10 Things We Now Know About The Dark Knight Rises

It Starts With A Bang

What we know: Batman Begins had Christian Bale darkly dreaming before battling hardened prisoners, The Dark Knight had its insane bank robbery. Like a Bond film before the credits roll, The Dark Knight Rises similarly aims to grab your attention from the off.

Dent Is Undented

What we know: The opening piece of footage from the promo suggests that District Attorney Harvey Dent, who became Two Face in The Dark Knight , remains clear of the crimes he committed. Not good news for Batman who took the fall in his place.

Bane Is Reborn

What we know: In Batman & Robin Bane is nothing more than muscle for Poison Ivy and Mr Freeze. The Dark Knight Rises ' Bane adds a whole bunch of smarts, while still retaining his strength. The last time Bane was defeated on film it was by Batgirl and Robin. We don't envision such an easy takedown this time around.

Bane Isn't The Usual Suspect

What we know: Or is he? He's certainly got the mystery of Keyser Söze given that the intelligence agencies seem to know very little about him. He's also pretty keen to hunt down the one man who might betray him.

Fanatics Are Hard To Beat

What we know: Brains and brawn will get you a long way but when you have the fanatical support of your men you are truly dangerous.

Catwoman Looks Cool

What we know: If shock waves could actually travel across the Internet then that's exactly what happened when the first image of Anne Hathaway's Catwoman was released. First impressions on seeing it on the big screen suggest that was an overreaction.

It Was Never Going To Be In 3D

What we know: Warner Bros. may have banked an enormous amount of cash thanks to Harry Potter's 3D spellcasting but Nolan says there was never going to be an extra visual dimension for his trilogy closer.

Politics Wasn't An Issue

What we know: Some claimed The Dark Knight was a commentary on the George W Bush years in American politics and having a CIA agent take hooded prisoners onto a plane could be seen as a continuation of that. However, Nolan says modern culture only influences the Batman films on an unconscious level.

What we saw/heard: “We try not to sit down and write commentary on the world we live in but we do try and write from an honest place and in doing that you do naturally write about the world we live in. But I think you've got to do that unconsciously. These films are not meant to be providing specific social commentary, I think that would be alienating and I think it would take the fun out of it,” Nolan said.

Size Matters

What we know: There's no getting around it, 70mm IMAX is the only way to see this film. IMAX has two formats – digital and film – and Nolan wants fans to track down their 70mm IMAX film theatres to get the best from The Dark Knight Rises . Having seen the early footage fill our field of vision, we agree.

What we saw/heard: “We've shot quite a bit of the film using IMAX film cameras... to this date it's far and away the best imaging format that's ever been created and there's nothing to touch it. The best way to see that for the benefit of the action sequences is on a screen this size using one of the film projectors. It will be on around 100 screens worldwide when the film comes out in July so we want to get it out there for the fans to let them know what this experience is going to be and why it's worth them seeking it out,” Nolan said at the start of his presentation.

The Dark Knight Rises Hits Hard

What we know: Nolan's previous films delivered plenty of heart wrenching moments including character deaths and despair for the citizens of Gotham. The defining moment from this preview footage comes at the end.