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

[JacksonArcher]

"Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up."

Christopher Nolan's epic conclusion to The Dark Knight trilogy is nearly upon us.

Early press screenings have already happened and the buzz so far is overwhelmingly positive. Geoff Boucher of the L.A. Times has already seen the film and had this to say, "The third act of the third film delivers a series of jolting twists and jarring turns and an exclamation point climax. Nolan’s finale takes Batman and his on-screen mythology to a place it has never been before."

You can read more about the early screenings here. The link compiled some of the first reaction thoughts to the film:

"Wow quite speechless at the moment … It was everything I wanted it to be. Some fans will find certain aspects controversial, but in my eyes everything in the film fit the overall scheme of this instalment and the series in general, and Nolan really couldn't have made it any more epic."

"I think Bale gives his best performance as Batman and as Bruce Wayne in this one. He was terrific. And I especially loved his bat voice this time around."

"As far as audience reaction, there were only 40-50 ppl in attendance (mostly critics), but there was applause and I leaned over and shook Michael Uslan's hand and congratulated him when his name appeared in the credits. I, myself, cried twice...once out of sadness and once out of pure geeky uncontrollable happiness. "

Another article expounds on the early screenings and how the audience gave the film a standing ovation. Here are more thoughts:

"The trilogy is greater than the sum of its parts, and for me the 3rd was the very best part of the whole story. [Dark Knight Rises] is a classic in its own right - it stands alone, but in this trilogy, and as a closer, this film exceeds."

Adding a retrospective twist to the proceedings, I have written two pieces on my blog, taking a trip down memory lane and reminsicing about being an eager fan waiting for the previous two installments: here's Waiting for Batman, all about the buildup to Batman Begins, and Before The Dawn, an account of how I followed the production of The Dark Knight while it filmed in my own city of Chicago.

As July 20th nears closer, I'll add more reviews and first impressions. Suffice to say, the next two weeks should be exciting if not a little unbearable for some of us. One or two more than others.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

As July 20th nears closer, I'll add more reviews and first impressions. Suffice to say, the next two weeks should be exciting if not a little unbearable for some of us. One or two more than others.

At least you only have to wait 10 more days. I have to wait 18 more days!

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Dan, my great friend, it's hard to believe it's been seven bloody years since Batman Begins came out. I remember reading the script after you sent it to me and being genuinely impressed by it. I recall thinking that no live action Batman movie could possibly be that friggin' good.

I was wrong.

That being said... its hard to believe it's already over. From the looks of things they're going out with a big bang. Tonight... I watch Batman Begins and The Dark Knight on Blu-ray and look back on good times.

And look forward to one more great time at the movies next week. It's been a fun journey, Dan.

 

[Agent Richard07]

I can't believe it's been four years. I've been looking forward to this since I stepped out of the theatre after The Dark Knight in 2008.

Here's a quote I found...

"I love the costume because everything has a purpose, nothing is in place for fantasy's sake, and that's the case with everything in Christopher Nolan's Gotham City." - Anne Hathaway on her Catwoman costume.

I think the goggles that lift up to coinidentally look like cat ears is genius. I've tried to figure out how they'd do a more grounded Catwoman costume and couldn't come up with anything. I think it would have been better though if they gave her a full head piece along with those lift-up goggles instead of a face mask and lift-up goggles.

 

[Admiral_Young]

The wait is finally almost over. We've reached "The Dark Knight Rises" week!!! Can hardly wait. Listened to the score so many times already! I probably won't be seeing it until Friday or Saturday, but most likely on the weekend.

 

[StarMan]

48 hours to go here in New Zealand. Might be time to buy a ticket!

 

[Trekker4747]

Official reviews are coming out as the embargo has been lifted, people will be seeing screenings and midnight showings here in a couple of days I think it's time to let this thread roll and to lock down the anticipation thread.

 

[Dream]

Batman Fans Lose Their Minds Over Negative DARK KNIGHT RISES Reviews

 

[Warped9]

You know for a very long time fans have wanted the superhero genre treated with some measure of respectability. It came eventually in fits and starts over the years. The '78 Superman was pretty much the first step and to date is possibly the best overall treatment of Supes for the big screen. Unfortunately aspects of that film now come across as quite dated yet even so it's still better than what followed to this day for Superman as live-action.

The '89 Batman was the next step for respectability, but sadly things faltered badly after that.

