Batman 3 - The Dark Knight Rises

[FatherMerrin]

The Dark Knight Rises

Yep that's the title of the new Batman film. Plus........ No Riddler!

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=29317

[Sunarep]

yes to no riddler

would have preferred: THE GODDAMN BATMAN as a title

[Dwight Fry]

would have preferred: THE GODDAMN BATMAN as a title

Steelio!!! What are you doing using Sunarep's account?

[Kal-El]

The Dark Knight Rises does seem a bit flushed to me. A little too uninspired.
Good thing not going down the Riddler's path though. That would only remind me of Jim Carrey. I'm hoping Nolan stays true to the gritty, dark and sombre real-life scenario, and doesn't start pulling in people like Killer Croc or other hallucinatory mishaps. Best stick with someone who would be plausible as a real-life criminal. A filthy, more down-to-earth Penguin perhaps? Not a real mutated freak like in Batman Returns, but someone more... yeah well, real.
EDIT: Victor Zasz also comes to mind, but he's not a strong enough character to carry a film as the main villain.
And definitely not after Heath Ledger's Joker.

[theslime]

The Riddler isn't any more tied to Jim Carrey than The Joker was to Caesar Romero. A good Riddler - I liked the fan suggestion of David Tennant, but you could easily go for a "darker" type as well - can go in all sorts of directions. He doesn't have to be silly. He can just wear a green suit and that's basically it. I liked the suggestion that he could be a detective who finds out that Bruce Wayne is Batman, and maybe fighting a good fight in a completely ruthless way. Or there's the thief angle. It's a good character.

If it's Black Mask I will maim someone. F*ck the "darker, more edgy" school of supervillains and the horse it rode in on. Catwoman isn't a proper villain, and has to be a secondary villain, if at all. Nolan apparently doesn't like The Penguin. The big guns are all used: Scarecrow, Ra's, Falcone/Maroni, The Joker, and Two-Face. I hope it's not Freeze or Ivy.

[Kal-El]

I know it isn't, but I was merely suggesting Jim Carrey left an imprint, and not in a good way. Romero was deliberately funny. Or at least to me he was. I'd rather see the Riddler as an enigmatic thief. That thought already struck me before.
I will maim Nolan himself if he turns to Black Mask. Catwoman is a definite no-go, because there's not enough personality to carry an entire film playing games with Bruce, which pretty much explains why she's always been a second act.
I don't like the Penguin either, but it is starting to look like Nolan's running out of options. Freeze and Ivy aren't plausible in the Batman world Nolan has created. They won't fit in. I just hope that, if any, Scarecrow's screen-time will be severely reduced, because I've just about had it with Cillian Murphy.

[theslime]

Actually, I love Murphy's Scarecrow, and I was sad to see so little of him in The Dark Knight. I wanted him to be The Joker's supplier of laughter gas, that would have made perfect sense in the Nolan-verse. (Although I'm also a bit relieved that didn't happen.) I'll bet good money that Scarecrow won't be a major player in the next film, he's a spent force now.

There's really no major villain left. Which is why I was convinced The Riddler would be the next one.
-The league of assassins/shadows are a spent force now that Bruce kicked their collective asses. (And Talia al Ghul will not happen)
-Freeze is too silly
-Catwoman can't work on her own
-Ivy is too silly
-Riddler is out
-Penguin is too silly
-The 80s/90s villains are stupid: Black Mask, Bane, Zsasz, KGBeast, etc all stink to high heaven. They're campy without being fun.
-Killer Croc, Man-Bat and Clayface make no sense in the Nolan-verse
-Harley Quinn is too silly
-Dr. Hugo Strange and Doctor Death are too old-school
-The Mad Hatter is one-note and an uninteresting villain

Can anyone tell me who's left? No really minor villains will fit in such a project. I'd love to see Batman fight The Flamingo and the drug trade, but I doubt that will happen as most people have no idea who that is. And let's face it, 90 percent of Batman villains are cheap gimmicks in search of a character. Although I love The Cavalier of Crime, I wouldn't want to watch a film where he's the villain. Or how about The Monarch of Menace? Or The Snowman (the bastard offspring of a human woman and a male yeti)? Or Zebra Man?

I'm afraid Black Mask is one of the few that would make sense. Ugh.

From the situation Gotham City is in, and the possible non-supernatural villains left, my personal preference would actually be Lex Luthor. But that's not gonna happen since he's too mired in Superman lore.

[Omaru1982]

Rupert Thorne? Firefly? I kid, I kid.
Zsaz was already in Batman Begins (bald inmate at Arkham, played by the lead singer of 80's band James)
They could have Maximus Zeus, but instead of a toga wearing joke, he could be a greek-affecionado and strategist.

Croc could actually work, instead of literally being a croc or mutant, he could just be a muscular guy with a skin disorder. But he'd have to be a gun for hire. I haven't read any stories regarding the character so I dunno if he could adapt well to the real world but Hush?

[Kal-El]

Bad idea or not, if anyone could make Black Mask work, it's the Nolan brothers.

[theslime]

Croc is pretty much always a supporting character, and for a good reason. Maxie Zeus as a major character in a Batman film would be so beyond laughable I'll see the film at least twice in theatres just to salute the ridiculous.

Hush is a joke. He's a moronic comics fan wet dream come true, the embodiment of darker and edgier "brilliant" supervillain with no spandex and just a bandage on his head to conceal his identity. He's like what Lost would be if Lost sucked. Everything ties into the PAST. Or more to the point, I guess it's closer to reviving the Tim Burton Bats STINK with The Joker killing Bruce's parents. The only reason the character kinda works in Batman: Hush is that the actual suspense lies with the other villains, especially the Riddler. Nolan already wrote Ra's into Bruce's past. We don't need a childhood friend with a badly written grudge.

My problem with Black Mask is that he's so utterly uninteresting that the Nolans could just write a new character from scratch that would be a lot better. Maybe they will. Of course that would be fine. I just wanted to see where they could take the Riddler.

Also, I know a lot of people dislike this idea, but I think Robin would work. Nolan is pretty good at being sentimental and melodramatic. Alfred burning Rachel's letter was actually one of the best scenes of The Dark Knight, imo. When done right, Robin's origin story is a true tearjerker. After Bruce has lost everything, realising he's not alone and finding purpose through being a father figure for an orphaned boy could be nice. But I doubt it would happen.

Stray thought: the title is awful.