And not for the Antagonist category. Here, I will again go through the majority of the characters from the movie and just discuss the highs and lows that they had. What was enjoyable and accurate and what just completely missed the mark. Do not forget to comment if you feel that I did a good job or a bad job on this! (Although it almost always is that latter, but hey at least it stirs up debate!)
Before I get into Selina Kyle, I just wanted to let everyone know that I put Selina Kyle in the Antagonist category because she, for the most part, was not driven by good. Her motivations were strictly internal, for her own benefit, thus she would fall more into the Antagonist category.
Selina Kyle: My God does Anne Hathaway deliver. Fuck the whip, give his woman a gun! This is by far the best version of ‘Catwoman’ to date (this will reflect on my next Villain’s post). I do not know why Nolan was too scared to call her Catwoman. I think every fan would unanimously agree, no one would have been upset by these character changes (being it that it is obvious he did not call her Catwoman because of the changes he made to her character).
Let’s look at her suit… It really was not very special. I seem to remember that Hemming, Hathaway, & Nolan all told us to ‘not judge her suit because it can do so much more than meets the eye (Transformers!).’ Well, I still have yet to see this ‘so much more.’ It does not really matter though, Hathaway owned this performance & you could have put her in a Jiffy Lube uniform, she would have still been amazing.
For what the suit had, it was cool. But why do we not ever get a peak at what she sees through her goggles? I think that a 1st person POV from the goggles would have been a cool scene to shoot. Maybe I ask too much?
I do happen to remember that Catwoman, in her past incarnations) was good at what she did. She was a good thief & a better manipulator. I am not going to touch on the manipulation part, because she (our Selina Kyle) was good at that… but she really SUCKED as a thief.
She had a record book that, when John Blake showed it to her at the airport, was between an inch or two thick. I believe the saying goes ‘no one has ever heard of the perfect crime because it was perfect,’ yeah… she has none of that. Our Selina Kyle’s motivation the entire movie was in an attempt to expunge this record of hers. It was why she did what she did. However, if she really was as good of a thief as we see at the start of the film, when robbing Bruce Wayne, she would have not have a record as long as the Bible.
Bane: The character of Bane was an amazing addition to the cast of TDKR. Although I have not always agreed with who Christopher Nolan included as villains in these films, or rather not always agreed with who he did not include in the films, (I think Black Mask would have been a better addition than the Chechen) Bane was a good choice.
He offered to Batman what Batman had not faced until this point… Err, I think? Nolan has specifically stated many times before the release of TDKR that Bane was included in the movie to add a physical adversary to Batman. That Batman has never fought someone as big as Bane in the past.
Now, I do not necessarily agree with this, but in the films, Batman has not. However, for being Batman the time that Bruce Wayne was Batman, you would think he probably fought someone bigger than Bane at some point. Just probably not as well trained. Anyway, kudos to Nolan for the inclusion of Bane.
One of the main themes of the film and the theme that Bane kept trying to translate out was one of Hope and Despair. This was amazing and when Bane was manipulating like this, he was truly amazing.
Let’s look at Bane’s outfit for a second. He really was a walking vault. I say vault rather than weapon, because Bane was pretty defense looking. He had on the bullet proof vest, with no gun; he had the knee pads, the combat boots, and the thick jackets (we will get to the mask in a second & how that is defense too). Bane, as we see him, looks like he is not necessarily an aggressor, but rather a reactor. This is really the only problem I have with what Bane wears.
Let’s move onto the mask that Bane wears. I LOVED this inclusion. Unlike the previous incarnations of Bane, he obviously has no Venom. Thus, he obviously does not grow to be something like 9’ tall & 500lbs. Instead, Nolan gives Bane this awesome mask. Very ‘scary’ looking in its own right, the mask is what makes Bane such a great adversary. As you know, it was because of a previous accident that Bane has in his life that he has to wear this mask, & that the mask pumps a steady amount of anesthetic into his lungs, bloodstream, and finally body. Because of having this anesthetic pumped into him, Bane essentially does have the invulnerability qualities that the Venom would have given him. He is able to take a punch. And yes, he really can take one hell of a punch, without really feeling the effects of the punch. His body is numbed to the physical attacks that Batman inflicts on him. Therefore, Batman could beat on this man, who is already covered from head to toe in armor, all day to no avail.
Keeping with the mask. This is something I was so scared of before the film came out, and so proud of after it did. Whenever we see Bane fighting Batman in the comics, in the television shows, (shit) even in the movies, WHENEVER Batman fights Bane, he almost ALWAYS beats him the same freaking way every freaking time! It is incredible annoying and upsetting to see this happen. Batman always finds someway, somehow to cut Bane’s Venom supply off, thus reducing him to a weakened mess ripe for the handcuffs.
Well, in this movie Nolan did not do that. Although there is a scene where Bane does have his anesthetic supply cut off, this scene really does not bring too much impact on how Bane is ultimately dealt with. At the same time, by having a small scene like this in the film in the first place, it does provide itself as a nice little nod to the old incarnations of Bane’s story. Thus, it is basically a win-win that Nolan created here. Good job Chris!
Now, to look at how Tom Hardy acted Bane out. I keep reading the same things in reviews about Tom Hardy’s performance as Bane “He does a good job, but he is not Heath Ledger Joker” or “He does not have the same spark that Ledger had as the Joker.” This really bothers me because Tom Hardy as Bane was never supposed to be in the same column as the Joker. They are completely different mentalities, different characters, different plans, and different times. It is really unfair to compare the two.
