Dark Knight Rises (review and discussion) [major spoilers from second post onwards]

[CAFRedblade]

While I definitely enjoyed the movie, I think the first two were better overall.

The bait and switch with Talia/Bane was nicely done, I was cluing in that the child of Ras, would still be Talia just before the reveal.

They pulled in the arc that Bane worked for the League of Shadows.

The performance of Hardy as Bane was wonderful. Even without his (the characters) trademark Venom. The dub to make his voice more clear was decent, although perhaps I could have done with a little bit of a muffling/audio cue that he was speaking through the facemask. It was almost too clear at times.

Batman was kept off balance nicely throughout the movie.

My only question as of plot hole is, if Talia had set the reactor to flood if anyone reactivates it, like she did, and it did, why would she go after the bomb to "protect" it. ... actually, the one thing she wanted to do is keep the bomb on the streets, the reactor core area would probably be able to contain the explosion even if they couldn't shut it down... nm just answered my own question.

Although I was hoping she would escape, while being pregnant with Bruces' child... although it is unclear if she died from her injuries or merely passed out...

 

[Ebon Shar]

Although I was hoping she would escape, while being pregnant with Bruces' child... although it is unclear if she died from her injuries or merely passed out...

I thought her death was so over-the-top pathetic and hammy that it had to have been faked. Then again, why would she fake her death when she fully believed she would die in the nuclear blast? That's the one scene that really bothered me.

I have to admit, I cried at the end. Maybe I'm just a soft, sappy geek, but I did cry. It made me feel a little better that my wife cried as well.

 

[fanboy2000]

Then, for a bit of (in my opinion) unnecessary extra tension, they tossed in the fact that, if removed from its housing, this bomb becomes unstable . . . but a very precise sort of unstable, so you can predict when it will go off, to the second, 5 months from now.

Again, I think it would have made more sense if they'd just left that out. Instead, have the bomb have both an immediate trigger and a countdown.

Actually, this is something I really liked. The idea that the bomb would blow simply as a consequence of not being attached to the fusion rector was a good choice.

First, had it been a typical hollywood countdown, then instead of a race to get it to the rest of the reactor, it would have been a typical "defuse the bomb scene."

Second, it also created a point in the move where defusing it was automatically not a possibility, but with a few minutes still remaining. Thus requiring it to be detonated out in the open ocean.

Lastly, it gave the protagonists a chance to figure out that it was really a kind of time bomb on their own, through their own deductions. Remember, Bane was representing that the bomb would be fine and undetected so long as everyone co-operated.

Bane and Talia's plan was always to blow-up Gotham, and they wanted a full-proof way to make sure that the bomb was going to blow up. And a I think this bomb does a better job of insuring that it detonates than a typical hollywood time bomb.

Yeah, the science is crap, but fusion is one of those keywords that lets you know that everything they say is crap. IIRC, nuclear fusion isn't feasable right now (maybe not ever) because it takes more energy to create a fusion reaction than the energy you get out of it. So, like faster than light travel, I give hollywood writers a pass when talking about fusion.

 

[Stalker0]

So my take.

A good movie, not a great movie.

1) I actually felt like the first hour dragged a bit. Not for lack of stuff going on (there was a ton of things happening), but it felt like too much buildup without enough payoff.

2) I liked the Selina character, but I think it would have worked out better if they had given her a motivation other than (I like stuff). The clean slate thing didn't really work for me. For example, if she hated the rich because you had been abused as kid or something traumatic had happened to her I would have liked it better.

3) Bane was my favorite part of the movie. I did not think I would like him from the trailers, but he did an excellent job. Such a strong physical presence on the screen that really made it work.

4) I hated Talia, her character seemed dropped in to the whole story. Ok, Bruce knows her from a few years back, trying to save the world. Ok, now he's trusting her with these big secrets. Ok, now they are lovers. I didn't see them together enough to get the payoff, there relationship never made sense to me.

5) I liked Batman's death scene, because it really was the death of Batman. To me Alfred got his wish, Bruce was finally able to let the Bat go and start a real life.

 

[Joker]

How cool was the plane scene though? I would love to see the behind the scenes footage on how they did that.

 

[Herschel]

Now that was a great movie. There was just so much going on and the depth was a really nice change after so much fluffier summer fare.

1. The opening scenes were interesting. MNaybe they could have been a bit tighter, but there was so much going on and really helped sink in that Bane was the central "bad guy". Nolan misdirection at work.

2. After it was rumored that Marion Cotillard was cast as Talia even before the plot was known it planted that seed and then when the plot was revealed it made sense that Talia would be involved, so her reveal was not a surprise to me but it still worked well. It was especially telling when she honed right in on the "re-awakened" Bruce while trying not to seem like she was. I thought she played that very well. It also explains their "romance".

