Dark Knight Rises - SPOILERS start pg 31

[Amblin]

i thought it was cool when told that henchman to follow gordon through the sewer and put the tracking device on him then shot him, but nothing really came of that.

i guess you could argue it made it so bane knew gordon was found by the cops, but i figured at the time bane would be meeting blake and the cops almost immediately at that spot he ended up

also speaking of which, it seemed like the protagonists had a great way of finding each other in gotham at the right moment: blake picking up wayne when he gets his car towed, there was that scene i just mentioned at the water with gordon and blake, the scene where batman rescues catwoman on the roof, the scene where batman saves blake (maybe batman was on the way to free the cops already?) and the scene where wayne returns to gotham and meets up with kyle after she helps the apple kid

i kind of expect this to happen in these movies, but it seemed like a lot

[sigmonrunner]

I think what's really disappointing in Nolan's films is how the Batman in begins barely exits by the third film. He seems really hammy and goofy. like that scene where batman and catwoman go into the sewers looked way out of place.

[Rhodes]

wrote:

Burton's first Batman is still the best.

[swamp thing]

yknow all the guys in the prison seemed pretty chill when bruce was there

no one tried to rape the literally paralyzed guy with his own personal television who doesnt speak the language, everyone was really supportive, the prisoners had kind of an alien 3 vibe

i guess they like drop food down once in a while or theyre cannibals and theres like a really calm, civil selection process?

for some reason young liam neeson cracked me the fuck up, when they wouldnt show his face initially i thought they were gonna sneak in a fassbender cameo

[street hustler slokra]

i still don't really get why batman beat bane the second time... or am I forgetting some major thing?

the only thing i can think to rationalize it is he knew the mask was a weakness the second time so he went straight at it.

but thats sort of a stretch.

I think it was partly that (thanks to the friendly prison guy), and partly the whole concept that Batman had since been exposed to the same hardships that made Bane so strong, putting them on a more level playing field. or something

basically batman's strategy (sometimes), and particularly Bale's batman is to pound it till it fits and he does this even after being told he can't do this in prison but then he just goes ahead and does it to bane

[swamp thing]

anyway this movie had good bits but crumbles under the weight of its own self importance, it felt like they read too many gushing reviews of dark knight

like you're building this bleak, serious, dark, real movie, and then the only way to sustain that illusion since this movie is about bat man is to keep the dude in the rubber suit with the stupid voice and superplane to the absolute barest possible minimum


theres like half an hour of pathos in between every scene of something comic book-y happening and when it does it fucks with the tone

like there was a ton of stuff i liked in this movie but i couldnt say that i liked this movie

i didnt hate it or anything but i was definitely ready for it to be over

i really liked how vincent price-y bane got in a few scenes, especially the very beginning

[sigmonrunner]

wrote:

Burton's first Batman is still the best.

Burton's Batman is the best because he didn't try to make a Batman movie. Instead he made a movie where the shells of these characters are transposed on to real people. They struggle to make sense of who they are, what they are doing and why. Wayne teeters on the edges of reality, almost incapable of being Batman, only succeeding because the narrative demands it.

[hey look]

i fell asleep for like 10 minutes about an hour in, but whatever. movie was a disappointment but still pretty rad

[The Emperor's Son]

i'm actually really glad they kept the scenes w/ batman suited up limited.

one of nolan's biggest weaknesses is his fighting scenes.

and the bale's batman voice.

[various artists]

seen plenty of people gushing about DKR on facebook, worst offender was this:

The Dark Knight Rises is like a symphony. Nolan resists stringing together a series of explosions in lieu of a steady crescendo with an impressive finale. The key characters to me are all metaphors for the various political and moral stances one can take existing in our era of social inequality and corruption. Fucking loved that shit.

[Rhodes]

wrote:

Burton's first Batman is still the best.

Burton's Batman is the best because he didn't try to make a Batman movie. Instead he made a movie where the shells of these characters are transposed on to real people. They struggle to make sense of who they are, what they are doing and why. Wayne teeters on the edges of reality, almost incapable of being Batman, only succeeding because the narrative demands it.

So, what you're telling me is that Burton should be applauded for being tasked with making a Batman movie without trying to make a Batman movie, regardless of its numerous flaws.

[chairkicker]

i still don't really get why batman beat bane the second time... or am I forgetting some major thing?

the only thing i can think to rationalize it is he knew the mask was a weakness the second time so he went straight at it.

but thats sort of a stretch.

I think it was partly that (thanks to the friendly prison guy), and partly the whole concept that Batman had since been exposed to the same hardships that made Bane so strong, putting them on a more level playing field. or something

there were a few painfully explicit moments addressing this. the first time is batman the legend, hitting bane with everything but in the service of nothing. second time is wayne fighting for his life. he'd found the fear again, which is why he succeeds

like that scene where batman and catwoman go into the sewers looked way out of place.

i was upset with this. like the slapdash aspect of it might be cool in some sense - i think that's where brooks and emperor's son are coming from - but man if it didn't seem like a total waste, especially as a lead in to the first encounter with bane. i guess i had imagined some lynchian strobe scene based on the trailers, though

[addison]

seen plenty of people gushing about DKR on facebook, worst offender was this:

The Dark Knight Rises is like a symphony. Nolan resists stringing together a series of explosions in lieu of a steady crescendo with an impressive finale. The key characters to me are all metaphors for the various political and moral stances one can take existing in our era of social inequality and corruption. Fucking loved that shit.

imagine how awesome the movie would be if it was like this
to be fair, this is probably how nolan imagines it himself

[Bartatua]

welp

holy shit @2:16

[addison]

welp

holy shit @2:16

best thing they've done

[fox]

the first burton batman is a mock noir

[iambic]

just saw this

once again shoulda been two movies (part 1. Knightfall, part 2. No Man's Land), which would have allowed for much tighter writing, better action, and some of the plot points to actually take on the emotional weight that I'm guessing was intended (Alfred quitting, Talia's seduction and betrayal). pacing was all over the place, and too many of the leaps in time and place were convenient. but I still loved it because it was Batman, even though Bale's Batman is kinda limited. also the idea of Bruce retiring and happily handing the keys over to an untrained cop left a sour taste.

on a par with the other two. if it's worse than The Dark Knight, it's only because it didn't have Ledger's Joker.

