Dragon Tattoo

Easily one of the best movies I've seen in my life. When I have kids, this will be my "I was there" movie series, like my Dad blabs on about Star Wars. I'm so glad I watched it as part of the marathon, as it really comes together full-circle (even though Batman Begins will always be just a tiny a bit out of place in the trilogy due to the slight tonal shift between it and TDK).

And there were so many fucking references! I mean, my god, Nolan either schooled himself up on Batman properly before creating this trilogy or someone on staff did their fucking homework. So many "blink-and-you'll miss 'em Batman mythology references and huge, shocking total geek out moments.

My theater lost its shit when Bane . That was some truly epic shit.

I also loved the end with John Blake. . The end in general was just about great. Though I do question how

Small quibbles, however. Overall, I couldn't have asked for a more well-done Batman series. I will be seeing this at least once more in IMAX, and many more times in the future.

Good luck to the poor fuck who has to follow this up.

csant

Yeah, the same way Fox told Wayne he can tinker with another toy. I'm sure its implied that he tinker with the bat and added auto pilot.

Fantastic movie... only problem i had was that from time to time I couldn't understand what bane was saying. This movie is going to make so much money.... we'll be seeing another one in 3 years. heh

sharkstank

Four stars.

But Jesus, the Colorado thing is terrible. 14 people were just like us, watching Dark Knight Rises at the movies and were gunned down. Simply awful.

0073735963

So still groggy from the lack of sleep but I loved it (minor nitpicks/questions aside below). Thought Bane posed a decent enough villain, especially with his physical force. I was on the edge of my seat in their first fight and the fact that there wasn't any music during it really amped it up.

So about the autopilot, don't we see several shots of Bruce in the Bat, intercut with shots of the bomb counting down and close to zero? Where was he if the Bat was on autopilot?

Does the bomb still have a 6 mile blast radius and wouldn't the entire lake/river/ocean be contaminated and spread everywhere?

Wouldn't Bruce eventually get his money back after the stock market trades are investigated or is it one of those where the money can't really be recovered?

Dragon Tattoo

Someone on another forum I frequent pointed out that Bruce got out when the Bat was still close to the ground near the beginning, when it was dragging the bomb along the ground and was seemingly struggling with it, he was actually programming the autopilot. A few others confirmed that there were no shots of him actually in the plane after that, just reaction shots from other characters.

I can't confirm this for myself until I see it again, but I did notice how strange it seemed that he seemed to be struggling with the bomb during the beginning but then the plane took off with it effortlessly.

mdc3000

Overall I thought it was great, despite being able to predict most "twist & turns" from a mile away, and knowing exactly how it would end. Two things I was worried about, Catwoman and The Bat, ended up being the two best things in the movie. I think Bane needed to be a bit more fierce and I didn't get a sense that Gotham was ruined enough. I also wish Nolan had tightened up the middle and think they could have chopped at least 20 minutes to make it tighter (or given us 20 better minutes). It may not top the previous 2 but I'll still see it a few more times and overall had a blast with it.

madcougar

Wow. I wake up from four hours of sleep to read about the shooting in CO at a midnight showing of DKR. What a bring down...

About the movie however... this is one of those movies that I think I'm going to like more and more as time goes on. Lord knows that I like it more now than I did whilst I was watching it. I won't give you an spoilers, but the movie is 2 1/2 hours long, and amazingly, the first half hour feels super rushed. I'm sure you've heard of the concept of deus ex machina. Well if you've never heard the term, look it up. As you watch the first half hour, you'll go "Oh yeah... deus ex machina." Not that the setup is bad or anything... It's just... convenient.

The rest of the movie just moves. I never once wondered what time it was, and I never felt as if the movie had gone too long. As per usual Christopher Nolan movie, there were a few scenes that they could probably cut, but not too many. There are some great call backs to Batman Begins and some really great twists. I was really happy I've avoided most spoilers for sure as I was genuinely surprised at the end. For me it was almost as if the movie itself spent it's entirety "rising" out of the muck into greatness. And it almost gets there.

madcougar

After reading some of your comments...

Iron_Giant

I am so sorry for those in Aurora Co.

My wife and I watched the 2nd Mission Impossible movie in the exact theater, I grew up in Aurora, went to HS at Aurora Central High and watched many other movies there in my youth.

Still have many friends there, will have to look on Facebook to make sure they are OK.

Crazy dudes really scare me, but we still have to live our lives.

