The Dark Knight Rises

[lab276]

One of my biggest problems with the film involved the late 'bridge scene'. I'm sorry but the motivation of the cop that stops them from crossing is just so off. Just seems like a weak attempt at driving home a 'I was just following orders' theme. I mean seriously....how does the rest of country sealing off Gotham make any sense? So the Nuke goes off because you attempted to sneak people out....why would someone be blamed for that? The whole thing is just silly, and it's typical 'the viewer only cares about the characters we have shown them' heavy handedness from Hollywood. IMO it would have been more dramatic if Blake is getting survivors off the island at that point since it gives him something to do and we should still care about everyone else in Gotham right?

Put yourself in the guy's shoes. How would you react? You know the bomb will go off if you let people through. Some cop with a bunch of kids isn't going to change your mind. He could just be manipulating.

[Hatebox]

One of my biggest problems with the film involved the late 'bridge scene'. I'm sorry but the motivation of the cop that stops them from crossing is just so off.

The Gotham on its own plot is taken straight from a famous comic, but it is a bit hard to swallow in the world Nolan has created. I tolerated it because I still enjoyed a big blockbuster being that cynical about the government though.

[DeeCee]

Mark Kermode really liked the film, and he was quite cool on TDK. He seemed to really enjoy the intense plotting that forced you to play catch up. I'd need another viewing to decide whether I agree with him or not. I think at the moment my only real problems with the film are that it dragged when Bale wasn't onscreen in the middle and the whole bomb plot felt tired, even if its resolution was nice.

That was great.

[Cmasterclay]

One of my main issues was that when Bane was still an underground menance through his first fight with Batman, he was alot more dominant and intimidating than when he took over all of Gotham, which may have had to do with the timeline. For the first hour I honestly liked him as much as the Joker (insane but true) but the second half he just loses his luster.

[Hangman]

The more I think about TDKR, the more I dislike it. I don't get how Nolan could make two well written amazing Batman films and end it will the pointless action movie.Why spend, what felt like half the movie, on John Blake? Why bother set up this character when it's (hopefully) not going to continue on? This was supposed to be the end of Batman, not the start of Robin.Why not make Bane easy to understand? I get that he's supposed to be menacing, but altering his audio when Hardy's is already doing this weird Bane voice makes no sense. The whole pit jail scene was awful as well. So just that jump between the two rocks was keeping everyone in? The rope looked like it went 75% to the top. Why not just climb the rope a bit higher and swing across instead of jumping to the next rock.So much negative and not enough positive. One of the biggest disappointments ever.

[Adm56]

Put yourself in the guy's shoes. How would you react? You know the bomb will go off if you let people through. Some cop with a bunch of kids isn't going to change your mind. He could just be manipulating.

I'm sorry....I think it's more natural to 'love the one you're with' and rescue the people right in front of you. Because you don't 'know the bomb will go off for SURE'. At this point the Gotham has been sealed off for what 5 months? (and don't even get me started on that...that time period WITHOUT any really interesting 'resistance fighter' scenes is lame and only serves to give Batman enough time to recover). So basically everyone inside is pretty much already F'd and left to die. You might mitigate that vibe a bit if you had at least one scene where they show the US government attempting to negotiate. Instead it's pretty much FU Gotham! It's Escape from New York time! You shall not pass!

[lab276]

I'm sorry....I think it's more natural to 'love the one you're with' and rescue the people right in front of you. Because you don't 'know the bomb will go off for SURE'. At this point the Gotham has been sealed off for what 5 months? (and don't even get me started on that...that time period WITHOUT any really interesting 'resistance fighter' scenes is lame and only serves to give Batman enough time to recover). So basically everyone inside is pretty much already F'd and left to die. You might mitigate that vibe a bit if you had at least one scene where they show the US government attempting to negotiate. Instead it's pretty much FU Gotham! It's Escape from New York time! You shall not pass!

But he's believed for five months that if you let anyone out the bomb will go off. And JGL saying "It's gonna blow anyway" would seem awfully convenient. Edited July 21, 2012 by lab276

[Hatebox]

Why spend, what felt like half the movie, on John Blake? Why bother set up this character when it's (hopefully) not going to continue on? This was supposed to be the end of Batman, not the start of Robin.

People are taking it as Robin's origin too literally, I think. It's more symbolic that Bruce's intial reason for becoming Batman (to inspire others) wasn't in vein. You could argue they spent too much time on Blake anyway if that's the case, but that's another argument.

[Magic]

I always enjoy hearing what Mark Kermode has to say. Has to be one of my favorite critics. He's careful not to give anything away too.

Although I will say that his Twilight reviews have always baffled me, but I still find them amusing.He said he cried three times during BD1.

