Tag: Tom Hardy

Tom Hardy Warrior

  If you want a preview of just how menacing and muscled up Tom Hardy will be as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises you should see Warrior. Hardy and Joel Edgerton play estranged brothers trained to be mixed martial arts fighters by the father.  Alcoholism, divorce, and years of bad blood have driven the three men apart. Both brothers enter a multi million dollar tournament where the eventually fight each other and confront their past. Edgerton is a retired fighter hoping to win to give his family a better life. Hardy is a Marine haunted by what happened during war and driven by a promise he must keep to a fellow Marine.

  Tom Hardy looks like a hulking, stalking beast in the ring and his dead focus on his opponents is frightening. His character, Tommy, looks inhuman and I couldn’t help but imagine the Bane costume around him at times. Tommy is cold, cruel and efficient in the ring and emotionally raw when he’s out of it.

  It’s one of my favorite movies of 2011. It would easy but not quite accurate to call this the “Rocky” or MMA. It’s raw in the brutal confrontations in and out of the ring. You’ll feel it in the gut, you might cry and you will cheer.

  If you missed the Lionsgate movie in theaters, Warrior is available to buy December 20th.

Dark Knight Broken!

The Dark Knight Rises teaser poster courtesy Warner Brothers

An ominous new poster for The Dark Knight Rises that may reveal a crucial plot point: Bane is walking away from a shattered Bat mask with the slogan: The Legend Ends.

The 6 minute IMAX prologue was screened to select critics earlier this week.  The prologue was an action packed opener featuring Tom Hardy as Bane much like the opening of The Dark Knight showcased the Joker.

Christopher Nolan told Empire this new film is set 8 year after The Dark Knight with Batman in a weaker state and “with Bane, we wanted to give Batman a challenge he hasn’t had before. With our choice of villain and our choice of story we’re testing Batman both physically as well as mentally.”

The one-two punch of the new poster and Twitter image make it seem like Nolan will follow the Knightfall storyline in which Bane breaks Batman’s spine and Bruce Wayne is forced to quit.    In comic book version there was Dick Grayson and Azrael (who temporarily took on the famous cape and cowl) were Bruce Wayne’s possible replacements. There’s no one in the cast list so could it be the Nolan will end the series with Batman broken?

One question still out there. Is Bane working for Ra’s Al Ghul? This film is said to come full circle with Batman Begins. Batman let his ex-mentor Ra’s Al Ghul/Henri Ducard played by Liam Neeson crash to his death in the first film. In the final film Liam Neeson is listed in the cast and actor Josh Pence is listed as playing a younger version but is this in flashback or in the present? In the comics Ra’s Al Ghul resurrects himself via Lazarus Pits hidden around the globe. And I still wonder about my contention that Marion Cotillard could be playing Talia Al Ghul and she is the secret mastermind and Bane her enforcer.

The new poster is courtesy  TheDarkKnightRises.com.