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Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises
Unless you've managed to not watch anything in the past three weeks, you're aware that Chris Nolan's final Batman movie is out. With Christian Bale as the low-talking caped crusader, The Dark Knight Rises is two hours and forty-five minutes of of fun. While it lacks a stand-out personal performance like Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight, it is still a decent ending to this round of Batman movies. There are plenty of familiar faces, and a few new ones as well. Read below for my take on the movie, but be warned: there might be a few spoilers.
The movie starts out eight years after The Dark Knight. Batman has taken the blame for the death of district attorney Harvey Dent, and has disappeared from the public eye. Thanks to the passing of "The Dent Act," organized crime has been wiped out in Gotham, and the police find themselves increasingly obsolete. That all changes with the arrival of the villains. Since it was decided at some point in the 90s that all comic book movies needed at least two villains, in The Dark Knight Rises we have Bane and Catwoman.
Bane is played by Tom Hardy. Despite what Rush Limbaugh suggests, Bane is not connected to Mitt Romney, but was introduced in January 1993 and is best known for breaking Batman's back during the Knighfall comic series. He was even played terribly by a professional wrestler in 1997's Batman & Robin. I must admit that I was worried after reading reviews about how hard it was to hear Bane speak that the movie would degenerate into a low-talking competition between Hardy and Bale. They must have fixed the audio issues, because Bane's voice is certainly loud, if not the clearest at all times. To get an idea of what Bane sounds like, imagine Bill Cosby speaking with an English accent through a Darth Vader filter. The Bane in the movie shares little with the Bane from the comics, so he might not be to the liking of the purists, but he does a decent enough job of being a moderately intelligent juggernaut, and is the main villain in the story.
Ann Hathaway dons the cat ears as Selina Kyle, better known as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises. All to often, female characters are little more than Kung-Fu cliched eye candy in comic movies. Nolan avoids this with Hathaway, but barely. Instead of a hot chick in a skin-tight, black leather outfit who is one bad fall from becoming the headliner at the local furry convention, Hathaway is a hot chick in a skin-tight, black leather outfit who plays a small but important role in the overall story arc.
Plenty of old characters reprise their roles, including Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, and Michael Caine as Alfred. Some old villains even show up for this final installment. New to the mix this time are Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Matthew Modine, who play the cop everyone likes to love and the cop that everyone loves to hate, respectively.
For those of you who like the military look of Nolan's Batman vehicles over the more stylized Bat-vehicles of past movies, this one does not disappoint. The Batbike gets plenty of air time, as well as multiple Batmobiles driving around the city. This time around, the Batcopter makes its debut. While I think it looks more like something the Space Marines would fly around while fighting Aliens, it is consistent with the franchise's aesthetics.
Overall, a large portion of the story reminds me of a post-apocalyptic movie, with a Gotham that has existed in anarchy for many months. There are some decent fight scenes, including a small army of mercenaries fighting thousands of police in the streets while Batman and Bane duke it out in front of City Hall. There aren't a lot of surprises, and there aren't any stand-out performances, but there isn't a lot to dislike either. This was supposed to be the last of Nolan's Batman movies, but the ending leaves the possibility of another wide open, and I would not be surprised if another was made (assuming Rises makes enough money). So many movies — comic movies in particular — degenerate quickly with each sequel, and having to exist in the shadow of Heath Ledger is a daunting task. The Dark Knight Rises does a good job of stepping out of that shadow, however, and delivers for me, the best story of the series.
Bane is played by Tom Hardy. Despite what Rush Limbaugh suggests, Bane is not connected to Mitt Romney, but was introduced in January 1993 and is best known for breaking Batman's back during the Knighfall comic series. He was even played terribly by a professional wrestler in 1997's Batman & Robin. I must admit that I was worried after reading reviews about how hard it was to hear Bane speak that the movie would degenerate into a low-talking competition between Hardy and Bale. They must have fixed the audio issues, because Bane's voice is certainly loud, if not the clearest at all times. To get an idea of what Bane sounds like, imagine Bill Cosby speaking with an English accent through a Darth Vader filter. The Bane in the movie shares little with the Bane from the comics, so he might not be to the liking of the purists, but he does a decent enough job of being a moderately intelligent juggernaut, and is the main villain in the story.
Ann Hathaway dons the cat ears as Selina Kyle, better known as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises. All to often, female characters are little more than Kung-Fu cliched eye candy in comic movies. Nolan avoids this with Hathaway, but barely. Instead of a hot chick in a skin-tight, black leather outfit who is one bad fall from becoming the headliner at the local furry convention, Hathaway is a hot chick in a skin-tight, black leather outfit who plays a small but important role in the overall story arc.
Plenty of old characters reprise their roles, including Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, and Michael Caine as Alfred. Some old villains even show up for this final installment. New to the mix this time are Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Matthew Modine, who play the cop everyone likes to love and the cop that everyone loves to hate, respectively.
