Go See "The Dark Knight Rises" - No Spoilers

I went and saw The Dark Knight Rises this week, and I have to say, I think it's my favourite of the trilogy.

I'm sure many of you have gone already, but I know there's still a tone of fear in society due to the sad unfortunate incident played out the first night.

Don't let this hinder you from enjoying probably the best movie of the summer.

After the 9/11 attacks, both Marvel & DC Comics published comics as an effort to raise money for charity.  These comics delved into people's fears, but more importantly, into hope.

One of the most prominent stories I read - I think DC (Batman's company) published it, but it's irrelevant - was a conversation taking place in a bar between sports fans in Boston.

As baseball fans well know, there's a longstanding rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.  During a conversation while watching the game, one of the longtime hometown BoSox fans mentions the horrors of the recent terrorist attack, and says how a win for the Yankees would be good for New York.

Immediately, however, his friend turns on him for defecting.  As tragic as the event is, if you live in fear because of it, you've let the terrorists win.  If they can incite fear into you, so much so that you change your regular patterns, you've let them win.

In many ways, I think that storyline applies to many circumstances in life, the Colorado incident included.

If you let this one gunman (never say his name - he doesn't deserve it) change your way of life, he's accomplished everything he set out to do.

Remember the victims and their families.  My thoughts and prayers continue to be with them daily, as well as once I purchased my ticket, and entered the theatre.

But don't let fear win.

A Dark Night in Denver

Before reading this, please be aware that my tone is meant to be respectful.  The situation that happened in Aurora, Colorado, is one of great tragedy, and one of disgust.  My thoughts and prayers go to the victims and their families.

I just finished watching an episode of Doc Zone from CBC all about conspiracy theories, and how it is human nature to try to make sense of the chaos, to seek patterns.  Once I heard of the situation currently unfolding, the grim similarities below came to mind...

For those of you unaware, there has been a sickening tragedy connected with The Dark Knight Rises - at a midnight premiere of the movie outside Denver, Colorado, a gunman entered a movie theatre and opened fire, killing 14 people, and injuring another 50.  He wore bulletproof gear, apparently a variety of weaponry, and had some sort of smoke bombs.

You cannot Google The Dark Knight Rises without coming across various news encounters of this event.  It will now be forever seared into the movie - much like the tragic death of Heath Ledger and The Dark Knight.


At this point, nobody knows the motives of the gunman.  In fact, it doesn't end there - upon capture, he mentioned something about "explosives" and his apartment building.  Police have vacated the building and are cautiously performing a sweep.

What bothers me the most is motive.  Why Batman?  Was it because it was a heroic movie?  Was it because of the actual hero himself?

Although Batman Begins shows the murder of the Waynes occur after leaving an opera, the traditional, comic book version actually occurs after Bruce and his parents leave a movie theatre, after viewing a movie featuring the masked caped hero, Zorro (which movie it is changes from tale to tale, and is for the most part irrelevant).

Once again, we have a life imitates art/art imitates life situation.  But I ask this: Was this the gunman's motive?

In M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable, a comic book themed movie, Bruce Willis learns he has some sort of super strength and invulnerability due to his encounters with tragedy.  And in Shyamalan's "What a twist!" moment, it is revealed that Samuel L. Jackson has orchestrated these events because he believed a hero like Willis existed in the world, and he was trying to inspire him by causing such tragedies.

Moreover, my much-beloved DC Animated Universe (consisting of Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League, Batman Beyond, etc) unleashed a surprise reveal during the first season of Justice League Unlimited, in an episode titled Epilogue.  Terry McGinnis, the Batman of the future, finds out Bruce Wayne - through genetic twists and machinations, not traditional intercourse - is his biological father.  Outraged, McGinnis locates the source to seek answers, and discovers that beyond nature, there was an intent to nurture this path by mimicking Bruce's past, and have Terry witness his parent's gruesome murder.  The only problem was the gunman couldn't pull the trigger, so to speak, and the plan was aborted.  Years later, however, fate intervened, and Terry's father was murdered by another party, igniting the flame within Terry in the end.