[chairkicker]

on a par with the other two. if it's worse than The Dark Knight, it's only because it didn't have Ledger's Joker.

i don't know about that. the dark knight is hamstrung by moral grandstanding and Big Ideas given Big Moments, reduced to suitably shallow talking points in the last act, but for a good 2/3rds it's an unstoppable force - all things running 1000 feet per second without missing a step. joker's part of that, but it's an amazing feat even without him. at least for that window in time

[sordid affair]

i would just like to pop in to say that this movie was disturbing/tense/intense enough to warrant an "r" rating, and that it's kind of messed up that it would have had one had there been one bare breast

this is tipper gore, signing off

[iambic]

the dark knight is hamstrung by moral grandstanding and Big Ideas given Big Moments, reduced to suitably shallow talking points

the Big Ideas are in this one, too, and just as confused and shallow as ever

but wait maybe across the three films Nolan's doing some sort of meta commentary on how Batman is a symbol that is forever being forcibly appropriated and shaped by events and outside figures (and especially the villains in each movie), and it's only at the end that he truly asserts himself; this would also explains why this Batman is largely a dumb slugger rather than the world's greatest detective..



nah

[dreamshake]

really wish we could get a batman beyond-esque sequel with bruce mentoring blake, helping him overcome his very basic training, but i know it'll never happen

[cram]

I keep coming back to how frantically mashed together the plot was in this movie. I dont understand how you could write a story like this and imagine you could coherently tell it within the timeframe of a movie.

[The Emperor's Son]

really wish we could get a batman beyond-esque sequel with bruce mentoring blake, helping him overcome his very basic training, but i know it'll never happen

this is the only the superhero film i'd anticipate seeing but yeah probably never going to happen.

[badhat]

really wish we could get a batman beyond-esque sequel with bruce mentoring blake, helping him overcome his very basic training, but i know it'll never happen

this is the only the superhero film i'd anticipate seeing but yeah probably never going to happen.

everyone saying this shoulda been two movies is right and the break should have been at the stadium explosion and most of the second movie should have been this

[Architecture]

i would just like to pop in to say that this movie was disturbing/tense/intense enough to warrant an "r" rating, and that it's kind of messed up that it would have had one had there been one bare breast

this is tipper gore, signing off

Not one single drop of blood is spilled

TDK was the same way, and in my opinion, far more horrific

[worrywort]

that's probably why i expected matthew modine to stand up and run away sneakily after lying down unharmed in the snow

[Architecture]

Guys, remember when everyone argued TDK should've been two movies--taking down the Joker and the rise and fall of Two-Face?

It wasn't ever gonna pan out that way

We didn't get the Batman film we needed, but we sure as hell got the Batman movie we deserved

[Rhodes]

really wish we could get a batman beyond-esque sequel with bruce mentoring blake, helping him overcome his very basic training, but i know it'll never happen

this is the only the superhero film i'd anticipate seeing but yeah probably never going to happen.

everyone saying this shoulda been two movies is right and the break should have been at the stadium explosion and most of the second movie should have been this

But then it wouldn't be a surprise. It's like when everyone wanted Crispin Glover as the Joker or Depp for the Riddler. Nolan never goes for the obvious like that. Insularity can be a dangerous thing (Burton), but when we get Batman movies like this, hey, whatever. The Talia reveal was obvious to me, but not most of the people in the audience, so much. And, you know, I don't think my guess matters; that's neither here nor there. Which isn't to say that the literal twist of the knife was dampened by that when it happened. It carried enough impact on its own as a scene imo. I felt it was telegraphed well, from Bruce's perspective. You've already met crazy, now meet crazier.

Anyway, that's getting tangential. I don't think Knightfall's nearly interesting enough to stand on its own. I'm sure I've mentioned this up-thread, but it's a mere footnote in Bat-history, an editorially driven sales stunt a la The Death of Superman. No Man's Land is the superior of the two arcs, obv. I just can't see decompressing either one out to movie lengths. Like brooks said, Nolan's trilogy isn't perfect to the purist in me; but, part of the kick I get out of it is how much of the mythos Nolan has drawn from without adapting or even borrowing from one arc at time. The three movies are really all over the map, canonically, which is a lot more than I can say for the meandering, flimsy plots of the Burton movies.

Part of why the climax and the way all the loose ends were tied at the end worked for me was because, even having called the Talia betrayal from the moment Cotillard was cast, I still couldn't get a sense of Nolan's endgame. I didn't see the "death" of Batman ahead, or the winking Robin moment coming until Blake tried using his full name. So I think it was ballsy of Nolan to wrap everything up with one movie. It carried a lot more momentum that way; much more satisfying to me. It's like the anti-two-parter, which I think is fairly unique these days.

[good pups]

completely agree

[badhat]

it already wasnt a surprise

and even to the extent that it was, it was a gotcha and not an actual plot twist or development