@Red Aviary: We can always hope. If you learned one thing from Dark Knight Rises you know not to destroy hope.

 

The thing about Nolan's movies, is that every scene always connected with each other. There's always explanation for everything, and if you don't remember each and every scenes, you'll have a bad time.

This happened to me in Inception and The Prestige. And this happen to me, although far less, in The Dark Knight Rises.

The movie opened grandiosely. Action, epicness, and emotionally provoking, though I didn't have a fucking clue about what's going on. Who is this Bane? Who are those characters? What are they talking about? and so on, but the action itself is somewhat enough to ease the confusions raging inside me.

Then we moved to Gotham. We got a great deal of drama, and the introduction of "Catwoman" - though it never really been said her as that. And for me, these part is - somewhat - really good. Dialogue feels natural for most part, and the acting is top-class.

I think "The Bat" first appearance is pretty epic. Somewhat reminds me of Transformers, but in a very good way. But then we got into the Batman vs Bane fight scene, and I'll tell you this: it's a bit letdown.

I think that's where Nolan always fail, or not doing so good, in all the Batman movies: the fight scene between Batman and the Villain always felt clumsy. I expected some epic fight scene, because - for God's sake - it's been widely known that Batman is one of the best hand-to-hand fighter in DC Universe. I expect some great show of martial arts but no, what Nolan showed to us is only fist-to-jaw fight. Even the first fight scene between Bruce and Henri Ducard is better than this, IMO.

But the plot was still moving. Bane raged the Gotham City with chaos, bringing the city to its knees. This part, in my opinion, is quite good. We didn't have so much Batman here, but it was okay. We saw the police - what remained of them - trying to do their job. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is doing a great job here as an honest cop named John Blake (that's not his real name, btw. You'll found out about it later in the movie, and it's quite ridiculous). Marion Cottilard as Miranda Tate was also good. Oh, and Gary Oldman, as Jeram said, kicked asses.

Then we moved into the climax. The war, the fight, and the sacrifice Batman done to save millions people - is, by my opinion, the best part of this movie. The ending is somewhat... a little off, but maybe because that's not my personal taste.

And now, here are the spoiler tags. Enjoy:

1. About the Bane and Ra's Al Ghul relationship

Spoiler

In the early scenes, it's said that Bane was Ra's Al Ghul's student, and member of League of Shadow. Then it was said that Bane was Ra's Al Ghul's son, but the kid who climbed the wall seemed healthy and not scarred at all like Bane. And then, the 'big' revelations: Miranda is really Talia Al Ghul, and Bane was her lover who helped her in the prison.

There are twists and twists, but thanks to the internet, most of them didn't came as too surprising for me, though the appearance of Liam Neeson is quite consoling.

2. About the war

Spoiler

The war that happened between Gotham's police and the mercenaries was, in my opinion, very great. Emotionally moving, and very dramatic. The final fight between Batman and Bane is, I will repeat it again, a letdown. The car-chasing part is awesome, the CGI for The Bat is perfect, and the actions is good.

Gordon kicked ass, really. And the chasing scene somehow reminds me to Batman Begins' climax, where Batman had to race with time to save the whole Gotham. And then we saw that The Nuclear Bomb really can't be stopped, that Batman had to carry The Nuclear Bomb with his autopilot-less plane, offshore, where it could blow without bringing any casualties - except the Batman himself.

3. The Ending

Spoiler

I almost squealed when Batman and Selina finally kissed, thus confirming the attraction and romance between those two. Call me hopeless, but I've been rooting for those ship since the first time I read Batman comics. But then Batman had to take his last flight, with The Bat, carrying the bomb with him offshore, far away from the city. A great show of heroic act and selfless sacrifice.

And I literally cried, yes, cried, when the Nuclear exploded. Batman was dead. It took three movies and a fucking Nuclear explosion to kill him, but he was finally, really dead. Even my brother shed tears, and several chairs below, some girls started wailing. It's a very dramatic part, very emotional.

