REACTION REVERIE: Liam Neeson talks about the prospect of reviving Ra's Al Ghul for Batman 3

Liam Neeson's comments in passing about "The Dark Knight" at Sundance will likely spark debate about whether his Ra's Al Ghul character will return as the primary villain in a third Batman movie. 

Though there is plenty left to explore with the BruceWayne/Batman character and his inner demons, Christopher Nolan, his brother and David Goyer have few other options in terms of villains that are mainstream enough to attract a broad range of audiences to watch a third installment. 

Every other villain does not fit into the director's grounded-in-reality Gotham City, Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Two-Face is dead, recasting The Joker would be a slight against Heath Ledger's performance and at best a poor imitation. READ RELATED POST! 

Clever digital editing with shots of Ledger's Joker in "The Dark Knight" that never made it past the cutting room floor could perhaps provide a sense of brief continuity in a sequel, but that cannot carry an entire movie.

Neeson's Ra's Al Ghul can. 

In "Batman Begins," the last time Ra's is seen alive is aboard the city-spanning rail train right before it crashes into a Wayne Tower parking lot. He curiously does not panic or try to find an exit, instead closing his eyes as though in a meditative state. What if he entered into a deep ninja mantra that would null the pain in case the crash was not fatal? 

No one ever really dies in a movie, after all.

DC Comics' envisioning of the character as a mostly immortal eco-terrorist who uses mysterious green chemicals to rejuvenate his body would have excluded him from inclusion in the Nolan Batman movie series. This was changed in "Batman Begins" to Ra's using "cheap parlor tricks" such as having a loyal servant pose as him.

What if the reputation of Ra's Al Ghul in the movie as being immortal or employing supernatural methods is that of several men throughout the centuries who have taken on the mantle of leader of The League of Shadows? 

It can be inferred that the man staking claim to the name itself is not so much important as the organization's directive of possessing a willingness to do what is necessary, and that at some point one of its members replaced by force a leader who failed to do so. 

"The Dark Knight" introduced the concept of one defender of justice taking up another's mantle that lends itself to the father/son dynamic between Bruce Wayne and Ra's, who could use the billionaire's penchant for the power that comes with being The Batman with the vast resources of The League of Shadows. Bruce as The Batman did prove he could best his old friend in "Batman Begins," and if anyone could chillingly express the comparison between the two men in regard to their lust for more power it is Neeson.

Neeson is an actor who expresses frustration with not being able to find challenging roles. Returning as Ra's would satisfy this need by asking him to change the character from the self-righteous, megalomaniacal leader of a terrorist organization to a man humbled by the threat of his former adherents, who perceive his failure to destroy Gotham as blood in the water. His urgent, yet false plea for help would appeal to Bruce Wayne's more compassionate sensibilities.

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REACTION REVERIE: Christopher Nolan postpones naming Harvey Two-Face's victims during 'The Dark Knight DB Live Screening'

What does not make sense to fans of "The Dark Knight," and what is probably sparingly mentioned because of their love for the movie, are the identities of the five people Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Two-Face killed.

"Five dead? Two of them cops?" Gary Oldman's Jim Gordon says toward the end of the movie, even though the character's math is a bit fuzzy to anyone who kept count. This might be a screenplay snafu that director Christopher Nolan did not deny or confirm during The "The Dark Knight BD Live Screening" on December 18, saying that he would clarify the identity of the five bodies at another time.

Harvey Two-Face's first confirmed victim in the movie is Detective Michael Wuertz (Ron Dean), who is the Gotham City police officer that drives the soon-to-be-crazed district attorney to the warehouse where his face is scarred.

That is one of the two mentioned cops.

Next on Harvey Two-Face's hit list is the man driving Eric Robert's Sal Maroni, whose murder causes the car they are in to swerve out of control and then flip over. What is not seen in "The Dark Knight" is Maroni's fate after the crash, the death of which could be included in Jim Gordon's five-man body count. That would make three.

Before Harvey Two-Face shoots Maroni's driver, the mobster out of fear for his life shares that Detective Anna Ramirez is the police officer that drove Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) to the warehouse where she was killed in an explosion. But when Harvey Two-Face confronts Ramirez, the result of a coin flip dictates that he simply knock her out with his gun. Maybe his gun fatally hit Ramirez in the temple.

That leaves a generous body count of four people, with one person accounted for in Jim Gordon's estimate.

Could the last murder, or other murders, be explained in a sequel to "The Dark Knight"?

