Author Topic: Batman - The Dark Knight Rises  (Read 47660 times)

Offline efranks

  • Jedi Knight
  • *
  • Posts: 2932
  • Eric Franks
    • View Profile
Re: Batman - The Dark Knight Rises
« Reply #120 on: July 20, 2012, 01:41 PM »
I thought TDKR was a hot mess. I felt like I came in the middle and missed a bunch of stuff, wondering who all these new characters were that were suddenly key to the story.  Too little Batman in the movie as well.  It sort of felt like Spider-Man three at times, too many villains so other than Bane, some seemed to get the short stick.  Too much time on JGL's character....but I won't discuss my problem with this because it's spoilery.

There were flashes of brilliance but so few and far between I left the movie still wondering if I actually liked it or not.  I'm still not sure.  And, yes, there were a lot of flashbacks, all of which I  understood because I watched the previous two movies within the last 3 weeks or so.

I didn't compare it to The Avengers, I compared it to the first two movies and I don't think it stands up.

   E...
"I sell the drugs that keep you people from seeing dragons at night." - Gus "Psych"

Offline Pete_Fett

  • Jedi Knight
  • *
  • Posts: 3737
  • Jedi Killer
    • View Profile
Re: Batman - The Dark Knight Rises
« Reply #121 on: July 20, 2012, 02:53 PM »
Glad to hear that having my wife sit down with me and watch Batman Begins and The Dark Knight with me is going to pay off. While I remember those movies, I'm sure she wouldn't have so I would have been had to play 20 questions with her throughout TDKR.

Peter

Letting my collecting OCD get the better of me on a DAILY basis... and loving EVERY minute of it!

Offline BrentS

  • Jedi Knight
  • *
  • Posts: 2788
  • I sense much fear in you.
    • View Profile
Re: Batman - The Dark Knight Rises
« Reply #122 on: July 20, 2012, 03:27 PM »
I pulled out my Batman Begins disk to watch again.  I don't have a DVD copy of TDK so I may just have to play the memory game on that one!

Offline iFett

  • Jedi Sentinel
  • *
  • Posts: 11402
  • wabbit hunter
    • View Profile
Re: Batman - The Dark Knight Rises
« Reply #123 on: July 20, 2012, 04:00 PM »
Ugh...my copy is lost in a pile of boxes and I never even really watched the entire first movie so really no point in seeing TDKR until I watch that one again.  Would like to find it actually so I can upgrade to the color blu at Best Buy for $5 but oh well..
Learn new skills at home that some consider to be.....unnatural.  Easy repayment terms.  555-PLPTN

Offline JediJman

  • Jedi Guardian
  • *
  • Posts: 18061
  • I don't get drunk, I get awesome.
    • View Profile
Re: Batman - The Dark Knight Rises
« Reply #124 on: July 20, 2012, 04:50 PM »
Ugh...my copy is lost in a pile of boxes and I never even really watched the entire first movie so really no point in seeing TDKR until I watch that one again.  Would like to find it actually so I can upgrade to the color blu at Best Buy for $5 but oh well..

What is the Best Buy upgrade?
Climbed a mountain & never came back. I will not quit & I always fight back 
From this moment for all my life. What could I say? Was born to be this way. And what could I say?  Just livin' for today

Offline iFett

  • Jedi Sentinel
  • *
  • Posts: 11402
  • wabbit hunter
    • View Profile
Re: Batman - The Dark Knight Rises
« Reply #125 on: July 20, 2012, 05:11 PM »
You bring in any DVD with case and slip and they'll give you a $5 off coupon good for any blu disc.  They have Batman Begins and TDK and some other blus on sale for $10 this week so if you bring in an old disc you can get a bluray disc for $5.
Learn new skills at home that some consider to be.....unnatural.  Easy repayment terms.  555-PLPTN

Offline Jayson

  • Jedi Sentinel
  • *
  • Posts: 11050
  • I am one with the Force and the Force is with me
    • View Profile
    • www.yakface.com
Re: Batman - The Dark Knight Rises
« Reply #126 on: July 20, 2012, 06:57 PM »
I saw it at midnight, and considering what happened in Colorado, I now have a slightly different impression of the movie than when I walked out. I thought it was a fantastic movie and great bookend for the trilogy. It was a little slow in parts, but it was a needed contrast to the nihilistic theme of it, and to counter Nolan's signature twist(s) at the end. There were a few instances where it was tough to make out the dialogue (esp. Bane) due to the ever present score, but it wasn't bad. While this isn't the most "fun" superhero movie you can watch, say as compared to the Avengers, or Iron Man, this one is the most "real" and is it far more relatable considering the current state of the country/economy post 911. If you don't have goosebumps for the last 15-20 min. when there appears there is no hope for Gotham or humanity you are dead inside.
Yakface.com Owner/Content Manager
Follow me on Twitter - @yak_face / @JediJaybird

