We're all curious here; with the gargantuan hype for The Dark Knight Rises around, the thing I get chills over is how Bane will meet his end. When the Dark Knight came out four years ago, the thing I was not hyped the most for was Ledger's performance. What I wanted to see was the tension between Batman and Joker. And that exceeded my expectations by a long shot. The Joker hurts you emotionally, and Batman felt the pain. In the third and FINAL Batman flick, Batman will feel a different, more brutal kind of pain.
In order to do a successful Superhero movie, you have to create great tension between the villain and the hero. What does that mean? Well the villain has to not be a generic one where he has a plan to take over the city/world/universe etc, and fight the good guy. A good villain needs to hurt the hero emotionally and psychically. Take the first Iron Man for instance,
even though you kinda saw the guy behind the whole thing, Tony Stark was still emotionally struck by the fact that his dad's best friend was the villain the whole time. Obadiah wanted Tony out, and what made him a damn good villain was that he got to Tony emotionally, and physically. Yes, he got too overconfident in the end and thus died because of his incompetence. But you really felt the tension between the two of them for that short amount of time on screen.
With the first Batman movie,(and no I'm not talking about that campy 1966 piece of shit) screened in 1989, it was a film where the more you look at it, the tension is kind of weak. Granted I thought Jack did a nice job portraying his character, but I didn't feel like the Joker really wanted Batman out of the way.
It wasn't Jack's fault, it was the screen writers. It was more of Joker's movie than Batman's. The love triangle (if you can call it that) was unnecessary. The story would have moved along just fine if it didn't have the Joker drooling over Vicke Vale. Overall, Batman was just a solid movie, nothing special. The movie wasn't a total failure, but the tension between Batman and the Joker was weak and because of that, some of the thrill was lost.
I can honestly say that Nolan is a man who can get the tension between the hero and the villain down right. When I first heard that Bane and Catwoman were going to be the villains in the final movie, I was a bit disappointed. Like many others, I wanted the Riddler. But after digging deeper and reading up on the comics and the movie, I now feel that both were a damn good choice for the send off of Batman. Before I saw the prologue, I was a tad bit worried how Bane would be interpreted on screen. I love his new look, and I think its a vast improvement over his original take in the comics. But after I saw the prologue, my doubts are gone. Granted we didn't get to see tension between Bane and Batman (I'm not counting the various fight scenes between the two because that doesn't count. It is tension, but we didn't get to see the thrilling ride lead up into it)
Bane is a formidable villain...he's a mastermind, one with a plan and a league of men to follow him even if it kills them. With the trailer, however, we do get see some tension between Batman and Bane. Its very brief but its enough to tease us for the upcoming film. And that scene is where Bane lays down his already famous line, 'when gotham is..ashes...you have my permission to die.' Its obvious there he has bruce right where he wants him, and its evident that he wants to see Wayne watch as gotham is destroyed. With the previous Batman movies, Nolan was able to generate near perfect tension between the hero and the bad guy. He made us really cheer for Bruce/Batman. We really wanted to see him succeed. With the batman movies that came before Nolan, there was tension, but it wasn't deeply thrilling enough to really call it memorable.
I firmly believe that the tension between Batman and Bane will be much more intense, more emotionally shocking, and memorable than the tension between Batman and the Joker. I love how already Bane is a far different villain than the Joker. It will get to the point where Batman will have to break his one rule and kill Bane. Why? Because Bane will become too much of a nuisance and by keeping him alive will only do more harm than good. But the big thing that's been scratching on my cerebellum is how Bane will meeet his end.
In previous Batman movies its been kinda the same way for the Villain to go out:
Batman (1989): Joker Falls to his death after a gargoul statue is tied around his ankle.
Batman Returns: Penguin falls several stories into a shallow pond.
Batman Forever: Two Face falls several stories into a shallow pond where there happens to be spikes down there.
Batman & Robin: ....
Batman Begins: Rha's, while in the front car of a train, falls several stories into an underground parking garage where the train explodes.
The Dark Knight: Harvey Dent (two face) is bumped over the side of a three story ledge where he eventually dies.
So overall, Batman's enemies fall to their deaths. Will that happen in the Dark Knight Rises? I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. I think Batman will probably rip off Bane's mask, revealing the cruel, disgusting man underneath, causing Bane to be weakened and allowing Batman to strike a death blow. Its a speculation, but that's just what I think.
But I want to know what you have to say.
Will the tension between Bane and Batman be fierce? Will it upstage the tension seen in the Dark Knight?
How will Batman defeat bane? Let me know!