"The Dark Knight Rises" Review and Discussion Thread (spoilers)

[TemporalFlux]

The true question is - if you were 11 when Batman Begins came out in 2005, then could you claim that Nolan raped your childhood in 2012 with Rises?

[GalaxyX]

Uhm. Batman has a flying vehicle that is aerodynamically impossible and Bane stole a FUSION REACTOR the size of a small car and you're complaining about Bruce Wayne's bum knee and "broken" back. How come you are not complaining that Selina Kyle is running around and fighting in high heel boots.

The movie had several problems which it was not able to surpass.
I'm not a fan of "The Bat" either, simply because I also know enough about engineering to know that thing would never be able to truly fly. I'm also not a fan of the whole overblown "fusion reactor" stuff.

However, this is all stuff that has to do with technology that Bruce Wayne has access to because he's filthy stinkin' rich! The whole point of the Batman films is that he can fight crime with the highest technology money can afford. So it's easier to suspend disbelief at a Fusion Reactor, simply because, with enough money, research can be payed for an breakthroughs like that are possible.

Even a similar vehicle to the bat might be possible with some engineering changes.

I had my complaints about Catwoman also, like how she is a "good hearted" criminal, and how easy it was to have her help Bruce/Batman. The whole "wipe your identity" program was silliness as well.

I could live with those issues. I cannot believe in any way shape or form, that the Bruce we saw at the beginning of the movie (whom was so easily defeated by Catwoman simply by having his cane kicked off his hand) would possible be able to make that jump out of that pit (Remember his knee has zero cartilage left, and you cannot just "snap" a spinal disc back into place! Fuck fuck that's not the way the back works!! If you crush something like a vertebrae or a spinal disc, YOU NEED FUCKING SURGERY! End of story!)

This is why the movie lost me by that point.

For your average action flick where the hero never gets hit with bullets, and can walk perfectly with shards of metal shoved into his leg muscles (Eraser, I'm looking in your direction!) this is perfectly acceptable silliness, because most people already KNOW that's what they're going to see.

For TDKR, it gave up its original premise to try to keep everything realistic, and turned into a straight up cornball action flick at the end, even with the cliche "Must toss the bomb away from the city" and the "fake death"

Personally I just couldn't believe Bruce Wayne was in any shape to get up and beat Bane in a fist fight. The story failed to make me believe that.

[Warped9]

People falling or being thrown great distances and they get up without effort has immediately crossed into the fantastic. After that it's nitpicking to belabour other elements asking for suspension of disbelief.

[Gaith]

Warped9 wrote:

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People falling or being thrown great distances and they get up without effort has immediately crossed into the fantastic. After that it's nitpicking to belabour other elements asking for suspension of disbelief.

Ah, but most action movies where heroes survive totally un-survivable beatings have the good sense not to have scenes in which doctors tell them how wrecked they are. Tony Stark takes far worse hits than Nolan's Batman, but you'll never see a doctor tell him he'll barely be able to walk again.

[Trekker4747]

Gaith wrote:

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Ah, but most action movies where heroes survive totally un-survivable beatings have the good sense not to have scenes in which doctors tell them how wrecked they are. Tony Stark takes far worse hits than Nolan's Batman, but you'll never see a doctor tell him he'll barely be able to walk again.

Pretty much it. You can't have it both ways, you can't in one scene tell me that Bruce Wayne has no cartilage in his knee rendering him crippled for good and then, later show him using a crazy leg brace to kick rock walls apart (which still wouldn't overcome the pain and problems in his knee) and then even later show him doing push-ups and other calisthenics withgout the crazy knee brace and THEN show him fighting and holding his own.

Because those things do not flow. It's an increasing series of contradictions. We were told in the beginning of the movie that Bruce Wayne for all intents and purposes was crippled but he just somehow "overcame it." So either Billionaire Bruce Wayne went to a REALLY shitty orthopedic doctor or the movie has a plot hole in it.