Such a revelation about Harvey Two-Face would be in accordance with Nolan's style of making movies about complex characters, and a physical deformity or a personal tragedy is too simple of an explanation as to why someone so altruistic snapped.

Maybe he snapped earlier than fans of "The Dark Knight" think.

It is also not unprecedented in terms of past DC Comics storylines to have Harvey Dent whacking people before his face is scarred.

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REVERIE: The Batpod debunks 'The Incredibles' cape controversy, reveals potential Batman 3 plot detail

"The Dark Knight" filmmakers proved that Edna 'E' Mode from "The Incredibles" is partially wrong about capes. They can be as fashionable as they are functionable.

Her argument for not including a cape in a redesigned suit for Mr. Incredible was that other superheroes met their ends in the past when their capes were caught in missiles, jet turbines, express elevators and vortexes. That might be true with the exception of the real-life Batpod.

"We felt that the cape would immediately get caught in the rear tire and pull the rider off," said "The Dark Knight" Director Christopher Nolan about originally conceiving in the story to have the memory fabric cape fold up into a backpack-like shape so as to avoid any entanglements.

"But as Chris (Corbould, special effects supervisor), and his guys started tests with the running of the bike with the costume on, they found that in fact it picks up the wind right away and it never actually got caught in the wheel," Nolan said in "Gotham Uncovered: Creation of a Scene: Evolution of The Knight," a special feature of "The Dark Knight" DVD and Blue-ray.

Serendipity seemed to agree with Nolan that it would not have looked quite like The Batman if he were riding the The Bat-pod without his signature cape flowing in the breeze.

Aside from flash, the cape lacks substance for the vigilante's crime fighting exploits when he is not gliding through the Gotham skyline. Like the suit, the cape should be improved or better utilized to function as even more of an asset to justify its defect as a potential liability. Perhaps a sequel to "The Dark Knight" will reveal its other possible uses.

DC Comics writers and 1995's "Batman Forever" envisioned the cape as being bullet-proof or flame retardant. Though these seem like viable cape functions, they have already been executed on the silver screen and would rob the need for The Batman to be quick on his feet. 

 

Instead of finding new ways to make The Batman as invincible as Superman, screenwriters should use the cape as a way to show his resourcefulness while in a tight spot. After all, he is already mostly bullet-proof, and it is unrealistic to portray him as anticipating and preparing for every possible predicament with some convenient gadget.

The fabric could be used as a way to hide the exposed part of his face in the darkness, a secondary mask should the original become damaged, a sling should his arm sustain injury, a hiding place for backup gadgets should his primary arsenal be rendered useless, a guard with which to run into a burning doorway when soaked in water, or as a man-sized diversion when it is electrically charged and becomes rigid.

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REACTION REVIEW: Christopher Nolan says 'The Dark Knight' sequel depends on coming up with an interesting new direction

Christopher Nolan recently spoke with a Los Angeles Times Web logger about the prospect of directing a sequel to "The Dark Knight," saying it all depends on him developing deep interest in a new story

"Is there a story that’s going to keep me emotionally invested for the couple of years that it will take to make another one? That's the overriding question," Nolan said, alluding to the dilemma involved in making a viable second movie, let alone a third installment.  

Nolan is dead-on in his assertion, at least in regard to sequels to successful comic book movie adaptations that become redundant and linger on with seemingly nowhere to go. The following five movies show how superhero movie franchises became stale after a while, but for varying reasons other than them reaching the limits of their appeal.

"Spider-Man 3" seemed to be horrible by deliberate negligence on the part of its director, Sam Raimi, in what was perhaps an attempt to end what Sony Picture's wanted to be an even bigger franchise that would have spanned three more movies. 

Not only are Spider-man's challenges too numerous, but central characters such as Mary Jane and Harry Osborn are portrayed as erratic contrasts from the personalities established in the past movies and poorly utilized, respectively. Not to mention that Flint Marko/Sandman, a far-from-mainstream villain that Spider-man forgives and lets get away, was more central to the movie's redundant plot than was the ever popular Eddie Brock/Venom, who is killed off. READ RELATED POST!

"X-Men 3: The Last Stand" was the unfortunate result of the director of its first two predecessors, Bryan Singer, opting to instead helm "Superman Returns." 

