The Dark Knight Rises

Ostriig on 25/7/2012 at 16:10

Is it worth spoiler-tagging that tidbit? I don't know whether anyone popping into the thread would be familiar with what Bane does there.

The thing is, I just didn't feel there was any noticeable personality to him. So he wears a silly mask, seems to have a bit of a theatrical bent to his speech which I assume was meant to make him look more intellectually sophisticated than the movie ultimately portrays him, and he's got two lines of backstory which fail to impress. Other than that... he's big... and um... I just felt that in the end he was a very thin character, a pretty basic thug villain that Hardy brought nothing to and that there would've been little anyone could bring to in this script. And at the end when you take into account that he's not even the grand architect of this whole scheme...

N'Al on 25/7/2012 at 17:06

The fact that Bane breaks Batman is what he's reknowed for in the comics as well, AFAIK, but I've now spoilered it anyway.

This reminds a bit about a comparison between Silence of the Lambs and Seven.

The main reason SotL is so interesting is the character of Hannibal Lector. Yes, there's plenty of other story strands (plus, he's not even the main serial killer everyone's after), but the character (and Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of him) is what makes that film.

In Seven, by contrast, the main serial killer is pretty boring. Kevin Spacey's portrayal is also quite good, no doubt, but there's nothing about him that really stands out; he's even refered to as (http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0026835/) 'John Doe', how much more boring than that can you get?! No, what makes Seven so interesting is what the serial killer does - his master plan, if you like.

I feel TDK/Joker and TDKR/Bane are similar in that regard. Just depends on what you prefer, I guess.

froghawk on 25/7/2012 at 17:19

Seven was disturbing precisely because Spacey seemed so unremarkable and sane. Bane's character just lacks focus and clarity of motivation, and it would help if they hadn't completely [spoiler]negated him at the end[/spoiler], preventing him from being an interesting character.

SubJeff on 25/7/2012 at 17:32

Why is everyone saying that Bane was somehow nullified at the end? It was a joint plan; Talia's role was to get the bomb made, Bane's was hold the city hostage with it. Just because he was in the open and she was "undercover" doesn't nullify him. He's awesome.

:confused:

N'Al - spoiler tags for SotL but not for TDKR? What the?

N'Al on 25/7/2012 at 17:44

Ok, now what? I just spoilered my recent post, didn't I?

froghawk on 25/7/2012 at 18:04

SE - because Bane was doing everything because he loved Talia and that's what she wanted. He didn't have any motivation of his own, and she was only doing it because that's what her father wanted, making both of them tools. At least, I think that is what the film was trying to get across - it was all a bit convoluted.

Shug on 25/7/2012 at 22:59

Quote Posted by Ostriig

they might as well have gone the Darth Vader approach and had Hulk Hogan run around in the mask and then process a voice-over by Hathaway.

That's quite a niche fantasy :wot:

SubJeff on 25/7/2012 at 23:49

Quote Posted by froghawk

This is totally untrue. Where you've got this lack of motivation from I don't know.

froghawk on 26/7/2012 at 00:51

Ok, explain to me what happened then. Because it seemed to me that once it was revealed that Talia was the only one who escaped the prison, everything we know about Bane goes down the drain. We don't know how he ended up at the prison - only that he cared for Talia and was rescued by the League of Shadows at some point in his life. He presumably joined the LOS at Talia's request, at this point, and then was cast out... again, for undisclosed reasons. And then... what? We know nothing. We don't know if he is truly motivated in any of this, and we if he is, we don't know why. For an archetypal character like the Joker, that had to be the case - we couldn't know anything about him, and it would diminish his character's awesomeness if we did. But for Bane? The guy has a ton of screentime and a lot of it is put into rumors about his backstory, but we still know jack shit about him. Talia comes along and reveals that everything we thought was about him was actually about her, everything she was doing to finish her father's work, and Bane came along because he loved her (and Bane cries when this is revealed... where did our cold badass with a jolly accent go?). What am I missing here, according to you?

henke on 26/7/2012 at 14:12

Quote Posted by Subjective Effect

This is totally untrue.

Sounds pretty spot-on to me, though I don't think it "nullifies" the character in any way simply because he did what he did out of love for Talia, rather than a desire to destroy Gotham.