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

[Agent Richard07]

My only regret now is that we don't get to see the Riddler in Nolan's universe.

Just imagine Leonardo Di Caprio in the part.

I still can't quite put my finger on it, but I felt something was off about Hathaway. She didn't seem to have very good presence, and her character didn't really feel necessary to the story (aside from being the catalyst to get Bruce to become Batman again).

Nolan does tend to cast against type, plus he tends to cast young-ish looking people. And personally, I don't think any big-name actress right now really makes for the ideal Catwoman. Maybe that has something to do with it. She still exceded my expectations though.

 

[C_Miller]

I just wish they had called the Joseph Gordon Levitt character Dick Grayson and called it a day. From what I can tell, the only reason they didn't was to put in that "Robin" surprise at the end to elicit cheers from the audience (which it did), but Nolan is usually better than that.

Dick Grayson was an orphan who had a deep connection to Bruce Wayne (the reason he took up the costume in the first place is because they saw a similarity in themselves). He also later became a cop and took up the name of Batman at least twice in the 70 year history of the comics.

As a comic book fan, part of the appeal of these comic book movies is seeing your favorite characters up on the big screen and Dick Grayson is one of my favorite comic book characters of all time. And on top of it, I thought it was a perfect portrayal of a Robin type character in terms of the Nolan-verse.

Otherwise I loved the movie. As someone who thought that Nolan avoided the comics more than I'd like, I found this to be a pleasant surprise bringing in elements from a lot of comic book stories such as Officer Down, No Man's Land and probably most obvious Knightfall. And there was even a little bit of Morrison in there with Talia being the real bad guy as per the current Leviathan story and someone taking over as Batman. I also loved the updating of the Lazarus Pit.

While it wasn't a perfect movie, I thought it was a very fitting ending to the series. And I think that this could stand as the most consistently good trilogy of all time. And the Dick Grayson/John Blake thing stands as my only major gripe.

 

[Relayer1]

Bringing back Bruce Wayne would be awful.

It's inevitable that the Batman in the Justice League will be Bruce Wayne so they either bring him back or start again.

Nolans films are hardly so good that they are too sacred to retcon ! Were talking good but flawed, at least for 1 and 3...Bruce could easily come back in 4.

I'm sick to death of reboot mania - we're about ten years away from the studio's remaking the same few films every five years !

 

[Agent Richard07]

They can do other Nolanverse movies without Batman. They can do Catwoman or something with John Blake. They could even do "Batgirl Begins". I'm sure Gary Oldman would love to come back for more.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Nolans films are hardly so good that they are too sacred to retcon !

That's distinctly a minority opinion. Particularly since the WB undoubtedly wants to preserve their working relationship with Nolan, who makes very profitable movies.

Any new Batman films or a Batman in a JL movie will be a new continuity.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I went it with somewhat low expectations given some of the reviews. Also a down feeling given the events of today.

But I really liked it a LOT much more than I thought I would. It really moves fast for such a long film. Sure there are things that could have been different but I was very pleased.

Its amazing how many elements of final Batman stories or near final Batman stories there were.

Dark Knight Returns
Knightfall
Robin(possibly) inheriting the mantle\
Bruce and Selia together
Old comics had ALfred writing imaginary stories of Bruce's future

My only minor gripe is Robin's name. Clearly to be a surprise. How many people in a general audience would have gotten the reference of his first name being Richard or Dick.

There is a way to explain it. He was in an orphanage and raised in different foster homes. John Blake might not be his birth name.

 

[Venardhi]

The next movie probably wont be for a few years, and will almost certainly take place in a different continuity. I imagine we're still fresh enough to avoid the origin story though, instead just throwing us into a world where Batman has been around for a couple years but is still something of a myth. '89 did this, and could have easily told the same story without the few moments of flashback origin stuff thrown in.

 

[DigificWriter]

Given the way the Nolans and Goyer ended the story, the ONLY possible avenue whereby this particular version of the Batman mythos can continue is through Joseph Gordon-Leavitt's character.It is POSSIBLE that a variation on Batman Beyond could be attempted set in the same continuity, but there would need to be major alterations made to the Batman Beyond mythos if they were to go that route.

 

[C_Miller]

Honestly this was such a good ending, I'd rather have a reboot than a sequel where Bruce goes back to being Batman (or especially a retcon where the end of this film never happened).

Plus, if their goal is to do a Justice League movie, they need to set up a Batman who can believably fight along side Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash and Green Lantern. Bale's Batman showed hints of this in DKR, but overall, he's not especially adept at fighting or smart. He needs to be both of those things if he's to make sense in the JL.

 

[C_Miller]

There is a way to explain it. He was in an orphanage and raised in different foster homes. John Blake might not be his birth name.

Or Richard Blake. Blake being his mother's maiden name that he took after his father died or something. His father's name being Grayson.

 

[Dick Whitman]

It would be cool to see a Nightwing movie with Levitt. It could be separate from any Batman reboot.

 

[Davros]

I liked what I saw of it but the power went out right as the climax was beginning. Considering what had just happened a few miles away last night, it was pretty creepy.

 

[Venardhi]

There is a way to explain it. He was in an orphanage and raised in different foster homes. John Blake might not be his birth name.

Or Richard Blake. Blake being his mother's maiden name that he took after his father died or something. His father's name being Grayson.

