Scans_Daily

There was a set of Nostalgia Chick episodes a while back where, because the Hobbit had recently come out - and it seems to have been criticised partially because it isn't Lord of the Rings yet New Line are trying to make it LOTR - she investigated the notion of Tolkien's female characters, and because Nolan's trilogy was relatively recent, she compared Tolkien's female characters to those in Nolan's films, and.. Well, she hit largely upon the same thing you did. Nolan's just not the best at female characters.

Cotillard's character in Inception, after all, was little more than a plot device. The female characters in The Prestige were little more than a sacrificial lamb to kickstart the rivalry, someone who got passed back and forth between the two male leads, and a wife who was used largely to hint at the real massive plot twist of the film. Dark Knight's Rachel is just.. There. For something for Harvey to yell about at the film's end. By comparison, Rises was a little bit of a step up, but.. Yeah. I don't particularly know about switching Blake out for someone else, because I think that fit what Nolan was going for without specifically invoking characters that fans could complain about being mutilated to fit his films.

But then I kind-of disagree with your assertion that Blake's reasoning for knowing who Batman was is kind of weak; Nolan's Batman isn't the greatest at hiding his ID anyway, and to me, it's basically the equivalent of Tim Drake figuring it out on his own. That said, there's no reason he couldn't have been a female character. Even if you didn't particularly want to invoke Cass - because I think using her name and implying it's based on the character from the books when she's entirely different would be pointless, but.. Still.

It just feels like Nolan grabbed Levitt because he liked working with him on Inception, to me, whereas I felt Cotillard still fit with the more revised European Ra's Nolan had in his first film.