Director Brett Ratner attempted to pick up the slack, but instead he kills off central characters such as Cyclops and Professor Charles Xavier, grounds the origin of The Dark Phoenix to a split personality of Gene Gray instead of as a result of a dramatic jump in evolution, forces Kitty Pride in-between Iceman and Rogue's romantic relationship, and introduces mostly bizarre new mutants in a misfired, solely action-packed sequel for characters that have more range than just being subjected to fighting one another to a bitter end.

"Superman Returns" was Singer's not-so-action-packed serenade to and retelling of the first movie in the franchise, the plot details of which were only slightly different. 

To sum it up quickly, Superman saves Lois from a plane, not a helicopter this time; again romantically flies with her through the air and he foils another real estate-related plot for riches concocted by Lex Luthor. 

Aside from that, the only original aspects of the movie are that Superman disappeared from Earth for five years to sift through the aftermath of Krypton's explosion for no reason and comes back without Supergirl, Lois married her editor's son during that time and gave birth to The Big Blue Boy Scout's asthmatic son. 

"Blade Trinity" changed the tone of its predecessors movies in that the central character went from kicking the collective asses of vampires, but not bothering to take their names on his own to him going after Dracula and his new age undead comrades with the help of a wise-cracking Scooby Doo-like gang of rookie slayers. 

Wesley Snipes' increasing frustration with portraying Blade was likely why the dark, brooding half-human-half-vampire allowed the mouthy Hannibal King and sexy Abigail Whistler to steal the show.

"Hellboy II: The Golden Army" is not a bad movie, but it offers a redundant hero-thrown-into-royal-feud plot that allows new and established central characters to do what they do best, which is to fight monsters and keep butting heads with one another because of their individual idiosyncrasies. 

What director Guillermo del Torro seems to be subscribing to is the Indiana Jones formula of pitting his title character, Hellboy, against Nazis, then against a random foe, and then Nazis again.

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REVERIE: Christopher Nolan's return might literally ground Batman with the reality of monitored airspace

Director Christopher Nolan's The Batman is arguably the James Bond of the superhero movie genre.

Not only does The Dark Knight have high tech toys such as sonar-based radar built into his cowl, he drives around in a heavy tank-like vehicle that is capable of jumping bridges, not to mention a built-in detachable motorcycle pod.

Another aspect of The Batman's modes of transportation that he might share in common with Bond if Nolan returns to helm another sequel is that he would have to bum a ride whenever he has to fly somewhere to save the day.

Nolan's penchant for grounding The Batman and the characters he encounters in a more realistic setting than portrayed in comic books dictates that the dark hero continue to pay South Korean smugglers or privately-contracted pilots a substantial amount of money to not ask questions when he has to fly to Hong Kong in the middle of the night.

In fact, DC Comics details why moviegoers might not see a black F-16 with bat wings flying from Wayne Manor toward Gotham City in a third installment.

"Increased air-space surveillance by the authorities eventually forced Batman to ground his flying fleet," "Batman: The Ultimate Guide to The Dark Knight" shows.

"The Dark Knight now 'borrows' specially-modified jets and aircraft from Wayne Aerospace 's business and military contracts," the guide further shows. "A few very specific craft remain fueled and ready for Bruce Wayne's private use."

Could this be why Bruce Wayne develops Wayne Aerospace?

Though writers eventually compensated for how they intially risked exposing the identity of The Batman in the comics, it is unlikely that Nolan or whoever he might hire to write another movie script would make the same mistake.

They have a proven track record.

"Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" show that Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) and his butler Alfred (Michael Caine) go through extraordinary means to keep their vigilante activities under wraps. They burn all suspect records, and they pay with cash or through dummy corporations for everything that The Batman requires in his crime fighting arsenal.

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REVERIE: A seldom explored side of Bruce Wayne's psyche might carry 'The Dark Knight' sequel

Katie Holme's Rachel Dawes said that the true face of Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne is the one Gotham City's criminals fear, The Batman. 

This is why it was not out of place for Maggie Gyllenhaal's interpretation of the character to later say that the day might never come when he no longer needs to assume the only identity he has ever known.

She might be correct.

Her words say a lot about the psyche of Bruce Wayne, who spent his youth traveling the world in an attempt to understand and combat the injustice that robbed him of a life of blissful luxury. He is essentially a soldier away at war with nothing to come home to once the conflict is over.

That alone seemingly limits further exploration of a character that only makes sense when the tragedy that defines his life persists, and crime is something that will go on no matter what vigilante measures The Batman employs. Because it is a fact of life, it is also a likely fact of director Christopher Nolan's realistic Gotham City.

