The Dark Knight Rises

[LowerWolf]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

I like Batman, but I wouldn't call myself a huge fan. Never really read the comics. So there are people on this thread who are way more knowledgeable than me. But here's my two cents:

I was really skeptical of Hathaway as Catwoman. But I thought she did an outstanding job. I also really liked Hardy as Bane. No, he wasn't going to match up with Ledger's Joker, but nobody was. He held his own, and I really feared him as the bad guy. If Joker was Batman's mental match, Bane was his physical match.

Spoiler

Like I said, I'm not a huge Batman fan, but I knew enough about Bane to know he had super strength due to the Venom. I thought it was pretty clear that physically, Batman was no match for him. The two fights scenes hammered that home for me, especially when he punches the pillar. And it was clear to me that Batman only really got back into the second fight once he started loosening the tubes on Bane's mask. But perhaps Nolan should have explained that more.

Like everyone else, I was impressed with JGL as Blake. I liked Bale in this one more than the other two. The rest of the cast was excellent, as usual. Nolan clearly knows how to get the most out of his actors.

As far as the movie itself, this felt more like a typical summer blockbuster than a film. The first two movies, to me, felt like something more. It's hard to explain. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, but it fell just short of being something more. If that makes sense. That's not so much a knock on this one as it is a tribute to the first two. My issues:

Spoiler

Maybe I just missed something, but if the plan was to blow up Gotham, why didn't they just do that? Why wait five months for the bomb to go off on its own? Miranda/Talia could have detonated it any time in those five months. Speaking of which, the time lapses threw me too and made the movie feel a bit disjointed.

Also figured out pretty early that Miranda was one of the baddies, so that plot twist didn't really work. Maybe it was the accent, but I don't blame Bruce for getting with her.

And where exactly was the pit? And how did Bane get from Gotham to the pit and back so fast? And how did Bruce get back to Gotham once he escaped?

A few other thoughts:

Spoiler

I was glad they didn't bring Raz back. He died in the first one, and I liked that they kept it that way.

I laughed at Scarecrow being the judge. Liked the Killer Croc reference. Was hoping at the end, instead of seeing Bruce at the cafe, that Alfred would simply look up and smile That would have been the perfect ending, IMHO. But I am glad they ended on a happy note; I felt bad for Alfred at the funeral.

[Altimus]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

I like Batman, but I wouldn't call myself a huge fan. Never really read the comics. So there are people on this thread who are way more knowledgeable than me. But here's my two cents:

I was really skeptical of Hathaway as Catwoman. But I thought she did an outstanding job. I also really liked Hardy as Bane. No, he wasn't going to match up with Ledger's Joker, but nobody was. He held his own, and I really feared him as the bad guy. If Joker was Batman's mental match, Bane was his physical match.

Spoiler

Like I said, I'm not a huge Batman fan, but I knew enough about Bane to know he had super strength due to the Venom. I thought it was pretty clear that physically, Batman was no match for him. The two fights scenes hammered that home for me, especially when he punches the pillar. And it was clear to me that Batman only really got back into the second fight once he started loosening the tubes on Bane's mask. But perhaps Nolan should have explained that more.

Like everyone else, I was impressed with JGL as Blake. I liked Bale in this one more than the other two. The rest of the cast was excellent, as usual. Nolan clearly knows how to get the most out of his actors.

As far as the movie itself, this felt more like a typical summer blockbuster than a film. The first two movies, to me, felt like something more. It's hard to explain. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, but it fell just short of being something more. If that makes sense. That's not so much a knock on this one as it is a tribute to the first two. My issues:

Spoiler

Maybe I just missed something, but if the plan was to blow up Gotham, why didn't they just do that? Why wait five months for the bomb to go off on its own? Miranda/Talia could have detonated it any time in those five months. Speaking of which, the time lapses threw me too and made the movie feel a bit disjointed.

Also figured out pretty early that Miranda was one of the baddies, so that plot twist didn't really work. Maybe it was the accent, but I don't blame Bruce for getting with her.

And where exactly was the pit? And how did Bane get from Gotham to the pit and back so fast? And how did Bruce get back to Gotham once he escaped?