The scenes following Batman's death was great. We saw the people honor their true hero. We saw Gotham ready to rebuild itself. We saw a city with new hope. We saw better future for everyone. Gotham finally got the hero they deserved and needed. It was Batman.

4. So, is Batman dead or not?

Spoiler

A following scene showed Fox and several mechanics trying to repair a different The Bat, particularly its autopilot. The mechanics said that the autopilot had been repaired, by Bruce Wayne, several months ago.

And then the revelations: Bruce Wayne was alive. He escaped from The Bat and the explosion. He and Selina lived a whole new live, with clean slate, far from Gotham. They moved on.

In the final scene, John Blake finally succeed in reaching the Bat Cave. And as Hans Zimmer's song touching its climax, Blake was risen to become the next hero and protector of Gotham.

/TL;DR, I would rate it 4.5/5. Nolan has accomplished so much for Batman franchise, and although I'm still thinking the ending of The Dark Knight Rises is a bit off, that TDKR doesn't surpass The Dark Knight in a wide margin, that it was really over-hyped, I think Nolan has done a great, and honorable, job in it.

The movie was great, the whole theater gave standing applause, and I know that Batman will always live on so many people's heart.

 

Went to see it last night; on balance, I really enjoyed it. It wasn't perfect, and it's not the best film in the series, but it was a worthy conclusion to it.

Random thoughts:

Spoiler

After the prologue, the first section of the film was too quick. I believe in Harvey Dent! No-one sees Wayne! Batman's gone! I'm a thief! I'm going back out into the world. I'm Batman again. Rachel was leaving you! Wayne Enterprises is going bankrupt! Jim Gordon's injured, and I know who you are! I've got a Batwing...without wings! Bane's attacking the Stock Exchange! There's a potential nuclear device!

And then it stopped for breath, and improved. Suffice it to say, they crammed too much into the first hour of the film, leaving a lot of it feeling bloated and emotionally forced.

Standout sequence was the Bane/Batman fight in the sewers, which was even more brutal than I thought it was going to be. Very effective. The second fight was less so - the fight itself was fine, but the Batman costume just doesn't work in the daylight. And then Bale's raspy voice..."Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? Where is -" Shut the fuck up!"

On a vaguely related note, kinda disappointed that most of Batman's screentime was on the Batpod or flying the Bat. I get that he's seriously injured for most of the film, but I would have liked to see him have more than a couple of brawls.

Talia al Ghul...I dunno. It was obvious from about halfway through the film at least that she was going to be at least working with Bane, but I thought suddenly revealing her real identity was completely unnecessary. Bane was doing a great job as Big Bad for me, and her sudden appearance for five minutes at the end didn't really add anything except a nod to the comics.

John Blake was cheesy, but kinda awesome so I'll let it slide.

Anne Hathaway was much, much better than I was expecting. I'd go so far as to say that she stole the screen every time she was on it.

Thematically very, very similar to The Dark Knight - in fact, Bane's/Talia's plot is basically the Joker's ferry scheme over an entire city.

The ending worked. It might not have done in any other film, but I can totally buy that Batman fixed it all without telling anyone...because he's Batman.

I'd probably peg it as the worst of the trilogy, all in all, but it's still a very good film.

 

Watched it. It was...good. That said, I think that the promos ruined a very important scene in the movie. I'll come right out and say it...the police riot scene would have been much more moving if we hadn't seen it a hundred times in the trailer. The way the plot was set up, there was a lot of uncertainty about them getting involved at all, and it would have been a bigger moment.

Spoiler

I liked Bane, especially his last scene "You'll just have to imagine the fires" . His beating of Batman was just brutal. From minute one though, I was sure that he hadn't climbed the wall. I was convinced that he'd found some other way out and that Wayne was also going to discover the way and not rely on what seemed like a deliberate fairy tale. But they went the traditional route with it, which I didn't mind.

Called Miranda as Talia pretty early on. Not much to say there except that it provided a neat little mindscrew for people who know nothing about the comics.

