In recent weeks we have finally been shown images of Anne Hathaway riding the Bat-pod. We have even been given glimpses of her stunt double in action riding the streets of Pittsburgh, as well. (And even a few of the rumored Bat-wing/Bat-plane, or whatever they plan to call it, and it looks epic as hell, kids.) Sadly, there are many out there who are criticizing the costume Ms. Hathaway is donning already. Shame on all of you. All of us Bat-boys and girls must remember that Christopher Nolan has always selectively chosen images and things for us to know about the Bat-films before they are released. For example, when Batman Begins was still in production, I viewed several images on the website. I’d heard that the Batmobile would be based on the Frank Miller Dark Knight Returns version, which as we all know is more like a tank. Enter the Tumbler. I nearly jumped out of my seat when I saw it, simply from realizing that it now actually existed in physical reality (even if it was only going to be used for a film and not actual usage). But what I remember about these images the most is the caption below Liam Neeson’s picture (which was, now that I think about it, taken in Falcone’s office – so that is clearly now a deleted scene we will never see). The caption merely read Henri Ducard.
For those of you who have read far back enough, Ducard was a man hunter that Bruce trained with before returning to Gotham to start the never-ending war on crime. This image and that caption was enough to fool me into thinking that Neeson was only Ducard. So for everyone else that was surprised, like me, when suddenly he enters the end of the film and reveals himself as the Demon, I just started clapping and smacked my head. Nolan had planned the whole thing out to fool the fans. As many of us have noticed in recent years, more and more films show nearly every plot point in their trailers now. And ruin all the best action scenes by showing them to us. Nolan is not among these film executives that likes to ruin these things for us. No, instead he’s playing on it and using it to trick us. My point being that these images of Ms. Hathaway are meant to mislead us.
For starters, we have no idea at what point in the film these images are taken from. It could be the beginning, it could be the end. What this means, in my mind, is that he doesn’t want us to see what the complete Catwoman outfit will look like yet. He has to save some of this for opening night after all. Do you really want to walk into the final installment of this trilogy, without any surprises at all? I know that I was pleasantly surprised by Harvey Dent’s face, something not seen in the trailers, in The Dark Knight. As well as how Two-Face’s plot was carried out throughout the film. As I said in my editorial regarding the first image of Tom Hardy as Bane, we must have faith in Mr. Nolan.
He is at the helm of this whole thing, including the viral marketing campaign. Ms. Hathaway herself has even stated that the images we’ve seen are not the complete outfit. BOOM! There you go. We will have a complete Catwoman outfit. She had the goggles, from the more recent versions of the costume from the comics (Hush being one that comes to mind). That in itself is enough for me to retain my faith in the entire trilogy. And to further point out that Nolan has tried to include at least three Rogues’ gallery villains in each film. The first had Scarecrow, Ra’as al Ghul, Victor Zsasz, and Carmine Falcone. The second gave us the Joker, Two-Face, Sal Maroni, and Scarecrow for a brief cameo. The third has promised us Bane and Catwoman, and possibly even Ra’as one more time, but that is very speculative and I won’t comment on that until we’ve heard more from the rumor mill.
We cannot jump down the throats of the film industry every time a comics film comes out and overly criticize it before we’ve seen it. This is simply not how it works. Sadly, we have to give these fools the benefit of the doubt. However, in this case, keep your faith in Christopher Nolan. He has not disappointed us yet, and it is my hope that he won’t for the third film. So, stay faithful Bat-disciples. We have only until next summer to wait. It will pass faster than you think. Until then, thank your lucky stars that Nolan has chosen such incredible talent to represent every character we have seen and have yet to see on the big screen.
Posted by Chris Gering