Offline MattCBR

  • Youngling
  • *
  • Posts: 84
  • on FB as MattCBR
    • View Profile
Re: Batman - The Dark Knight Rises
« Reply #127 on: July 20, 2012, 07:32 PM »
Just think how many people could have been saved if just one person had a permit to carry and shot the ****er in Colorado before he even got a shot off... just like the case of the 71 year old permit carrying man shot back at those fools that tried to rob the internet cafe' in Florida last week...

I guess the "guns are banned here" sign on the theater didn't work:(

An armed society is a polite society;)

Offline CloneF13Y35

  • Jedi Padawan
  • *
  • Posts: 716
  • I think I"m a CLone Now
    • View Profile
Re: Batman - The Dark Knight Rises
« Reply #128 on: July 20, 2012, 09:10 PM »
both Batman Begins (fx) and The Dark Knight (tnt) are on tv tonight. I totally enjoyed the dark knight rises. I went in with my expectations in check, knowing it might be better than TDK, just as good or not as good. I would say it is even with TDK, but that's after countless viewings of it; once I see this several more times, I'll be better able to list it. I was happily surprised by ann hathaway's performance as selina kyle - she's never called 'catwoman'. It was subtle, sexy, strong all rolled into one with a dose of vulnerability. Bane was better than I expected too but even after all this time, there were still a few places where I couldn't understand a thing he said. But the overall story arc of the movie plus how it ties into the previous movies worked very nicely. As far as batman toys goes, man I want to get 'the bat' because it is one awesome vehicle!
{{|///////Frank//}[================>
"I think I'm a Clone now"
"No I'm not!"
"Yes - I AM"

Offline BillCable

  • Jedi General
  • *
  • Posts: 9883
  • CreatureCantina.com SUCKS!!
    • View Profile
    • CreatureCantina.com
Re: Batman - The Dark Knight Rises
« Reply #129 on: July 20, 2012, 11:49 PM »
I saw it.  Enjoyed some parts.  Really, REALLY loathed other parts.  I hated just about everything from when Bane takes over the city through the end. 

Gonna delve into some spoilers here...

All the scenes chasing the bomb around the city were beyond ludicrous.  What irritated me the most was the timer on the bomb, as it made NO SENSE.  Not the physics of it, which were questionable but hell I can live with that level of disbelief.  You want to time when the "instability" of a fusion reactor reaches critical down to the second over a 5 month span?  Dumb, but forgivable.  But the way they counted down just didn't make sense.  "We have nine minutes... let's force them to drive towards the reactor!"  And what?  Let's say the villains cooperate and drive down into the SEALED OFF UNDERGROUND BUNKER and park next to the reactor.  Let's say they rode down the slow-ass freight elevator.  Even under the absolute most IDEAL scenario that the bomb gets where you need to get it... THEN WHAT?  Is there an industrial crane on the truck?  No.  And last I checked Batman didn't have super strength.  And Morgan Freeman is like 90... he can't dead-life a half-ton bomb.  And then who's going to hook it up afterwards?  Umpa-Lumpas?  Even if they had FOUR HOURS there was no way they'd get the bomb into that reactor, much less nine freakin' minutes.  So their goal from the start was laughable.

So then with 90 seconds left, what do you do?  Hook it up to a helicopter.  And it flies off like 10 miles over the bay.  By my quick, very brain-tired calculations, that's traveling at 400 miles per hour.  From a dead stop in a powered-down helicopter.  A freakin' rocket ship can't travel 10 miles from a dead stop in 90 seconds.  God, the bad, bad physics just made my brain hurt.  If you want the tension of a count-down to be effective, it must be credible.  Here, it was not.

Other problems I had - the whole point of The Dark Knight, a film I very nearly loved, was that the citizens of Gotham when faced with certain death would make the moral choice.  In TDKR, as soon as martial law is instated (and the island was sealed off... AGAIN), the citizens devolve into a rabid mob.  Kangaroo courts to kill anyone they were jealous of.  Rioting.  Panic.  And eventually everyone hunkers down in their homes and gives up.  This was the same city where prison inmates chose death over blowing up the other boat??!!

