BANE OF HUMANITY

A look at Bane in the upcoming film “The Dark Knight Rises”.

By Jason Pluscec (aka J-Man)

So Bane was never a big villain for me growing up. If you were not in a cartoon or the Adam West Batman series, then I didn’t care about you that much – Two-Face falls in that category. And both Two-Face and Bane got majorly shafted in the Joel Schumacher films, getting very silly roles to play. Bane was especially ruined being portrayed as a dumb brute who could hardly speak. But Bane was given some great moments in the Batman Animated Series and in the comics. Bane was the one who almost ended Batman’s career in the, now legendary, story arch called Knightfall.

Since that time I have grown too really like Bane and I was excited to learn that he would be playing a major role in the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises, directed by Christopher Nolan.

They chose Tom Hardy to play Bane and I think it wasn’t a bad choice, but a bit surprising. In Batman & Robin Bane was played by wrestler Jeep Swensen, a bloody huge bastard who could kick the crap out of you and give Hulk Hogan a run for his money. That guy WAS Bane. Big and bad-ass! Hardy did work out for the role and given that Bane will actually be a character and not just a thug, they needed to choose an actor. I like that. Choose an ACTOR for a role! So Hardy in the end is ok by me.

Now as to whether or not he will be the real Bane, meaning the Bane of the comics, that is to be determined. I don’t think he will be, as Joker, Scarecrow, Ra’s, and Two-Face were not really their comic counterparts, but were “sort of” accurate. That being the case I am pretty sure that there will be no “Venom”.

Fans of the Nolan series, and of Nolan himself, always quote “In Nolan we trust.” I am not really sure what that means since I don’t trust anyone. I want results, not promises. Nolan has delivered some good Batman movies, but they are not amazing. Tim Burton’s Batman came at the right time in history. Remember that before that everyone thought Batman (and all comics) where just for kids and cheesy. Sure The Dark Knight Returns (by good old Frank Miller) was around, and Miller helped bring comics back to their roots and made Batman dark again, but that wasn’t in the public eye. The average person still thought Batman was Adam West even if the comicbook geeks knew different.

So after Burton made his Batman films, they wanted to go lighter again and got Joel Schumacher to make kid friendly Batman films. They sucked and everyone hated them. So it’s not a stroke of genius to do a new Batman film and make it serious. DUH! It was tougher for Burton to make his Batman serious, also if it had failed we’d be in a different Hollywood now, since Burton’s Batman spawned a new take on the superhero genre in general! Burton’s movie changed the way the public viewed comics and superheroes! Nolan is just a product of that!


When the posters for Batman Begins were being displayed in theatres I remember one random person looking at it and saying “Why don’t they just end Batman already, it sucks.” That was because he remembered how bad the Schumacher films were. I wish I could find that person today because I guarantee that guy LOVES Batman Begins and Dark Knight! Asshole. Batman should never end!

So in any case, Nolan is doing the complete reverse of Schumacher, making it SUPER serious and realistic. Hence the no Joker falling into the acid thing and no Lazarus pit for Ra’s.

So if those fantasy elements were removed for the other films, why would Bane have Venom in his veins? Now maybe they will say he has some drugs in him or something, but it will link to something realistic. However I have feeling he will just be a big guy who is strong – but I could be (and hope to be) wrong.

If I am right and Bane has no drugs in him, am I ok with that, well I guess so? This is Nolan’s universe of Batman, so he makes the call. That being said the recent 6 minutes of footage released with Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is bringing up more negative points on this new film besides the look and character of Bane. Now we have his voice to deal with!

I saw the footage and I agree with critics of it, you cannot understand what Bane is saying. This isn’t an “accent” thing, like watching Jet Li and not understanding his English, this is a muffled thing. You cannot hear Bane properly because he is actually using his real voice underneath the mask!

Well there’s your realism for you! If someone speaks behind a mask you can’t hear them! I guess this is Nolan’s vision – I wonder if the comic book adaptation of the movie will have Bane’s dialogue blurred out?

This whole issue has caused debate among the forums. Nolan has said that he will tweak the voice in editing, and that it’s not necessary to understand every word as long as you get the gist of what he is saying. First off, what is tweak in editing mean? Second, I want to know what Bane is saying. Obviously the screen writer wrote dialogue for him, so it’s important no?

Here’s the thing:

A – some fans won’t care if you can fully understand him or not, they will manage.
B – some fans will be pissed off. Is it a deal breaker – who knows, but it’s annoying.

So why not just make him understandable and please everyone. No one is going to walk out of the theatre and say “damn it, I was able to understand all the dialogue, this movie sucks.”

Also, Nolan has said that he doesn’t want to dumb down the movie and that movie-goers have to work harder to enjoy the film, it’s not going to be spoon fed.

Work harder to enjoy the film?

