It’s officially on-line. The trailer of The Dark Knight Rises has, after a weekend of bootlegging, been officially released. It looks impressive, and gives us our first sense of anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle. If the theme is to reflect the recession (as much as The Dark Knight could have been said to reflect the war on terror), I imagine Selina will be quite important to the story. We’ve seen a lot of Bane, and there’s relatively little of him here. And, is that a bearded younger Bruce (back in his League of Shadows days) being told that the chant means “rise?” But enough crazy theories for now. I’ll have more of them later in the week.
In the mean time, enjoy. For more analysis, click here.
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bane, batman, Batman in film, bruce wayne, catwoman, dark knight, Dark Knight Rises, imax, youtube |
the m0vie blog 
Kyle definitely does seem to represent the 99% to Wayne’s 1%, and I imagine that in keeping with the series’ political bent (and the rumors that Nolan did some shooting at OWS), there will be a definite haves-versus-have-nots theme here. Interesting note about Kyle: Do those pearls look like anything Bruce’s dad showed him in Batman Begins?
I think Bane’s voice is going to be a problem. He’s comprehensible enough, but in an IMAX theater that’s loud and visually engulfing I can see his dialogue being muddied up at times. We’ll just have to see.
I’m more excited to see the movie now than I was before, I’ll say that much– though I’m still cooler on it than most, I think.
I didn’t think his voice was that big a deal, to be honest. I got it in one here. Of course, Ireland doesn’t have an Imax cinema, so I’m not able to comment on the prologue dialogue.
The pearls are a nice touch, as you pick up on. Pearls have been important to Bruce since Frank Miller reinvented the character, and I think that it might be interesting to discuss Catwoman and femininity in general in Batman, particularly through Frank Miller. miller gets a lot of wrap (some of it deserved) for writing prostitutes, but I think he’s one of the few writers to focus on the importance of Martha to Bruce, as opposed to Thomas. After all, we know Thomas Wayne was a billionaire and a doctor, and a kind heart, but Martha was reduced to an extra in Batman Begins.
As much as I hate All-Star Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder, it makes the case that Martha is the source of Bruce’s heart, as much as Thomas is the source of Bruce’s will. The addition of the pearls by Miller bring her into focus during the death scene (much as Thomas’ attempt to stop the mugger), and Miller also adds the fact that Martha didn’t die on the spot like Thomas. She bled out. Her heart gave in, in the end. I think that, at the risk of being cliché, Martha’s influence was the part of Bruce that was missing during his “grim and dark” phase, and the best part of Neil Gaiman’s Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? was allowing her to be the one to console Bruce as he dies, rather than giving us a father-son conversation.
I wonder if the pearls might symbolise that heart for Bruce as well, that sense of balance. Or maybe I’m just waffling.