The Dark Knight Rises - seen thread *SPOILERS WITHIN* See Mod Warning in first post

Turtyturd

OMARS_COMING_ wrote: »

Ok smart arse,you tell us how he got back to gotham then seeming as you have it all figured out.

He snuck in on one of the supply trucks like the special forces guys, although because he is f*cking Batman he managed to get on and get off the truck without being seen.

spankmaster2000

Handsome Bob wrote: »

I never got the impression that Bane's crew were highly trained, just brainwashed followers. LOS they weren't.

I'd disagree with that based on the intro alone. They absailed from one aeroplane to another, performed a mid-air blood transfusion, and then one of them sacrificed his life because he was simply told to!

Oafley Jones

I'm a fairly big Batman fan and l loved what Nolan did with the franchise. I saw Begins four times and TDK possibly six times in the cinema, bought them on the day they became available and watched them numerous times since. Not that I think they're perfect movies, far from it, they've each got they're own issues and I still feel that they exist in slightly different realities from each other. After much anticipation I got to see TDKR in IMAX last night and Ive no desire to see it again.

I'm still trying to process what exactly is wrong with it but again this year a big budget tent pole flick is critically undermined by a poor script. It's no where near as idiotic as Prometheus but it suffers just as many fundamental issues -oddly, Prometheus kinda hurt my brain but always kept me interested in what was going on, TDKR on the other hand had me checking my watch a few times.

So many problems..

Bane - This is probably one of the least interesting version of the character they could have gone with. Idiotic dialogue, I'm looking at Goyer here again. Bad sub bond villains. Really poor story structure. Characters that aren't true, or coherent to the reality that they occupy. Batman doesn't kill but conviently has a proxy in cat woman. And there are many, many more issues that are still just banging around my head at the moment.

I liked Murphy, the first fight and didn't hate the ending.

Josey Wales

I went to see The Dark Knight Rises yesterday at the BFI IMAX in London and I loved the film. Easily the best film I have seen in 2012 and one of the best action movies I've seen since The Dark Knight in 2008.

This thread is now too long to read in its entirety but having scanned through it opinion seems to be very mixed. I've seen a few even comment that this movie is terrible. I can't believe someone can describe this movie as terrible with a straight face. Surely a terrible film is one that has no redeeming features at all. That is not this film. Even if you didn't like parts of the story, or some of the action there was always Wally Pfister's work to admire.

I was worried before the movie that it wouldn't live up to my expectations. It may not have been quite the equal of The Dark Knight but I still loved it. The new characters were all excellent. I really like Anne Hathaway's Catwoman. She was in it less than I expected but she made the most of her screen time. I also really enjoyed Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character. Obviously, Bane was the most important new character and he was excellent. I'm pretty sure I missed a couple of is lines of his dialogue but that didn't matter at all. He brought all the physicality you expect of Bane. His fight scene with Batman halfway through was really well done. Tom Hardy really made me believe he was capable of beating Batman in a fight. I also loved how Bane was so untroubled during the fight he could goad Batman throughout. I particularly like his lines about how Batman only adopted the shadows but Bane was raised in them.

One aspect of the film that I particularly liked was the ending. I'm not sure how it was received in this forum but I loved it. Absolutely loved it. I can't imagine a more fitting end for any of the characters in the franchise. I was worried for a minute that our last image of Alfred would be of a broken man crying at the grave side. When it went back to him at the cafe in Italy and he gave that nod to the camera it was like time stood still for a moment. I thought Christoper Nolan was going to give us another ambiguous ending like Inception and not show who he was nodding to. There was also the moment when John Blake's first name is revealed to be Robin. There was an audible reaction from the audience in my screening. Nolan had made Robin cool. Hard to believe after Chris O'Donnell's incarnation of the character (I know Robin John Blake is technically not Dick Grayson).

I'm so glad that the fact that Liam Neeson and Cillian Murphy's cameos were kept secret. It was great to see them back, particularly Scarecrow. I loved his kangaroo court scenes.

The scenes filmed in the IMAX format were stunning. When the film opens and it goes to the scene of Bane in the plane the picture just expands to take up that gigantic screen. The image is simply brilliant, amazing clarity. The transition from non-IMAX format scenes to IMAX scenes is handled really well too. If you have the option to see it in this format you really should.