I shed tears for you Aurora...

jmu878

I'm still digesting my showing, but I do agree that this is probably the weakest of the three. A minor quibble in Nolan's wrapping up is his complete ignoring of the joker. I know that he wasn't going to be in the film, but a couple lines of dialogue explaining his whereabouts would have been nice. It just felt like a Loose end when every other villain in the series at least had a mention. Also, I hated the John Blake twist, it really doesn't make any sense.

M1000be

My minor nitpick for the movie? Gotham never looks the same. They have made NO attempt to make the Gotham from Begins carry on. In each film, Gotham looks completely different and it ruins it. In the Dark Knight, it's this grungy run down City, with certain parts looking beautiful. In The Dark Knight, it looks a quite a bit better, but still has it's grungy elements. In this one? It looks like a generic city. My concern is when I go to watch all these back to back, it'll take me out of the moment. Gotham is crucial to the Batman character and if it looks like he is in a different city each time, then it looses some of its mystique.

OldBoy

...wow!

bluetoast

One of the little moments I liked was that Bane beat the crap out of Batman one on one, and it was no big deal to him, he didn't even mention it to the football crowd. That's a moment when you know this is a scary guy.

FRwL

Hah!

Draven

I think I need to see it again but my gut reaction was that it is the weakest of the three. There are too many characters, not enough Batman and more than a few moments that made me go "really?"

Someone said it felt sloppy and that pretty much nailed it for me. They spend the first chunk of the movie pulling together all of the threads from TDK and it felt like work to me. Bane has nothing on the Joker...aside from the apparent ability to teleport around the city. If you did a shot every time Bane entered a room immediately after he entered another room, you'd be on the floor in no time. Or left Batman alive when killing him would have been the logical thing to do. That happens a lot in the movie too.

I can't really put my finger on it but I think it's really the lack of the Joker that brings this movie down. There is nothing comparable in this movie and it shows. It won't make near the bank as TDK and The Avengers and I suppose it wrapped things up (aside from some real eye rolling moments toward the end) but ultimately it's just kind of "there" as a movie.

I did like Anne Hathaway and Joseph Gordon Levitt though. They are easily the highlights.

DonnachaOne

"Hi, I'm Christopher Nolan. I like to have a last shot that undermines everything you just saw."



Do I necessarily believe that? Doesn't matter. I'm not looking forward to everyone's "OMG MIND BLOWN" comments when they "discover" this, however.

M1000be

Really? I usually love Anne , but found her to be phoning this one in and just seemed to be a throw away character.

M1000be

I'd believe that...But

jmu878

How is Blake fit to be Batman? That's my whole issue with this. Bruce had training from a master assassin and head of a ninja clan. Blake is just a mid level city cop.

M1000be

This. And would the outfit even fit him? I don't think so.
But, I think the whole point is what it symbolizes and as viewers, we are just suppose to respect that.

mhg83

mh4268

I liked the movie, but nowhere near as much as I like TDK after the first viewing. I had Rocky 3 flashbacks when and I truly wanted "Eye of the Tiger" to play when

Why So Blu?

And we'll never know.

Why So Blu?

Is this going to turn into an Inception type of discussion, where we ask if the totem actually fell or not?



Whoops, too late.

Shilex

Saw Rises last night. First off, my heart goes out to all the victims in the Colorado shootings. Simply tragic.

So I'm still not sure how I feel about Rises. I think it will require a second viewing. I do know that I have a feeling of disappointment. Something just felt "off" about this movie. Nolan didn't seem to be firing on all cylinders for me. The editing felt rough and rushed. Dialogue seemed to linger at times, and at other times felt like it was cut off. There was no real plateau of action or sense of urgency. Moments that should have been used to create some kind of emotional resonance, just seemed to fall flat or move on too quickly to the next scene. Action scenes that could have used a quick edit or cut, was just a standard one shot hold. It was like the actors were sludging through quicksand when fists were flying. It felt slow with no real impact. This movie also suffered a bit from what I like to call "speechifying" - when characters just give long speeches that really don't propel the plot forward. I really wasn't as interested or invested in these characters as in the other Batmans (even Alfred who just disappears for most of the movie, which seemed somewhat out of character). I think the main problem is that my expectations were too high, especially after the Dark Knight. That's a hard movie to top. It was an enjoyable movie though, and there were defininitely some very good moments in the film (like the intro with the planes, catwoman's scene in the bar, Batman's first time back, and I really got a real kick out of the last 15 minutes). I definitely need to watch it again to really grasp how I feel about it. Right now, I would give it three and a half stars out of five. I definitely expected (and wanted) more out of these characters.