Topic: The Dark Knight Rises (spoiler content inside)

[cactusfan]

i'm sure Romney appreciates how you're all spelling Bane as Bain.

i don't really get the love for this movie. it really is a disaster. is it even a Batman movie? nothing in it makes the least sense. the last movie ended with his taking the blame for Dent's actions, meaning he's now wanted by the police, all except for Gordon. right? meaning he's--Batman. but instead we're told he holed up in his mansion for EIGHT YEARS doing fuck-all because he's sad? what the fuck is that? why isn't he out there fighting for the weak? it's bullshit.

i mean, how long was he actually Batman in this world? six months? a year? the Joker's existence is revealed at the end of part 1, and how much time passed during part 2?  let's be massively generous and assume he was Batman for a year. then he pussies out for EIGHT YEARS, comes back for a few months, then bails to italy or wherever to resume his richie rich life. and that's supposed to be a Batman trilogy? give me a break.

why did Alfred leave? there's no sense to it all, it completely goes against the only thing that defines his character. and then it affects nothing. it's not even mentioned again except as a joke about Bruce opening his own front door.

why are we supposed to care about Talia al Ghul? she's just some random lady Bruce screws for some reason. there's no meaning given to any of these people or their actions. and what was her big plan again? she's going to blow up Gotham and Batman. and herself? why? why should she die? and how is that fulfilling her father's plan? his idea was to drive everyone in Gotham insane to reveal the animals they truly were. how does blowing it up with a nuke have anything to do with that?

what are she and Bane even doing? they take over the city? why? because a revolution with some nonsense thrown in about the rich is topical? i guess. but the people of the city aren't involved. it's just a bunch of thugs taking over. and for what purpose? what are the show trials for? how does that make any sense at all? Bane is a terrrible villian. you can't understand him, you can't see him, he turns out to be the henchman, and the real villian is given nothing to do and zero emotional weight. all she does is stab Batman, to no effect whatsoever, and give a speech at the end. during which time she just holds that knife in him. then she gets in a truck and dies. ummm...okay.

and that doesn't even begin to get at all the minor stupidities. Nolan gets bored with every idea instantly and runs off to the next one. why does Bruce go to the doctor? is he actually messed up? why? from being Batman for a year? immediately after he's diagnosed he leaps out the window, so i guess really he's fine. why was that scene in the movie?

i guess he jumped out of the plane, what, ten miles from when it blew up? must be a hell of a swimmer in that batsuit. nevermind that we saw the timer tick down to like 4 seconds with Batman still flying it. all part of the fake-out.

and what again is Bruce's motivation at any time? he's full of self-pity so he can't actually be Batman. but then he decides to be Batman again because... his fingerprints were taken? Robin is a sad orphan? Bane is around? sort of all of that. sort of. wow. powerful storytelling there. and then he can't escape his pit of doom because he doesn't fear death. but if he fears death, he can beat the bad guys, and he's willing to give Gotham 'everything', meaning his life, but not really, he's actually going to run away at the end.

why make Gordon look like a buffoon? he doesn't know Batman is Bruce Wayne? but Robin does, because Bruce smiled at him once. what exactly does that give the story, Robin knowing who he is from the beginning? nothing? yes.

it's just a clusterfuck of a movie. there's no one to care about, nothing anyone does is motivated. it's just this non-stop pile-up of action meant to bowl us over. and hey, it's a superhero movie, so it's okay that nothing logical happens at all.

/end old man rant.

(and get the hell off my lawn, you damn kids!)

