The Dark Knight Rises

[Popinjay-Z]

My fan credentials:
I have seen each of Nolan's Batman films one time. I enjoyed them all to varying degrees, though none as much as "Memento," which is still one of my favorite card trick movies ever (though I only saw that one time as well, because the most fun part of a card trick is the feeling you get the first time you witness the trick). I think epic trilogies aren't my thing. I fell asleep during 2 of the 3 LOTR movies. I never saw the last "Star Wars" movie.

My all-important verdict:
Every moment with Catlady was the best moment. If the whole movie had been like Hathaway's big showcase scene at the seedy bar with that sub-Willem Dafoe-looking dude, I would watch that movie every time it came on TV from here to eternity, just as I do with "Die Hard" or "Ocean's Eleven" (but not "From Here To Eternity" which is super-boring and doesn't feature snappy rejoinders or sexy lady kicks).

[Natalie Portmanteau]

11 Things That Didn’t Work in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’
http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/fea...fure.php?all=1

[P-Dub]

Great, lest this dialogue get too interesting, here's 11 more examples of distracting, nitpicky bullshit.

[Monty]

My nitpicks were way better than that article's.

[pollymaepry]

is this how guys catfight

[Natalie Portmanteau]

Great, lest this dialogue get too interesting, here's 11 more examples of distracting, nitpicky bullshit.

Get used to it. This is how people will remember this movie.

[pixel revolt]

Please allow us this brief window of being ignorant then. Tytytyty.

[Natalie Portmanteau]

Alright, I'm done being crazy Ralph from Friday the 13th for now.

[TimBuktu]

Get used to it. This is how people will remember this movie.

Really? Is it possible there may be differing opinions? No. Ok. Cool.

[Ghost Dad]

Anne Hathaway was a bright shining pair of lips in an otherwise drab set of silly voices and saggy Michael Caine balls.

[ImAScooby]

11 Things That Didn’t Work in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’
http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/fea...fure.php?all=1

First off, Bane's voice was the best thing in this damned movie. And secondly, are they really bitching about a look that was on Joseph Gordon-Levitt's face for 2 seconds after he shot those two guys? It's not hard to believe that he wouldn't like guns but would still be willing to bring a shotgun along with him when going into certain danger so as to not be murdered. The movie has many flaws, but that wasn't one of them.

[Weinerslave]

My friends and I have gotten so much enjoyment out of doing the Bane voice (usually about somebody's punishment needing to be more severe) that I can't help but love it.

I think the prominence of all the nitpicking blog posts, which did not happen after The Dark Knight came out (and that movie was plenty nit-pickable) shows that TDKR just didn't connect with people the same way as the preceding films. Not because of any individual discrepancy or distraction (although I was genuinely annoyed by the Batons-Versus-Assault Rifles battle royale), but because there was just so much stuff going on that shit got unwieldy. And when a movie gets awkward and unfocused like that, it erodes a viewer's emotional connection and suspension of disbelief, and they start trying to identify specifically why they're not feeling it. Since it's easier to talk about concrete plot points than a generalized sense of alienation, they focus on piddling shit that they never would have noticed if the movie really grabbed them.

[Natalie Portmanteau]

Yes, exactly! It's as I said initially, there's not enough of the good stuff this time around to distract from and compensate for the numerous flaws in this movie.

[Americas Team]

I saw it and sadly I didn't like it that much. I really wish I had. I tried so hard to like this movie.

It just seems like the script was 4 drafts away from being done. Maybe they were given too much leeway and so all these little things slipped into the movie. Yeah it is nit picking but there are just a lot of nits in this movie.

Plus there are some things that aren't that small. Do you really need a new version of an atomic bomb? I mean they already have atomic bombs. Just use one of those. If you are a giant organization with limitless resources isn't it just as easy to use existing technology. Is it harder to make a nuke than catch a plane in mid air, and suck the blood from a scientist, all while being shot at?

The arc of the trilogy seems fucked by this movie. The first one was becoming Batman. The second one was dealing with the consequences of Batman raising the crazy bar. The third??? It didn't seem to move it forward. Is it that Batman HAD to die? We don't really see people inspired by Batman's death? I just don't get the point. In some blockbusters I wouldn't care but with this I was just expecting more.

The twist at the end screws things up. I get why they held it off so you get an big Oh Shit moment just when you think Batman wins. The problem is that it muddies the motivation of the villains. If Bane and Ms. Ras are loyal to the Shadow people thing than was all the shit he spouted just BS? Why bother than? I wanted Bane to sort of be a Che character but I'm really unclear what his motivations, beyond revenge, are.

They did all that just to watch Wayne twist in the wind? Of course you don't know that Wayne is twisting in the wind because he is on the other fucking side of the earth in a hole fixing his back by getting punched a bunch. Because that's how backs get fixed.

Wouldn't sweeter revenge be robbing him of his money, outing him as Batman, breaking his back and blowing up his city while he watches just out of reach of the blast radius? Isn't that enough?

[pixel revolt]

I saw it and sadly I didn't like it that much. I really wish I had. I tried so hard to like this movie.

It just seems like the script was 4 drafts away from being done. Maybe they were given too much leeway and so all these little things slipped into the movie. Yeah it is nit picking but there are just a lot of nits in this movie.

