The Dark Knight Rises

[Prince of Space 5049]

Yup, Heinz field.

[D.B. Barnes]

Yup, Heinz field.

I think that's actually an improvement to that godawful playing surface.

[Russell]

That was a bitchin' trailer. For now on, I'm going to say "When Gotham is in ashes, you have my permission to die"

[Variety of Cells]

That was... a trailer.  But it failed to get my hopes up or to let them down.  I didn't see anything that made me excited to see it or not want to see it.  I am left lukewarm.

There was a cg hole in a football field.  Some buildings getting blown up and random people being thrown around.  A couple punches thrown... nothing that made me excited like the trailers for the Dark Knight.  Maybe they are just really holding back.  Might be the case.

[Darth Geek]

So for eight years...Batman won? He cleaned up Gotham...somehow? I am getting the aroma of some serious hand waving bullshit here.

[Starman!]

Of course Pittsburgh is a great choice for Gotham. And I'm not just saying that because I live in the area.

Did you ever try out as an extra, Starman? Slightly before you disappeared I remember you saying you were considering being a local extra for TDKR.

No, but I should have.

[Watchman]

There was a cg hole in a football field. 

Ooh, do football players & their audience get demolished? Will this movie offer us the jock extermination that The Rock's climax pussied out on?

(Hi. I'm Sutter Cane, and I hate sports.)

[a pretty girl is like]

So for eight years...Batman won? He cleaned up Gotham...somehow? I am getting the aroma of some serious hand waving bullshit here.

I don't.  The Giuliani administration took less than that to turn New York City around in the 90s.

[D.B. Barnes]

So for eight years...Batman won? He cleaned up Gotham...somehow? I am getting the aroma of some serious hand waving bullshit here.

I don't.  The Giuliani administration took less than that to turn New York City around in the 90s.

Didn't you hear, APGIL? New York is a seething cesspool of violent crime!

[D.B. Barnes]

'The Dark Knight Rises' Faces Big Problem: Audiences Can't Understand Villain

Sources say some at Warner Bros. want Christopher Nolan to change the sound mix in response to complaints that Bane's dialogue is hard to hear. But the filmmaker plans only to alter the sound slightly.

Audience interest in next summer's The Dark Knight Rises is ramping up thanks to Imax screenings of an extended prologue before Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol and the debut online of the film's trailer  Monday.

But despite the warm reception to the footage, Warner Bros. is running into an unexpected problem, one which is causing some handwringing among executives and others who are working on the movie.

Some audience members are grumbling that they can't understand what Bane, the main villain in the final installment of the Christopher Nolan-helmed trilogy, is saying. Bane is a bad guy whose super-strength comes from a drug that he continuously inhales. In the prologue, the character, played by British actor Tom Hardy, is seen with a mask that covers his nose and mouth; his speech is garbled and muffled.

"A fantastic action sequence hurt by the fact that you cannot understand the villain at all," commented Erik Davis on Twitter. Others poked fun at the seven-minute prologue. "The Dark Knight Rises prologue was really great, especially when Bane spoke the soon-to-be-classic line: 'Mmrbl ffrmrff hmrbblfmm,'" wrote one fan.

Fan websites, whose approval is seen in Hollywood as key to building buzz for big superhero tentpole movies, also have not been kind to the sound in the prologue. "We've seen the Dark Knight Rises prologue -- and yes, Bane really does sound that bad," wrote IO9. The male-oriented site What Would Tyler Durden Do published the prologue's purported script pages to help shed light on the dialogue. The site's comment on fan reaction to the footage: "Most people immediately said two things: 'damn that was bad ass!' and 'I have no idea what the f*** was going on!'"

Sources close to the movie say Warner Bros. is very aware of the sound issue. One source working on the film says he is "scared to death" about "the Bane problem." And with good reason. The last Batman film, 2008's The Dark Knight, grossed more than $1 billion worldwide, and the studio doesn't want anything to tamper with Rise's chances for success.

Sources also say some at Warners would like Nolan to change the sound mix, but the filmmaker, whose autonomy is well-earned (his Inception earned the studio more than $800 million and eight Oscar nominations), has informed executives that he plans only to alter the sound slightly, not to rework it completely.

"Chris wants the audience to catch up and participate rather than push everything at them. He doesn't dumb things down," says one high-level exec, declining to be named. "You've got to pedal faster to keep up."

Nolan said similar things to The Hollywood Reporter at the prologue's unveiling during a press event Dec. 8, explaining that it was OK for a moviegoer not to understand what was said at times, as long as the overall idea was conveyed. The filmmaker is currently editing the movie and won't have a cut to show the studio for at least a couple pf months.

While Warners has supported Nolan's wishes in the past, moviegoer complaints about the character could create pressure to make changes. Or the studio and Nolan can do nothing and hope that fan interest in The Dark Knight Rises outweighs any issues with understanding Bane's dialogue.

[Scribblesense]

Nolan: "Okay, I guess I'll redub Bane's lines. But what actor in my clubhouse will I get to do it? DiCaprio? Juno?"
Watanabe: "Hi wrillll rue rid! Hri wahsz *grumblely-mumbly* riiinceptishin!"
Nolan: "Sounds good to me!"

Honestly, I think Nolan just needs to get his hearing checked.

[Scribblesense]

Nolan: "Okay, I guess I'll redub Bane's lines. But what actor in my clubhouse will I get to do it? DiCaprio? Juno?"
Watanabe: "Hi wrillll rue rid! Hri wahsz *grumblely-mumbly* riiinceptishin!"
Nolan: "Sounds good to me!"

Honestly, I think Nolan just needs to get his hearing checked.

Logically speaking, he seems to have excellent hearing and it's the rest of us who need it checked.

D'oh. Change the joke to "Chris Nolan has a mumbling fetish!" then.

Honestly, I had no trouble understanding what Bane (from the trailer) had to say, or Watanabe in Inception or Batman Begins, and I have pretty bad hearing. I guess I'm just practiced at figuring out what people are saying in context.

So it's not really a problem for me, but if the audience really, truly, 100% can not understand the character - which I don't think is the case here - then they should redub it. I think Chris is right in saying that they should "pedal faster to keep up".

Bane being understood perfectly when he's got a metal plate bolted to his mouth would be as ridiculous as Batman growling out every line like he's defending a piece of roadkill.

[Darth Geek]

I only saw the bootleg of it, so I assume that was some of the problem.

I also find Ian McKellan kind of hard to understands; he really slurs a lot of words, but most other people seem to follow him fine, so who knows. Maybe I'm the deaf one.

*mumble*mumble*mumble*PASS!
Okay, I heard that part.

[daltysmilth]

How does Bane compare with the Idea Men from the Tick?

[Russell]

How does Bane compare with the Idea Men from the Tick?

Bane can tear steel girders in half with his bare feet. Bane can walk on the moon without a spacesuit, Bane can eat facehugger eggs for breakfast with no side effects at all. Bane can sit through all the Twilight movies without getting violently ill.