The Dark Knight Rises

Finally watched it after buying the blu-ray. It is okay, nothing special. Good for one viewing, but way inferior to its predecesor which in retrospect what made it great was the tour de force performance of Heath Ledger, a kind of performance seriously lacking here. Bane & Selina Kyle/Catwoman remained undeveloped characters. The film could have been a bit better if Nolan would had shrink it to just two hours. There wasn't any particular memorable scene IMO, but I did like that it brought some sort of closure to the trilogy...but it also hinted at a Robin/Night Wing spinoff? I hope not. 8/10

 

You're right....we were always right on this.
It's a good movie but nothing special.

I re-watched it again the other day and I liked it even less than I did at the movies.

Tom 'Gay' Hardy is ridiculous as Bane and an equially ridiculous, ahem, 'MasterPlan' (whatever that was) - classicly, camp, OTT voice, and fat body - he looks like the end-of-level Boss in every 1990s video-game.

Anne 'Not Sexy' Hathaway - totally miscast as the pointless 'Cat'? 'CatWoman'? 'CatGirl'? seriously, who gives a shit.

Christian Bale's voice gets even more ridiculous with each movie...throat-cancer patient.

Basically, Nolan panicked like fuck when he watched the vastly superior 'The Avengers' and tried tacking whatever he could onto this to compete.

6/10...at a push.

 

there's already a thread on this movie

 

I think this is Panch's own DVD-version-thread of the movie...

 

Tom Hardy is solid muscle in that movie. You're retarded.

 

Yup. The other thread was about the Nolanites jizzing in their pants at every scene and dissecting the film like a holy scroll. This is just a casual review of the blu-ray release. My score on the trilogy goes like this:

Batman Begins- a half baked film which put me to sleep the two times I watched it.

The Dark Knight -Hands down a great movie which I have rewatched many times. Heath Ledger performance alone makes it worth watching.

The Dark Knight Rises -Better than Batman Begins, but not even close to The Dark Knight. A good film that suffered from lack of character development, bad acting from Bale everytime he donned the mask (maybe he felt embarrassed I dunno), Selina Kyle & Bruce Wayne had zero chemistry so their last scene of 'come with me' and the kiss felt completely ficticious, there are many faults of logic through out the film, the demise of Bane is truly anticlimatic and...hell, I'm downgrading this film right now to 7/10

 

Because the more I think about it the more I find things that were not good.

 

@Buddy: Hardy was solid in 'Warrior' - in 'TDKR', he definately looks on the soft and squidgy side.

 

Once again, just like in your Spiderman review I completely agree with you. I think I wrote a more positive inital review of this film (can't remember) but I know I find it hard to like this as much as the last one. Much like Spiderman I don't think I'll ever watch this again.

 

Yes and totally points out the obvious: an entire franchise that everyone will remember for one performence alone.

 

the ending to this movie with that scene in the cafe in Florence was a complete joke....it made no sense and completely ruined the movie

 

I agree. Nolan probably wanted to keep Bale out of that scene, but had to concede to the studio demands to not kill the franchise, I mean, the character. To me it would have been better if either they had left out that whole scene at the cafe or just show Alfred's reaction, smiling and you might think:'did he saw Bruce Wayne? is he still alive? who was he smiling at if not Bruce?' it would had make us guess and think and speculate. But by showing Bale/Bruce and no less with Selina Kyle, it kind of ruined the whole thing of Alfred weeping at Bruce's tomb and kind of did not concluded the trilogy since freaking Batman is still alive and he can comeback any freaking day he wants! Another sabbatical. So what's the big deal?

 

yeah I agree with that panch.

 

@Anthony (because the fucking quote-function on this shitty site doesn't work...)
Ledger or Movie: I voted both.
Nolan just caught lightning-in-a-bottle with that movie...and it didn't make any difference that Ledger died either.

It's just a far better movie than either 'BR' or 'TDNR'...

 

wasn't there a funeral for Bruce Wayne though? :scratcher:

 

Nope wasn't just Ledgers performance, it was the film itself that was better. Better dialogue, flow and The Joker was a better villain with his brilliant planning and foresight. The Harvey becomes Two Face had the potential to screw up the film with an unnecessary character (much like Cat Woman) but even that wound up working out and being a plus for the film. One can compare Ledger and Hardys characters or performances all day long and even though Ledger wins that comparison all day long it isn't the reason that TDK is a much superior film than TDKR.

 

I think comic book films are silly nonsense but I enjoyed the Dark Knight. The reason? Ledger's performance, his interpretation was refreshing and brilliant. Without his performance, I would have been largely uninterested in watching it. It really is one of the finest performances I've seen in film.

I'm only saying this to provide an outsider's perspective to the thread and to somewhat bolster Anthony's question. All of you seem already interested in comic book films so perhaps your biases can influence your perception of these films. So I offer my view on TDK as someone with no interest in comic books or the films they inspire

 

You asume I read that, but I didn't. I stopped reading that thread when at the time you guys started the spoilers and I wanted to avoid knowing much of the plot so I could have a fresh viewing when it will came out on blu-ray. If I had known all those plot details from that thread I would not have bought the movie at all.

 

What good is the actor's performance without the writing to give it a voice? What good is the actor's performance without the the directing to give it a platform? Yes Ledger gave an outstanding performance but unless you're going to tell me you were bored to tears when Ledger wasn't on screen then I'm going to have to continue to say that Ledger's performance was merely the back-bone to an outstanding film rather than the everything that held it all together.

 

I was significantly bored when he wasn't on screen ... the greatest writing in the world is easily undone by shit acting... conversely, a great actor can rescue less than brilliant writing

Without Ledger's performance, that film is a typical comic book movie and thus, a snoozefest for me

Ledger's performance was one of the finest I have seen in film. Surely, if all of the other elements were so fantastic, I would have been similarly moved by the other actors? Only, I wasn't.