As fan reactions to the new six-minute prologue of The Dark Knight Rises come in, executives at Warner Bros. are worried that audiences can’t understand the trilogy’s new villain, Bane. Fans are saying that in the prologue, which is currently attached to Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol on select IMAX screens, Tom Hardy is hard to hear behind Bane’s mask.
First Showing is reporting that Warner Bros. executives have spoken to director Christopher Nolan as they’re afraid how the audio problem will fare with audiences. The director agreed to make some changes, but said he will only alter the sound quality slightly.
Nolan reportedly won’t completely change the audio because he doesn’t want to push everything at the audience or dumb the story down. The director even said that it doesn’t matter if viewers don’t completely understand Hardy anyway, as long as they have the general idea of what he’s saying.
Considering The Dark Knight Rises is the last entry in Nolan’s Batman trilogy, it would be a more pleasant viewing experience for die-hard fans if they can understand the villain who’s the driving force of the conflict in the film. But muffling part of Bane’s dialogue will also allow viewers to feel as though they’re in the middle of the fight between Batman and Bane, wondering what will happen next.
Hopefully Nolan and Warner Bros. can come to a mutual agreement over how much the director should fix the dialogue, so viewers can debate over Bane’s actions, instead of what he’s saying.