I liked how they dealt with people and the hard choices they had to make too. The thing I loved about the Dark Knight was that it wasn't inconceivable that there was one decent man in a ferry full of convicts and no one brave enough in a ferry full of ordinary citizens to really fuck shit up. I liked that the police blocking off the bridge didn't just pussy out with millions of lives at risk

I didn't even care that much that they didn't kill Batman.

Catwoman grew on me. At first she kept talking that Noble Thief bullshit that people use when they want to get away with shit that never fails to get my goat, but near the end she realised how terrible it could be if taken to the extreme and actually learned from it

Other than that? Not much to say, it was amazing and more than a bit reminiscent of No Man's Land. I also liked all the little cameos like Aidan Gillen or Christopher Judge.

 

Spoiler

As campy and unnecessary as the 'Robin' scene at the end was, I still mentally started cheering when Joseph Gordon-Levitt found the Batcave and did his little 'rise' on the platform.

It was great.

 

Wasn't sure about Hathaway going in, and the the ease with which the character killed people. I'm not a huge batman comic fan, but I do seem to recall that Catwoman usually didn't kill if she didn't have to.

But she got better, and I was hooked from the fist moment of watching her lean over the batpod...yummy.

Whoa...Teal'c was in it? Man, how did I miss that? I'm gonna have to watch out for him next time I watch the movie.

And Aidan Gillen, I could have sworn that when the prologue first came out people thought it was him, but then it was said that it wasn't Littlefinger. But watching it I just couldn't see it as anybody but a clean shaven Littlefinger.

Maybe I dreamed up the non-Gillen stuff, or maybe I just happened to listen to some stupid folks and missed the rest? It is entirely possible that I've gone slightly crazy.

 

Spoiler

He showed up briefly to kick Robin's ass. However apparently most of his scenes were cut because he was with Bane in them and he was much taller than him and they probably didn't want to undercut his threat. Too bad.

“I’m excited to see it!,” Judge said. “Not that I ever saw a script before the change, but from what I’m told, what you’ll see of me is different than what was originally intended. It’s basically the same part, but there was a size concern between Tom [Hardy, who plays the villainous 'Bane' in the film] and I. He’s like five feet ten inches and I’m like six feet three inches. And Bane is supposed to be this massive dude. So it’s still the same part, but it’s not with Tom. I was supposed to be in a lot of scenes with Tom. But the change also gave me two more weeks of work on it, so it’s all good!”

 

I don't know why I keep coming to read this thread since I skip over all the spoilers.
It's like I keep hoping for teaser videos and things, but I should know better since the film is out.
Hopefully I can get time to see it tomorrow

 

I'm looking at the spoiler boxes like a kid looks at the boxes wrapped up under the tree on Christmas Eve. D:

 

Except at Christmas you can play with your presents after you open them on Christmas Morning. If you were to read this-

Spoiler

Batman doesn't really die at the end when you think he does.

Miranda Tate is actually Talia al Ghul.

John Blake is actually named Robin John Blake and gets the keys to the bat-cave when Bruce retires.

Michael Caine is an awesome Alfred.

-you'll never really enjoy the movie as it was ment to be. Ever.

And that last one isn't really a spoiler but fact none the less.

 

Was a very good film. I would rate it a 9/10 to the Dark Knight's 10/10.

What really sort of brought it down for me though was when Bane went from ultra-villain to

Spoiler

suicidal lackey. I really don't understand why he and Talia had no escape plan, since Ras never seemed the type to go down with the ship. He was too fucking awesome for that. Also, while the whole Talia thing was sort of a cool twist, I thought that it really lent nothing to the plot other than diminishing Bane's character, who really stole the show in most of this film. To find out that he's just second string to some chick was disappointing, as was his death. Lame.

 

Spoiler

Motherfucking this. What the fuck? I mean, it was established early on that the League of Shadows were willing to martyr themselves, but this is going a bit too far I think. Talia especially could have escaped and led some sort of life without being immediately recognized in most places. Isn't the purpose of the League to maintain balance...over centuries? What good does it do for everyone to die right then?