What remains ahead for what Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine) dubbed the monster that Bruce Wayne created in "Batman Begins" are challenges from criminals of a lesser degree of danger and unpredictability than Heath Ledger's The Joker and Aaron Eckhart's Two-Face in that things already got worse and are bound to get better.

Nolan must be well aware of this as the director considers what to do for an encore and as fans promote names on the Web from The Batman's gallery of rogues that would merely serve as welcome distractions for a character that has no apparent reason to continue to exist other than to wrap things up. A selfishness of contemporary moviegoers to experience events that should be left to the imagination and that only serve to rob protagonists on the silver screen of their mystique.

As Nolan might already know, a suitable conclusion to the cinematic masterpiece he started telling in "Batman Begins" will not be found in DC Comics archives or from the clever reinterpretation of small time crooks such as The Riddler, The Penguin, or Catwoman.

The war on crime waged by The Batman can only end when he refuses to give up the power the people of Gotham gave the vigilante when they allowed mobsters and corrupt public officials to control the city. Remember that the monster in most stories tends to destroy himself.

Bruce Wayne's monster teeters on the edge of self-destruction, an early indication of which is his use of sonar-based technology to spy on the phone conversations of private citizens. 

How much farther The Batman will go to hold on to his identity as a watchful guardian now that he is more notably on the wrong side of the law remains to be seen in a sequel. 

As Harvey Dent said in "The Dark Knight," "You either die the hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

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REVERIE: Odds favor the return of Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Two-Face in a third Batman movie

"You either die the hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain," Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent said in "The Dark Knight," which continues to dominate at the box office.

But director Christopher's Nolan's latest cinematic interpretation of The Batman's war on crime in Gotham does not make it clear which of the two options determines the fate of Eckhart's character.

As luck would have it, logic, not chance, dictates that Harvey Two-Face will be back to deliver his own brand of coin-flipping justice in a likely sequel.

Whoever has not seen the movie by now will find out that Dent, who ultimately has half his face scarred, falls from a two-story structure and then lies on the ground motionless toward the end of "The Dark Knight."

Commissioner James Gordon (Gary Oldman) in a following scene talks about the district attorney's legacy as a hero the city needed, and a memorial-like photo of Dent is shown in the background.

This is all moviegoers have to deduce whether Eckhart dies and if thus he will return.

Though it seems like a toss-up, odds are good that Harvey Two-Face will be back because his death would mean The Batman (Christian Bale) killed him in the movie, and that would mean he broke his one rule. As this is unlikely, Harvey Two-Face survived.

Was it not The Batman who lunged at him so as to save Gordon's son? Did this not cause him to fall from the two-story structure?

It is unlikely that The Batman pushed Harvey Two-Face toward a fatal drop.

Improving the odds that the character will be back is that The Batman ultimately takes the fall for Harvey Two-Face's murders, so the assumption is that he would not take such an unnecessary risk unless he believed that Dent and his reputation as Gotham's white knight could at some point be salvaged.

After all, the salvation of Dent's altruistic image and his reputation of being tough on organized crime means nothing to The Batman's mission without a district attorney to back it up.

How this would play out in a sequel is that Dent would return to the district attorney's office after reconstructive surgery and start secretly bumping off Gotham's mobsters with the help of a few remaining small-time rogues.

This is more or less what happens in "Batman: Dark Victory," the follow-up to the comic book series on which the movie is partly based, "Batman: The Long Halloween."

Chances are also good that he is not dead because no other villain could possibly carry another movie other than the late Heath Ledger's The Joker or Liam Neeson's Ra's Al Ghul.

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REVERIE: Which Gotham badass can outdo The Joker in Nolan's next Batman movie?

What remains in question is whether it is possible to top Heath Ledger's interpretation of The Joker as the ultimate foe to take on director Christopher Nolan's The Batman. 

That Nolan's Gotham City is set in a world much closer to reality than previous Batman movies rules out every villain except one.

Liam Neeson's Ra's Al Ghul, who trained Bruce Wayne's mind and body in his journey to fight criminals in "Batman Begins," is the only villain who could pose a worthy challenge.

Ra's would be a suitable foe because he not only caused the poverty that made Gotham a crime haven, he challenged Bruce Wayne's assertion that anyone could save the city, the objective that has thus far been the basis of the conflicts in Nolan's movies.