I do have a few minor quibbles with the film. I felt that Batman could have been in the film more. By my reckoning he had three scenes - his return, the sequence involving the fight with Bane and finally his return to Gotham (it doesn't bother me how he got back, he is Batman, he will find a way.) I also felt that Bane had a rather low key ending for the build up that he received. I think the action on a whole wasn't quite on a par with The Dark Knight although the shots of all those cops chasing the Batpod looked spectacular.

It was most definitely worth the trip over to London. It was one of very few movies I have been to that got applause from the audience at the end. In my opinion this is now the best trilogy of movies that I can think of. So many seem to falter at some point but Nolan's Batman has no weak entry. Indeed, I think Begins is the weakest but it is still one of my favourite comic book movies.

shadowcomplex

With Nolan's Epic Trilogy Complete: Joel Schumacher now has our permission to die.:)

al28283

Josey Wales wrote: »

Nolan had made Robin cool. Hard to believe after Chris O'Donnell's incarnation of the character (I know Robin John Blake is technically not Dick Grayson).

Robin has been pretty cool for a long time, just not on film.

Daveysil15

TDKR has one of the best film endings ever. It has certainly left an indelible mark.

Josey Wales

al28283 wrote: »

Robin has been pretty cool for a long time, just not on film.

Well I was just talking about Robin's outings on film to be honest. Should have made that clearer.

Handsome Bob

spankmaster2000 wrote: »

Handsome Bob wrote: »

I never got the impression that Bane's crew were highly trained, just brainwashed followers. LOS they weren't.

I'd disagree with that based on the intro alone. They absailed from one aeroplane to another, performed a mid-air blood transfusion, and then one of them sacrificed his life because he was simply told to!

I think the person who happily stayed to die was one of the lads brought onto the plane with Bane, just a brainwashed disciple. As for the lads who attacked the plane, impressive, but could have just been hired guns themselves, a throwback to the skyhook method Bruce used in TDK in order for Bane to serve as a mirror to Bruce.

Look at the buildup to the first fight with Bane, Bruce easily disposed of Bane's goons. They were akin to Falcone's goons rather than LOS.

krudler

"Who is it?"
"Goons"
"Who?"
"Hired goons"
"Hired goons?"

humanji

Handsome Bob wrote: »

I think the person who happily stayed to die was one of the lads brought onto the plane with Bane, just a brainwashed disciple. As for the lads who attacked the plane, impressive, but could have just been hired guns themselves, a throwback to the skyhook method Bruce used in TDK in order for Bane to serve as a mirror to Bruce.

Look at the buildup to the first fight with Bane, Bruce easily disposed of Bane's goons. They were akin to Falcone's goons rather than LOS.

I'd have thought that it'd be a mix of mostly being those that Bane "hired" in Gotham, but since he'd been a mercenary for years before, he'd have also developed a highly trained team of "true believers". This team were the ones who we saw at the start and would be the main lieutenants in the army.

spankmaster2000

Handsome Bob wrote: »

Look at the buildup to the first fight with Bane, Bruce easily disposed of Bane's goons. They were akin to Falcone's goons rather than LOS.

Yeah, but Bruce easily disposed of 4 samurai-sword wiedling League of Shadows members in Batman Begins, along with their leader.
Alfred even manages to knock one of them out. Men personally trained by Ras Al Ghul himself.

Anyway; I suppose it doesn't matter really. It's not something I'd even noticed during the film; nor would it change anything in the story!

Fishooks12

IamMetaldave wrote: »

Well, I have been to see this 5 times now (and another tomorrow, with an IMAX viewing in London on the 10th of August) and have loved every showing of it. I've read 90% of the 60+ pages and the nit picking is just beyond a joke! Personally, if I was that irritated by a film, I wouldn't bother writing anything about or waste my time by doing so.

I find it very hard to watch a film, even one I've really enjoyed, more than once during a short space of time.

So because someone didn't enjoy it they shouldn't bother writing their opinion?

al28283

humanji wrote: »

I'd have thought that it'd be a mix of mostly being those that Bane "hired" in Gotham, but since he'd been a mercenary for years before, he'd have also developed a highly trained team of "true believers". This team were the ones who we saw at the start and would be the main lieutenants in the army.

Wasn't it the orphans and homeless who went to work in the sewers that Bane was using?

Overheal

PhiloCypher wrote: »

I wondered that myself initially but have since come to the conclusion(to be confirmed on a 2nd viewing) that the front wheel doesn't roll sideways at all only the back one.

both wheels definitely roll - he does a seriously sharp drift turn into the alley where he parked The Bat and both wheels surely flipped to allow him to pull it off (and what a damn epic drift!!!)

