The Dark Knight Rises Review (Caution - SPOILERS INSIDE)

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Sat Aug 04, 2012 10:07 pm

I saw TDKR last weekend during my too-short week off work. At very nearly 3 hours, it is a commitment to watch this film. I loved Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. My love for Dark Knight was not as strong as the first film in the trilogy, but I'm all about main character origin stories. Anyway...when I left the theater after TKDR, all I felt was "meh."

There was way too much going on, but it took way too long to get there. It seemed every character only had a bit part. The reveal in the end that Marion Cotillard's character was Talia Al-Ghul, and was the child that escaped the prison, whilst Bane was her protector, was a surprise (I'd avoided the spoilers as much as possible before I saw it), and I thought that was the only part of the story handled well.

Tom Hardy's appearance and "eye expression" acting was great, but the voice was stupid. Worse than Bale's batman voice, which has been a sore spot with me since the start of the trilogy. Bane sounded like a pretentious idiot, although not as bad as Jeep Swenson's version in Batman Forever.

Anne Hathaway's Catwoman had very little substance, again owing to all the characters and reaching story arc. I am often impressed by Hathaway's acting, despite my desire to hate her. She could've taken Catwoman to new heights if she'd been allowed.

The whole story was a mish-mash of Batman: No Man's Land, The Dark Knight Returns and Knightfall. Each of those story arcs deserved a film of their own. In Rises, I never had a sense of what really was supposed to be going on. Then we had Nolan's take on Robin, who was played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He could be a great Nightwing, but I didn't like the way his character, and the not-so-subtle introduction of his Robin, was done.

Literally, at about the half way point, I was so bored I almost walked out...at least the film picked up a bit from there. There were so many overlapping stories that each character had minimal screen time. Alfred and Lucius were afterthoughts. Much of the story seemed so unrealistic. The Knightfall portion of the story was the only part that had a little substance to it, but it needed to be fleshed out more. Again, each of these 3 tie-ins could've been their own film. But Wayne's recovery after getting his back broken was just too silly and unbelievable. Despite the No Man's Land portion of the film lasting a good 4-6 months, you had no sense of the time lapse from the other points of view.

The falling out between Alfred and Bruce was just stupid. And then their "reunion" at the end....Bruce Wayne dies and gets buried, but then is eating at Alfred's restaurant of choice with Selina Kyle? The intentional set-up so that Alfred knew Bruce was okay and would lead a normal life? How is it that someone didn't recognize him, even though he was dead and buried? Did I miss something here?

All of the main actors are highly accomplished and did the best they could with their roles. However, it felt as if this whole movie was made with these actors simply because they were locked into a contract to participate in it. I have no doubt that several of them would've turned it down if they had much of a choice. Some of the scenes were downright campy.

What an utter disappointment. I had thought about this film for a week before deciding to write my opinion on it...and nothing has changed since I walked out of the theater completely let down, except that I'm more aggravated by it now than I was when I left.

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Sat Aug 04, 2012 10:08 pm

What kills me is that I'm actually tempted to go see it again with a more critical eye, to see if there was much that I missed or perhaps my mood was wrong to watch it the first time. I almost can't believe my own opinion of this farce.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 8:56 pm

Hmm. I'll still watch it, but as much as I'd like I have no idea when.

Jeff Hauze · Post by **Jeff Hauze** » Wed Aug 08, 2012 4:05 am

The short version of my review: "It's good, but the preceding two films were great. So, it's solid, but not spectacular. The biggest issue? There's far too many plot lines in play all at the same time. Casting was still brilliant, as usual for a Nolan film. The voice effect on Bane was an awful choice, as it made some of his dialogue much harder to catch."

3278 · Post by **3278** » Wed Aug 08, 2012 8:46 pm

Jeff Hauze wrote:The biggest issue? There's far too many plot lines in play all at the same time.

Is this a Batman curse? It seems like every franchise runs into this, and I just don't know why they don't, like, make two movies, then.

Jeff Hauze wrote:The voice effect on Bane was an awful choice, as it made some of his dialogue much harder to catch.

I've heard several people basically couldn't make it out at all, depending on the theater's sound setup. I haven't seen the film, obviously, but I'm sure I will sometime, and that's definitely something that makes me nervous.

Bishop · Post by **Bishop** » Wed Aug 08, 2012 10:09 pm

I could understand it just fine, there in Greenville. I actually liked it, I thought it....fit. Bane's voice, that is.

Crazy Elf · Post by **Crazy Elf** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 2:20 pm

I didn't have any problem with Bane's voice, but I had no problem with a vaguely British/Gypsy accented guy beating the crap out of an American. I guess that may have had an effect on many of the audience members in the U.S.

3278 · Post by **3278** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 6:50 pm

Ooh! Nationalism is so hip! Let me give it a shot.

How's that work out for him? About as well as it usually does when some vaguely British/Gypsy accented guy tries to take on an American?

Crazy Elf · Post by **Crazy Elf** » Sat Aug 11, 2012 10:35 am

Well he gets the crap beaten out of him and then he has to go overseas to find out how real people fight, so yeah pretty much.

