Anne Catha…Woman?

The wrath of the faithful is dire. And the wrath of the comic faithful is far, far worse. Nothing raises the blood pressure and sends the spittle flying like a divergent interpretation of an origin story, plot-line, or character redesign.

Enter the newly-minted shots of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises and Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman.

ANGRY GEEK RANT COMMENCE!!!

I want to start off with a little disclaimer here: I like Anne Hathaway. In addition to being drop-dead gorgeous, and terribly talented, she’s actually quite likable, gracious, and charming in interviews and blessed with a tendency to select great scripts and solid directors. I’m just not sure about the schewper-schweet night-vision goggles complete with schewper-schweet blue flashlight.

I also love Christopher Nolan’s films, from his student projects upward; Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, and the Batman reboots are all phenomenal films in their own right, and Inception was a terrifyingly gripping tour-de-force that reminded me why I actually pay to go to movie theaters in this day and age.

So these new stills of Anne Hathaway’s Selina Kyle do not worry me too much. I have chosen to have faith in the choices made by what has proven to be a great writing, directing, and acting construct, much like I chose to believe that the late pretty-boy Heath Ledger had the chops to stand toe-to-toe with Nicholson’s portrayal of the Joker (and in fact completely obliterate it), or that all-around-American-Joe-good-guy Aaron Eckhart could realistically pull off a sadistic MPD basketcase Two-Face. Let’s just hope this costume design isn’t another Katie Holmes.

I’ll leave you with a detail shot of Anne Hathaway’s stunt double, detailing the costume in a bit more detail than is available in the shot above.

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback, and, given what I know of our reader-base, I am certain you have opinions to express.