4) Bane Works For Talia Al Ghul
One of the great strengths of the Dark Knight trilogy is its amazing villains. After Liam Neeson’s Ra’s al Ghul, Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow and, of course, Heath Ledger’s Joker, Tom Hardy’s turn as the formidable Bane in The Dark Knight Rises promised to be their equal. And he was… for the first three quarters of the movie.
Unfortunately, a late-in-the-day rug-pull totally neutered the character. Rises had set up Bane as a lone wolf, Ra’s al Ghul’s son who had dragged himself out of the Pit, taken charge of the League of Shadows and basically single-handedly brought Gotham to its knees. It turns out, though, that he’s just a lovesick stooge for Miranda Tate AKA Talia al Ghul – who’s the real head of the League and the child that escaped from the Pit. Basically, Bane is just the muscle to a female supervillain. Exactly like he was in Batman & Robin.
If handled well, this could have given us two great villains for the price of one. As it is, though, the twist does its best to ruin Bane and leave Marion Cotillard with little time to carve out an interesting antagonist.