Will Batman Meet His Match In The Dark Knight Rises?

The past week has been crawling with production images for Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Rises. For the most part, they served as the revealing of the full costume for the character of Bane, played by Tom Hardy.

What immediately shocked me wasn’t the pictures themselves, but the reaction of everyone across the web. I can’t even count how many tweets I saw saying that the costume looks odd and people are wondering what the hell Nolan is doing with his latest Batman film. Everyone instantly began to question Nolan and his idea for Bane in The Dark Knight Rises and I couldn’t help but to ask why?

Has everyone already forgotten about The Joker in The Dark Knight? Do people not remember the backlash of the casting news for Heath Ledger? Everyone was up in the air about the decision to have Ledger play The Joker! We all know how it turned out though. The actor crafted one of the best movie villains of all time.

Christopher Nolan knows what he is doing, he has yet to disappoint. Last year he brought us Inception, which is one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time! Not to mention his previous Batman film, The Dark Knight, which is said to be the greatest comic-book film of all time. I honestly doubt Nolan plans on failing when it comes to his latest film, The Dark Knight Rises. He knows how to make fantastic movies and he’s at the perfect spot in his career, he won’t throw it all away for a quick and undoubtedly huge paycheck.

I firmly believe that Nolan is one of the very few directors that have managed to successfully make three epic films, a series that consists of films that keep managing to top the previous. While I actually enjoy Batman Begins more than The Dark Knight, I won’t call it better. The Dark Knight is a perfect sequel and a really strong Batman film, one that we weren’t expecting.

Some people attribute the success of The Dark Knight solely to Heath Ledger and more importantly his death, but that’s just downright silly. Yes, Heath Ledger delivered his best performance ever as The Joker and yes he probably played the best character in a Batman film, but that doesn’t mean you can fully discredit Nolan and his other colleagues.

Had Nolan not been directing and had Bale not been starring as Batman, I highly doubt The Joker would have been such an impactful character. Yes, Ledger probably could have still nailed the menacing villain, but it was the entire cast that helped make the film.

This is what leads me to Bane and the latest photos that have leaked. Bane is a dark character, one who has broken Batman’s back in the comics and one that was also completely silly and stupid in one of the Joel Schumacher Batman films. That being said, he’s also perfect for this particular toned Batman series.

Up until now Batman has only had to face enemies with deep psychological and mental problems. The Scarecrow and Ra’s Al Ghul tried getting the best of Batman by bringing his fears forward and breaking him down emotionally and The Joker tried bringing Batman down by taking advantage of him as person. Batman isn’t immortal, he’s just a normal man and normal men can fall, which is clearly shown in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

Bane introduces a whole new element. I can’t fully comment on how Nolan will be using Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, but I can confidently say that Bane will be used to knock the crap out of Batman. Whether he acts as a mental breakdown again is uncertain, but judging by the teaser trailer it looks like Batman will finally have to face someone who is physically bigger and stronger than him.

This whole element of Bane excites me because I really want to see where Nolan goes with it. Will Bane simply be a powerhouse villain that acts as a lackey for other bigger villains like the rumored return of Ra’s Al Ghul or even Catwoman? Or will Bane be the mastermind behind it all in The Dark Knight Rises? These are questions which I don’t have the answer to.

But what I can comment on is his appearance. His new costume seems a lot more realistic than other Bane outfits, which isn’t really a surprise since Nolan is known for making comic book characters look and feel more realistic. The costume looks like a mix of a military solider and someone from a post-apocalyptic world like the Fallout games.

I think the main reason this new costume isn’t gelling with everyone is because the images are from people watching the production. Something as simple as lighting could throw off the look of a character. What we really need to focus on is the official images released. The first Bane photo had fans going nuts saying he looked awesome and even the bits of him in the trailer were startling. No complaints were given from those previous releases. The only real complaints started surfacing when these new production photos appeared.

I think we should all just cool our jets and wait for official images to surface before making anymore judgment. People need to remember who is in charge of this production! Christopher Nolan put in all that hard work, gaining our trust with Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Inception and even Memento, don’t let a few leaked photos put doubt in your hearts! I’m sure he knows how important this next and possibly last Batman film is going to be and I doubt he has any intentions of screwing up. He took a break from the Batman universe to help prepare for the grand finale and I think he’ll end it on a very good note.