JJ Reacts To:

THE CASTING OF ANNE HATHAWAY AS SELINA KYLE AND TOM HARDY AS BANE

When this was first announced I was at work.  A friend of mine texted me with the info.  I thought he was joking.  My first thought was, "I thought Talia and Hugo Strange were in it?"  Then I realized that this particular friend was not privvy to pranks.  I immediately looked up the info for myself (still at work, so I hope my boss is not reading this haha).  My jaw dropped.  "Hell yes!" I said aloud.  Also some various other obscenities I will not repeat here.

I've taken some time to think about this and I wanna start by saying - What's wrong with Anne Hathaway?  I've been hearing that a lot of people are mad at the casting.  Ummmmm . . . why?  She is a great actress!  I mean look at her career - The Princess Diaries, Havoc, Brokeback Mountain, The Devil Wears Prada.  That's a pretty wide range of films.  Sounds familiar doesn't it?  It should because a man named Heath Ledger had an equally diverse body of work.  And he KILLED IT as the Joker.  So there is no doubt in my mind that Hathaway will equally kill it as Selina Kyle/Catwoman.  Side note - the press release indicates she is playing Selina Kyle, not Catwoman.  But let's not forget that the press release for Batman Begins had Christian Bale cast as Bruce Wayne and the Dark Knight's release had Aaron Eckhart cast as Harvey Dent.  So no fear.  Although if Nolan does not have Hathaway in the Catwoman persona I will scream.

Now, on to the more shall I say controversial casting (in my opinion) - Tom Hardy as Bane.  I did NOT see that one coming.  I was pretty convinced that Hugo Strange was gonna be the villain.  I was all for that.  Or my choice for the movie would have been Hush/Tommy Elliott.  There's a great character I would not have minded seeing on the big screen.  But Bane?  It's still a little hard to get the taste of Jeep Swenson out of my mouth from Batman and Robin.  Also, for a while there I didn't feel like he fell into the "realistic" category that Nolan strives for in his Bat-movies.  Venom seemed like a far-fetched concept as well as a dude who essentially "hulks out" when on the drug.

But JJ!  I reminded myself, remember Ra's Al Ghul?  They hinted at his "immortality" without really having to get into it.  Also, the Scarecrow still had his fear gas.  The Joker had a white face and a permanent grin on his face (how did he get those scars?).  Two-Face still had a, well, two-face and a double sided suit AND coin.  So maybe there is a way to get away with Bane.  It's not unheard of for a person to be on some sort of "performance enhancer" (lookin at you Major League Baseball).  He doesn't necessarily have to grow two or three times his size to kick some ass.  He could just as easily take the drug and go on a rampage and kick the crap out of our beloved Dark Knight. 

There is a lot of speculation as to what the plot will be.  Obviously, it's gonna be based on Knightfall and Catwoman (instead of Azrael) will be Bruce's replacement to the mantle of the bat.  Totally kidding of course.  I can only assume that Catwoman will be running around robbing shit and Bane will be punching holes in brick walls and Batman will growl and "go to work".  Seriously though I have no idea.  I'm still kind of hoping that Hugo Strange and Hush are in the movie.  Let's go all Spider-Man 3 on this bitch and throw in as many plots as we can think of! Ha ha, no thank you! 

I'm very much looking forward to the progression of this film from production stills to the trailers to toys to the film itself.2012 will be a year to remember indeed.  Fingers crossed lightning will strike 3 times for Team Nolan on the Batman franchise they have successfully created!