REACTION REVERIE: Robert Downey Jr.'s vague allusion to Iron Man 2 plot could mean several things

Robert Downey Jr. says a sequel to 2008's "Iron Man" might explore the character Tony Stark's responsibility of having adopted a superhero identity, having revealed his secret identity to the world, or something else entirely.

At this point, Downey cannot do anything more than drop vague hints to keep the entertainment news media and fanboys speculating about the film at least until early 2010. But what his comments could mean for the plot of the highly anticipated sequel has potential.

One responsibility Downey's character might have to face is that every ambitious supervillain and terrorist in the world could start targeting Stark Industries given that its billionaire owner accidentally alluded on national TV to where the Iron Man hardware was developed. It would become his responsibility to make sure the armor and other similar technology does not fall into the wrong hands.

Another responsibility Tony Stark could face for adopting the superhero identity of Iron Man is that he interfered with a U.S. military operation and essentially engaged in cowboy diplomacy by stopping the members of The Ten Rings from terrorizing a small village in the Middle East. 

Stark's revelation that he is the man behind the armor might cause the American government to investigate his company and spark an international incident between the U.S. and critical nations.

Because as Tony Stark and Iron Man he decided to protect the people his weapons put in harm's way, this means someone else such as Justin Hammer would have to pick up the slack in terms of rearming the standing militaries of nations, terrorist organizations and any other shadowy entities with which Stark Industries was in bed.

In terms of his inner demons, Tony Stark might have to come to terms with the prospect that Iron Man is his way of making up for his past sins. The armored guise is not necessarily a heroic one, and that means he might have to explore what should define him as a genuine hero.

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REVERIE: J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot promises to make the final frontier flashier, faster-paced

Star Trek XI might successfully reboot the venerable science fiction franchise for new fans and Trekkies alike because Director J.J. Abrams is learning from its past shortcomings and mistakes.

What made "The Original Series" unappealing to casual observers was the limited, oftentimes ridiculous special effects of the 1960s.

Though William Shatner's Captain James T. Kirk was apt to throw a punch, his intensity was underscored by the obvious stunt man in a rubber lizard suit, mascara-wearing Romulan, or other opponent he combated.

Special effects on TV progressed substantially when "The Next Generation" premiered in the late 1980s, and later its spin-offs, but the socially conservative atmosphere of the time and that the TV series is based in a future in which humanity is more peaceful than in Kirk's days of cowboy diplomacy stifles the pace of the action.

Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard was the captain of a starship Enterprise with children aboard, more apt to use his mind than his fists to defeat an alien menace.

The later "Enterprise," which Trekkies see as an affront to the unique nature of the five-year mission of Kirk and his crew, meshes both action and special effects well, even dressing its cast in what finally look like practical astronaut apparel.

Lacking from the TV series is an overarching story that is ultimately abandoned in favor of a post-Sept. 11-like deviation focused on revenge after an alien attack on Earth.

Add to the aforementioned problems that young audiences did not grow up with "TOS" to know enough about what is going on in "TNG," its spin-offs, or "Enterprise." No to mention that each series takes place in an ideal future in which humanity lives in peace as a result of having made contact with an intelligent alien species.

If anything, the Star Trek franchise might benefit by a non-Trekkie filmmaker who can objectively mesh together the best elements of its venerable history with a lot of action beats to reintroduce the world to Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future.

Remaining to be seen is whether Star Trek XI will feature a story akin to the moral spirit of its predecessors and if the younger cast has the acting chops to make this more than just a dry, visual extravaganza ala "The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy."

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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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REVERIE: Someone has to die before Clark Kent flies away from 'Smallville'

Smallville's "Legion" focuses on what has been in the back of the minds of true Superman fans since the series' beginning: Chloe Sullivan never sees Clark Kent (Tom Welling) don blue tights.

At least there was no mention of Alex Mack's character in the pages of DC Comics before "Smallville" was a TV series.

Not to mention that The Legion of Superheroes tells Clark in the season eight episode that there is no mention of Chloe in their historical records.

Though Chloe ends up surviving "Legion," the question remains whose loss or sacrifice will define a Clark Kent whose transition to becoming Superman has just started to take shape during what might be one of the series' last seasons, if not the last one itself.

"If the show doesn't go on, we have a series finale that the writers have been thinking about ..." The CW President Dawn Ostroff says. READ MORE!

