The new trailer for The Dark Knight Rises has left fans anticipating what could be the most chilling CHRISTOPHER NOLAN Batman movie yet. After a six-minute preview premiered on IMAX screens last week, fans were finally treated to another trailer on Monday (December 19, 2011), featuring a more detailed look at Tom Hardy as the mysterious villain Bane.

Due to hit screens in July 2012, the latest movie is set eight years after Bruce Wayne fought off The Joker, played by the Oscar-winning Heath Ledger in 2008's The Dark Knight. The latest movie once again sees Christian Bale return as the Caped Crusader, but this time Anne Hathaway joins the party as Selina Kyle (Catwoman) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt also makes his debut, though on the evidence of the latest trailer, it is likely to be Hardy's Bane who steals the show. In the two-minute promo, Hathaway's character is seen dancing with Bruce Wayne when she forebodingly whispers, "You think this is going to last? There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne. You and your friends better batten down the hatches, because when it hits, you're all going to wonder how you ever thought how you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us". Wearing a huge military style jacket with a metal mask covering his face, Bane is then seen stalking around the tunnel of a Gotham City sports stadium while a football match takes place on the field. After pressing some form of detonator, Bane looks on as the pitch begins to explode while a player makes a run for it with the football. Slowly turning around to witness a stadium falling to pieces around him, the sportsman is stunned at the devastation left behind him. It's certainly the stand-out scene in a hugely exciting trailer, which has left fans anticipating the biggest film of 2012.

Though reaction was almost entirely positive, one niggling scene in the trailer appears to be worrying fans. Although Bane is intended to come across as mysterious and enigmatic, some Twitter users have complained about the difficulty of understanding one of his key lines. After numerous listens, Hardy's character appears to tell Batman, "when Gotham is ashes, you have my permission to die", though one Twitter user joked, "The Dark Knight Rises prologue was really great, especially when Bane spoke the soon-to-be-classic line: Mmrbl ffrmrff hmrbblfmm". Another added, "A fantastic action sequence hurt by the fact that you cannot understand the villain at all". Sources tell the Hollywood Reporter that Warner Bros is very aware of the sound issue, with another claiming director Nolan is considering changing the sound mix, despite telling press at a screening event on December 8, 2011 that it was ok for the audience not to understand Bane's speech at certain points, as long as they understood what he was trying to convey. The Dark Knight Rises hits cinemas worldwide on July 20, 2012.


Watch: The Dark Knight Rises - Trailer