History Headscratchers / TheDarkKnightRises

Or this film is going to be giving more focus to Bruce and Alfred's relationship. After all, Alfred is essentially Bruce's father-figure. Not to mention the villain of this one is Bane, which has to mean there's some Knightfall influence. What if, after deducing Batman's identity, Bane, instead of just incapacitating Alfred, kils him in order to break Bruce's spirit?

** As for the race thing, while [[RaceLift Race Lifting]] from Hispanic to White ''may'' carry UnfortunateImplications, my (Hispanic) brother is very light-skinned, as is much of my family. And judging by what we've heard of him, he -is- at least doing the accent, so my guess is that he's portraying a Latino Bane. Given Nolan's habit of reusing actors, it's clear Hardy was picked for his talent and familiarity, rather than for his whiteness.

** As for the race thing, while {{RaceLift Race Lifting}} from Hispanic to White ''may'' carry UnfortunateImplications, my (Hispanic) brother is very light-skinned, as is much of my family. And judging by what we've heard of him, he -is- at least doing the accent, so my guess is that he's portraying a Latino Bane. Given Nolan's habit of reusing actors, it's clear Hardy was picked for his talent and familiarity, rather than for his whiteness.

** The race issue is debatable, but in terms of his size -- we have yet to see him in action. Forced perspectives and other tricks can make an actor look bigger or taller than they actually are, so Hardy's size may (and I repeat, may) prove to be a poor gauge of Bane's size. I suppose one might also ask why Bane necessarily needs to be a hulking colossus of a man to be intimidating. Artists have been notably inconsistent with his size over the years, after all.

** The race issue is debatable, but in terms of his size -- we have yet to see him in action. Forced perspectives and other tricks can make an actor look bigger or taller than they actually are. Will this be the case in Nolan's film? We need to wait and see.

* Tom Hardy as Bane. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Tom Hardy. While I haven't seen much of his work from what I have seen, he's a perfectly talented actor and from what I've seen of his potrayal of Bane, it looks to be interesting. However, I still have two gripes about it. Firstly, size. Hardy's too small. At 5'9" he needs lifts just to match Bale's height, and Bane towers over Batman in the comics. In terms of weight, after bulking up for the role, Hardy still ended up weighing less than 200lbs. But, ok, say we're going for a leaner, meaner Bane, I can deal. Second problem. Hard is very, very white and British. Bane is very, very hispanic. Was the RaceLift necessary? Was casting Benicio del Toro or Javier Bardem(granted you'd still need the lifts with him, but whatever) completely out of the question?

** Can we place a moratorium on griping till there's something on the screen to gripe about?

** Literally impossible to answer until the film comes out.

** Human nature to be curious and want answer as early as possible. It's hard not to switch into {{Sarcasm Mode}}, no?

** [[http://www.slashfilm.com/the-dark-knight-rises-scene-revealed-details-catwoman-suit/#more-118403 This article]] hints that there is more to the costume and specifically the heals than one would necessarily expect which really brings us back to the firm advice that should be taken into consideration when on a headscratchers page for a movie a year away: wait and see.

* According to [=IMDb=], Tom Hardy will be playing Hugo Strange. [[FlatWhat As the main villain]].
** So far, it's only a rumor, so things may change. It is a pretty strange choice for a villain, though.
** Though the rumor's been {{Jossed}}, Tom Hardy playing Bane, I wouldn't have seen a problem with Strange; anything's possible, and Hugo Strange can certainly hold his own against Batman. Well, intellectually, anyway.
** There have been few physically imposing villains in Batman movies so Bane is a good choice.

** I always thought the reason that Barbara Gordon wasn't really important was that the only significance Gordon's kids had to the plot was really that they were getting threatened, and nobody (well, people who know the story) would be worried about Barbara being threatened because she had to grow up to be Batgirl/Oracle.

** I always thought the reason that Barbara Gordon wasn't really important was that the only significance Gordon's kids had to the plot was really that they were getting threatened, and nobody would be worried about Barbara being threatened because she had to grow up to be Batgirl/Oracle.

** Um, exactly where did TDK even hint of Batman "going solo"/dropping his entire support structure?

* It seems, what with the "eight years later" angle and all, they're ignoring the rich prospect of depicting Batman going fully solo (apart from support from Alfred, Lucius and if he's lucky, Gordon) that TDK seemed to be hinting at. That is, with the police actively hunting him, and with the criminal element thinking that he's ok with using murder now. It would be interesting seeing how he might deal with having to move between apartments, and bringing his equipment with him (unless he got to keep his dockside base from the second). Furthermore, what about dealing with the Joker's immense damage to the city and its citizens? What about the fallout from Dent's rampage (surely it wouldn't be entirely swept under the carpet)? What about lingering feelings for Rachel, and Alfred's burning of the letter? The jump to nearly a decade after that film seems wholly unsatisfying to me. Does it bother anyone else?

* Does Commissioner Gordon find out that Bruce Wayne is Batman? Because in the trailer, he's clearly talking to Bruce (the voice gives it away) about Batman. Sure, he could be talking to Bruce about Batman without knowing who it is, but the tone of the conversation suggests that he does know.

* Does Commissioner Gordon find out that Bruce Wayne is Batman? Because in the trailer, he's clearly talking to Bruce (the voice gives it away) about Batman. Sure, he could be talking to Bruce about Batman, but the conversation suggests that he knows that Bruce is Batman.

** People do that. I remember when the seventh Harry Potter book was about to come out and two of my cousins got into a fistfight over what the last Horcruxes were.

* I am scratching my head over why there is a headscratchers page for this film at all, when all that's possible now is conjecture.

** Further, Anne Hathaway's serious roles number among them ''Rachel Getting Married,'' for which she was Oscar nominated, so let's give her a bit of credit here.

*** Who says Batman is going to move on from Rachel? Catwoman could act like a temptress figure, trying to get Bruce to forget about Rachel, and Bruce will have to deal with that. And no, we can't have a stuggle between good and evil, because that would be a case of BlackAndWhiteMorality, which nobody likes.

** I have a sneaking suspicion that, if one substituted the name "Heath Ledger," this very post could have appeared four years ago or so. So let's all reserve judgment until there's something to judge.

* Perhaps it's just me, but I'm still scratching my head as to why Anne Hathaway was chosen as Catwoman. I'm not going to argue that she's a bad actress - she isn't. But 1) She really doesn't play too many serious roles, and the Dark Night Saga is very serious. And 2) She's an actress who's instantly recognizable (like Jack Nicholson), so it's very hard to see her as "Catwoman" and not "Anne Hathaway playing Catwoman".