3278 · Post by **3278** » Sat Aug 11, 2012 4:56 pm

By "real people," you mean Asians, right? They're the only group on the planet clearly superior to British or Romani stock, after all. I mean, it's not like he'd go to Africa.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Sat Aug 11, 2012 8:33 pm

I wonder how hard it would be to do a quality Batman Television series?

3278 · Post by **3278** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 2:09 am

Slightly on the same subject, I've heard ABC is going to launch a Marvel television project...with Joss Whedon at the helm. It can't be The Avengers on TV, because they couldn't afford the film stars, but there's another Marvel property Whedon has been known to be interested in, that'd make a pretty eXceptional TV show.

Bishop · Post by **Bishop** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 4:06 am

I see what you did there. It would be interesting to see the casting, if nothing else.

3278 · Post by **3278** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 2:02 pm

Slightly more horribly, ABC was working on a Hulk TV show last year, with Guillermo del Toro and David Eick [he of Galactica fame], which was put on hold until a new writer could be found. So there's that.

Also, there's been some talk of an Avengers show without the same characters, which to me seems really very stupid. It could just be a SHIELD show, though, which would allow guest-stars and references, so that's something. Think Samuel L would stop the movie madness long enough to settle down in TV? They could just do Young Avengers, but...seriously.

For what it's worth, he wrote some issues of The Runaways, which he could certainly turn into a TV show.

Crazy Elf · Post by **Crazy Elf** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 7:57 am

3278 wrote:By "real people," you mean Asians, right? They're the only group on the planet clearly superior to British or Romani stock, after all. I mean, it's not like he'd go to Africa.

Asians are only really dangerous when you give them a knife, or a car. They do qualify, though, because by "real people", I meant, "not American".

I've missed coming here.

AtemHutlrt · Post by **AtemHutlrt** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:13 am

3278 wrote:
Jeff Hauze wrote:The voice effect on Bane was an awful choice, as it made some of his dialogue much harder to catch.
I've heard several people basically couldn't make it out at all, depending on the theater's sound setup. I haven't seen the film, obviously, but I'm sure I will sometime, and that's definitely something that makes me nervous.

They tweaked it quite a bit after test audiences couldn't make out a single fucking word, so it's actually pretty clear and easy to understand. The problem, though, is that it they tweaked it too much, and it just sounds sort of wrong. Like, it's not balanced properly with the rest of the audio, or something. It's like watching a CG character interact with a puppet. Plus Tom Hardy decided the character would be best served by talking like an affable British headmaster, so we're left with Batman's ultimate nemesis sounding like Dumbledore. A lot of people complain about Bale's "Batman voice", but that never bothered me, whereas this took me out of the movie a bit. Overall, I felt there were a lot of wonky little issues with the movie, but, as a whole, I'd highly recommend it. Just don't be surprised if you find it somewhat of a beautiful mess.

3278 · Post by **3278** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 1:05 pm

Oh my god. I'm not sure I'll be able to watch without dying of laughter. Is this what happened to Heath Ledger? They gave him a preview of Deckard Bane? "Shtay a while, and I'll shoot you before throwing you out of a plane!"

AtemHutlrt · Post by **AtemHutlrt** » Mon Aug 20, 2012 5:21 am

3278 wrote:Oh my god. I'm not sure I'll be able to watch without dying of laughter. Is this what happened to Heath Ledger? They gave him a preview of Deckard Bane? "Shtay a while, and I'll shoot you before throwing you out of a plane!"

Oh, man, that's what it reminded me of! It's kind of uncanny, really.

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Mon Aug 20, 2012 10:54 am

3278 wrote:Oh my god. I'm not sure I'll be able to watch without dying of laughter. Is this what happened to Heath Ledger? They gave him a preview of Deckard Bane? "Shtay a while, and I'll shoot you before throwing you out of a plane!"

It was pretty hard not to laugh. I can't believe the version I saw was the "improved" Bane voice! He was hard to understand in many parts of the dialogue, but just sounded ridiculous in all the other parts.

Crazy Elf · Post by **Crazy Elf** » Mon Aug 20, 2012 12:45 pm

I quite liked the voice, actually. It helped steer Bane away from being a cliché, which he certainly had the potential to do. I'm not the only fan either.

UncleJoseph · Post by **UncleJoseph** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 11:58 pm

Crazy Elf wrote:I quite liked the voice, actually. It helped steer Bane away from being a cliché, which he certainly had the potential to do. I'm not the only fan either.

His voice was totally Ross...

Crazy Elf · Post by **Crazy Elf** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 4:53 am

UncleJoseph wrote:
Crazy Elf wrote:I quite liked the voice, actually. It helped steer Bane away from being a cliché, which he certainly had the potential to do. I'm not the only fan either.
His voice was totally Ross...

That's it! I'll fucking have you!

WillyGilligan · Post by **WillyGilligan** » Sun Sep 02, 2012 6:12 am

So, I finally saw this. I don't know why, but I enjoyed the movie in a very detached way. I could intellectually see the point of most of the scenes, and I thought most of the performances were good at conveying the characters and so on. I just never really found myself feeling involved, though.

Bane's voice was weird, but I got over it. Pacing was slow, but I didn't think the time was really wasted. I just felt very 'meh' about the whole thing. Didn't help that I listened to Kevin Smith spoiler review the whole thing, but that's my bad.