3. Alfred's such a good supporting character. The scene when he left was done very well by both actors where Bale looked like he could explode or cry and didn't know which.

4. Morgan Freeman was his usual self, but he had very little screen time. I suppose at 2:44 they felt they were still really pushing it though.

5. Anne Hathaway was very good. She had some nice scenes with Bale that added not only depth but bits of humor too. I would have liked a little more of her backstory but the film was 2:44, so I'll wait for the Director's Cut for that bit.

6. The climactic battle was tremendous in that it really felt "human" with the cops charging the thugs and the forces trying to keep the people in the city. Unlike the Transformers, erm, Avengers big battle that one brought it home and made it feel more personal.

7. The ending was also tremendous. It kind of wrapped up the trilogy but was also left WIDE open. Should they want to do another without Bale, they have "John Blake's" Batman, but should Bale return, there's Robin. One tidbit that really sticks in my mind: Neison's line in the first film about how 'The world is too small for Bruce Wayne to disappear.' I also loved the climbing kit and the Pearl Necklace bit from the will. I also liked that he was able to let Alfred, Lucious and Jim know he had survived.

8. The time passages were a bit ..."tough" to follow except the cut to Winter. At times a month or more had passed but it took a bit to realize that had just happened, like Bruce didn't get back to Gotham by hopping the next flight once he escaped, it took him weeks. There I thought maybe the editing was a bit too tight or ..... something.

 

[Richards]

I just saw it this afternoon, and it was better than I expected - but then, based on the trailers, I really wasn't expecting all that much. Of the three Nolan Batman movies, this was the one that I had the least excitement about going to see.

And now that I've seen it, I have to say that overall I'm a bit disappointed in Bale's Batman. He's a quitter. Let's review the history of his Batman:

• In Batman Begins, we get his origin story and he fights Ra's al Ghul and the Scarecrow.
  
• In The Dark Knight, he fights Joker and Two-Face.
  
• In The Dark Knight Rises, we find out that he's been lounging around in his mansion for the past eight years (!), retired as Batman because he doesn't want to let anyone know that District Attorney Harvey Dent was actually Two-Face. Then he's more or less "forced" out of retirement to deal with Bane and Talia, at the end of which he finds a way to fake his death and make it look like Batman was killed saving Gotham City. Now he's off the grid: the world thinks he's dead, so he can go party off around Europe with Selina Kyle - who, by the way, he knows got her money through theft.

I'm a long-time comic book fan (and collector) since 1979. I've always been more of a Marvel guy than a DC guy, but Batman has always been my favorite DC superhero. And this, alas, is not a very flattering portrayal of the Batman I'm familiar with from the comics. My Batman realizes that fighting crime is something that will consume his whole life. My Batman is still scarred from the death of his parents, and has vowed that he will fight crime - and criminals - until his dying breath. My Batman doesn't putz around in his mansion like a hermit for 8 years, and then find a way to sneak off and abandon his self-appointed lifetime duty to go party with a jewel thief.

I was similarly disappointed with The Amazing Spider-Man, so I'll do with The Dark Knight Rises as I did with that one - recognize that it's an alternate universe version that has nothing much in common with the "true" (i.e., comic book) version of the character other than the same name and similar abilities.

And at least this year I got The Avengers, which got so much right that I'm not going to quibble with the small stuff that was changed.

Johnathan

 

[GMforPowergamers]

[*]In The Dark Knight Rises, we find out that he's been lounging around in his mansion for the past eight years (!), retired as Batman because he doesn't want to let anyone know that District Attorney Harvey Dent was actually Two-Face. Then he's more or less "forced" out of retirement to deal with Bane and Talia, at the end of which he finds a way to fake his death and make it look like Batman was killed saving Gotham City. Now he's off the grid: the world thinks he's dead, so he can go party off around Europe with Selina Kyle - who, by the way, he knows got her money through theft

We have a very real look into a unrealstic chracter.

I like that batman got happy ending. In fact this is, in my own mind, the best "end of batman"

 

[RangerWickett]

Even firefighters retire.

Dude saved a city twice and ended up inspiring a lot of people. His legend will be fighting crime well after his dying breath. Plus, you know he was all like, "Hey, Selina, so . . . my butler, I want to make him happy. Can you tell a tiny little lie for me? He's an old family friend, and he's got this unrealistic notion that I'm going to settle down and get married."

"You want me to pose as your wife?"

"Just for a lunch. I'll even take you to Paris. . . . You might need to steal some money so I can afford it, though."

"Hm. Let me keep the pearls and we'll call it even."

 

[Hand of Evil]

I was not a fan, did not like the Sean Connery voice (as it sounded to me) for Bane and it just sounded like SNL Jeopardy...Alex, I take Batman and your mother.

New York just is not the city of Gotham.

Give it 7 out of 10