Not my biggest criticism by any means. I like all the engineering stuff; hell I doodle battlesuits (think Iron Man) all the time. Further nitpickery abounds when you wonder how a batpod got into the Tumbler design and wasn't present in the other Tumblers [Because he's batman] and that bit in TDK where he flips the Slaughter truck (a little unreal, but ok that **** was a "Ha Ha" moment) he just runs the batpod into the wall of a bank or something, flips the bike completely vertical and spins around. Its one of those things I cant help but always notice (like falling out of the penthouse with Rachel) but for the life of me, it's not enough to ruin these movies It's more like little things I'm sure they could have cleaned up with a little extra time in post production or a little extra stunt shooting (fire a grapple hook or something) but who the hell really cares enough.

Mickeroo

al28283 wrote: »

Robin has been pretty cool for a long time, just not on film.

You mean Damien Wayne? Wouldn't that be a great route to take for the reboot if they hadn't killed Tahlia in this, just substitute Blake for Grayson and have that little psycho as his sidekick!

I've given up on trying to read the whole thread, just too damn much!!

Saw the film on Tuesday night. I'm very much in the camp of thinking it was brilliant. It was a glorious mash-up of Knightfall and No Man's Land. I was slack jawed during the back-breaking scene. I thought the ending was brilliant too and was delighted at the way they manage to work Robin into the story without him really being Robin but still fulfilling a similar role. They even managed to have the Lazarus Pit in there, sure it was in a more metaphorical sense but in the end he still got his back broke, was put in the pit and came out healed.

It was much more similar in tone to BB rather than TDK and really braught the trilogy full circle in a very satisfying way. Much like the other movies they managed to deal with some pretty lofty themes for a summer blockbuster and unlike prometheus managed to deal with them successfully too.

There were flaws of course but only very minor, the biggest gripe I had was the whole nuclear bomb countdown, it was a bit generic for what I've come to expect of this series and funnily enough i was left thinking of Iron Man sacrificing himself at the end of Avengers when Batman had to do something similar in this. It didn't really spoil my enjoyment of the film at all though. It was also a bit rushed in a few other parts, the film obviously takes place over a period of 6 months to a year but they didn't do a great job of conveying that i thought.

i thought this was by far the most emotional of the three films though. Alfred was brilliant, the scene at the grave especially and when he comes clean about the letter, though I felt he should have been in the film more than he was. When bruce finally climbed out of the pit was great too.

The whole cast were really brilliant in this particularly Caine, Hardy, Levitt and Hathaway, but I can't really fault anyone apart from the bit where Tahlia died, her acting seemed a bit off to me for those few seconds. Hardy was great as Bane, even if he did sound a bit like a bond villain sometimes and his voice did feel like it was dubbed over a lot of the time but I'm willing to let that slide.

Overall I genuinely can't decide where I'd rate this in comparison to the other two. Each film has it's own theme and I like each one for different reasons. I think this was easily as good as BB and almost borderline with TDK, the only think that edges TDK maybe is the presence of Joker. Would love to see how they would have worked him into this somehow if Heath Ledger hadn't passed away, I think we might have just seen a very different film tbh!

Along with LOTR & Toy Story this stands up as one of the strongest most consistent trilogies out there imo!

Scanlas The 2nd

spankmaster2000 wrote: »

Handsome Bob wrote: »

Look at the buildup to the first fight with Bane, Bruce easily disposed of Bane's goons. They were akin to Falcone's goons rather than LOS.

Yeah, but Bruce easily disposed of 4 samurai-sword wiedling League of Shadows members in Batman Begins, along with their leader.
Alfred even manages to knock one of them out. Men personally trained by Ras Al Ghul himself.

Anyway; I suppose it doesn't matter really. It's not something I'd even noticed during the film; nor would it change anything in the story!

That wasn't easy, he basically lost the final fight against Ra's only for he was distracted by the explosion ahead.

Pomplamousse

fruvai wrote: »

Batman getting his back broken didn't wow you? I was like :eek:

Honestly? No it didn't. Probably because personally I'm just not a fan of that kind of beating someone to a pulp kind of violence, find it hard to watch. Give me exploding a bomb in someone's stomach/having half your face burnt off scenes over that any day:D

Grimebox

I didn't even realise his back was broken till the old guy in the prison mentioned his vertebrae was out of place. I never read any of the comics so didn't realise it was such a big deal

silvine

Who says Batman isn't realistic?

ronoc 1

i read a review of the film in hotpress and one of their criticisms is that christain bale was too wooden in the role,i was surprised at this becuse to me he has been an excellent batman.His scenes with michael caine in particular were outstanding.Just wondering what other people made of him in the series and whether he lacked charisma in the role.

