'The Dark Knight Rises' trailer draws controversy for villain Bane's portrayal

Thought you had a tough time understanding what Batman said in Nolan’s films, then you’ll be disappointed to know The Dark Knight Rises will have the same problem with Bane (Tom Hardy). The reaction for the prologue has been generally posivitive, but many have complained about Bane’s voice as being untelligible. “A fantastic action sequence hurt by the fact that you cannot understand the villain at all,” a fan said on Twitter. Many assumed Nolan would be fixing that problem during post-production, but that won’t be the case according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Sources told THR that Warner Bros. is “scared to death” over the issue, and have asked Nolan to fix the sound mix. Well, Nolan declined, and said he only plans to fix it slightly. Knowing Nolan, there’s sure to be a good reason for this. “Chris wants the audience to catch up and participate rather than push everything at them. He doesn’t dumb things down. You’ve got to pedal faster to keep up,” an un-named executive said. WB has a lot riding on The Dark Knight Rises after the success of The Dark Knight, and they obviously don’t want anything tampering with that success. WB could pressure Nolan to fix the problem, but that doesn’t seem likely given the power Nolan has over the studio.

Matt Keith blogs at Killer Film.