Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Bane Named As New Batman Villain: Christian Bale Is Kind Of Screwed


Entertainment Weekly just made my day by announcing that not only have Tom Hardy and Anne Hathaway been confirmed to star in The Dark Knight Rises, but they've been cast as Bane and Selena Kyle, respectively. Now, for those who don't know who Selena Kyle is, you might know her better as...


So, although EW points out that the name Catwoman didn't actually come up in the announcement, I can't really see why Warner Bros. would hire Anne Hathaway to play Selena Kyle in the final film of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy and have her wind up as Commissioner Gordon's secretary. So I'm just gonna go ahead and jump to conclusions on this one.

I'm interested to see how Hathaway decides to play it here. Originally, I was against Catwoman even being in the movie at all, because Michelle Pfieffer pretty well nailed it for me. Why bother trying to top that? Halle Berry tried in the most recent incarnation of Catwoman, and when I stumbled on that movie for two minutes on TV I had to do everything I could to keep from swallowing my own tongue. But I think Anne Hathaway is a good choice for someone to try and play the role a little bit more down to Earth, which seems to be the general rule of thumb for Nolan's Batman universe (excluding the Joker, of course).

But what really got me stoked about today's announcement is the inclusion of Bane as what I can only assume is the finale's main villain. I only dabbled in the Batman comics as a kid, but the one story arc that sticks out in my mind was Bane's. He was freakishly strong, due to an insane work ethic and the enhancement of super-soldier type steroids, but he was also incredibly smart. He was who was touted as the one man to who was going to break Batman. And when I say break him, I really mean break him.

Ooo...it looks like Robin may have to be the top for a while.

What I really like about this choice of character is that it puts my fears to rest that there wasn't a villain to raise the bar after Heath Ledger's turn as the Joker. When the rumor mills speculated that Tom Hardy would play Hugo Strange or Clayface, I just couldn't see them being anything more than a letdown. Then I got really pissed off at Heath Ledger for dying after giving the performance of his life, which I admit may prove to be misplaced priorities on my part.

But now we have the introduction of the only man to ever truly beat Batman in a fight, and I can't wait to see how the Nolan has this whole thing play out. I know for certain that he won't turn him into a one-note buffoon like Joel Butthole Schumacher did in the Batman movie that doesn't even deserve to be named. My new fear now, however, is that with Nolan's dark take on, well, everything, he'll just end the movie with Bane breaking Batman's back and leaving him battered and dying on the ground as the film cuts to the credits. He wouldn't do that to us, though. Right?

3 comments:

  1. First off, I must say how much I loathe people that feel the need to change their blog names just because it doesn't "Fit" them anymore. Why should I have to go in and delete the old link from my bookmarks and add another one?

    So I won't. I will continue to visit grumpy's website and click the link to come over here to Taylor Hicks Biggest Fan club page.

    Now back on subject. Tom Hardy I guess is not someone who I would think of as Bane. Maybe it's from seeing the animated batman's and him having a spanish accent. Maybe its because he's always depicted as big? I mean Bane is big, but he's freakish big I thought. Maybe Hardy will be contracting Barry Bonds as his trainer for this role.

    However, I do think that you have about an 80% chance of being 100% correct on the ending of this movie. I could totally see that ending. But part of me, hopes and thinks Nolan has the balls to do it, is actually have Bane KILL BATMAN! Yeah, I said it. KILL HIM!

    Not that I hate Batman or any other superhero, but this has been such a dark interpretation of the series, that just once, I'd love to see the hero go down. That would really end the greatest batman films on a greatly high low note.

    Put us all in a nice gloomy mood for the world to end in 2012.

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  2. The only thing more annoying than a blogger changing his blog name is someone whose comment is as long as the damn blog post.

    And apparently Tom Hardy has no problems getting himself jacked up. He was in some movie recently called Bronson and if you take a look at the movie poster, he got pretty big for that.

    And you can't kill Batman.

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  3. Btw was this Bronson movie a biopic as in Death Wish 6 Charles Bronson? "I wish I was dead."

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