Like Bruce, Ra's has money and influence that he uses to serve justice, though by starkly different means. He surpasses the threat of a simple criminal or chaotic force.

How this formula would change if he showed up again is that his daughter from the comics, Talia, would show up and ask for The Batman's help in rescuing Ra's from the clutches of a rogue League of Shadows, which considers their former leader weak after failing to carry out the organization's objective to destroy Gotham in "Batman Begins." 

Because Bruce might not want to help rescue an enemy, the ninja terrorist group would also kidnap Alfred as a way to flush out the man that turned on them, so he and Talia would work together. Maybe they would fall in love along the way.

When they finally save the captors, it would turn out that Ra's, who does not have long to live as a result of the train crash he barely survived at the end of "Batman Begins," set up both kidnappings to determine if The Batman is worthy to succeed him as leader of the league after his death.

A subplot in "The Dark Knight" was Bruce's struggle to define the moral limitations of The Batman in combating crime. He makes one ethical compromise toward that end in foiling The Joker's plans, which involves using sonar to tap into every phone conversation in the city. 

His growing addiction to being The Batman and the power that comes with operating beyond the law is a concept introduced late into the movie that could be explored in more detail if Ra's offers him unlimited resources with which to combat criminality, and Talia's hand in marriage to sweeten the deal. 

Maybe Bruce's refusal pushes an insulted Ra's to proceed to carry out some desperate final solution, which despite his daughter's dismay causes the two men to fight each other to the death.

This is more or less what happens in "Batman #232: Daughter of the Demon," which was published by DC Comics in 1971. Whoever Nolan chooses to write the screenplay for the next movie should review it and the other appearances of Ra's Al Ghul in the comics and in cartoons. They show how The Batman's efforts to stop him becomes a maddening obsession that challenges his skills as detective, a hand-to-hand combatant and as a hero. 

Following comic books would be redundant, but maybe Ra's relationship to Talia would remain a mystery before Bruce, with Lucious Fox's help, solves some manufactured criminal conspiracy in Gotham involving minor bad guys. 

Nolan's screenwriter could also come up with a clever explanation for how Ra's survived in "Batman Begins." Maybe the League of Shadows recovered his almost lifeless body from the wreckage. Perhaps when he closed his eyes before the crash into the underground parking lot of Wayne Enterprises he was performing an ancient ninja technique to block out and survive the overwhelming pain that was to come. 

Other villains from the comics that could challenge Bruce Wayne in the board room and The Batman on Gotham's mean streets in a sequel as secondary foes are Dr. Hugo Strange or Black Mask. The Scarecrow, The Penguin and The Mad Hatter are some smalltime comic book bad guys that could team up to eat up some screen time as well.

Artist Jim Lee's less cartoon-like, sexy redesign of Catwoman's suit makes her prime nip with which to lure The Batman, but she would only provide some interim sexual tension. Face it. She is basically a tease whose interaction with The Dark Knight would reveal nothing deep about his personality.

Los Angeles Times journalist Geoff Boucher's recent plug for the inclusion of Angelina Jolie, a seasoned and sexy actress, in Nolan's Gotham City works, but perhaps she would be better utilized as more complex character than Catwoman.

Wasn't Talia the one true love of both Bruce and The Batman in the comics? She was also very attractive.

Fanboys who take issue with the Academy Award winner's acting ability should not worry about Jolie being able to convincingly portray the daughter of a very commanding and revered man. Who is her real-life father again?

The search for other worthy villains that use mental, not supernatural clout, to outwit The Batman ala The Joker may prove to be more difficult.

Good luck trying to find someone who both has the acting chops and is ripped enough to convincingly break his psyche and back as Bane.

Hush would require that Nolan introduce every masked criminal and freak in town to manipulate as part of an intricate plan for revenge against Bruce perpetrated by yet another childhood friend, which is impractical. Maybe young Tommy Elliot was at home killing his parents during the flashbacks of Bruce's childhood in "Batman Begins."

Choosing a villain that deliberately leaves clues behind for The World's Greatest Detective to use to solve his crimes worked on TV in the 1960s, but would be frivolous to moviegoers already critical about comic book movie adaptations. The Riddler would have to sit out this Batman movie franchise.

Harley Quinn, who is more of a misguided victim of The Joker than a villain, does not make much sense without Heath Ledger. And Mr. Freeze adds more of a sob story than a methodical threat to the mix.

Everyone else is either too frivolous or does not have enough mainstream appeal.

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