Plus there are some things that aren't that small. Do you really need a new version of an atomic bomb? I mean they already have atomic bombs. Just use one of those. If you are a giant organization with limitless resources isn't it just as easy to use existing technology. Is it harder to make a nuke than catch a plane in mid air, and suck the blood from a scientist, all while being shot at?

The arc of the trilogy seems fucked by this movie. The first one was becoming Batman. The second one was dealing with the consequences of Batman raising the crazy bar. The third??? It didn't seem to move it forward. Is it that Batman HAD to die? We don't really see people inspired by Batman's death? I just don't get the point. In some blockbusters I wouldn't care but with this I was just expecting more.

The twist at the end screws things up. I get why they held it off so you get an big Oh Shit moment just when you think Batman wins. The problem is that it muddies the motivation of the villains. If Bane and Ms. Ras are loyal to the Shadow people thing than was all the shit he spouted just BS? Why bother than? I wanted Bane to sort of be a Che character but I'm really unclear what his motivations, beyond revenge, are.

They did all that just to watch Wayne twist in the wind? Of course you don't know that Wayne is twisting in the wind because he is on the other fucking side of the earth in a hole fixing his back by getting punch a bunch. Because that's how backs get fixed.

Wouldn't sweeter revenge be robbing him of his money, outing him as Batman, breaking his back and blowing up his city while he watches just out of reach of the blast radius? Isn't that enough?

Actually, getting punch a bunch IS the most commonly accepted way to rehab a broken back. You just need to get punch the right bunch of times over several month and month.

Also Bane describes his motive for framing the takeover as an "uprising of the people" with rules & opportunities. It is to give the city false hope that if they follow instructions & go along with things they will survive. Bane believes that hope poisons people & he wanted to destroy Batman & Gotham's spirit before he blew it all up. But, in my opinion, he and Thalia should have just found something better to do like open a craft store in a cute part of the downtown arts district. It would be more believable, involved less effort and it's still a work in progress but that part of town has really cleaned up & turned around in the last few years.

How does Batman know how to use the autopilot on The Bat but he doesn't know how to unplug Bane's mask? Are we supposed to believe a programmer & technological genius can't find the off button on a Bane mask?

[ImAScooby]

I'm pretty sure the story was based on Rocky III.

[Weinerslave]

The motivations of the bad guys undermined any political or ethical themes. For all the jibber-jabber about corruption and the League of Shadows and whatnot, Bane is driven by his love for Talia and Talia is driven by good old fashioned personal revenge. In a way, that's fitting, because superhero stories are essentially adolescent power fantasies, and adolescent power fantasies are inherently solipsistic, but it works against Nolan's effort to make the world realistic and to take the characters seriously.

[Mr. Museum]

Big Words; Batman.

Bane's voice was fun.

[Americas Team]

describes his motive for framing the takeover as an "uprising of the people" with rules & opportunities. It is to give the city false hope that if they follow instructions & go along with things they will survive. Bane believes that hope poisons people & he wanted to destroy Batman & Gotham's spirit before he blew it all up.

But why the fuck bother? You're going to vaporize everyone. When the bomb goes off will they be thinking "But we had so much hope! How ironic! AHHHH MY FACE IS MELTING THIS IS MADE WORSE BY THE HOPE!" Is it to teach the rest of the world a lesson? Why does Bane hate the idea of hope? How does that make a bit of sense?

If the league of shadows is just bullshit. If he is just hurting Batman because Batman hurt his girlfriend's dad than why keep up the rouse. Bane injured Batman's back and stuck him in a prison that he can't escape. Judging from Bane's reaction he didn't expect for Batman to escape. So why keep up this story? Why not just say "Oh BTWs we're doing this because you killed Ra's All Ghouls."

I thought the whole point of The League of Shadows is to do things in the shadows. To cut the tumors of society out and make it look like a natural disaster. To restore the balance of good and evil without anyone knowing they did it. Are Bane and Ra's Jr. actually loyal to the league of shadows or are they just vengeful assholes?

I'm not trying to fight about this movie. I'm just trying to get it.

I thought Bane's voice was cool.

[StrangeLight]

i liked bane's voice, but i want to crawl inside of tom hardy's feel space and live there, so i'm giving him a lot of leeway. bale's batman growl is still the worst. "this is not a carrrrrr."

according to a costume director that gave an interview without seeing the final version of the film, there were a bunch of scenes on bane's backstory that got cut. how he got injured, how the mask works, how his belt works to hold his spine together (who knew?), what that scar on his back is from, how he trained with the league of shadows, where his motivations for destroying gotham come from (beyond loving talia). some of that seems pretty important, but i guess nolan would rather have us watch batman fail to climb out of a hole TWICE. because we didn't get the picture the first time.

it's strange to watch a movie that both has too much exposition and not enough of it. they could've cut the talia storyline altogether, cut the bruce wayne bankrupting and just smuggled in a nuke instead of building one (which would've also cut all the business scenes and the wall street scene), and just focused on bane vs. batman, the timed explosions, the despair of hope thing, blah blah blah. but, i guess without the corporate intrigue, it would be hard to wedge catwoman or any other love interest into the story. batman's gotta have chicks, right?