Batman Would be the Thing to Pull Me Back In

It's been awhile, I know. I'd like to say I haven't been around because of the holidays, and while that's true, it's not the whole story. In early November, I became one of "those" people, one of the 12 million who plays World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role playing game (or MMORPG for those few of you who don't know already). I'd like to talk more about my experience as a newbie in the WoW universe, since it's about all I've done with my free time these last few months, but this post is really about the newsy bit that brought me BACK to the blog in over 8 weeks.

And that news is the announcement of the two stars added to Christopher Nolan's next Batman installation, The Dark Knight Rises (**snicker** at that title). If your Twitter stream isn't already full of this news, then let me share with you that, drum roll.....

--Anne Hathway will star at Catwoman

--Tom Hardy will star as Bane

You may recall Tom Hardy from Nolan's most recent film, Inception, in which he was awesome.

So let me get my most major complaint out of the way first: The inclusion of Catwoman in the movie in the first place. Now I love Catwoman. I collected Catwoman comic books, toys, and other ephemera for years. I've dressed up as Catwoman for Halloween (years ago, sigh). So trust me, I'm a big fan of Catwoman. But I feel like we've done the Catwoman story already in the Tim Burton movies. Michelle Pfeiffer was a great Catwoman. Remember this scene??

Then, we had that horrible Halle Barry movie, that we shall not speak of again. My point is that Catwoman isn't covering new ground in the Bat-verse. There are other female characters who could be interesting to include, my favorite being Harley Quinn. With Joker's demise in the 2nd movie, seems like an opportune time to bring in his just-as-crazy girlfriend for revenge.

Here's my other problem with Catwoman....Anne Hathaway. I feel bad about this, because I actually like Anne Hathaway, but visually, she seems too pretty, too nice, too clean to be a great Catwoman. I think she is cute & funny, and great on SNL and in romantic comedies. I hear she was great in that drama (Rachel Getting Married? Not totally sure...), but I'm not sure she can play the bitchy, gritty, wrong-side-of-the-tracks version of Catwoman that I grew to love.

Catwoman comes in so many versions, there certainly is room for variation from what I typically consider. And if anyone can do it, Nolan is that guy. So dude, impress me. I really want to be excited about this.

Whew. Catwoman went on longer than I expected. Let's turn to Bane.

The last movie to (briefly) feature Bane, Joel Schumacher's hot mess, Batman and Robin, barely got to Bane at all. He was sidelined as one of Poison Ivy's henchman. A total waste of an otherwise formerly decent villain. In the comics, the guy is a brute, a monster.

I'd like to see a well-developed Bane character in the next movie. He's not a well known enemy, but that also means he hasn't been totally overdone. I was initially doubtful of Tom Hardy in this role based on Inception, but then I came across this:

It's hard for me to even tell that is the same guy! I guess if he can pump up, he's got a shot at a convincing Bane.

My hope is that there is at least a short trailer ready for Comic-Con in July. I'd like to be convinced about the inclusion of Hathaway/Catwoman. I liked the first 2 Nolan Batman's a lot, so, you know, no pressure.