It also renders that whole plot point sort of useless if it's just shrugged off.

[RAMA]

The Mirrorball Man wrote:

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To be perfectly honest, every time I see Anne Hathaway in tight leather, my critical mind seems to disappear, so I must admit that it may not be as thematically sound as I pretended that it was.

She's way too skinny and frail to be believable as Catwoman.

RAMA

[Trekker4747]

RAMA wrote:

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She's way too skinny and frail to be believable as Catwoman.

RAMA

I dunno, the only thing I look for in a Catwoman is someone who fills in spandex very well which, well, Hathaway does. I thought she did the part very well. I was surprised, because I didn't think she'd have the "grace" for it. But she pulled it off, looked good, and well, I think it's the best on-screen portrayal of Catwoman since Julie Newmar. (I hated the Michelle Pfiffer version and the less said about Halle Berry's the better.)

[Set Harth]

Gaith wrote:

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Tony Stark takes far worse hits than Nolan's Batman, but you'll never see a doctor tell him he'll barely be able to walk again.

Which may have something to do with the fact that he's in a literal suit of titanium-alloy armor equipped with fictional repulsor technology. ( And Wayne wasn't told "you'll barely be able to walk again", he was told "don't go heli-skiing". )

[Trekker4747]

Set Harth wrote:

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Which may have something to do with the fact that he's in a literal suit of titanium-alloy armor equipped with fictional repulsor technology. ( And Wayne wasn't told "you'll barely be able to walk again", he was told "don't go heli-skiing". )

Because he had no cartilage in his knee! He was dependent on the cane just to walk and stand. You need cartilage in your joints in order for them to work, if you have no cartilage in a joint it's stiff and not flexible. What do you think arthritis is?

[sidious618]

I got the impression that a fair bit of his limping was psychosomatic.

[Trekker4747]

sidious618 wrote:

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I got the impression that a fair bit of his limping was psychosomatic.

Still. Doesn't. Undo. The doctor saying he has no cartilage in his knee!

[sidious618]

It's a little weird but it didn't irk me at all. The back thing was a stretch but it worked with the theme of the film so it didn't bother me much either.

[Trekker4747]

The back thing is a whole other can of worms.

Here's a tip kids: If you ever dislocate some vertebrae? You can't just have someone punch them back into place, force you to stand up, and then be all set to go.

[Marc]

sidious618 wrote:

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It's a little weird but it didn't irk me at all. The back thing was a stretch but it worked with the theme of the film so it didn't bother me much either.

Less of stretch than in knightfall where Bruce's back is healed by a woman with psycho-kinetic powers.

And IIRC it wasn't a full break as Barman twisted just as Bane smashed him down but there was severe spinal trauma.

So some of these "plot holes" are in line with source materials.

[GalaxyX]

Trekker4747 wrote:

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The back thing is a whole other can of worms.

Here's a tip kids: If you ever dislocate some vertebrae? You can't just have someone punch them back into place, force you to stand up, and then be all set to go.

The knee thing isn't too bad.

I know 2 guys who have shot knees. One pretty much has no cartilage, same as in the movie. The guy can walk, but not run. And he's in constant pain that he has to manage.

I supposed Bruce could have fought thru excruciating pain and probably risk permanent knee inmobility to fight Bane.

But the back thing? No way. Go look at a diagram of a human spine. You think vertebrae can just "snap" back into place from being dislocated? You can't "dislocate" anything in the spine, even the spinal discs are glued tightly to the vertebrae.

When someone "slips" a disc, what actually happens is you tear the cartilage in the middle, and if it's bad enough it will press on nerves going down the spinal column, giving symptoms of sciatica, and in severe cases can damage the spinal cord.

So no, breaking something in your back is not a thing that you "snap" back into place and then keep on training.

If they wanted to keep it realistic, they could have went the route of having surgeons patch him up, which is what I expected to happen.

It only dissapoints me because I wanted to love this movie as much as I loved the first 2.