I'll note in those sections I did like the very strong anti-socialist political message.  Though I felt he might have gone a bit overboard portraying the have-nots as really selfish, jealous degenerates.

So it betrayed the film I liked, and it defied basic math in a maddening way.  Two strikes.  There were probably four other strikes through the last half of the movie. 

Three of them involve some Don't read if you haven't seen the film SUPER SPOILERS...

I knew the chick was the bad girl pretty much from the first time she was on screen.  I didn't know she was Talia... didn't connect that dot... but I knew she was the one with the trigger who would betray Batman.  Lazy.  Obvious.  Painful.

When Batman was flying off with the bomb, I kinda rolled my eyes with the "hero sacrifices himself" ending.  I bought into it.  It sucked.  Alfred crying... very moving.  It was predictable, but I could respect it.  Sucks to go out on a low note, but sometimes that's the best way to tell a story.  And then they turn it around and reveal it was all fake.   Instead of feeling elation the hero survived, I felt like "you bastards... you put me through all of that just to wimp out?"  On top of that, Batman quits?  To live the good life in paradise with Catwoman?  No more duty to his city? (granted they did turn out to be a bunch of ungrateful, cowardly, murderous thugs...)  He just abandons his life's mission?  Retires?  Really pissed me off.

The "Robin" reveal... not horrible... just lame.  And he's going to become Robin without Batman?  Guess they had to hang a sequel onto something...

So yeah... not real happy with the movie.  I liked Bane well enough.  The action that wasn't ruined by bad clock management was decent.  Good to know you can heal a dislocated vertebrate by hanging from a rope and getting punched in the back a few times.

Gha... I should just stop typing... all I'm doing is pissing myself off more.  I really disliked Batman Begins for similar reasons, and I think this movie is cut from the same mold.  Seems like Nolan may have made his own Original Trilogy.  Innovative first film whose innovations outshine the other weak elements.  Brilliant second film.  Mostly bad final film.
Bill Cable - Steeler Fan & Star Wars Collector
  http://CreatureCantina.com       
"Cable is incapable of contributing anything positive to this world" - cstoj

Offline Sprry75

  • Jedi Apprentice
  • *
  • Posts: 2233
  • semper ubi sub ubi
    • View Profile
Re: Batman - The Dark Knight Rises
« Reply #130 on: July 21, 2012, 12:23 AM »
When Batman was flying off with the bomb, I kinda rolled my eyes with the "hero sacrifices himself" ending.  I bought into it.  It sucked.  Alfred crying... very moving.  It was predictable, but I could respect it.  Sucks to go out on a low note, but sometimes that's the best way to tell a story.  And then they turn it around and reveal it was all fake.   Instead of feeling elation the hero survived, I felt like "you bastards... you put me through all of that just to wimp out?"  On top of that, Batman quits?  To live the good life in paradise with Catwoman?  No more duty to his city? (granted they did turn out to be a bunch of ungrateful, cowardly, murderous thugs...)  He just abandons his life's mission?  Retires?  Really pissed me off.

The "Robin" reveal... not horrible... just lame.  And he's going to become Robin without Batman?  Guess they had to hang a sequel onto something...

Good points on the timing, and I didn't think about the devolution into anarchy of Gothamites being so different from the way they acted in TDK...

But regarding the ending, I took it less as Batman's retirement and more as maybe a little vacation.  Robin's going to get **** in the Batcave all cleaned up, and in a couple month's Batman will be back.  Something like that makes it a little more palatable.

I knew the Miranda chick would turn out to be Talia for some reason (mostly all the pro-environmental crap she talked about in the early scenes), though I didn't see her being quite the full on villain the way she was.
"Really?  Sorry."

Offline Jesse James

  • Staff Member
  • Grand Master
  • *
  • Posts: 35448
  • Slippery When Poopy
    • View Profile
    • JediDefender.com
Re: Batman - The Dark Knight Rises
« Reply #131 on: July 21, 2012, 12:33 AM »
Waiting to go see it for a week or two...  Pittsburgh only crows this much about anything when it's sports related, and so there's no way I'm going to overcrowded theaters and dealing with BatNerds (what kind of loser obsesses over a film franchise!  ::)).

Seriously I'll wait this out...  The kids want to go though, so we'll wind up going at some point.  Gonna sit and watch the first two this weekend with everyone, hopefully, and so they're kinda caught up on what's what, and who's who.  They keep coming to me asking questions like I'm a Batman afficionado...  I need to introduce them to Jim and let him just explain all this stuff.

