Mask Muffles Voice of Bane In The Dark Knight Rises

The main protagonist in The Dark Knight Rises, a brute menace known only as Bane, puts Batman through physical and mental hell. Unfortunately, Bane's mask puts the audience through auditory hell.

Bane's voice becomes extremely muffled under the mask, which creates an issue when Bane goes on long tirades about economics and his plans for Gotham City. During some of the tensest points in the film, audience members will find themselves turning an ear toward the speakers to get a better idea of what Bane has to say.

If it were up to Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan, Bane would be ever harder to hear. When footage from The Dark Knight Rises first screened for audiences seeing Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol last year, viewers complained that Bane was nearly inaudible.

The Huffington Post reported audience members' frustrations, like those of Variety reporter Jeff Sneider, who took to Twitter to complain.

Just saw 'The Dark Knight Rises' prologue, Sneider tweeted. It was great but main criticism will be that it's tough to understand Bane through the mask.

The audio has been altered, but there are still unclear moments throughout the film, which Nolan seems to be encouraging. Since the release of The Dark Knight in 2008, the voice of Christian Bale as the film's title character has spawned criticisms and even parodies from franchise fanatics.

When it comes to Bane, it is much less about what he is saying, and much more about what - or possibly who - he is destroying. Whether he is crushing skulls or causing chaos at the stock market, Bane breathes tumult, as well as the fumes coming from his mask.