The Dark Knight is (slowly) Rising

Next year ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, the final film in the greatest Batman trilogy yet, will be released yet at the moment very little is known about it. We know Bane will be the villain, played by the great Tom Hardy. We also know that Catwoman will appear in some capacity, played by the less impressive Anne Hathaway. Obviously the heavy hitters from the last two films will return, with even Scarecrow coming back to take a third shot at Batman. However due to the death of Heath Ledger, the Joker will sadly not be returning. The trailer also hints that the plot will revolve around a need for Batman to come back, implying he has disappeared or retired. An image is revealed at the end of the trailer which is similar to the teaser poster (picture left), the Gotham skyline crumbling and making out the bat symbol. This is of course common for a Christopher Nolan film and I trust him to pull through, hopefully making another masterpiece in the process.

  Nolan has stressed several times that this is the end to his series of his films, an epic conclusion. But the success of the film will depend on a few hard to predict elements. A major one is the performance of Anne Hathaway, an actress I normally find infuriating. Since I heard about it I’ve questioned why she was cast as Catwoman, a role I find important to the Batman mythology, truly hoping that Nolan saw something in her I’ve totally missed. I have some slight worries about how well the story can be concluded in the space of two hours. There’s been rumours of Ra’s Al Ghul returning as a young man in flashbacks to many years before ‘Batman Begins’, and more still suggesting that he’ll be reborn through a Lazarus pit. Flashbacks could help to bookend the series and the meaning of the posters depicting a crumbling Gotham City might be connected to Ra’s, with his assassin order being known for their purging of cities deemed to be bad for humanity. The Lazarus pits however would take the story into a more fantasy orientated area than the Nolan films are known for, with one of his main aims being to ground the series in the real world. 

  There is also the question of how exactly do you end a series like this. The Batman comics have been going strong for over 70 years but with the aim being to end the series here will Nolan do something to prevent any sequels. Will Batman retire or will he die? It’d give the series a sense of closure, although normally in the comics Batman retiring or dying causes Gotham to fall apart which would hardly be a good end to the franchise. I think I’d prefer it if Batman does something big to save the city and prove himself as a hero to the public, suggesting that he’ll continue to be awesome but we won’t see it. The trailer’s suggestion of Batman needing to return suggests this, Batman will either give up or possibly be broken by Bane (although this is quite similar to the comics), returning eventually to save everyone from the villains overrunning the city. This is of course all speculation and knowing Nolan he’ll probably pull something shocking out of his sleeve that will be vastly superior to anything I can come up with. 

  Viral marketing for ‘Rises’ has already begun (similar to what was done for ‘The Dark Knight’) offering the public images of Bane in costume and I imagine more info will trickle out over time. There has also been a slightly bizarre campaign from composer Hans Zimmer to get people to record a chant that will be re-edited and included in the film. Right now its a load of gibberish but theres speculation on what it may mean when deciphered, with many attempts to re-edit it proving unsuccessful, we probably won’t know the truth until it appears in the film. 

  On the 26th December with the release of ‘Mission Impossible 4’ in IMAX we will get a glimpse at the opening of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, this will be the first real bit of footage released from the film and might provide a bit of insight into the story. All I know is I can’t wait until I get to see the film in full and I might have to go see MI4 just to see some footage of it.

‘The Dark Knight Rises’ will be released on July 20, 2012