Jimmy Fallon's pardody of the trailer with Pee Wee Herman voice-over was funny though.  I wonder if P.W. liked it?
2011 Rebel Fleet Trooper Gets My Seal Of Approval!  But Where's The Friggin' Holster On Him!?
Jedi Defender.com Contributing Editor, Twitter @JediDefender & @Jesse_James77

Offline Sprry75

  • Jedi Apprentice
  • *
  • Posts: 2233
  • semper ubi sub ubi
    • View Profile
Re: Batman - The Dark Knight Rises
« Reply #132 on: July 21, 2012, 12:45 AM »
One other thing that bugged me was how quickly Bruce **** on Alfred over the Rachel letter, and how Alfred let him. Pretty out of character for both of them.
"Really?  Sorry."

Offline CloneF13Y35

  • Jedi Padawan
  • *
  • Posts: 716
  • I think I"m a CLone Now
    • View Profile
Re: Batman - The Dark Knight Rises
« Reply #133 on: July 21, 2012, 10:27 AM »
Waiting to go see it for a week or two...  Pittsburgh only crows this much about anything when it's sports related, and so there's no way I'm going to overcrowded theaters and dealing with BatNerds (what kind of loser obsesses over a film franchise!  ::)).

Seriously I'll wait this out...  The kids want to go though, so we'll wind up going at some point.  Gonna sit and watch the first two this weekend with everyone, hopefully, and so they're kinda caught up on what's what, and who's who.  They keep coming to me asking questions like I'm a Batman afficionado...  I need to introduce them to Jim and let him just explain all this stuff.

Jimmy Fallon's pardody of the trailer with Pee Wee Herman voice-over was funny though.  I wonder if P.W. liked it?

yeah my son wanted see it after seeing the trailer when we saw Avengers in May and while out of town he went with his cousin to the midnight show. He said he loved it, which I'm glad because he hadn't seen the other two movies. I'm sure he'll have lots a questions when he comes home and since I'm kind of a Batman aficionado (loser who obsesses overs a movie franchise lol) I'm sure I can convert him to the Dark (knight) Side!
{{|///////Frank//}[================>
"I think I'm a Clone now"
"No I'm not!"
"Yes - I AM"

Offline Pete_Fett

  • Jedi Knight
  • *
  • Posts: 3737
  • Jedi Killer
    • View Profile
Re: Batman - The Dark Knight Rises
« Reply #134 on: July 21, 2012, 11:14 AM »
I saw TDKR last night and I thought it was really good.

There are so many things that Super Hero Movies ask you to suspend disbelief on, so all of the timing issues, Bruce fixing his back, etc... are forgivable to me.

This wasn't supposed to be an episode of 24 where ever minute of the movie accounted for a minute in the lives of the characters.

I went into the movie thinking it was going to suck - and I was pleasantly surprised to find it as good as The Dark Knight. It was definitely a worthy sequel to that movie and a great way to end this trilogy.

I am really surprised that everyone is just willing to "walk away" at this point though. Seems to me like there could easily be a fourth and still keep with the "end of the Batman saga" because now Batman is no longer a man alone.

** SPOILERS **

I was out with family at dinner before the movie and being the only comic-book/sci-fi geek in the group, of course people asked me about it, what I heard, what I thought might happen. I told them all that Miranda was going to be Talia - it made the most sense. What I didn't call 100% right was that I thought that near the end, Blake would dress up as Batman or in armor similar to Batman Beyond (no open area for his mouth). But oh well.

For me the biggest twist was who the kid was that made it out of the pit, then I remembered the reports of the original child actress  hired to play young Talia dropped out cause her mom (or whomever) didn't want her to have to shave her head - which fits, a little girl, with hair like a boy, can easily be mistaken for a young boy.

I guess I'm sentimental, but my favorite scene was when Gordon says to Batman, "I never really cared who was under the mask" and then after making a quip, Bruce brought it all back to the scene where Gordon wrapped Thomas Wayne's coat around young Bruce the night his parents were killed. And as The Bat took off, Gordon realized that Bruce Wayne was Batman - that was a nice way to sort of "end" their relationship over the three movies. It's also nice to see little scenes and things like from Batman Begins have a pay-off in the third movie.



So like I said, I hope there is more, I hope they decide to do more, there's still room for more to be done. But if they don't, it was a really great trilogy of movies...
Peter

Letting my collecting OCD get the better of me on a DAILY basis... and loving EVERY minute of it!