Bruce Wayne becomes Batman because of a tragedy.  Other stories mimic this idea.  Could somebody actually be that insane to try to inspire this event?

Do I really believe this is the cause?  No.  And would it actually make it any better?  Of course not.  Lives are lost, and people will mourn them all the same.

It's just during these tragic times, sometimes, you'd like to think there's more of a purpose than some random event, some coward with a gun, that can just upset these people's lives and cut them short - a theme Bruce deals with constantly.

In the end, whether or not there is some sort of sick motive or not, you cannot ignore the similarities.

Friday Fun-day! Holy Spoilers, Batman!

STOP!!  STOP RIGHT NOW!!

IF YOU CONTINUE TO READ THIS, YOU'RE ACCEPTING THE FACT THAT YOU MAY BE READING SPOILERS FOR THE UPCOMING BATMAN MOVIE, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES!!


If you're okay with that, carry on, otherwise, get out now while you still can!

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[Note that contrary to your belief I'm not a big-time Hollywood producer.  Some of what is written below has been given information, some of it is comic book fact, and some of it is pure speculation.]

Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy comes to an end this summer.  After giving us the mechanics of what makes Bruce Wayne tick in Batman Begins, and introducing more loss into his life in The Dark Knight, Nolan left Batman on the run from the fuzz at the conclusion of the last movie, his reputation in shambles.

So what's going to happen in the The Dark Knight Rises?


First, watch the latest trailer for the movie here, and then we can make some inferences.


Well, non-spoiler information, we know that Bane will show up and terrorize Gotham City.  We also know that Catwoman will enter the scene.

Movie details seem to indicate that eight years have elapsed between Harvey Dent's/Two-Face's funeral and where The Dark Knight begins.  Batman, while he's trying to stop criminals and save lives, has to do it while staying out of the police's line of fire, who are trying to take him in for the murder of Dent.  During that time, it wouldn't be surprising that Selina Kyle has been taking advantage of a Gotham City that hates Batman.

Bruce has never been in this for the praise.  Surely, something about his quest to prevent crime in his city makes him hope his parents would approve.  But he's never been at the job so he can one day receive the key to the city and have a parade.

Although his friend, Commissioner Jim Gordon, knows that Batman is not a murderer, the whole police force and the mind of the public all despise him for murdering a "hero."  It's likely that some plot device will appear where Batman goes to save a person who heavily resists his help out of fear, and the consequence may result in injury or death.

The police have no faith in him.  The public has no faith in him.  The death of a civilian may shake the faith of his friend, the commissioner, and after that, even Bruce may lose faith in himself.

And, with a weakened soul, enter Bane.

The Man Who Broke the Bat


A brief comic book history of Bane:

• Born on the fictional island of Santa Prisca, his father was a revolutionary who escaped capture, so Bane was sent to prison as a child to live out his father's sentence.
• In prison, he trained his body and mind, strengthening himself in the prison gym, educating himself by reading whatever he could, receiving formal "classroom" education by a Jesuit priest.  His fighting ability was sharpened by a hard life within the walls of prison.
• Eventually, Bane declares himself "king" within the walls of the penitentiary, which comes to the attention of the jailers.  Bane is then selected as a test subject in a new experiment where his is given the Venom drug, and, along with some shielding enhancements over his internal organs, becomes a super-steroid monstrosity (think Captain America's origin, but in prison, and becoming more closer to Hulk-sized than Captain America-sized).
• In order to continually fuel his drug-induced strength, he has a controller on his arm that injects Venom directly into the back of his skull.  He can toggle this to give him a super boost, which then causes him to rapidly increase his size and muscle mass (again, he can Hulk-out on command, if that helps).

Bane had the same fear of bats Bruce Wayne did as a child.  However, while Bruce decided to become that fear to conquer it, Bane decided he would conquer the fear by defeating the Batman.

Once in Gotham City, Bane decided he would first break down Batman mentally in a battle of attrition.  Literally blowing open the gates of Arkham Asylum, Batman spends the next three months rounding up Joker, Riddler, Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze and most of his rogues gallery and incarcerating them all over again, a feat which pushes Bruce to his physical limit.  During a fight with the Scarecrow, Batman is doused with his Fear Toxin, which makes Batman relive his greatest failure - the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin - mentally and emotionally exhausting him.  Meanwhile, Bane is observing Batman, his tactics, and even deduces that Batman and Bruce Wayne are one-in-the-same.

