Monday, September 29, 2008

(Movies) Villains for the third Batman relaunch movie (Dark Knight's sequel)

With the outstanding success of The Dark Knight there has been lots of talk about the possible third installment in the series of "newer, realler" batman movies, and especially the villains it will enlist. So far it seems like Catwoman and The Riddler are the safest bets, from what i've heard around the net anyway, but if you would entertain my rant about this for a moment:
There was an article on IGN discussing these possibilities (i couldn't' find the article to link to so...find it yourselves :P) and how it would work out, this is the basis for most of my rant.
Catwoman: The article on IGN said that they'd love it to be Catowman, but couldn't see how it would work with the costume considering it took an entire movie to explain Batman's costume, but i cam up with a solution for this almost immediately, mostly because it works perfectly within the story idea i had involving catwoman and would, in fact, be almost necessary to that story. So, before i get to the costume dilemma, let me elaborate on the story.
The first two movies have already explored how Bruce Wayne's Batman persona has crippled his romantic life, and i think we could take this a step further with Selena Kyle/Catwoman. No longer held at bay simply by disagreeing with the principles of vigilantism Batman represents, Selena Kyle as a love interest could put an even bigger strain on Bruce Wayne's relationship with his alter ego. Throughout all the mediums Batman has taken residence in, the relationship with Selena has been his most interesting romantic challenge, Batman and Catwoman are on opposing sides of the law, and Bruce Wayne and Selena Kyle know this about each other, creating an intricate tango between their affections for each other, and their alter ego's opposing moral views. Considering the idea this new series of Batman movies has taken with putting a superhero in the real world, it seems the best path to continue exploring just how strenuous it would be on a person's normal life, especially when it comes to relationships with the opposite sex, and we could watch as Bruce Wayne becomes more torn between his symbol of justice and wanting release form his duties as Gotham's Dark Knight.
And now we get to IGN's issue with the costume: it's the ears people! POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT!! At the end of The Dark Knight Batman is on the run from Gotham police who believe he has murdered several officers and political figures. This is where i think Catowman, and her costume could be of the greatest help. Possibly the most defining feature of Batman's costume are his ears, something that could be easily mistaken for...cat ears maybe? And having Catwoman at some point voluntarily take the blame for Batman's crimes (once again shifting the blame from the actual perpetrator) could throw an interesting wrench into her perceived role as "villain" as well as explain her need for the iconic costume (excluding Halle Berry's travesty). It would be a simple enough plan, she's a cat burglar, and the ears will have the aforementioned effect...like i said: simple.
As for the actress, i've heard mumblings of Angelina Jolie. Fair enough, she'd probably do it quite well, but she strikes me as more the barroom brawl, knock-down drag out fighting type. Catwoman, it seems, should have a more flexible, acrobatic fighting style, better suited to a woman of more slender body type like Kate Beckinsale (Underworld) or Ali Larter (Heroes), both of whom are obviously familiar with superhero type roles. But that's just one man's opinion.
The Riddler: I actually like IGN's idea of having The Riddler be a character brought in to help hunt down batman; a kind of rogue genius who operates as freelance law enforcement. However, there's also the need for him to either transition to villain or secretly be playing that role behind the scenes the entire time, so he needs to be TWISTED genius as well. My only suggestion here is one for the actor to play the role, an actor anyone could easily believe his genius is matched only by his depraved insanity: Crispin Glover (Willard, Charlie's Angels...ok, i never actually saw the movie but i did see a few minutes of his role, and it seemed pretty in-line with the creepy outsider type role he seems best suited too).

So those are my ideas for the third Batman movie villains. Discuss.

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