A few other thoughts:

Spoiler

I was glad they didn't bring Raz back. He died in the first one, and I liked that they kept it that way.

I laughed at Scarecrow being the judge. Liked the Killer Croc reference. Was hoping at the end, instead of seeing Bruce at the cafe, that Alfred would simply look up and smile That would have been the perfect ending, IMHO. But I am glad they ended on a happy note; I felt bad for Alfred at the funeral.

Spoiler

I agree... the waiting part did seem like it was there just to extend the movie. I understand if Talia's goal was to prove something within Gotham's chaos like Joker's experiment but that was never the case.

Pit is in Mexico.

How he got there and back so fast? Well, he's Bruce freaking Wayne.

As far as Ra's... he isn't dead.

[Altimus]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

This isn't aimed to any OS'er (in fact, I doubt any OS'er who has ever entered this thread is in this category), but there are many people who have seen The Dark Knight and haven't seen Batman Begins. That, or you could be like my dad who has seen BB at least five times, and forgets it so much that he forgets Batman actually rebooted as well.

That said, with The Dark Knight Rises being a trilogy finale and connecting back to the beginning so well, I wonder how many casual moviegoers might automatically dismiss it by not understanding it on the same level, simply because they haven't seen Batman Begins.

If you didn't see the previous two it will really take away from the experience. It's pretty much mandatory to see the previous movies before seeing the third.

[Altimus]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

One thing that bothered me about the films was that they used 3 different skylines. Why does Wayne Tower look different in each film?

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

They didn't use Chicago for the 3rd which was used in the first two.

[Kashanova]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

my favorite quotes by the way

Spoiler

"Theatricality and deception great weapons against the un-initiated, but we are initiated in the League of Shadows"

"you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark, I was born in it....molded by it.....I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding! The shadows betray you...because they belong to me."

"Tell me where the trigger is, then you have my permission to die!"

"There's more than one way to be immortal."

[Cj7298419]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

You're right on all counts that don't involve your critique of the movie. I'm going to see it next weekend.

Does anybody else think that Bain may be the greatest villain in movie history?

I agree with him being the greatest villian in this trilogy. You know why? Because he's the only villian in this trilogy that I legitimately felt could beat the **** out of Batman. I always felt the Joker was portrayed well, but it was just a matter of Batman catching up to him. Like they said in TDK, the Joker was like a dog off the leash. In that final scene in the skyscraper, I never once feared for Batman's safety. He just had to be one step ahead of what the Joker would do next. I think sometimes people get caught up in Ledger's great acting and not the Joker as a villian. With Bane, not only did he have the brains to pull off such a plan, but he had the brawn. Dude was just menacing. After thinking about some of his scenes, I love Bane in this film.

Spoiler

Cracking people with his motorbike helmet, him riding on a motorbike, him breaking Batman like that while talking to him about "adopting the darkness." There's just so much I love about what Hardy and Nolan did with him.

I know if I was Bats I'd prefer dealing with the Joker than Bane....

Just my opinion though.

[Altimus]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

I agree with him being the greatest villian in this trilogy. You know why? Because he's the only villian in this trilogy that I legitimately felt could beat the **** out of Batman. I always felt the Joker was portrayed well, but it was just a matter of Batman catching up to him. I think sometimes people get caught up in Ledger's great acting and not the Joker as a villian. With Bane, his plan was on a much grander scale, so he had the brains to go along with the brawn. Dude was just menacing.

I know if I was Bats I'd prefer dealing with the Joker than Bane....

Just my opinion though.

Spoiler

But it wasn't really his plan... he was just a puppet/merc.

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

Saw it today. I guess I am in the group that thought it was the worst of the 3(which still makes it pretty epic). Been in a couple of big arguments today with some friends who are claiming this as the greatest movie ever made. I thought it was way to predictable.

[thaima1shu]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

Seeing it again, I do think this is a step below TDK. I do think I liked it better than BB though. There just wasn't any way that Ledger's Joker could be topped. I do think that Hardy did an incredible job with Bane, and his sheer physicality was an interesting contrast to Joker's mind games.

And so concludes my favorite trilogy of all time. Awesome yet sad at the same time.