[mbw]

saw this last night.  thought it was pretty meh.  for starters it was way too long.
the first half just dragged on.  the plot holes were everywhere too.
aside from the ones cactusfan mentioned, a few others bugged me.

bruce waynes fortune was wiped out instantly in a series of bad investments......the day some terrorists took over wall st and were witnesses by hundreds of people manipulating the computers there.  so...no one questioned whatever transactions took place at that time?  maybe those transactions were a bit...i dunno, slightly fraudulent?

anther occurred to me as we learn about the bomb.  why disrupt the financial centers and pull the rich out of their homes and make some political statement about the figurative 1%, if you are just going to blow up every single person, regardless of class, in the city in a few days anyway?

and then of course the thing that bugs me about every superhero movie, as perfectly satirized by austin powers; when Bain  has batman beaten, and can easily kill him....he throws him in a well instead.
no way a guy who has ninja training will ever get outta that.  and the rockyesque pushups and chin up montage of bruce getting ready to climb the wall?  lol.  i could hear "Getting strong now.." in my head.



anyway.  it was fun to escape reality for a few hours and watch this, actually it wasn't even really fun.
i doubt i will ever sit through it again though.

eta:

Visually, it matches up with the other two films,  the chase sequences and shots of Chicago are very epic looking to me. 

clearly not shot in chicago. 

[sophist]

I thought parts of it were Chicago, and parts Pittsburgh? 

[V00D00BR3W]

I thought parts of it were Chicago, and parts Pittsburgh?

The full list, via IMDB. I think the city scenes were mainly NYC and Pittsburgh.



Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

El Camino College, Torrance, California, USA
(Bike Chase and Reactor)

Cairngorms National Park, Scotland, UK

Cardington Airship Hangars, Bedfordshire, England, UK
(studio)

Carnegie Mellon University - 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

George Farmiloe Building - 28-36 St John Street, Clerkenwell, London, England, UK
(Police HQ)

Scotland, UK

Greenwood Lake, New York, USA

Heinz Field - 100 Art Rooney Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Inverness Airport, Dalcross, Highland, Scotland, UK

Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

London, England, UK

Los Angeles, California, USA

Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

Mellon Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
(studio)

New York City, New York, USA

Newark, New Jersey, USA

Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England, UK

Osterley Park House, Isleworth, Middlesex, England, UK
(Wayne Manor)

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Queensboro Bridge, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Quincy, Illinois, USA

The Farmiloe Building, 34 St John Street, London, England, UK
(Gotham City Police Department)

Turda Saline, Cluj, Romania

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA
(studio)

Wollaton Hall, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England, UK
(Wayne Manor)

[phil]

Turda Saline, Cluj, Romania

  

saline turd

[mbw]

I thought parts of it were Chicago, and parts Pittsburgh?

sorry, my post seemed rather dickish.  i was in the middle of writing then got called away and hit post.
i was gonna say that i was bummed it wasnt chicago like last one, and maybe the first?
the aerials looked like NY to me, and central park was clearly in it, but its hard to tell without the twin towers, and i have no idea what pittsburgh looks like.

[goodabouthood]

epic cactusfan rant right there! 

[Gol D. Roger]

i'm sure Romney appreciates how you're all spelling Bane as Bain.

i don't really get the love for this movie. it really is a disaster. is it even a Batman movie? nothing in it makes the least sense. the last movie ended with his taking the blame for Dent's actions, meaning he's now wanted by the police, all except for Gordon. right? meaning he's--Batman. but instead we're told he holed up in his mansion for EIGHT YEARS doing fuck-all because he's sad? what the fuck is that? why isn't he out there fighting for the weak? it's bullshit.

i mean, how long was he actually Batman in this world? six months? a year? the Joker's existence is revealed at the end of part 1, and how much time passed during part 2?  let's be massively generous and assume he was Batman for a year. then he pussies out for EIGHT YEARS, comes back for a few months, then bails to italy or wherever to resume his richie rich life. and that's supposed to be a Batman trilogy? give me a break.

why did Alfred leave? there's no sense to it all, it completely goes against the only thing that defines his character. and then it affects nothing. it's not even mentioned again except as a joke about Bruce opening his own front door.