Handsome Bob

Hot Press? Don't they have a sex advice columnist conveniently called Anne Sexton? Does anyone take them seriously?

Fishooks12

Handsome Bob wrote: »

Hot Press? Don't they have a sex advice columnist conveniently called Anne Sexton? Does anyone take them seriously?

What would that have to do with the guy who writes the reviews?

Turtyturd

Maybe his name is Mike Movieton.....although I would rubbish the claim that Bale is wooden, the scene where he stands over looking the party alone conveyed almost everything the character had been through to take him to the point he was at.

Handsome Bob

Fishooks12 wrote: »

What would that have to do with the guy who writes the reviews?

That one thing would tell me that they're a gimmicky outlet, and will thus say things that go against the grain. Of all the criticisms I've heard about TDKR, most I'm not even bothered about, to accuse Bale of being wooden in this film has to be the most ludicrous criticism I've read yet.

Fishooks12

Handsome Bob wrote: »

That one thing would tell me that they're a gimmicky outlet, and will thus say things that go against the grain. Of all the criticisms I've heard about TDKR, most I'm not even bothered about, to accuse Bale of being wooden in this film has to be the most ludicrous criticism I've read yet.

I felt he was a bit wooden in TDK. He loosened up for this though

While Bale was good as batman it's not close to many of his better performances.

dRNk SAnTA

Bane was a poor character. Difficult to understand, apart from his size I didn't think he was very menacing, and the mask completely removed Tom Hardy's ability to act. Some people will say "Tom Hardy acted with his eyes", but I consider it a massive failure of this movie.

The plot was convoluted and while the story was interesting, it was ruined by the rushed ending that resorted to clichés and ridiculous throw away comments in order to tie up the loose ends. Cliche - ticking time bomb, strap it to my flying machine and I'll take it out to sea. We've seen it before in countless super hero movies, we've even seen it in the camp 1960s Batman movie.

Then Lucius Fox at the end finding out that "Bruce Wayne ran a patch to fix the auto-pilot issue". OH COME ON. What a cop out, that is just insulting. So Batman is alive, I guess some people in the audience are happier knowing that he's met a nice lady and moved to Europe.

Does anyone else feel they missed the point of the whole "Hold the city hostage until the bomb goes off" social experiment? What exactly did it result in? The general public seemed to do little, there was a kangaroo court run by the criminal henchmen, but society basically did nothing. You just had the police guys running around with impunity, knocking on the sides of the bomb trucks to see what's inside. It was just dull.

The B.A.T. flying machine was a bit of a crutch I felt, a bit ridiculous, it was a vehicle (haha geddit?) to allow the script writers cut corners in a number of scenes.

And finally, to repeat, Bane and the villians were just so forgettable.

I'm a big batman fan but I think it's time for a bit of realism. Batman Begins wasn't THAT good, The Dark Knight WAS that good, and this one falls somewhere in between. TDK is probably the best super hero movie ever, but TDKR falls behind "Batman Returns" in the all-time Batman rankings.

I've got plenty more but I think I'll leave it there for now.

Grimebox

ronoc 1 wrote: »

i read a review of the film in hotpress and one of their criticisms is that christain bale was too wooden in the role,i was surprised at this becuse to me he has been an excellent batman.His scenes with michael caine in particular were outstanding.Just wondering what other people made of him in the series and whether he lacked charisma in the role.

While I would agree, I thought that was what Bruce Wayne/Batman's character was meant to be? In all the other films its similar. I wouldn't call him wooden as that is a bit insulting, apathetic maybe? Bale can't be faulted for playing his character perfectly

Handsome Bob

dRNk SAnTA wrote: »

We've seen it before in countless super hero movies, we've even seen it in the camp 1960s Batman movie.

Besides for the 1960s series (where you could argue that this film was paying a homage to), where exactly have you seen this in other superhero films?

I'm not exactly a fan of the bomb plot device, but to suggest that you've seem similar in other superhero franchises is folly I'm afraid.

Ape X

I haven't taken Hot Press seriously for about fifteen years. The final straw? A music review slated an album, with one of the reasons given being that the reviewer thought the lead singer of the band would be the type of guy to follow a particular football team, whom the reviewer hated