It wouldn't be until the early 2000s for the next major try for respectability with The X-Men and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. With those it felt like the genre had finally hit the mark. If done well and with a good measure of respect for the subject matter than the superhero genre could pay off, and big.

Since then it's been a near steady parade of superhero films, each trying to top the previous effort in some way or other. Yeah, it's been hit-and-miss, but generally we really haven't had too much to complain about. The Avengers is (presently) the culmination of the superhero genre. But...if you really think it about even that film shares an element with everything that preceded it: a tongue-in-cheek mentality that never really forgets it's all in fun. And there's nothing wrong with that.

But mixed within this parade of superhero flicks Chris Nolan decided to take it up a notch or two and treat the genre really seriously. His Batman trilogy has its lighter moments, but in general Nolan is out to make a different impression. He took arguably the most credible and among the most iconic of superheroes and treated it as (mostly) real as he could do it. Nolan wanted to play with ideas generally beyond the genre and ask questions and invite the audience to think after the action was done with. His aim seemed to be to leave a distinct impression beyond, "That was fun! What's next?

Essentially Nolan seems to have wanted to fashion a film experience that could work for the mainstream as well as the superhero genre. And with his first two Batman films I think he did that. Now it's looking like TDKR seals the deal. Nolan's trilogy has put the superhero genre on a whole other level than everything that's preceded it. It just might have crossed over into mainstream drama.

Other superhero films can be quite good and a helluva lotta fun, resonating with what we love in superhero comics. But Nolan has finally brought that measure of respectability to the genre many fans have hoped for for so long.

His certainly isn't the only way to do superheroes satisfactorily, but then he's chosen to play in a different sandbox.

I am really looking forward to seeing The Dark Knight Rises.

 

[Gojira]

I read a couple of negative reviews and they really do not put me off of the movie at all except for one thing:

I will put it here in a spoiler box because I don't want to ruffle any feathers and would rather play it safe. The spoiler is not about the plot

Spoiler

"It is said that it is hard to understand the dialog at times and the problem is not just with Bane but other characters in the movie too. I had the same problem with the Dark Knight. In a few scenes with Gary oldman he seems to mumble, especially in the office with Harvey Dent and when he is in the bank vault with Batman. I hope we reaqlly don't have the same problem!"

 

[Agent Richard07]

I was hoping to remain spoiler free until Thursday night but I caught another clip during a Morgan Freeman interview. It hinted at Bruce's condition. I hope that's the last bit of spoiler info I get.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Ebert's review.

Keep in mind he gave four stars to each of the other two films

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Ebert's review was by no means negative. He just wasn't masturbating to it. It sounds like he pretty much enjoyed it. Especially the second half.

 

[Trekker4747]

 

[sidious618]

Ha! I'm putting that on my facebook.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

I'm looking forward to seeing it tomorrow morning. Gonna watch The Dark Knight later tonight. I know several people attending midnight screenings tonight.

 

[SalvorHardin]

'Dark Knight Rises' Fans Force Rotten Tomatoes To Suspend Commenting On Reviews

The aggregating Web site RottenTomatoes.com suspended user comments on movie reviews of "The Dark Knight Rises" after commenters reacted harshly to negative reviews of the film and made profane and threatening remarks about the critics who wrote them.

"The job of policing the comments became more than my staff could handle for that film, so we stopped the comments altogether," said Atchity. "It just got to be too much hate based on reactions to reviews of movies that people hadn't even seen."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...en-tomatoes-commenting-reviews_n_1682209.html

 

[Agent Richard07]

I saw the whole Rush Limbaugh thing. Even if he's taking the Bain/Bane stuff too seriously, it really is a pretty timely and funny coincidence.

Moving along, I was reading the trivia section for The Dark Knight Rises at the IMDb and thought I'd post some of what was there...

- Christopher Nolan is the first director to complete a full trilogy of Batman films, but the second to direct a full trilogy of films on one superhero (after Sam Raimi completed his Spider-Man films).

- Christian Bale is the first live action actor to portray Batman/Bruce Wayne in three Batman films. Kevin Conroy has played the character in seven animated films as of 2011 (including Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker).