Or maybe his name is just Robin Jonathan(?) Blake and is intended to be a new character who echoes similar notes to the comic characters who became Robin. I prefer that to the idea that this is some strange adaptation of one of the comic characters.

 

[Dick Whitman]

They intentionally made him as close to Dick Grayson as possible. Its likely that part of the reason for the 8 year gap since TDK was so Blake could be young when Batman first appeared.

 

[DigificWriter]

Attempting to jump through a bunch of hoops in order to 'rationalize' the character's real name being something other than what it was said to be is completley unnecessary. Nolan and Co. were able to pay homage to the Robin character (and the myriad individuals who have worn that mantle) without compromising their vision for the trilogy and the tone that they had established back with Batman Begins, and they did so flawlessly.

BTW, here's my full review of the movie:
The film is the best of Nolan's trilogy (although it's not nearly as epic as TDK [nor does it have to be]), and the perfect capper to this particular on-screen iteration of the Batman mythos (albeit leaving the door open to some type of future continuation should Warner Bros. decide that they want to go forward without Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale).

I also need to give Nolan props for masterfully re-using the same twist from Batman Begins, but doing so in a way that was not in any way repetative. I think most of us Internet fans figured out that Miranda was Talia long before the film actually came out, but the way Nolan used the 'Bane is an al Ghul' red herring managed to leave the Miranda = Talia reveal enough 'oomph' that it didn't feel anticlimactic.

Back when the first press release for TDKR was released and we found out that Selina Kyle/Catwoman would be involved in the film, many people were quick to call her a villain, which is something that I resisted doing. It turns out that I was right to not call her a villain, because she wasn't; she was an antagonist (which is not the same thing as a villain), in that she wasn't willingly working for Bane. She did lead Bruce into a trap, but she didn't do it out of spite or malice.

I've seen people elsewhere trying to rationalize a way in which John Blake's real name could have been Richard Grayson, but I think such 'hoop jumping' is completely unnecessary. Nolan and Co. managed to pay homage to the Robin character without compromising their vision for what they wanted their trilogy to be, and they did so flawlessly. There is absolutely no reason why the Nolan-verse 'Robin' had to be one of the characters who occupied that mantle in the comics, because Nolan and Co. were able to get the same message across.

FWIW, though, I genuinely believe that the way things were ended pretty heavily implied that Blake was eventually going to take up the mantle of Batman from Bruce rather than adopting his own costumed identity to continue Bruce's legacy of protecting the city.

 

[Admiral2]

Just my two cents:

Excellent

-Is it better than Avengers? Nope. I don't care what the newspaper critics say. All the gravitas and depth and practical effects don't beat six Marvel superheroes teamed up against a Norse God and a buncha aliens written and superbly directed by Joss Whedon. But it was excellent just the same.

-I caught a lot of flak for dissing Anne Hathaway's performance before seeing the movie. I'm happy to say I was wrong. Looks like somebody spent a few days studying Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns.

-Meanwhile, nice job on the casting of Ra's Al Ghul's kid.

-And speaking of, enough with the "Roz Al Ghul" shit. It's "Resh." The guys who made him up said it's "Resh." Roz sounds so uneducated, like everybody's thinking "Duuuh, I have to say it like it's wrote cause it's one of them furner names!"

-Bane pulled off what Occupy Wall Street had wet dreams about pulling off. And they might have done it...if they weren't mostly a bunch of uncoordinated hippies...

-Again with frigging Cillian Murphy? Can he find a movie I don't have to watch him in?

-Not that impressed with The Bat. It looks like Faye Valentine's ship in Cowboy Bebop.

-Christopher Judge? Is Mercenary #3 all he's got going since SG-1?

-Nice nerdgasm ending!

 

[Venardhi]

Ehh, not necessarily. Blake could use the same gear but alter it slightly in order to create a new persona to take up the legacy but not the name. Batman is now a martyr, and bringing him back would somewhat diminish that.

Blake is much more limited in what he can accomplish anyways. He doesn't have the money or the resources that Bruce did.

 

[doubleohfive]

I loved it. Loved that President Henry Hayes from Stargate SG-1 was the President in the Dark Knight Rises.

Did you happen to catch Teal'c in there too? He was the terrorist fighting Blake toward the end of the movie, just before Batman returns.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I am not jumping hoops. We will never know what we don't see outside of the film. Past present and future. This probably the end of this version. The name does not matter. If they called him Dick Grayson him being a new take on Robin would have been known a long time ago. Also Bruce's retirement/fake death.

I like that the movie leaves the future vague. We don't know for surethat Bruce is done forever as Batman. Or if he and Selina will stay together. What happens to Robin Blake. Its open for speculation. We will never know. Its either a definite ending to Bruce as Batman or an end to this chapter in his life, with no sequels.

 

[Agent Richard07]

The movie's midnight showing brought in an estimated $30.6 million. That's the second highest take after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which brought in $43.5 million on it's midnight opening. The Avengers brought in $18.7 million.

I caught a lot of flak for dissing Anne Hathaway's performance before seeing the movie. I'm happy to say I was wrong. Looks like somebody spent a few days studying Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns.

She based her performance on Hedy Lamarr. Read about it here. And who knows, maybe she did study Pfeiffer since she thinks of her Catwoman as iconic.