[Adm56]

But he's believed for five months that if you let anyone out the bomb will go off. And JGL saying "It's gonna blow anyway" would seem awfully convenient.

You could say the same thing as the viewer about the bomb plot in general.Bottom line is the looming threat of the bomb IMO neuters half of the characters into inactivity resulting in too much of a focus on Batman as the only hero. Sure you have Gordon doing his bomb tracking act (and action sequence that it IMO would have suited Blake more btw. Gordon jumping around on moving vehicles reminds me too much of Ford's older Jack Ryan having fist fights on roof tops...and not in a good way). A lot of the energy is sucked out of the third act build up by a lot of woe is me we are helpless stuff.

[Impact]

I just love Catwoman so much now

[mattmav45]

Ok, here we go.

There was no need for this film to be approaching the 3-hour mark. There was nothing really that "deep" about TDKR that warranted a running time like that. The film never really had any flow, it seemed scenes would happen, and then the next would begin.

Bane was a good villian until he takes over Gotham, and then he just gets boring. The throwaway death is embarrassing as well, especially after building him up the whole damn movie and saying things like "he came out of the darkness." For me, that took a lot of the air out of the movie.

I still just don't think Nolan does action all that well. The fighting scenes always seem to be staged and somewhat awkward to me. I also still just feel that Nolan doesn't really know how to handle emotion very well. I know some thought this was an emotional film, but it never really worked for me on that level.

I will say I did enjoy it, but this is easily Nolan's worst outing to date. In fact, Nolan was at his peak to me with films like The Prestige and Memento.

It's a nice little movie, but in all honesty, I likely won't remember it in a few years. And not even close to the upper echelon of comic book films, IMO.

B/B-

[Heretic]

That's true about the action. It does seem staged a lot of the time.

[Adm56]

That's true about the action. It does seem staged a lot of the time.

And on such a small scale too. Didn't this cost a lot of money to make? I didn't see a lot of money on screen. I realize the later truck chase scenes are staged on empty streets because Gotham is on lockdown, but it's BORING. Avengers scale action would have been completely out of place, but I thought the TDK scene where Dent uses himself as a decoy was great and IMO it's lazy film making to not even attempt to provide something on that scale in the final film.

[Heretic]

TDK as a whole was MUCH smoother than TDKR. And it made one hell of a difference.

[junkshop36]

The action in all 3 movies has never been their strongest parts.I really enjoyed the movie. More than I did TDK, which I never saw as this great movie that a lot of others do. The only thing I ever really liked about TDK was Ledger's Joker performance and Eckhart's performance as Dent/Two-face.I just enjoyed every aspect of TDKR. For me, TDK feels like the odd man out in this trilogy because of the stronger connection Rises has with Begins. Also, like BB, the movie focuses more on Batman and he isn't over shadowed by the villains like he was in TDK.

[Adm56]

The action in all 3 movies has never been their strongest parts.I really enjoyed the movie. More than I did TDK, which I never saw as this great movie that a lot of others do. The only thing I ever really liked about TDK was Ledger's Joker performance and Eckhart's performance as Dent/Two-face.I just enjoyed every aspect of TDKR. For me, TDK feels like the odd man out in this trilogy because of the stronger connection Rises has with Begins. Also, like BB, the movie focuses more on Batman and he isn't over shadowed by the villains like he was in TDK.

I think it actually focuses on Bruce Wayne rather than Batman which is a bit of a problem. TASM did the same thing with Peter Parker. People don't pay to see these guys out of costume.

[ddddeeee]

People on SHH are talking about how Batman shot Talia's driver dead with The Bat. I guess he took Selina's attitude to heart.

[hey10224]

The Dark Knight Rises was a great movie. I thought that it was quite excessive and had a clunky beginning, but the ending was marvellous and the movie was overall truly enjoyable. The overall main conflict (Batman somewhere in a hole and Gotham completely collapsed) was a great concept, but it could have been executed better. I think that this film feels more like a sequel to Batman Begins then The Dark Knight, which is like a stand alone film. The stakes went a little bit too high and unrealistic for me, but I loved that at the end it was revealed Miranda was the main villain. Anne Hathaway was really good as Catwoman, but the character seemed a little unnecessary. Perhaps they could have expanded on the relationship between Bruce and Miranda which happens out of nowhere. However, I'm just nitpicking. Overall, I truly liked it and am okay with it not being as good as The Dark Knight, which it could never have been without Heath Ledger.A- (8.5/10)

[MrPink]

People on SHH are talking about how Batman shot Talia's driver dead with The Bat. I guess he took Selina's attitude to heart.

I noticed that too. Unfortunately Batman's ethics have been morally pretty hazy throughout the Nolan series. His escape from the League of Shadows probably killed a good chunk of people, killed Harvey Dent (though to protect a child), and now this.