why are we supposed to care about Talia al Ghul? she's just some random lady Bruce screws for some reason. there's no meaning given to any of these people or their actions. and what was her big plan again? she's going to blow up Gotham and Batman. and herself? why? why should she die? and how is that fulfilling her father's plan? his idea was to drive everyone in Gotham insane to reveal the animals they truly were. how does blowing it up with a nuke have anything to do with that?

what are she and Bane even doing? they take over the city? why? because a revolution with some nonsense thrown in about the rich is topical? i guess. but the people of the city aren't involved. it's just a bunch of thugs taking over. and for what purpose? what are the show trials for? how does that make any sense at all? Bane is a terrrible villian. you can't understand him, you can't see him, he turns out to be the henchman, and the real villian is given nothing to do and zero emotional weight. all she does is stab Batman, to no effect whatsoever, and give a speech at the end. during which time she just holds that knife in him. then she gets in a truck and dies. ummm...okay.

and that doesn't even begin to get at all the minor stupidities. Nolan gets bored with every idea instantly and runs off to the next one. why does Bruce go to the doctor? is he actually messed up? why? from being Batman for a year? immediately after he's diagnosed he leaps out the window, so i guess really he's fine. why was that scene in the movie?

i guess he jumped out of the plane, what, ten miles from when it blew up? must be a hell of a swimmer in that batsuit. nevermind that we saw the timer tick down to like 4 seconds with Batman still flying it. all part of the fake-out.

and what again is Bruce's motivation at any time? he's full of self-pity so he can't actually be Batman. but then he decides to be Batman again because... his fingerprints were taken? Robin is a sad orphan? Bane is around? sort of all of that. sort of. wow. powerful storytelling there. and then he can't escape his pit of doom because he doesn't fear death. but if he fears death, he can beat the bad guys, and he's willing to give Gotham 'everything', meaning his life, but not really, he's actually going to run away at the end.

why make Gordon look like a buffoon? he doesn't know Batman is Bruce Wayne? but Robin does, because Bruce smiled at him once. what exactly does that give the story, Robin knowing who he is from the beginning? nothing? yes.

it's just a clusterfuck of a movie. there's no one to care about, nothing anyone does is motivated. it's just this non-stop pile-up of action meant to bowl us over. and hey, it's a superhero movie, so it's okay that nothing logical happens at all.

/end old man rant.

(and get the hell off my lawn, you damn kids!)

I agree wholeheartedly.

[Hicks]

Finally saw it last night, boy that movie was no fun and pretty boring, easily the weakest of the series.

Anne Hathaway (so hot, want to touch the heiny) was the only real good thing about it. 

[phil]

Finally got around to seeing this with my brother, who was completely blown away by the action sequences and thinks he's clever or something because he figured out how Patrick Bateman doesn't die at the end? I agreed with mbw, cactusfan, and others that it was some really good eye candy with some gaping (laughably so, in some cases) plot holes.

It was an exciting movie. Riveting, even. I'll probably watch it again at some point. If I could bring myself to ignore the holes in the plot, I'd go so far as to say that this was a good movie. As it stands, I still think Batman Begins is the highlight of the trilogy. I'm not sure if it's the extremes that the following two films go to are what make them "better" in the eyes of many critics/fans or what. Just because the circumstances are more dire before the prescribed ending does not make TDK or TDKR any better than Batman Begins.

Very engaging movie, and I will watch it again, but I don't think it's what many have made it out to be. A large number of people went into the theatre wanting to like the movie, and a lot of people came out of the movie theatre doing just that. I think they could have featured Thomas the Tank Engine in that movie and people would have still raved about it










Actually, a TtTE cameo would have made me like it a lot more.

[rowjimmy]

I'd pay good money to see Batman punch Thomas in his smug little face.

[phil]

I'd pay good money to see Batman punch Thomas in his smug little face.

Thomas would have obviously been a bane sympathizer. Pummel away.

[phil]

http://www.cracked.com/article_20012_if-dark-knight-rises-was-10-times-shorter-more-honest.html