Well, finally we get to the good stuff. After last week’s slogging through the butthole of forthcoming 2012 movies, it looks like maybe we’re starting to get somewhere.
Batman trailers historically tell you nothing — except that one thing with Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze — that costume told us everything we needed to know. However, now, even though the trailer is dark and meant to menace your eyeballs from its first rapturous image, we can tell that this will be something to see next year.
Tom Hardy’s “Bane” has got us all a twitter, right? Right. He looks just the right amount of brutish, maniacal, and delightfully wicked. Is he channeling a little Heath Ledger with his brood? Maybe. Was this by design? Perhaps. We need edge in our Batman films. We need to believe that the people in this fantastical world are there because they’re unhinged, enjoyably so, but also so charismatic that we feel the mania, and the obliviousness to it all they conjure along with it — we need the villains to be true villains. Spirit note: I despise Christian Bale in this role, despite what they’ve been able to do with the franchise, so fantastic supporting characters always adds to the overall greatness of the film for me since I can’t depend on Bale and his soap-gargle voice to sell it.
On to Anne Hathaway, yes, some are saying that maybe, JUST MAYBE SHE WON’T SUCK AS CATWOMAN! This was pretty much every fanpersons dream upon hearing she was cast for the role, and especially after we saw the extra lame costume. Berf. However, I will go on record and say despite Hathaway’s sultry cunning, and throaty exposition here, I’m still not buying it yet. It’s just not giving me the same Pfeiffer sexy, crazy, vulnerable/teetering on the edge thing that made that character work so well. Not saying that she has to be Pfeifer, no, not all. However, I’d like to forget every other character she’s been. There should be meat to this character. She should be rich and smooth. Catwoman is larger than life, and it actually takes skill to pull it off, and not make her campy, or derivative. Ask Halle Berry.
All in all, this is pretty good. Sure, the special effects look a little thin at this point, but there is a palpable coating of awesome that makes you overlook it, because undoubtedly there’s got to be more. Nolan is just giving us a snippet, an amuse-bouche if you will. We’re already salivating in expectation of the main course.