- Cinematographer Wally Pfister has expressed interest in shooting the entirety of the film in the IMAX format, as both Pfister and Christopher Nolan have expressed distaste for shooting the film in 3-D. Ultimately, the film would feature approximately 50 minutes of IMAX footage, while the rest was shot in a combination of 35mm and 70mm, as IMAX cameras proved to be too noisy for shooting the films dialogue scenes.

- Jessica Biel, Gemma Arterton, Kate Mara, Charlotte Riley, Keira Knightley and Anne Hathaway all auditioned for the role of Selina Kyle. After the initial audition process, Hathaway, Biel and Mara all screen tested. Ultimately, Anne Hathaway won the role.

- Naomi Watts, Rachel Weisz and Marion Cotillard were considered to play Miranda Tate before Cotillard finally got the role. Cotillard started filming 2 months after she gave birth to her son, Marcel.

- According to Gary Oldman, Christopher Nolan told the actors the ending of the film verbally to avoid any leaks.

- One of the reasons why Christopher Nolan cast Tom Hardy as Bane was because of his performance in the film RocknRolla. Hardy stated that he thought he was cast because of his role in Bronson. He arrived on set only to learn that Nolan has never even seen Bronson.

- Chloë Grace Moretz and Jennifer Lawrence auditioned for Juno Temple's role.

- Joseph Gordon-Levitt , Leonardo DiCaprio , James Holzier, Ryan Gosling, and Mark Ruffalo were considered to play John Blake. Gordon-Levitt was ultimately cast.

- Anne Hathaway, who plays Catwoman, had been cast as Black Cat (Felicia Hardy) in The Amazing Spider-Man in 2010, which at that time was under Sam Raimi's direction as "Spider-Man 4" and was going to feature the Vulture and Black Cat.

- According to Christopher Nolan, Bane was chosen as the film's main antagonist "to test Batman mentally as well as physically."

- To prepare for her role as Catwoman, Anne Hathaway worked out five days a week on a regime that involved vigorous exercise, stunt training and dancing. She called it her most physically demanding role to date.

- This is the fifth film in a row that Christopher Nolan has worked with Michael Caine. The other films were Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, and Inception.

- With their appearances in this movie, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy and Gary Oldman will have each appeared in three Batman movies. Only Michael Gough and Pat Hingle have done the same thing.

- Christopher Nolan picked Bane as the main villain. Coincidentally, with no known relation, the name of one of the creators of Bane for the comic books is Graham Nolan.

- Anne Hathaway based her performance on Hedy Lamarr, who was the original inspiration for Catwoman.

- Tickets for the film's premiere midnight IMAX screenings in New York sold out six months in advance.

- Anne Hathaway has revealed that during her audition, she thought that she was auditioning for Harley Quinn. it was only after she had a discussion with Christopher Nolan that she found out that she was auditioning for Catwoman.

- Anne Hathaway has said that she desperately coveted the role of Catwoman, and was a complete nervous wreck after her audition. The first time her agent phoned after her screen test, he said he had good news and asked if Hathaway was sitting down. Hathaway immediately screamed "I'm Catwoman!" and ran around the room in a frenzy. Unfortunately, her agent had to calm the actress down--he had called to let her know that she'd been invited to host the Academy Awards. Hathaway has said she was so shocked she went numb at the offer. Fortunately, shortly thereafter, her agent phoned again to let her know that she had been offered the part of Catwoman as well.

- Christopher Nolan said that the film's theme deals with "Pain" For Batman Begins, it was on "Fear", while The Dark Knight deals on "Chaos".

- Tom Hardy accepted the role of Bane without reading the script. He was verbally told that he would have unprecedented access to extensive stunt training and equipment that he could enjoy knocking around.

I also read that Natalie Portman was considered for the role of Selena Kyle, but I don't know if that's true or not.

 

[tomalak301]

I'm going to see the movie Saturday Morning and I can't wait. Bought advance tickets yesterday and so far I've remained spoiler free.

My one concern, however, is the run time. For some reason I see that it's close to 3 hours long and wonder if there will be some plodding parts. Hopefully those feelings are unfounded.

 

[Trekker4747]

My one concern, however, is the run time. For some reason I see that it's close to 3 hours long and wonder if there will be some plodding parts. Hopefully those feelings are unfounded.

It's 2 hours and 45 minutes long, only 10 minutes longer than it predecessor, 25 minutes longer than Batman Begins and 20 minutes longer than The Avengers.

I don't think it'll be that bad.