A problem the writing staff of "Smallville" encounters is that Clark is too ethically moral to challenge in any new meaningful way given the absence of Michael Rosenbaum's polar opposite Lex Luthor, that is, unless a Kryptonite-spawned meteor freak or a powerhouse monster threatens his friends or the world.

"Legion" presents Clark with the unique challenge of having to defeat a version of Brainiac that has taken complete control of Chloe.

The writers try to find new stories to make a character that will always do the right thing interesting, and this would also be the case for the series finale. Clark Kent cannot suddenly on a whim decide to become The Man of Steel if he has not already done so.

Missing is that defining event in Clark's life that will compel someone so powerful to put his own needs aside and fulfill his destiny as Earth's greatest protector.

Past "Smallville" canon dictates that someone has to die in order for this to happen.

In "Hidden," Clark is shot dead when he gives up his powers so as to live a happy, normal life with Kristin Kreuk's Lana Lang. Jor-El ultimately saves his life, but warns that a loved one will have to die because one life force must be exchanged for another.

This turns out to be John Schneider's Jonathan Kent, who suffers a fatal heart attack.

Clark thereafter never addresses this consequence of him giving up his powers, a lesson he could only learn after his selfishness causes the death of another love one given that the death of a father is natural part of anyone's life and that it has since been forgotten.

Jor-El tells Clark in the same episode, "The lessons that we learn from pain are the ones that make us the strongest."

Without this untold moment in the Superman mythos, Clark Kent will never transcend his identity as an alien with unchecked power to a being who understands his own limitations as a super man. "Smallville" fans will believe a man can fly, but they will not know why he even bothers.

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REACTION REVERIE: 'Stargate Atlantis' failed to live up to the heart, high stakes of surviving in the Pegasus Galaxy

What ended the highly-rated Atlantis Expedition in the Pegasus Galaxy during its fifth season was not SG-1's unexpectedly profitable straight-to-DVD adventures. It was the failed promise of "Stargate Atlantis" itself.

One of the many reasons the show was cancelled was because the main characters lacked the heart that made "Stargate SG-1," its predecessor, more than just a run-of-the-mill science fiction series. 

Joe Flanigan's John Sheppard, for instance, started off as a misunderstood soldier with a track record for doing what he knew was right rather than following orders. He was essentially a rebel without a cause, which eventually became taking charge of defending his people in a savage galaxy from the onslaught of a powerful alien race, The Wraith. 

Early on, Sheppard proved the willingness to do what was necessary toward that end in mercifully killing a commanding officer before a Wraith queen finished feeding on him. 

To boot, hints of an intimate relationship with Atlantis' leader Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Tori Higginson), and his unwillingness to disappoint her, gradually changed Sheperd's usually nonchalant demeanor. 

It is worth mentioning that Higginson's Weir, the effectively charming and stalwart leader of the expedition, provided the show with a strong sense of command that has yet to be duplicated. What seemed to detract from "Stargate Atlantis" was the writers killing off endearing characters such as Weir and Dr. Carson Beckett (Paul McGillion).

Sheppard's character thereafter stagnated, especially when Weir was killed off, leaving him as a wise-cracking hero type who let his P90 do all his talking. 

Jason Momoa's Ronin Dex character started off and ended up the same way. 

Rachel Luttrel's Teyla Emmagan wore out her usefulness as tour guide of The Pegasus Galaxy very soon.

Most of the heartfelt character-based episodes began to focus on David Hewlett's Rodney McKay character, who intially allowed the massive ego that came with being a genius scientist to prevent him from developing close, meaningful relationships with his peers and estranged sister.

Once some galactic calamity forced McKay to move beyond his arrogant tendencies to find common ground with the people around him, the character would return to being a self-centered jackass in the next episode. 

Some of the show's best episodes seemed to depend on this formula.

As an ensemble, the characters were at times ruthless in how they chose to combat the latest threat. Questionable tactics were employed such as biologically turning and conditioning Wraith into human beings or feeding a human to a Wraith ally. 

Noticeably missing from the show was SG-1's hallmark of acquiring and using advanced technology with a sense of moral caution. 

Anything, including a superpower-imbued McKay lifting Beckett in the air, introducing Replicator nanites into Weir's body or him literally playing with people's lives, was fair game.