To Christopher Nolan.


My name is Jason Pluscec (aka J-Man) I have enjoyed your films (for the most part) and think you are an ok guy, but I have to take offense when you tell me I need to work harder to enjoy your films.


I work very hard for my money at a crappy desk job and after 6 years I am still considered a temp. When your film comes out I will have to go 2 weeks early to buy advanced tickets because it sells out. Of course I have to get Imax tickets, so it’s like 6 bucks more, then I have to drive to the theatre 2 hours early to make sure I get half decent seats. I buy food there for another 15 bucks, I have to endure seat kicking, coughing, sneezing, dirty toilets, whispering and chatting during the film and 20 iphones being used for texting or making calls, and then I have to drive my friend home afterwards using up gas and time, just to have you tell me that I don’t work hard enough for YOUR MOVIE and I can’t understand a fucking word Bane says.


So in closing just make Bane’s voice normal.


Thanks.

Does this seem strange to anyone else? Why are we working harder to enjoy a movie? Shouldn’t the studio be working hard for ME to enjoy their movie?

In any case I will be buying tickets in advance for Imax and seeing this first day – using up a vacation day for it – so I am still excited to see this, and Bane’s voice isn’t really a deal breaker for me personally, but I don’t get why Nolan can’t just change it.

For Bane in general, I am not so worried about tweaking his character, since again, I didn’t grow up with him and I feel that he will be pretty cool in this movie. As usual I am just sharing my thoughts and I’d like to thank Sean (aka Deceptisean) for inspiring me to write this blog entry and a lot of these ideas were Sean’s as well.

Until next time.

J-Man.

ZEBRA TIME

The Making of Zebraman 2 or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Japanese.

By Jason Pluscec (aka J-Man)

So I already reviewed this movie on the Fantomzone Blog (I’m sure you read it) and you may be thinking why are you now talking about it on this blog? Well I wanted to explore the making of Zebraman 2 and the Japanese in general.

First off, this was directed by Takashi Miike, who has made several other weird movies and even some truly horrifying ones. Not that it matters, I myself write horror stories as well as Superhero-ish stuff. So no big deal there, but when you watch some of his other stuff you form a visual in your head of what he looks like, and how he must be in real life. Well when you see him in the making of Z2, you see a nice older man who is very respectful of his actors and his crew.

What I really noticed about Z2 is how much everyone got along. Don’t get me wrong, I have watched tons of “behind the scenes” featurettes and everyone seems to get along, but I don’t see any level of respect taking place.

I know its cliché, but the Japanese really do bow a lot and it’s a great show of respect. Even the lesser crewman gets bowed to and everyone seems to be really working hard.

It’s not that they are not having fun, it is fun, but they are also working hard and getting stuff done; which is probably why you don’t hear about how they are always going over budget or taking too long on shoots, like you do in Hollywood productions.

You also don’t hear of outlandish budgets for films. Well that’s because production companies and CGI effects teams don’t gouge film makers saying that it costs 1 million dollars to extend Wolverines claws. So you get great films that equal Hollywood standards that don’t cost as much. The budget of Avatar could have made 10 Zebraman movies!

Also you don’t have stunt doubles doing everything. The girl who plays the Zebra Queen isn’t a martial artist at all. She is skinny and weak in real life, but in this movie she kicks ass. Well that’s because she was trained to kick and punch. I know, actors always train, like Matt Damon in the Bourne series. The only problem is that they zoom in the action so much that you cannot tell what is going on in the fight scenes. Which means that the fighting wasn’t good, so they had to cover it up with fast cuts and zoom-ins. Of course there are stunt doubles still used, but at least they can do some of their own work. Look at Jackie Chan – who has been wasted in Hollywood. They get him for his skill then don’t use it because they are afraid of a lawsuit. They are scared he will get hurt and sue! So they end up doing nothing with him and wasting his talents.

Sure the Zebra Queen isn’t a great fighter, and at one point it took 21 takes to get one kick right, but at least they took the time to make it right instead of just fast cutting the action. On a related note, she was injured during one of the fights and she kept on filming. This is a 20 year old skinny Japanese girl, and she didn’t whine about it, she just moved on.

Another great thing is that at the end of shooting someone’s final scene, everyone applauds and a bouquet of flowers is given to the actor and they make a speech. I am not sure if this is the custom of all films productions, but I have never seen it done in the making of other films.

It was really sweet. The Zebra Queen was so thankful to everyone and she was even crying! The lead actor, who has been in films for 25 years, was really touched and made a big speech about how he was thankful to everyone that helped him out; then of course we had the bowing and the congratulations.

I am not saying that Japanese films are better or worse than any others, but I just thought I’d share with you my thoughts on the making of Zebraman 2 and how I was moved by the people making it, and the respect everyone showed.

Until next time.

J-Man.