Having completed another day on the job, Batman returns to Wayne Manor, exhausted, only to find Bane waiting for him.  Bane pummels him, and, in the Batcave, Bane does the unimaginable:  He breaks Batman's back, leaving him a paraplegic.

Ow, my pride.

At this point, Bruce Wayne tours around the globe on detective missions in a wheelchair, and a new hero, Jean-Paul Valley, dons the mantle of the Batman.

Neat.  For comic book fans of the 1990s, this isn't new to you.  So where are the spoilers already?

Firstly, fans will likely go crazy if the iconic image above doesn't somehow play into the movie.  Any muscle-bound villain can be selected for the antagonist of the film, but by selecting Bane, the only villain to break Batman, you should be making a statement.  I must state now, however, that Bane DID appear as a henchman to Poison Ivy in Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin, and he was grossly unused in the storyline.  However, as he's the front runner here, audiences will be expecting something epic this go around.

So if Batman/Bruce Wayne is injured, what now?  Villainy for the win?  Well, there has been a lot of speculation as to who the character John Blake is in The Dark Knight Rises, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  So far, all that has been mentioned is that he's a beat cop.  Many people aren't buying this though, as it seems curious to put in a high-profile actor for such a minor role.

This week there's been a buzz regarding who John Blake may be, and a lot of it stems from the release of The Dark Knight Rises action figure line.

On the right of Batman - JPV Batman?

Rumours quickly appeared that the action figure on the right of Batman may be the debut of John Blake's Batman suit.  Statements have already been issued that the figure is something along the lines of a "Stealth-Suit Batman," which, in the world of action figures, it's not uncommon for manufacturers to distribute a zillion gimmicky figures (underwater suit Batman, spacesuit Batman, plumber Batman etc).  However, the paranoid, or those who want to believe, aren't buying it.

In the comic book, Jean-Paul Valley was a college student who discovered he had been brainwashed as a child by a wacky cult into becoming a master assassin, becoming the cult's angel of death and "enforcing god's will" as Azrael.

JPV as Azrael

As disturbing as that may be, that's useful if you're going to put on Batman's cape and cowl.  JPV dons the cape and cowl at first, but eventually begins to make his own alterations and modifications of Bruce's iconic suit.

"Yeah, I'm still Batman, I've just got a flamethrower attach to my arm.
Big whup. Wanna fight about it?"

So is John Blake the new Batman?

The latest trailer shows Bane in the Batcave, walking away with a shattered mask.  He also has dialogue with Bruce Wayne himself, with Bruce asking, "Why didn't you kill me?"  It then appears that Bruce is thrown near-lifeless down a ramp, Bane standing over top of him.  I think it's safe to say we'll see the Bane-breaking-Batman-over-his-knee scene.  But will it truly cripple him?

More importantly, will Blake replace him?  Well, the comic book representation of Azrael-Batman and the picture of the above action figure don't look too far off, with the blue and gold highlights and full-cowl mask.  How a beat cop will replace Batman will hopefully be covered too - I know police officers go through some rigorous training, but I don't know any that trained for 18 years to become a crime fighter, and can use extremely advanced gadgetry and use throwing shurikens.  Outside of that detail, I think it's extremely plausible that John Blake may, in fact, be Bruce Wayne's replacement.

What else is possible is that instead of Blake completely replacing Bruce, it may be more of a Batman Beyond element, where Blake does the legwork (poor phrasing considering the paraplegic aspect) while Bruce monitors him from the Batcave computer through camera and audio built within the cowl.

The Bat insignia on the chest isn't too far off, and we've got an otherwise plain looking costume with a fully-masked cowl.  Could this be the case?

And the best part about this:  My wife was the one to look at the action figure and point out that it looks like Batman Beyond!  How awesome is she, right?  Right??  I'm proud of you, darling!  That means you've really been paying attention!  Have a chocolate.

