For whatever it’s worth, praying for everyone affected in Aurora, Co.
Saw The Dark Knight Rises twice last night. Quick, spoiler-ridden thoughts post-jump (*implore anyone who’s not seen it to avoid spoilers*), but the chief takeaway is it’s an amazing film, with the most intensely satisfying, and definitive conclusion any iteration of the character has enjoyed (any iteration that i’m familiar with, anyway. And my knowledge of Batman is fairly respectable in its breadth and depth.)
-My god it’s long and dense, but was never bored. And after what Nolan’s done here, can anyone really justify splitting a movie into two parts as anything more than a financially motivated call [not that i recall anyone actually defending the splittings on Twilight/Hunger Games/Hobbit/etc. (Harry Potter gets a pass because i loved it, and it's my site) as anything more than a cash grab?]
-it’s astounding to think that it costs the same to go see this as it does something like Amazing Spider-Man, or Step Up Revolution. That’s like a random Pepperdine Waves game and Lakers playoff seats costing the same. Whether you like TDKR as much as i do, or not, i’m confident it offers the biggest return for your $12 ticket monies that you’ll get this year.
-Plays significantly better the second time around, once the expectations and unknowns are out of the way.
-even knowing exactly who Marion Cotillard was going to be playing, that reveal was brutal and surprising. Also seeing Ra’s again, however brief, was dope.
-Joseph Gordon Levitt and Anne Hathaway are so perfect here, wish they’d been introduced into the series earlier. Tom Hardy had a really tough act to follow, but still makes Bane kind of fascinating. Glad Nolan preserved his mystery, even if his final exit was a bit less than the character deserved.
-the idea of Batman retiring, and Bruce going recluse for 8 years seems to be very divisive. In that time, however, he did manage to design and build a fusion reactor capable of generating free power on a massive scale, and did it without a Dr. Manhattan around to copy off of.
-don’t have a definite read on the politics of this story, and my appreciation of art is definitely not tied to how well it mirrors or affirms my own beliefs, but soda came out of my nose when Bane spoke of utilizing the illusion of hope to manipulate the masses.
-Not since The Passion of the Christ has a beloved figure been this thoughroughly and unrelentingly brutalized, and Mel Gibson gets a pass for following the source material. It got a bit much for me in TDKR, at times…i’d suspect Nolan kinda hates Batman, were it not for that most perfect ending.
- i lost it with the bit at the end with Alfred in the cafe. Both times. The whole series was worthwhile just to get to that payoff. Where were the kids, though? He’d specifically mentioned kids! Was hoping to see a little Helena/future Huntress.
-As for the impending reboot, i don’t think i’m taking anything away from Nolan by saying he’s not always the most imaginative action director. I hope Warners finds someone who can come up with something that rivals the video game visual experience of soaring over Arkham City, before diving directly into a group of thugs, all in one continuous take.
8 Responses to “A+++, will do business with again”
Agreed. That film has transcended its genre . Nolan didn’t get the memo that big budget summer movies aren’t supposed to require one to think and for that im grateful. This film isnt for the masses as its far too cerebral and unfotuantly I’m afraid that may hurt its overall appeal. no matter though, Nolan achieved what he set out to do. incredible job by an incredibly talented visionary.
I totally agree. I’ve already seen it twice and I’ll probably see it at least once more.
Saw it this afternoon. Not thrilled with the whole “Anyone can be Batman” storyline, but that’s because I’m a life long Batman fan and my version of the character is along the lines of Frank Miller’s take.
But putting my own bias aside, I don’t see how Nolan’s Batman story could have ended any differently. It was a good ending to a good film series.
Anne Hathaway was fantastic. I was a little concerned when I heard she had been cast as I was holding out hope Eva Green would get it. But Anne kicked ass. Awesome.
What I hope the reboot brings us is a movie with Nolan’s serious, thought provoking type stories but with Tim Burton’s visual style. THAT would be awesome.
As to the politics of TDKR, what Bane does to Gotham City is what you would get if you took the Occupy and Anarchist morons “revolutions” to their extremes…right before it would all devolve into Escape from New York.
Make no mistake, TDKR is pro police and pro law and order.
I thought it was pretty cheesey all the way through, especially the unveiling of statue and the cafe scene at the end. It wasn’t believable that Al Ghul would send Bane into the pit after saving his daughter. I don’t understand how transfusing some blood into a corpse would convince a coroner that the body belonged to that scientist; wouldn’t they have checked dental records? Seriously, why would anyone draw blood from a dead body to get a DNA sample? Also, Bane was too Vaderish and the whole power generator part was too Watchmen.
I really wanted to like this movie. Please, someone convince me I’m wrong and that this was a good movie.
Hey Brian,
You’re Wrong. The overall experience is the thing, comic books don’t always make sense. Neither do movies. Get over the nit-picky little details, it’s not 100% realistic. The previous movies were not 100% realistic. Star Wars was not realistic. The Matrix was not realistic. TDKR was great and I can’t wait until my kids are old enough to watch it.
and we seem to be 4-5 cosplay sets behind
– Regardless, looking forward to Tuesday and the new and improved Cosplay Tetherball
I went in expecting that the ball was going to be fumbled- I didn’t like Begins, I like Dark Knight alot but see the incredible amount of flaws- but ended up being surprised by how much I liked it. Though there are things that bothered me from my understanding of the comics (Alfred giving up on Bruce? Are you fucking kidding me? Batman faking his own death and leaving Gotham to go settle down with a woman he’s known for all of maybe a couple hours?), if I can separate the comics from these films and look at these characters as purely something of these movies- then I can live with it.
Particularly since I didn’t expect that I’d WANT Bruce to go off and retire happily, gracefully, to a normal life. I went in really hoping they’d have the balls to actually ice Batman, and I’m shocked that I’m glad they didn’t.
Russ- nit-picky details can derail anything. Storytelling requires a great control of details, and I can see why someone’d be bothered by them when the movie universe is PREDICATED on the idea that you can do Batman ‘realistically.’ Which is false (and the reason I really disliked Begins), unless you’re going to significantly alter the source material.
Okay, another thing that bugged me: Who the hell wouldn’t know Batman was Bruce Wayne when everyone knows about Bruce Wayne and his parents, and Wayne’s the only person in the city with enough money to buy a godamn scifi hoverjet? I’m glad every other person Bruce knows figures this out in the film one way or another.
I was so pumped up after seeing this! I junked my popcorn all over some lady and broke the window, climbed into the projection booth, and told the man to play that shit again.
He proudly exclaimed, “Yes Master Wayne.”, as he fed the film into my ass at turbo speed while my eyes strobed blue flashes of light.
The Dark Knight Rises has been successfully absorbed into my body.*BANE RAGE/COLUMN SMASH*
I’m pretty sure the reason there were no kids is because it hadn’t even been nine months.