Exploration of The Wraith queens also fell short in that they lacked any distinctive personality traits that made The Goa'uld System Lords such compelling characters. They were just hungry and pissed off.

"Stargate Atlantis" also failed because the expedition team struggled to find a substantial number of allies with technology equally or more advanced than their own, making their last-minute defeats of major alien bad guys less than believable, though the Travelers were a notable exception. 

Whereas SG-1 had The Asgard, The Ancients, The Tolan, The Nox and The Tok'ra, the Atlantis Expedition was more or less on its own going up against every major race of bad guys, and sometimes, some bitter allies.

The team's mandate to defend Atlantis from The Wraith fizzled away when the Pegasus Galaxy Replicators, an idea borrowed from "SG-1," eliminated most of the life-sucking aliens. 

Later, The Replicators were also vanquished, leaving the show with no legs.

Yes, Wraith such as Todd and Michael remained to cause mischief, but the sense of overwhelming adversity caused by the reawakening of The Wraith toward the beginning of the show disappeared.

Another shortcoming of "Stargate Atlantis" was that shooting locations in a lot of episodes began to run together. There is only so many times forestry Canadian backdrop can be used to portray an alien planet. After a while, it looked like Sheppard and his team were out in the forest playing a game of Paintball with The Wraith. 

Shifting the format of the Atlantis Expedition from a cable series to DVD movies might fit its inevitable transition from a heartfelt, character-driven story to a series of shallow, action-packed space battles. 

But it does not pay justice to the many fans who initially made the Stargate franchise a success.

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REVERIE: Who is Terminator 4's Marcus Wright? Friend or foe?

Sam Worthington's Marcus Wright is the new kid on the post-Judgment Day block in "Terminator Salvation," the success and novelty of which depends on the mystery of the character's personal history.

The decommissioned Terminator's sudden appearance should prompt a battle-hardened John Connor (Christian Bale) to beat answers out of this mysterious newcomer, the true nature of which has fans of the movie franchise speculating about.

"Complications," a season two episode of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," reveals that in the future Skynet captures members of the human resistance to study and emulate for the purposes of infiltration and termination of its targets.

Marcus Wright, whom the official movie trailer shows does not have any memory of Judgement Day, could be a sleeper agent that has learned to emulate human beings so well that he believes he is one and forgets that he is a cybernetic organism. That or Skynet does not trust Terminators with a lot of information other than on how to kill targets. Maybe "Terminator Salvation" explains why.

Or could Marcus Wright be the embodiment of Skynet itself? Maybe this is the first attempt by the computer system to reconnoiter human culture and use acquired intelligence to develop a basic blueprint from which to develop humanoid Terminators - T800s.

That would explain why John Connor says to him in the trailer, "You tried to kill my mother. You killed my father. You will not kill me." Only Skynet or the original T-800 Arnold Schwarzenegger model could be tied to that rap sheet.

"Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines" made about anything possible.

What is improbable is that Marcus Wright will tear the skin off a dead John Connor, wear it and assume command of the human resistance in order to maintain morale at the end of "Terminator Salvation," as was written in the original draft of the screenplay.

Allowing a machine to turn the tide of the war against Skynet is improbable because it would diminish the significance of human beings in the overall story and of the past three Terminator movies.

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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: Like Judgement Day, fan speculation about Terminator 5 is inevitable

Substantial fan interest in "Terminator Salvation" has prompted The Halcyon Company to announce that it is already moving forward with a sequel before the movie debuts on May 22, 2009.

Because fans' input about the Terminator franchise apparently matters, speculation about the recently announced fifth movie is sure to follow. What makes this problematic is that nothing in terms of story expectations are inevitable in a movie series based on the possibility of being able to alter the future in the past.

No one can assume that Anton Yelchin's Kyle Reese, who is a teenager in "Terminator Salvation," goes back in time when he is as old as Michael Biehn's interpretation of the character to defend John Connor's mother until it is evident that the human resistance is about to defeat Skynet. Because this is only likely to occur toward the end of the planned Terminator movie trilogy, do not expect Kyle Reese to be going anywhere anytime soon.

Depending on whether director Joseph McGinty Nichol shares James Cameron's style of not having too definitive of an ending to a Terminator movie, "Terminator Salvation" sequels might deal with the human resistance trying to stop a desperate Skynet from acquiring the technology with which to send its cybernetic organism assassins back in time to change the outcome of the war again.