The Batman Beyond storyline actually takes place in the future, with an elderly 80-year-old Wayne mentoring a young man, Terry McGuinness, as he takes the mantle of Batman for himself.  While surely Bale won't age historically in this film, the main fundamentals here are all still valid.  Curiously, though, the image below shows Bruce Wayne with a spot of grey in his hair, as he converses with John Blake.

"Seriously, my "Just for Bat-Men" product
will outsell the competition in no time."

One thing can be determined from this is that Bruce Wayne will not die.  Christian Bale previously made statements saying this will be his last venture as Batman, and that he's done with the character.  However, also this week, Bale stated in an article from Empire Magazine that if Christopher Nolan were to approach him and say that they have a story for a fourth Batman movie, he would be willing to do it.  While zombies are in right now, I don't think he'll be reprising the role as zombie-Batman (though it may be cool to think about...)

Ra's al Ghul

Another one of the action figures above has people talking.

Speaking of zombies....

Is that Bruce Wayne in his League of Shadows gear (from Batman Begins, hinting a flashback), a young Ra's al Ghul (Liam Neeson's character from Batman Begins, also hinting a flashback), or John Blake, undergoing some training?

Recall that Ra's al Ghul apparently died at the end of Batman Begins.  Despite this, it has been confirmed that Liam Neeson, as Ra's al Ghul, will be appearing in The Dark Knight Rises, but whether it is a return to the character or a flashback sequence is not yet known.

To me, the figure looks like Christian Bale.  Is this another flashback sequence for Bruce, or will Bruce go to the League of Shadows to retrain after being broken?

Talia al Ghul

Besides John Blake, the other most talked about character is Miranda Tate, played by Marion Cotillard.  As in the case of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, it seems unlikely Christopher Nolan hired this Academy Award winning actress to play a Wayne Enterprises board member, as the character profile states.

So who is she?  Many speculate she is Talia al Ghul, daughter of Ra's al Ghul.  

Talia al Ghul

Has she infiltrated Wayne Enterprises as a spy in a possible revenge scheme for the death of her father?  Or is she aiding him in his current quest (if Liam Neeson's Ra's al Ghul is actually still alive)?

Cotillard has denied any claims that she is anyone else but Miranda Tate.  One thing that raises eyebrows, however, is that imdb shows that a young actress plays Talia al Ghul in a flashback scene in the film.

The Scarecrow


Nothing new is here, we've already seen the Scarecrow in the first two movies.  In fact, so far actor Cillian Murphy isn't on the cast list on imdb.com or elsewhere indicating he's in this movie.

One website, however, indicates that he was on set for part of the filming.  Was he a major part of shooting, or just a brief appearance as in The Dark Knight?


Perhaps he plays a brief but important role - let's speculate.  As in the comics, he douses Batman and makes him relieve his greatest failure: in this movie universe it may be either the death of Harvey Dent, or more likely, the death of Bruce Wayne's love interest, Rachel Dawes.  While neither Maggie Gyllenhaal or Katie Holmes have been seen on set for the movie, there's no reason why flashback sequences from the previous movies can't be used.  In fact, if it's just a sequence to relive her death, then no new footage is really required.

Final Thoughts


Running through the possible outcomes, there certainly seems to be a lot of variables and a lot of ways this movie can go.  With over 70 years of Batman mythology, I guess that's not really all that surprising.

Having Batman coupled with a sidekick could be fun and interesting.  The idea of Robin, a tween/teenager, was dismissed by Nolan before writing any scripts as being implausible.  Catwoman, however, appears to fill this void.

Will Bruce Wayne have John Blake fight by his side as well?  Or will Bane break his back, and Blake has to step in to fill the gap himself while Bruce recovers?

Is Bane working for Ra's al Ghul?  Is Talia there to keep an eye on Wayne?  Will she steal the company from under Bruce's nose while he's got his hands full with Bane, leaving him hated by society, crippled, and penniless?

Of all the variables, I think only one thing can be confirmed:

This is going to be a wild movie.

Arm rockets too?  Beats shark repellent any day!