Follow the bouncing bat! A simple way to deal with that pesky "What the hell did Bane just say?" Dark Knight Rises issue...

There have been rumblings in the blogosphere today that Warner Bros. may or may not have stealthily replaced the Dark Knight Rises IMAX prologue audio tracks with a new mix of said sequence, one with allegedly cleaned-up audio.  This follows two weeks of breathless debate among the geek-squad about whether Chris Nolan should or shouldn't alter the vocal performance of Tom Hardy's Bane (presumably with Hardy's ADR-assistance) in order to appease fans who were unable to hear the primary villain's astute monologuing.  Nolan's position is that the muscle-bound cult leader/terrorist/Mary Sue was always intended to be slightly difficult to understand, so paying audiences can  suck it.

The Dark Knight Rises gets a moody and refreshingly cryptic trailer. It stills seems to be pointing at Chris Nolan's version of The Dark Knight Returns.

There was absolutely no way that this trailer was going to excite me as much as the first glimpse of The Dark Knight four years ago.  As I've written before, that was basically THE Batman movie that we had been waiting our entire geek-lives to see, a street-level crime epic pitting Batman, Gordon, and Dent against The Joker for the moral soul of Gotham.  So what is this one exactly?  Well, Nolan is obviously going for a pretty grand-scale finale, and the scope is relatively impressive thus far.  I could carp that the attack on the football field is the kind of implausibly weird thing that happens in a C-rate episode of Justice League or in a Transformers movie, but oh well.  Football fanatics, does that still count as a legitimate touchdown?

The fire sputters! About that Dark Knight Rises IMAX prologue...

It should be noted that I wasn't a huge fan of the bank robbery prologue for The Dark Knight four years ago.  It was the traditional trailer that got be uber-excited.  I will concede that the bank robbery sequence worked better in the film than it did as a stand-alone preview (as gorgeous as it looked, the dialogue was a little wonky and it was 'just a bank robbery').  Having said that, the seven-minute sequence that allegedly opens The Dark Knight Rises is actually somewhat terrible.  Whether or not it was a rush job (as I've heard), the sequence fails in several seemingly basic ways that leaves a very poor first impression about the otherwise unseen film.

The Dark Knight Rises gets a snazzy second poster.

I don't have much to add, as the poster basically tells the tale.  As it is, I will say that at this point, considering all the online hub-bub and speculation, that it would almost be more courageous for Chris Nolan NOT to kill off Bruce Wayne at the conclusion of this third and final installment of his Batman saga.  A 'shocking' finale is not quite as surprising when everyone has been expecting it for nearly a year prior to release.  Anyway, I am officially back on board the Bat-hype train.  On a personal note, I still dislike the idea of Bane somehow being a bigger and more defining threat than The Joker, but I'm going to have to get over that at some point.  The IMAX preview and the full trailer both drop on Friday in theaters (with Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows respectively), with the trailer likely going online on Sunday night or Monday morning.  My previous concerns aside, it is more fun to be excited than to be cynical.

Scott Mendelson

Actual Dark Knight Rises news! I think I get the title now...

Just as it did four years ago, Warner Bros has debuted the first official look of the primary Batman villain on the cover of Empire.  I won't comment too much on the images, and I couldn't give too craps about what that thing Batman is holding happens to be (we'll know when we know).  But the article does contain one huge plot reveal, from Mr. Nolan himself ironically.

"It's really all about finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne's story. We left him in a very precarious place. Perhaps surprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later, eight years after The Dark Knight. So he's an older Bruce Wayne; he's not in a great state."

First official photo of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises. Not even Hathaway in black leather can make the Bat Pod look good...

Back in my day, we had to wait for the first trailer to see what the new Bat-villains actually looked like!  There are other unofficial photos out there that basically show the same image from a sideways angle (with Hathaway's stunt woman), but I think I'll still with the legit stuff.  Anyway, today is day two of Warner Bros. tries to beat the paparazzi to the punch.  The costume is obviously a hybrid of the Dwayne Cooke/Ed Brubaker outfit (the tactical aspects, the goggles) along with a bit from the 1960s Batman show (the free-flowing hair which reaches just below the shoulders ala Julie Newmar).  I have no real commentary on the outfit.  It looks fine and it's obvious that Nolan and company were going for something that would actually make sense in battle than something that would make a pinup poster.  I will say that not even Anne Hathaway wrapped in tight black leather can make that Bat-Pod any less ridiculous looking.  I'm sorry, I've felt this way for three years, but that is an absolutely silly looking vehicle.  The fact that it was a central part of the ad campaign last time around is a near-joke.  Like the main theatrical one-sheet for The Dark Knight, the center of attention in this image is not the character being highlighted but a giant wheel.

The Dark Knight Rises gets a sloppy, lazy teaser that looks like a bad fan-edit.

I admit, I did watch the bootleg version of this over the weekend, but I didn't want to comment too much until I had seen the official version.  Well, I've seen the official version.  It still looks like a half-assed fan-edit preview.  The two telltale signs of a fake preview have always been cheesy onscreen text and the use of copious footage from previous films of a given series. This has both, insultingly reminding us that 'every hero has a journey' (thanks Campbell) and every journey has an end (also knew that, but thanks).  The first 45 seconds is nothing but footage from Batman Begins, with a dash of The Dark Knight thrown with Liam Neeson's narration tossed in.  The only new footage we get is Gary Oldman lying in a hospital bed whining about how Batman left us, evil rose, and now Batman must Return.  We do get a brief shot of someone climbing up a well (the Bat Cave hole?), a worn-down Batman facing down a mostly offscreen Bane, and a single close-up of Tomas Hardy as the villain of the day, Bane.  Are we thrilled yet?

Game On! The Dark Knight Rises viral campaign reveals Tom Hardy as Bane.

Four years ago around this time, I actually was one of the many who did whatever it was you had to do (I don't remember) in order to get that first reveal of Health Ledger as The Joker.  This time around, I'm letting other people do the hard labor and merely reaping the rewards after the fact.  Anyway, some kind of puzzle involving weird noises on The Dark Knight Rises website and the Twitter hashtag "#thefirerises" brought us the above photo of Tom Hardy as Bane.  Not much to say other than Hardy looks pretty huge and it's nice to see that Nolan is still keeping something vaguely resembling the comic book version.  It's a nice start to what likely will be a long and twisty viral campaign for the third Batman film.   We'll probably get a bare-bones teaser debuting in July with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II, and a full on trailer in December (attached to Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows no doubt), with a second trailer attached to The Avengers on May 4th, 2012.  So, with that said, game on.

Scott Mendelson

Actual Batman 3 news! Warner Bros confirms: Anne Hathaway to play Selina Kyle, Tom Hardy to play Bane.

Well, chalk it up to one part 'duh', another part 'huh?'. After months of obnoxious speculation, Warner has onfirmed that Anne Hathaway will indeed be playing Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises. It's a pretty no-brainer casting decision, as she is one of the bigger and more respected stars of her generation, and she amongst the various alleged front-runners had the least amount of tentpole, genre film experience. Nolan had stated months ago that it was indeed his intent to have a female antagonist, and really there are only three major baddies to choose from: Catwoman, Talia Al Ghul, and Poison Ivy. Of those, Catwoman is by far the most recognizable and/or popular. Of course, the press release makes no mention of 'Catwoman', so it's completely possible that Hathaway will merely be playing Ms. Kyle with no appearance by her costumed alter-ego.