For those of you who like the military look of Nolan's Batman vehicles over the more stylized Bat-vehicles of past movies, this one does not disappoint. The Batbike gets plenty of air time, as well as multiple Batmobiles driving around the city. This time around, the Batcopter makes its debut. While I think it looks more like something the Space Marines would fly around while fighting Aliens, it is consistent with the franchise's aesthetics.
Overall, a large portion of the story reminds me of a post-apocalyptic movie, with a Gotham that has existed in anarchy for many months. There are some decent fight scenes, including a small army of mercenaries fighting thousands of police in the streets while Batman and Bane duke it out in front of City Hall. There aren't a lot of surprises, and there aren't any stand-out performances, but there isn't a lot to dislike either. This was supposed to be the last of Nolan's Batman movies, but the ending leaves the possibility of another wide open, and I would not be surprised if another was made (assuming Rises makes enough money). So many movies — comic movies in particular — degenerate quickly with each sequel, and having to exist in the shadow of Heath Ledger is a daunting task. The Dark Knight Rises does a good job of stepping out of that shadow, however, and delivers for me, the best story of the series.
I heard this movie was a real gas.
This was awesome clahbpah
Are we ready for frank and open discussions of this movie yet?
To bad heath ledger died he was real good in the last movie and should of been in this one as well.
too many guns and killings. I fear that some impressionable youth will try to imitate batman and get himself hurt. Or even worse, someone will imitate the villain and kill innocent bystanders will guns.
The government needs to step in and forbid such violent movies that glorify guns and violence. PG-13 ratings by MPAA isn't working. And guns need to be banned, period. Only military and police should have guns.
Some guy in a gas mask comes into the theatre and executes you.
Is it better than Magic Mike?
If Rush Limbaugh were a supervillian, his supervillian name would be "Rush Limbaugh".
His superpowers would being able to absorb an unlimited amount of black market prescription narcotics with no ill effect and being able to cast a veil of confusion on the weak-minded.
I hear the 4D version is EPIC!!!
I heard it's a killer.
I didn't like it much.
It felt like the script needed another good once-over and a trim. It's a thematic mess and takes about twice as long as it ought to to introduce the characters and (poorly, repetitively) present their motivations. Some of the delivery was pretty wooden, especially in the first half, but that may have been the result of mediocre editing (there were also a couple awkward cuts, IMO, so maybe that was it) or the piss-poor dialog. Filled with painful talking-to-the-audience exposition that's so bad it was comical—again, a writing issue.
For the entire first half I was worried that I'd walk out hating the movie, but fortunately improved somewhat, nearer the end.
The audio was poor. A fair bit of the dialog (not just Bane's) was hard to pick up. Bane sounded like he wasn't even in the same room—more like a voiceover— an effect which, it seems to me, can only be called an outright mistake on the part of the filmmakers.
The ending's OK I guess?
for Warners to make a Batman movie as good as Mask of the Phantasm
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Evelyn Beatrice Hall, re Voltaire
C'mon guys... this is not hard. Twelve people dead, 50 wounded just hours ago. This is no time to talk about how fun the damn movie was.
I'm sure everyone here has already heard the news about the shootings (I can't believe the Slashdot editors let this story go up today), but for posterity's sake when people stumble across this article and wonder what the inappropriate attempts of humor are with thinly veiled references to the attack, here's more background:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/us/colorado-mall-shooting.html?pagewanted=all
A gunman dressed head to foot in body armor and brandishing three weapons, including an assault rifle, opened fire in a theater crowded with families and children at a midnight showing of the Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises” in a Denver suburb early Friday morning, killing at least 12 people and wounding 59 others, police and federal officials said.
The suspect, James Holmes, 24, told the police after his arrest that he had booby-trapped his Aurora apartment with explosive devices, leading the police to evacuate five buildings in the neighborhood as they sought to disable what they described as “incendiary devices” rigged to trip wires.
Mr. Holmes’s only criminal history was a traffic summons, said Aurora’s police chief, Dan Oates. Mr. Holmes earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in neuroscience in 2010 from the University of California, Riverside.
During the attack, witnesses said Mr. Holmes had entered through a side door of the packed theater and first set off at least two smoke devices before firing randomly at audience members, who had just settled into their seats. Within minutes, he was arrested in a parking lot behind the theater near his car, the police said.
Mr. Holmes had apparently planned the attack for some time: He wore a gas mask, body armor, a tactical helmet and was dressed completely in black. He entered the theater with an AR-15 assault rifle, a Remington 12-guage shotgun and a 40-caliber Glock handgun. A fourth gun, another Glock pistol, was found in his car. The authorities believe that Mr. Holmes acted alone, and that the death toll may increase because some of the injuries were serious.
