The Dark Knight Rises (no spoilers)

@Aceof Knaves: Batman is a wanted fugitive, this is about his redemption and return as the Hero of Gotham?

I wouldn't necessarily say as the Hero. Batman doesn't need or want to be seen as the hero, and as Dark Knight demonstrated, he's actually less effective when he's seen as such. That's part of why he took the fall for Harvey in the first place.

edited 27th Oct '10 5:00:26 PM by TobiasDrake

Oh, crap, I'd forgotten all about Mr. Reese...

Maybe Chris is flat-out lying?

^ I don't have any particular attachment to any specific bat-villain, personally (though I do agree that a serious cinematic treatment of Riddler would be nice, if only because I'm not a big Jim Carrey fan ), that thought did occur to me as well, that Nolan was lying in order to keep things secret.

Nolan said that Catwoman won't be appearing, at the same time that he said the Penguin wouldn't either. When asked about Harley, he laughed.

I've got my money on Black Mask, though I hadn't considered Talia before.

Though his statement about Penguin being unrealistic genuinely confused me.

^Same, you'd figure he would know enough about the character to know he's basically a hateful mob boss with a thing for birds.

So how is that less realistic than an immortal ninja planning to use a piece of super-science to vaporize all the water in Gotham because he's filled it with crazy gas and turn the entire city into loonies?

I'd be ALL ABOUT some Kate Beckinsale as Catwoman, but she couldn't be the main villain, since 'Sexy cat burglar who gets a crush on the Bat' can't exactly carry the movie.

edited 27th Oct '10 7:02:48 PM by Malkavian

Black Mask tries to take over the mob while Talia goes undercover to try to get close to Bruce Wayne to assassinate him in revenge for her father. The movie involves Batman vs Black Mask and Wayne vs Talia.

^I could dig that. For some reason I'm seeing John Hurt as Black Mask. Any ideas who should play Talia? At first I was thinking someone with an exotic beauty, but then I realized her dad was Liam Neeson

edited 27th Oct '10 9:33:29 PM by Malkavian

Johnny Depp as Mr. Freeze. I don't care if he killed the franchise last time, FREEZE DESERVES JUSTICE. And it's honestly not more of a leap than "OMG CELLPHONE SONAR THAT SEES FACEPAINT".

edited 27th Oct '10 7:25:50 PM by Ronnie

^Disagree. While I don't think Mr. Freeze is less realistic than the Ra's or even Batman, I find him just kind of lame.

And I don't want Depp in the Nolan series as Riddler (guess that's not happening anyway) or anyone else, because I always see him as just... Johnny Depp.

edited 27th Oct '10 8:14:02 PM by HopelessSituationWarrior

Mr.Freeze? Lame? Do you even know the character (beside Batman & Robin)?

edited 27th Oct '10 9:06:04 PM by Nightwire

^x5: I like that idea.

My favorite part is this comment from Nolan:

We’ll use many of the same characters as we have all along, and we’ll be introducing some new ones.

NO WAI

I hate the title. But whatever, as long as the movie itself is good I won't whine

The other Batman thread had more speculation... has nobody mentioned Zsasz yet?

..................................

Zsasz doesn't really seem like he could be a main villain, and he's already appeared in the last two. I demand new characters dammit!

edited 27th Oct '10 10:42:08 PM by Bowyn

Who knows? Nolan could be throwing misleading information.

The movie will start with Batman being constantly hounded by the world because of his supposed villainy. To find an outlet he will create The Rainbow Batman◊, the good and friendly version of the Dark Knight persona.

You know one villain that's more obscure I'd like to see would be the Psycho-Pirate. I know he's a bit more fantastic being an emotion eater with a magic mask and all, but I've always thought he was pretty cool and he'd be a good mind/emotion screwer for a batman whose image has fallen.

 ^*

edited 27th Oct '10 10:58:11 PM by Jumpingzombie

I want to see a Calendar Man cameo. Sort of like the Scarecrow cameo in the beginning of TDK, but, y'know, less badass and more pathetic.

In fact, I really love the idea of that kind of cameo in general - it shows the hero has an actually ongoing universe rather than fighting villains one by one. A short montage of him fighting a series of Mythology Gags and villains would make my day.

edited 27th Oct '10 11:00:03 PM by KnownUnknown

My first thought on the title is: "Well, The Dark Knight sold by the bajillion, so lets have a title that reminds everyone it's a sequel to that movie!"

But it does fit what I assume the obvious arc will be, Batman rising again after the downer-ish ending of TDK.

And I would be on board for a Talia or a Selina. Give us some awesome female characters, plz.

I think the main villian should be Hannibal Lecter.

Hey, it would be a twist.

I don't remember Nolan shooting down Catwoman and the Penguin. I remember David S. Goyer shooting them down because he didn't want to retread Batman Returns, but that's it.

I, for one, would like a faithful version of Catwoman, not the schyzophrenic immortal bitch of Return or the Crow-ripoff slut of Catwoman.

And it's honestly not more of a leap than "OMG CELLPHONE SONAR THAT SEES FACEPAINT".

Too be perfectly honest: The only thing that bugs me about the sonar is that so many people don't get the obvious joke (I use "joke" because I can't think of a better word). I mean, come on, they even lampshade it in the film ("Sonar, like a—" "—a submarine, Mr. Wayne.")! But I've met so many people who don't get it, and this saddens me.

But that's irrelevant. Yes, the insta-steam machine and the super bat sonar were stretches, but they also got appropriate build-up, with hints and references to them being dropped throughout the film until their use in the climax, and just before the climax, they're given semi-plausible explanations. In order for Mr. Freeze's gimmick to work, they'd need both those things: semi-plausible explanation and proper build-up, otherwise everyone will be immediately questioning it, rather than waiting until after the movie to question it.

I think earlier people gave explanations ofhow one could normalise Freeze. Just make him Victor, a cryogenicist or cryonicist who walks around and uses a liquid nitrogen dewar a bit like Chigurh used a compressed air tank. The issue really is how to fit his motivations into the picture.

And how to make him the least bit threatening with this setup.

^ Sort of - Freeze isn't exactly a citywide threat, especially if he's redesigned to be more realistic. He's a singular threat - in his origin he's after revenge, and even if they made him a serial killer I doubt he'd be as effective as a major driving villain to Batsy's rising out the mire. He needs a threat who controls the city, you might say.

I don't remember Nolan shooting down Catwoman and the Penguin. I remember David S. Goyer shooting them down because he didn't want to retread Batman Returns, but that's it.

I don't remember him shooting down Catwoman, but he shot down Penguin a long time ago, back either right before Batman Begins or right after (can't remember). He apparently believes he's unrealistic, which... doesn't make much sense if he's actually read some of the comics from the last few decades, which we know he has.

Nowadays, Penguin's possibly the most realistic enemy Bats has. Except maybe the mafia enemies. But, then again, Penguin is practically a mob enemy these days.

edited 28th Oct '10 10:26:20 AM by KnownUnknown