Batman voices aside Bale brought the depth and pain of Bruce Wayne to the screen while maintaining an appropriately heroic demeanor during even the most gut wrenching of scenes. The interrogation scene between Batman and the Joker is in my opinion one of the greatest scenes ever committed to film. Which brings me to Heath Ledger. The greatness of his performance as the Joker can only be outweighed by the tragedy of his untimely death.

This gives The Dark Knight Rises an awful lot to live up to and with this casting call I am not sure they are up to the task. At least if the rumors I have heard are true. Both Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy are great actors and will bring the chops necessary to make this movie live up to its predecessors. I am not entirely sure about Hathaway as Catwoman. I know she has been in a variety of roles and has the chops to play Selina Kyle. She just feels a little too "Girl Next Door" to put out the heat required for Catwoman. I don't fear for that though. In fact I am sure she relishes the opportunity to do exactly that and prove me wrong. These are the things I do fear for. I fear for the script. I fear for the fact that The Dark Knight was left so powerfully with the set up for a continuing struggle between Batman and The Joker and now that obviously can't happen. I fear the rumors that Catwoman may be acting primarily as a hero filling in for Batman and not as a Jewel Thief. (Actually that rumor was so outrageous I don't believe it for a second) Mostly I fear that Bane, while badass is no substitute for the Joker. There is only one Batman villain that even comes close on that count. So for The Dark Knight Rises I hold out hope that one of these days soon a rumor will pop up that Liam Neeson has been secreted in to the set. Only Ras' Al Ghul can bring this series full circle.

I hope that Christopher Nolan has the foresight to know that. He has said this will be his last Batman movie. I hope that he finishes his story and sets up for a reboot instead of setting up the franchise to be passed on to another creative team. All great stories need a beginning, a middle and an end. That is rule number 2. I hope Nolan and his team know enough to follow it.

Just for the record. Rule number 1 is; Given any amount of time to prepare Batman always wins.

Batman Inc #2 Review

This issue concludes the first regular story arc of the Batman Incorporated era. It was pretty sweet. First off I loved the dynamic between Bruce and Selina. The first issue had a pretty unsubtle moment that without showing it, which would put this issue in the "for mature readers" category, let the reader know that currently Batman and Catwoman are having regular casual sex. At the time it seemed a little on the nose for my tastes but I really like where this relationship is going. I think that this is something that will develop over a long time through all of Grant Morrison's books and I think that is a good thing. Lord knows Morrison is the master of the long play. The story centers on Jiro Osamu's journey from the assistant to Japan's Mr. Unknown to the new Japanese Batman. The villain of the story, Lord Death Man was visually pretty cool. He was reasonably bad ass and Jiro's battle with him is made cooler because of that. He was no Joker certainly but driving a car through a noodle restaurant just to up his body count is pretty cold. Again this book was pretty unsubtle on that count as well. Yanick Paquette's artwork was pretty blatant during this scene. In that one panel I count two people dead from gunshot wounds and one spread between the bumper and the wheel well of the car. It even get's a, "YOU SICK, TWISTED MONSTER!" from Batman himself. This book pulls no punches. Because of that I am giving it my highest rating so far. It gets a 4.25 stars out of a possible 5. My only major disappointment was the lacking of a defining moment for Jiro. Their were a few shots at this but these seemed to be more like field goals then a good long bomb touchdown. I am looking forward to his development as a character in the future as well as the rest of the emerging Batman Corps. Good art and great story that develops both main and ancillary characters makes for a great book and I can't wait for the next issue.

Batman Orphans #2 Review

After my first review I said that I would need to hold final judgment on this series until the second issue. Now that it is out I can say that the whole series rates a solid 3.25 stars on my five star scale. The artwork is beautiful. Carlo Barberi does a top notch job again. It was by far my favorite thing about this series and I can't wait to see more of his work. My biggest problem with this series was that it tried to squeeze too much in to just two issues and it shows. Its a great concept that was not executed as well as it could have been because of this. There was I count easily five new characters, including the one who ultimately turned out to be the villain, who were inadequately developed. Francisco, the Oliver Twist of this scenario, is a prime example of this. Though featured on the cover of this issue after reading it I still can not tell you his back story. The incorporation of a Hugo Strange protege' was a welcome development although I was hoping that the good doctor himself wound up being the heavy in this story. It would have made much more sense and would have eliminated the need for some of the exposition that this story lacks. Without it all we have is an average Batman story with above average art. It is a standard "A bunch of stuff happened once" story with not a hell of a lot else going for it.

Batman Arkham City Trailer 2

This trailer was on the Video Game Awards on Spike Saturday night. Good God does it look awesome. If the game play is even a quarter as good as the cinematics here this game is going to be freaking awesome. The fact that it incorporates Hugo Strange whets my appetite for this game even more.  Hugo Strange was one of Batman's earliest adversaries and he has been a mainstay in the upper echelon of his enemies since then. He is a mad psychiatrist who becomes obsessed with Batman and eventually figures out his secret identity. He uses this knowledge to try and tear Batman's psyche apart. His greatest desire is to destroy Batman so he can become Batman.

This excites me for Batman: Arkham City because of the psychological aspect of the first game. The Scarecrow sequences from Arkham Asylum went deep in to the Batman's motivations right down to his reliving the murder of his parents in a playable albeit on rails sequence. How much more so will it be with this game? I can't wait.

To top it off Batman in this game will be voiced by the great Kevin Conroy. The voice of Batman for the past twenty years. Since Batman: The Animated Series. It also sees the return of Mark Hamil as the Joker as well as many other voices from the classic DC animated universe. Batman: Arkham Asylum was roundly declared the best superhero game of all time when it came out. That is a hell of a lot to live up to with the sequel. That said so far I have seen nothing that would lead me to doubt that Rocksteady will not only reach but exceed those expectations.