I believe that one fundamental change to academy award winner Christopher Nolan’s 2012 superhero
movie The Dark Knight Rises would have made it ten times better - nay, a thousand times
better! [Your math is blowing my mind.] It’s a simple change that would have changed the whole
trajectory of the third act of the story, built to a more fleshed out pay off between Batman
and every key character as well as squashing the biggest gripe with the entire trilogy…
It’s a change I was convinced was going to happen before I even saw the movie, just based on widely
publicised set photos of the movie’s infamous villain Bane. I was rather shocked when the movie
came out and it didn’t do this, and still over a decade later I wish that this had happened…
I think the Dark Knight Rises is a decent if imperfect end to the story that began in
2005’s Batman Begins and continued in 2008’s legendary The Dark Knight. It had a massive
almost-insurmountable challenge in living up to the late-great Heath Ledger and his take on the
Joker, as well as doing something that had never been done before - give Batman a definitive live
action ending. Whilst the critical consensus on this movie seems to have become less and
less favourable over the years, and the action between Bats and Bane has been deemed more and
more dated… [clip] I don’t think the movie is a *bad Batman movie*, a *bad superhero movie*,
a bad Nolan movie… by any stretch of the imagination! But that being said one of
the things that really disappointed me was the final exchange between Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon.
In the Dark Knight movies Jim Gordon had finally been given a three-dimensional personality
worthy of the comics and animated series. Unlike Pat Hingle’s decent but thin Gordon,
this version of the police commissioner felt like a true ally to Batman - they went through an awful
lot together over the course of three films, and that all kicked off back before Batman was even
Batman - Gordon was the one that reassured a heartbroken Bruce following the wake of his
parent’s murder - proving that in a corrupt force, he was a good guy. This moment set the basis for
their entire relationship and in their final scene together, Bruce calls back to it. [clip]
It’s fine… but I always felt like it was a little bit of a rushed resolution to having Gordon find
out who the Batman really was - it felt more like Gordon found out who Batman was because
it was Bruce’s final stint as the caped crusader, not because it was what the story wanted to cover.
Christian Bale’s Batman is no doubt one of the greatest Batmen ever - sure,
he doesn’t have the emo charms of Pattinson, the classic vibes of Keaton or the comic
book accuracy of Affleck - but this is a Batman that perfectly suits the world and the story of
the Dark Knight series. His combat might not be hieghtened to the level of other Batmen,
but his Bond-like gadgets, practical vehicular action and detective skills against some of the
best depictions of the character’s rogue gallery ever make him more than an ample
adaptation of DC’s flagship superhero. But there is one criticism of Nolan’s Batman
that just about everyone has said - a criticism that goes all the way back to the first movie - a
criticism that was not only ignored, it seemed like the filmmakers doubled down!
The Bat-voice - the bloody Bat-rasp - was easily the single worst decision in Batman
Begins. I get the thinking - Batman is trying to use theatricality to scare his opponents,
but 1989’s movie adaptation got it right - the way to make Batman ‘s voice sinsiter
is to keep it subdued - it’s to make his intelligence come across as a counter to
his hulking strength and combat prowess. Having Bale put on that gravely strained
voice whilst his mouth hung open was the subject of much ridicule, and deservedly so.
I get by the Dark Knight Rises, it would be hard to have Batman simply change his
voice - we’re three movies in, and this Batman series was far more unified than its predecessors,
which swapped aesthetics and Batmen on the regs. This Batman had only changed his costume once,
a far cry from the schucmacher days and the MCU staples that would follow
him. So how would you have changed the voice without drawing attention to it?
So! The change I would make in the Dark Knight Rises would be this - I would have Bane reveal
Bruce Wayne’s identity when he reveals the truth about Harvey Dent. And from there,
Batman would have no reason to put on that stupid
voice to dissaude people from the fact he is in fact Bruce Wayne.
That scene where he has a bit of a Keaton-esque whipser to Gordon in the hospital - I’d have had
bale play the rest of the movie more like that. In this final installment,
we’d have done away with the monstrous Batman voice that frankly made him sound like an
imbecile. It would have made the final scenes between Talia and Bane, as well
as Gordon play much better if Bruce had been able to use a more cerebral, methodical voice.
[Anyone could be Batman that is the point] Sure, the mask was to protect the people he loved and
create a symbol for the people of Gotham - that anyone could be Batman. But in this version,
Bruce would learn that Batman is still bigger than him when his friends and the good citizens
of the city work together to oust the league of shadows in the climax. Batman has never been
just one person, it has never been just him - but Bruce Wayne is the physical manifestation of it,
the hero that puts his life on the line for the most dangerous tasks. Gordon was right - people
did deserve to know the hero that saved them - Bruce Wayne would be remembered
for what he did for Gotham just as much as his superhero moniker. It would have allowed
Gordon and Bruce to have more of an in-depth conversation about the work they did together,
rather than merely leaving it to the very end with a one-line fix.
So I think thematically it would have still worked - crucially,
it would have come across as a huge development midway through the story - and Bane would have
beaten Scarecrow to the punch by three whole years for being the villain to unmask the
Batman. In the end of the Dark Knight Rises, he would have been both Bruce Wayne and Batman,
not because he had to be, but because he chose to be. The Dark Knight Forever!
The fact that all of us would have been able to have a Christian Bale Batman appearance without
that terrible voice in a way that made sense for the story would have been a nice little byproduct
of that decision. We’d have looked back on that Batman and his presence more fondly, because
whenever he opened his mouth he risked ruining his reputation as one of the best dark knights.
What do you think? Would this one change have been significant enough to fix Batman’s voice
issue? Would it have improved the third act of the final Nolan Batman movie? Or
were you actually happy with the way the trilogy handled his Batman voice? Let me
know in the comments below! Thanks for watching - if you want more Full Fat
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