EDIT: Someone also pointed out something pretty telling, that the entire reason that R'as Al Ghul wanted to destroy Gotham no longer exists. The Dent Act cleaned up the city (I mean, look at the aesthetic differences in the scene we see compared to Begins), it seems like they only found out about the whole Dent fiasco when they pulled the note out of Gordon's pocket, so basically they are just crazy people doing this to fulfill the memory of someone who probably would not have approved and to fuck with Batman, they spend more time on this than the actual corruption of Gotham. So yeah..they're crazy assholes.

I really liked his last line but it was pretty weird to see him go out like that, I was waiting for him to get up. Still he was not only a bad-ass, but pretty smart. He knew when to kill Batman, he deliberately set up Wayne Enterprises so that Bruce would have to trust Talia. Genius Bruiser is an apt description.

Their relationship did seem more egalitarian than just master-lackey though. Bane carried out most of the plan and Miranda helped, they both intended to die so it wasn't like Talia was trying to pull one over on him.

Also, how the fuck did Alfred find out about the League of Shadows? It just occurred to me how unlikely this is. I mean, the man has connections and has been in some dark places but this is pretty weird.

 

Ugh... I've seen the movie twice now, and while I did like it a bit more after seeing it a second time, there are still issues with this film that prevent me from calling it a success, or even all that good. All the pieces were there to make this a great movie, and well... it didn't work.

So yeah, I wrote way too much about it here. I'm posting the general link here instead of the one to the specific entry because I want to protect those who are looking to go in spoiler-free. I'd recommend taking a look at the previous two entries, which are retro reviews of 'Batman Begins' and 'The Dark Knight', just to get some context on my commentary.

 

Although it's meant to be more realistic I felt the fight scenes between Bane and Batman weren't up to scratch. They were, imo, too slow for my liking. It felt like heavyweight boxers than trained (ex)members of the League of Shadows.

I also find it hard to believe that he'd disappear for the amount of time he has. It just seems too out of character for Batman.

Looking back, Nolan has done an awesome thing making it semi realistic, but I'd rather have just seen something akin to a trilogy based on the comics, realistic or not.

 

Yeah, Nolan had a lot of good ideas (I like his Scarecrow better than the comics, for example, and his Joker's in my top five favorite incarnations of him), but for the next Batman movies I hope they try to emulate the tone of the Arkham Asylum/City games.

Also hope they skip the origin. The first movie should have Batman already well-established. Hell, he should have Tim Drake as Robin already, with Nightwing and Oracle as supporting characters.

 

I would say that Nolan is not more realistic and simply less campy tbh.

As for a reboot, I think that the Dark Knight intro works purely on it's own. You get all the information you need quickly, Batman is cleaning up the city, gangsters are terrified. It works and is brief.

Having only seen a few glimpses of the Arkham games do you want a more physical and darker Batman?

 

I dunno. It's not so much Batman himself as the world around him I guess.

Nolan's Gotham was basically Chicago or, in this movie, New York City. It didn't have its own personality like it does in the comics and other adaptations, with all the Art Deco and gargoyles. And also, if DC is planning a Justice League film franchise (which remains to be seen), then Batman has to fit into a greater universe. You couldn't really get that feeling in the Nolanverse.

But we'll probably have to wait a few years to hear much about the next Batman movie anyway, so this is all moot until then.

 

Well, this. But what I most want out of the next set of Batman films is some acknowledgement that its a world where, for instance, someone like Clayface can exist. You know, not Joel Schumacher Batman, but something a little less grim and grittily real (for a given value of real, of course).

Also, have Batman as a detective, not just a ninja with a computer.

 

Have to agree on that part. I've always liked the extended Bat-family, so seeing all of them in action would be interesting. The only complication is that it turns the film into more of an ensemble piece, which would be hard to pull off without Batman overshadowing everyone else.