Terminator 5 might at the very least introduce the concept of time travel once Christian Bale's John Connor gains the trust of people who will eventually form the human resistance.

Assuming time travel technology becomes a MacGuffin in "Terminator Salvation" sequels, what might be revealed is who or what was responsible for its development. Common sense would dictate that Skynet would lack the human ability to imagine something as seemingly illogical as changing events that have already occurred. Sentience is not the same as thinking outside the box, it could be argued.

Besides, an artificial intelligence-invented time machine would likely find a way to send back fully-clothed Terminators.

Humans likely invented time travel unless one of them helped Skynet come up with the idea.

Could this be the role played by Helen Bonham Carter's Serena Kogen, who is the the lead villain in "Terminator Salvation"? Is it her hands John Connor refers to as having been busy in the movie trailer? Why would a human help Skynet?

Only 2011 will tell.

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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, REVERIE: Robert Downey Jr. defines unclear 'realm of possibility' for The Avengers' movie universe

Robert Downey Jr. maintains that Captain America, The Hulk and Thor do not fit into the realistic world that Director Jon Favreau created in "Iron Man," even though they are scheduled to team up in 2011.

"Nothing that happened in ‘Iron Man’ is really outside the realm of possibility," Downey told MTV on Nov. 25. "Once you start talking about Valhalla and supersized super soldiers and jolly green giants, it warrants much further discussion.” READ THE STORY!

Downey's understandable concern in the interview is that the superhero team-up movie has to be done right or "it's really, really going to suck," though Marvel Studios has already established one of The Avengers as being a jolly green giant in "The Incredible Hulk" and is lining up the all-American super soldier and god from Valhalla for their own individual movies. 

He is either thinking out loud about a movie that was boldly announced, but that has not really hit the ground running yet in terms of story or the actor is being heavily influenced by Director Christopher Nolan's realistic interpretation of the cinematic world in which The Batman operates.

Either seems to be the case because Downey's unclear definition of the "realm of possibility" for a fantastical comic book movie universe might exclude all the hallmark characters from "The Avengers," including most other Marvel Comics superheroes. Not to mention that The Avengers formed as a team in the comic books to combat not-so-grounded-in-reality evil forces that one superhero could not handle alone.

What Downey does not realize is that Captain America and The Hulk are within the fantastical realm of possibility to which Marvel comic book movie fans are accustomed so long as it is based on some scientific possibility. If anything, Thor, the Norse god, merits concern. 

The "Iron Man" star also does not understand that extraordinary powers do not drive superheroes, but rather catapult them into extraordinary circumstances that test the metal of their moral scruples. That is what makes it riveting to watch a bunch of over-the-top special effects meant to portray their exploits for more than hour.

Further discussion should instead focus on who could replace Thor as a viable substitute on The Avengers team, which was known in the comic books to have a revolving roster of members. 

In doing so, it should be noted that The Avengers are significantly more powerful than most other Marvel superheroes and do not have a narrow interest as to why they do what they do. Spider-Man, Daredevil and The X-Men would have to sit this movie out.

Who fits this bill are the members of The Fantastic Four, who could hold their own in an Avengers-scale fight as a team and have a general world-saving agenda. 

Adding them to The Avengers roster also makes story sense in that radiation made The Fantastic Four and The Hulk into superheroes, a common link that would give them a viable reason to interact. Reed Richards and Bruce Banner are science geeks, after all.

Why not give The Fantastic Four one last cinematic run?

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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: 'The Dark Knight' left several plot elements to further challenge Gotham City's watchful protector

With Heath Ledger unable to return as The Joker and the confirmed death of Aaron's Eckhart's Harvey Two-Face, the question remains which infamous foe can outwit The Batman in a sequel to "The Dark Knight." 

Instead of getting bogged down with a villain-of-the-week guessing game, fans should consider that director Christopher Nolan left behind ample plot elements for the dark hero (Christian Bale) to combat when he returns.

On the mean streets of Gotham, a power gap remains. The Joker can obviously not return, Two-Face died and the mob was weakened when it spent half of its combined financial resources to pay The Joker for the extermination of The Batman. 