[Beantown]

Unmentioned in all of this is Hardys facial expressions. The dude does more with his eyes in this movie than most actors can do with their entire face. Some of his looks are just ****ing creepy.

[thaima1shu]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

Unmentioned in all of this is Hardys facial expressions. The dude does more with his eyes in this movie than most actors can do with their entire face. Some of his looks are just ****ing creepy.

That's part of why I thought Hardy did such a great job. His eyes were something to behold since the rest of his face was pretty much covered.

[OSUFan_88]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

Unmentioned in all of this is Hardys facial expressions. The dude does more with his eyes in this movie than most actors can do with their entire face. Some of his looks are just ****ing creepy.

Spoiler

The pure joy in his eyes when he was beating the **** out of Batman was extremely creepy.

What I find even more cool is that after Batman is beaten, Bane has this bored look on his face, like after Batman was "killed" nothing else really mattered to him. So yeah, Hardy did a damn fine job.

[thaima1shu]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

One question:

Spoiler

How is Bruce Wayne's death explained to the city? I don't think it was ever mentioned, right?

[Beantown]

One question:

Spoiler

How is Bruce Wayne's death explained to the city? I don't think it was ever mentioned, right?

Spoiler

No they never mention it, however pretty easy to just say he died during the riots and such. They were killing rich people. Say he got "exiled" or whatever. Boom.

[CaptainZombie]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

If you didn't see the previous two it will really take away from the experience. It's pretty much mandatory to see the previous movies before seeing the third.

I second that, especially considering how much TDKR circles back around to the first film in many ways.

I started writing my thoughts about this film earlier and stopped for a bit. I'm still trying to soak this film in and see where it stands with the trilogy. I have mixed emotions with a few things, but at times, it feels like its the best in the trilogy even though The Joker is my all-time favorite villain with Bane following a close second in the DC universe. There were two times where TDKR had me slightly tear up in the theater.

If I do have one slight disappointment is that Two-Face did not get to realize his full potential as a villain, but was used in a way to link the second and third films together.

Spoiler

I will say that the ending should have been with Alfred, Gordon, Fox, and Blake standing at the grave site. I could stomach the ending with Blake going into the batcave and leaving things open for interpretation. I did not like that earlier in the movie having Alfred tell Bruce that every year during that 7 year hiatus he was hoping he would see Bruce with a family in France or wherever he said he would go on vacation. Then at the end we have Alfred go to his vacation spot, and he sees both Bruce with Selina. I didn't want to see Bruce/Batman dead, but also did not want to see the same scenes with Alfred again.

The fight scenes should of been beyond awesome between Bane and Batman, I didn't feel like they reached their full potential due to the choreographer used. Bane is a force to reckon with and he did have me many times throughout the movie fear for Batman and anyone that got in the way. I loved that the Nolan's wrote Bane in a way where he wasn't over the top, but would of like to of seen the venom in some capacity. It goes back to the Nolan's not wanting to make these films so cartoonish that they end up coming off as being cheesy several years down the road.

Again, Hardy was awesome as Bane........he was a menacing brute force. Obviously we know he breaks Batman's back, but the looks from his eyes were quite creepy. I did hate how his voice was recorded though. It sounded like he was speaking in a tin can, like those bad voice overs in games.

I was quite surprised with Talia being Miranda just like with Liam Neeson being Ra's Al Ghul at the end of BB. It was well done imo and I am glad that it was kept as a secret the entire time because I feel that it would of taken away from the story had we known it was Talia all along.

I am glad that we did not get an Azrael sighting. I learned to hate him in the KnightQuest storyline with a passion.

I also like Jonathan Crane being the judge, it was cool to see him back with a longer role than TDK.

I don't know how to feel with all the flashbacks. I think they went a bit overboard with them. Then telling Bane's origin with those flashbacks was kind of meh for me. They really should of done something earlier in the film and not wait till the end to do that. It could of been done in a way without revealing that Miranda was Talia since they wanted to have a big reveal at the end.

BTW, The Killer Croc reference was freaking awesome.

I really think The Black Mask could of worked well here in the third film as the major villain tying him back to Ra's. I think the whole mob route that the Nolan's were going with from the first two films could have continued here in the third.

Hoping to have more fleshed out thoughts sometime tomorrow.