With that said & now out of the way, Tom Hardy gives a great performance as Bane, for the restrictions that he had. Bane always has the luchador mask on his face, covering everything basically but the mouth. Outside of the eyes, the mouth and its muscles are the 2nd biggest way of expressing emotion. Tom Hardy had no source material to look at because of the way the mask was set up for him. He is basically trailblazing here. And he does an excellent job at doing this too. The way that Hardy uses his eyes to show what Bane’s emotion is at the time is amazing. You see amazed, upset, pissed off, intimidating, and event arrogance/ gloating from his eyes. And it is not even hard to tell these emotions apart from his eyes. You always know what you are seeing. I would love to see any of us pull this off with a mask that is so tight against your face that your cheekbone skin pokes through it!
With all of that said, Tom Hardy as Bane was great for being Tom Hardy as BANE. You cannot judge him negatively because he does so much for this role to just show us the minimum of what we expect from a normal human being’s emotion.
Bane himself in the movie now. Bane is a threat. Bane has a plan. Bane executes his plan. Although there are some pretty big holes in his plan, he is able to do everything well. He is a general in charge of an army. A general that answers to the man being the curtain. But the issue that I have with Bane in this movie is that Bane is and does all of these things, but you never really get to see much of the thinking process that goes into these things. You only really see the outcome. I know that might be nitpicking, but we only get to see, as far as Bane’s intelligence goes, the fruition of the plan.
Take the sewer fight with Batman for example. I understand the need to keep some parts of it secret to not give away the betrayal, but at the same time knowing that betrayal coming would have been just as effective here. Rather than the anticipation of finding Bane and the anticipation of Batman and Selina Kyle’s progression through the sewers, I think, that in this case, it would have been better to have a negative anticipation instead. To have an anticipation of the hell to come (I know that anyone that followed the movie closely knew this anticipation coming, but for the average movie go-er I am talking about here.). To have the anticipation that we know things are going to go wrong. An example: we see a scene of Bane terrorizing/manipulating/
Back to the point of Bane in the film, it is that lack of intelligence that we see that was the only real fault that I saw in Bane in the film. And, as I have said, it is not a literal stupidity that I am talking about here, but rather a literal lack of screen time of this. But, again, it is really just a nit-pick in the end, or rather a “If I was Christopher Nolan” thing.
Miranda Tate: Or Talia al Ghul, call her either or. It is funny because it feels like every prediction that people had before this movie about what will come/ who will be in this film actually came true. Everyone was right! And we were all so very right when it came to Miranda Tate that it does not even feel worth it to say “I called that!”
However, it was rather easy to pick up that Tate was going to be Talia. For starters when we first read the press release about Collitard being in the film it said that she “”will appear as Miranda Tate, whereas JGL had “”will play John Blake. It that clue did not slap you in the face, than I really do not know what will.
Knowing that Tate really is Talia, or at least some villain, before you go into to see the film really does help out a lot. When I was watching it for the first time in the theater I would always notice how things would fall to shit whenever she was in a scene. One of them in-particular was when the special forces were “sold out.” This is a bit of a double edged sword though, because after watching the film for the first time, and after knowing exactly what will happened when it does happen, you really start to feel like Tate is extremely transparent. Even knowing that she will be some type of villain before I saw the movie for the first time, I should not have been able to pick up on all those times where things did go to shit.
By the way, did anyone else feel like Miranda Tate, even before she became Talia al Ghul, or at least exposed herself as Talia al Ghul, is a bit of a bitch all around? Her tone of voice she always used always felt very forced. She always seemed to be talking through her teeth, as if she wanted to stab everyone she had a conversation with. In other words, she felt very fake as Tate.
Dr. Pavel: I really do not know whether to put him in the protagonist column or antagonist column. Mostly because he just wanted to save his family. But he goes in the antagonist column because he is that stupid.
He feared for his families life, as I just said, but he did not realize that even if he armed the bomb and did everything that Bane and company wanted him to do, that his family would still be seen as a loose end. i am sure that TLOS had his family captive somewhere, that would be the only logical way to get Pavel do to the work for them, and so why did he ever think that TLOS would allow his family to walk out the front door when he did finish arming the bomb? That is just silly.
Now, with that said, he is quite a dumb-shit to ever arm the bomb for them. Since he is a nuclear physicist, I refuse to believe he would not realize that his family is dead either way, along with himself (but that is more obvious). So, with John Stewart Mill rolling over in his grave, why would Pavel ever arm this weapon?!?
At least Selina Kyle was smart enough to realize she was a loose end to TLOS & tried to escape Gotham City. And she is a shitty thief! For shame Dr. Pavel!
Jonathan Crane: Back to his best! As I wrote in the Keeping Batman’s Villains Fresh: Chapter 4: Scarecrow Article before, Crane is best when he does not have his mask on in these films. He is best when he realizes he has all the power and is able to manipulate people because of this. And in TDKR, Crane does just that. As the Sentencing Judge, he has all the power he may want. And, to top it all off, Linda Hemming did an amazing job at making Crane look insane, but not too insane. Just a creepy type of insane.
Ra’s al Ghul: Liam Neeson had an amazing cameo in this film! I loved it so much! Why? Well because it shows how Bruce Wayne is not only broke physically, literally, and mentally, but now he was broken spiritually. This is shown amazingly by making him just a hallucination that Wayne sees and by being just a hallucination you are able to tell that Wayne had sunk as far as he had ever. Including when his parents were murdered.
Joker: Really quick here… Why did it never come up in this film about what the Joker had done to Gotham? I understand that they do not want to tarnish Ledger’s name or disrespect him, but it almost felt disrespectful not to acknowledge that the Joker had a lasting impact on Gotham City. You cannot just ignore the first time that the city was held hostage! (that the city knew about at least). Yet they found a way to do so. I found this to be in very bad taste!
Coming up shortly will be a look at the content of the film. What could have been done better, what was done amazingly, and what just flopped. As I said before, I did enjoy the film, but it seems I did not enjoy it as much as my peers.