Whoever challenges their criminal mantle must have a ruthless drive for power and money. That might nix the chances of Catwoman and The Riddler, who is shown as The Batman's next foe in a mock poster recently posted on the Web. They are not mobsters.

At his company, Bruce Wayne invested a lot of money developing a sonar-based radar system that was ultimately destroyed. Though he owns a majority of the stock in the publicly-traded company, Bruce might have to answer to the board of directors for a costly, secret project that seemingly delivered no substantial result. 

He might have to do so without the help of Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), who said he would not work for Wayne Enterprises as long as the system exists. But it was broken.

If anything, a sequel would have to address whether Fox remains the head of the company. READ RELATED POST

Both the mayor's office and the police department also have something for which to answer.

On their watch, The Joker killed several people, blew up a couple of high-profile buildings and undermined a major criminal case. 

In addition, the police were complicit in the abductions and murders of the city's two district attorneys and in the activities of a vigilante charged with five murders.

What might occur in a sequel is the election of a new mayor, as well as an internal investigation or replacement of Gary Oldman's James Gordon as the city's police commissioner. Whoever takes either job would likely go after The Batman as well.

How about a Julianne Moore-portrayed crusading Sarah Essen leading the charge?

Whatever challenges await The Dark Knight in a sequel should at least reflect the unavoidable consequences of his actions as a vigilante. 

As the character said himself in "Batman Begins," "It isn't who I am underneath but what I do that defines me."

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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: Fate of Lucius Fox, Salvatore Maroni in 'The Dark Knight' remains unclear

Christian Bale's The Batman dived at Aaron' Eckhart's Harvey Two-Face, causing him to fall from a high floor of a burnt warehouse in "The Dark Knight."

Though official sources confirm that the crazed Gotham City district attorney is dead, hardcore fans of "The Dark Knight" might have noticed that the fate of Morgan Freeman's Lucius Fox and Eric Robert's Salvatore Maroni was left unclear.

Whether Fox will return to run Wayne Enterprises and supply The Batman with the latest high-tech gadgets with crime fighting applications in a sequel depends.

In the movie, he resigned from the company in protest of the existence and proposed use of a sonar-based machine that would utilize Gotham citizen's cell phones to monitor and image the entire city.

Fox later agrees to use the machine to help The Batman find The Joker. "(But) as long as this machine is at Wayne Industries, I won't be," says Fox, whose ultimatum calls his job into question when it is destroyed.

Equally uncertain is whether Maroni died when Harvey Two-Face shot the mobster's driver, causing the limousine in which they were riding to flip over on its head. His fate is further questionable in that the ill-fated district attorney who caused the wreck thereafter survived, though he alone wore a seat belt. Maroni might have died or sustained injuries.

What is certain is that "Dent presses the barrel of the revolver behind the shadow of the driver. Maroni LUNGES, SCREAMING. Dent FIRES," the official movie script shows. "The Limo SWERVES off to the bridge, SOARS out over the canal, and PANCAKES into the RETAINING WALL."

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REACTION REVERIE: 'The Dark Knight' script indicates The Batman may have caused Harvey Two-Face's confirmed death

Aaron Eckhart and the official script for "The Dark Knight" confirm that his Harvey Two-Face character is "DEAD" and thus will not return to terrorize Gotham City in a likely sequel.

What remains unclear, and that is not confirmed or debunked by the official script, is whether The Batman (Christian Bale) caused the ill-starred district attorney to fall to his death from the high floor of a burnt warehouse.

Official confirmation of The Batman's complicity in the death would indicate a stark contrast to the character's one rule in the movie and in the comics that he does not resort to killing criminals.

In the movie's finale, Eckhart's Harvey Two-Face flips a coin to determine whether the son of Gary Oldman's Commissioner Gordon will die. When he flips the coin, "Batman hurls himself at Dent and the boy," causing them to fall over the edge of the warehouse, the official script shows.

Whether this constitutes murder and jeopardizes the already delicate moral reputation of The Batman among fans remains in question.

Without question, "Dent lies at the bottom ... his neck broken ... DEAD" as a result of the fall, the official script shows. If that was not enough to establish the death of the character, the script further confirms a sequence in the movie in which "GORDON STANDS AT A PODIUM AT DENT'S FUNERAL."

Eckhart recently validated the script's details, telling ComingSoon.net/Superhero Hype! that director Christopher Nolans considers his character dead as well.

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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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