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The Dark Knight Rises (Spoilers!)

ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie."London, UK
Just back from seeing it, so these are more initial thoughts, but all I can say so far is: that was frakking amazing! :D

I was a little worried going into it that Christopher Nolan, as good as he is, wouldnt be able to carry it off, but I think it was more than a fitting conclusion to the trilogy!

I know and agree with Nolan's decision to walk away completely from Batman, but after seeing TDKR I'm actually rather sad he is now. I don't think we're going to see anything as good for a long time now. And I know the saying is "always leave them wanting more" but boy do I want more! I'm also now terrified of what Hollywood is going to do to the character and the franchise now that Nolan is done with it....they've got a lot to live up to, and I really doubt there's anyone to match it, and I certainly dont want to see it being rebooted.

Now to the plot: I liked it a lot. The League's plan to destroy all hope felt a little clichéd and long winded at times, even tho I appreciated the reasoning for it. I just thought that given Talia and Bane's knowledge of Ra's Al Ghul, if they were trying to complete his legacy then they'd have chosen a plan to destroy the city a little...quicker. But don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it nonetheless! There was still the same humorous moments and tone from the previous movies, but even the audience felt like we were losing hope at times, and that was brilliantly done!

I also wasn't sure initially at reports of Anne Hathaway being cast as Catwoman. Now I've no doubts. HOT!!! and a very impressive performance! I really enjoyed all the screen time she had, and the bits with her and Batman kicking ass were great.

In fact, come to think of it, there were very very few performances in there that I didnt enjoy! I was especially impressed with Michael Caine's performance, I felt his part there was not an easy one, and a very emotional one for the character.

And now for the ending (DEFINITELY SPOILERS!):

Until Fox discovered the autopilot on the Bat (very very cool btw!) I honestly thought the Nolan had killed Wayne. To be honest, I went in thinking that it pretty much had to end with his death, and I still in a way think that might have been just as good an ending. Given the sort of man Wayne was established to be over the 3 movies, the fact that he'd be willing to walk away from it all does give me trouble. On the flip side however, I did really like that Alfred got his closure and (in his eyes at least) redemption at the end seeing Bruce and Selena at that table, and for me that was actually quite an emotional moment.

Final verdict: utterly, utterly epic!

Comments

  • WORFWORF The Burninator
    I expected him to die as well, I think most people did which is why having him live at the end was such a good twist.

    Anne Hathaway seemed like an odd choice to me as well, she seems to be best known for romantic comedies but she turned out to be excellent in this.

    While it is a shame Nolan won't be making any more of these movies, it's probably a good time to end the series. Don't worry about not having anything this good again though, I'm sure he'll work on other things. I don't envy the next person who directs a Batman movie though.
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    Yeah its a good point to end it, but I certainly would like to see more especially of the the Robin/Nightwing story now. Its just a shame that they'll probably go for the reboot option instead. Unless perhaps Nolan could be persuaded to produce something, but I dont think thats likely either sadly
  • Agree that it is an absolutely fantastic end to the series, but I don't think it would work nearly as well as a standalone film as the other two do. I know we really shouldn't expect it to, but they are not going to be getting new fans with this one.

    The beginning of the movie simply wanders too much. I get the impression this is Nolan trying to take us into Wayne's lost state of mind which is neat, and he deffinitly brings it all together in the end, but non fans might not be willing to sit through it to get to the absolutely brilliant break-neck paced third act. I see this as a double edged sword. On one hand I like that they cater primarily to the people who have been watching the film, not minding if new comers are slightely lost, but I think people who have not seen the others and then see comments about how great it is from people like us are going to have a big "WTF are they smoking?" issue.

    All that said I went to a marathon showing of all three films back to back, and this was aboslutely the way to watch Rises. With everything they reference in Rises fresh in mind the film took on a greater than the sum of the parts experience. Amd I was about to bluber like a little school girl when Batman tells Gordon "Sometimes a hero is just a man putitng a coat around a young boy's shoulders to let him know the world isn't ending." And I liked the ending a great deal. I would have been just as happy with Wayne actually having been dead but I thought the end reveal lent a nice conclusion to Alfred's arc. I have no issues with him retiring and passing everything on to someone else in case the need arises. While I've loved these films I have never been a heavy comic reader and so I had no pre-conceptions of what Bruce Wayne would or would not do. Unlike, say Harry Knowles on Aint it cool news, who completely tears the movie apart primarily because of how the characters don't act like thier comic book couterparts. Never mind that they are true to character for the films versions.

    Again. Brilliant and Epic conclusion. If you remember the others fairly well.
  • WORFWORF The Burninator
    I didn't have a marathon but I did watch the previous two on wednesday and thursday.

    I agree that it's not likely to attract new fans but The Dark Knight is still one of the highest grossing movies, I imagine there aren't too many people who will go and see Rises and haven't seen at least one of the other movies.
  • CurZCurZ Resident Hippy
    I liked Bane a lot. One of the best, most threatening evil characters I've seen in a movie.
  • Lord RefaLord Refa Creepy, but in a good way
    I concur. Liked it a lot, and Bane really was an awesome villain. Saw it on imax and loved it.

    Loved the fight scenes the most. There was just so much brutality in them, that dont remember seeing that elsewhere. And bonus points for making them easily viewable instead of quick close up edits
  • A2597A2597 Fanboy
    Bane was very well done...but SOOOO much of the middle just plain did *not* work. I feel like there must be a 3 hours directors cut out there to make the middle mish mash come together.

    Seriously? Bane has time to fly batman to the other side of the world and back? and in three months bruce heals a broken back and total cartilage loss in his legs with pushups?

    And while the basic premise of holding a city hostage with a nuke *does* work, the people turning against each other was so hastily done as to be ridiculous. I get it, no cops, etc....but suddenly the masses are executing the wealthy, and we move from a democracy to a communistic society on the island in a matter of days? WTF?!

    I liked the beginning. I liked the end. But the middle was botched majorly.
  • David of MacDavid of Mac Elite Ranger Ca
    I imagine that most of the rioters were the mobsters and such released from the prison (and, apparently, asylum), along with the the poorer folks (like Selena and her friend). My impression was that the bottom 10% was going to town on the top 10%, and the middle 80% were just keeping their heads down and waiting for everything to blow over, like Gordon's deputy was.
  • A2597A2597 Fanboy
    Yes, but as I said, I feel like they cut out half an hour of footage.
  • Random ChaosRandom Chaos Actually Carefully-selected Order in disguise
    In some ways I agree with A#. The time scale of the middle just didn't seem to work. Three months was an awful long time for nothing to happen while they waited for Batman to free himself from the pit.
  • A2597A2597 Fanboy
    A pit on the other side of the world, with no money...
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    And no Alfred to pick him up....

    I agree the timescale in the middle didnt really add up too well, and I'll be interested to see if there's a directors cut how much is added. On the whole tho it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the movie.

    To be honest, the only other thing I'd have changed would have been to see Batman kicking a little more ass at the start. For one thing I just enjoy seeing the toys being used to the full extent! I know that he'd been out of the game for quite a while, but he never really got back into his stride, and I just think it would have made his fall into the pit that much more wrenching.
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