The police and witnesses described a scene of utter chaos inside the darkened, smoke-filled theater as bullets resounded loudly around them, and people who had gone to see a PG-13-rated action movie were suddenly forced to scramble to safety as friends and loved ones were felled around them.
be in a scene and happiness Another fly They looked Please moderate v6olume of NetBsD found out about the faster chip ASSOCIATION OF
And you should have been in your English classes.
Tom Hardy is one of my favorite young British actors and I'm happy that Hollywood noticed him. I recommend watching mini-series "The Take" where he delivered probably the best performance of a criminal/sociopath I've seen lately.
You could almost smell the gunpowder. And unlike most films, the sound of gunfire was extremely realistic. It left my ears ringing. Some of the bloody gore was a bit over the top, especially the children getting shot, but that's a minor detail. Get it, minor...
Our theatre had some kind of projector problem I guess, because they turned the lights up and the police escorted us all out. So I hope to go back tonight and watch another showing. From what I saw so far though, two thumbs up, way up!
atleast 12 people were dying to see it...
Be American.
Make a violent movie where people shoot each other, advertise it 24/7.
Make it legal for weirdos to buy assault rifle and tear gas.
Get surprised when some weirdo shoots people at the violent movie.
But DC and Warner Bros. may find some sensitive way to respond that gets even more fans in the seats.
If any of the deceased or wounded were/is an artist or writer, they could release something as a tribute.
Otherwise they'll have to come up with something appropriate on their own. Finding some way to say Batman wouldn't let the terrorists/criminals/nutjobs win might be a tad difficult, but they'll find a way.
Saw it yesterday after the the Citrix Wow to How 3 seminar (great job on that Brad Peterson, very informative and well done presentation!). (PS: To any Slashdot geeks support Citrix, sign-up for next year to get an early preview of whatever movie is going to come out then.)
The movie was pretty good. It had a nicely flowing narrative with the main story and plenty of other side stories to keep it flowing nicely. Christian Bale performed as expected with a top notch performance, Tom Hardy did a great job as Bain showing a completely calm and serene villain standing up to anything that Batman threw at him and then outmatching him. Great performance there, hope to see more of Tom Hardy in future movies. The audio from Bain's filtered voice mask was very loud and clear and fully understandable with a very nice English accent. The mask did cover a lot of Tom Hardy's face and you really had to look down at his neck to even notice that he was actually the one talking because you can't see any movement. The performances of the other cast members were also very good with great character play.
There were of course a few plot issues and unbelievable things that you had to ignore with the police being trapped underground for 3-months and then finding out that it was only 3,000 officers. I grew up in NYC and I know that the NYPD has 36,000 officers so it was very hard to imagine so few out there in Gotham as the GPD force. That didn't jive with me. Also if you're trapped underground for 3-months without light and no access to clean water and food things don't go very well for you. Also NYC (Gotham in the movie) has so many access tunnels into the underground that it seems far fetched to be stuck down there without a way out.
Anyway, like the movie overall and am looking forward to the next set of Batman movies in the future. I don't mind this franchine being remade every few years because it attracts a lot of money from the studios and talented actors. (Heath Ledger being the most memorable, damn those Olsen twins!)
with a bullet
How was the film?
And, aft*er initial under the GPL.
Okay so one of the theaters got shot up by an unnamed WhackADoodle killing 12 and wounding 50 (some of whom may be dead later). Life Must Go On (for those that survived).
If we downplay His Name (focus on his victims and the recovery of the wounded sure) then the next guy might not think this is a good idea.
otherwise
[putting on a green wig and purple suit] WHY SO SERIOUS???
and besides how many folks in that theature did NOT get injured??
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
"Unless you've managed to not watch anything in the past three weeks"
(This is by NO means an attack on the movies...I'm just sharing my personal experience)
I haven't had "TV" for 6 years. While I've seen advertisements for this movie online, I didn't know it was anything different than the one with Heath Ledger...becasue "Dark Knight" was used in both. I haven't seen that one and don't plan to see this one. I'm sort of shocked that I'm just now realizing that they wouldn't be advertising the one with Heath Ledger in it. I guess I just care so little about the titles that I'm only now realizing that fact.
It's actually quite amazing how the human mind works when you don't submit it to advertisements all the time. During family gatherings (Thanksgiving for example) it becomes very obvious to me the power of these advertisements, especially on TV. When everyone is watching the football game, I could care less (I'm not a sports fan) so I don't watch the TV. When a commercial comes on however, my eyes are GLUED to the TV and everyone begins talking amongst each other and ignoring it because they've seen all of them a hunder times or more.
Batman is probably the biggest anti-gun superhero around. He knows the dangers. His parents were killed by a gun. And he beats the people with the guns. Does he use violence? Sure, but it's only when he has no other choice.
So it was good but wasn't to die for?
The anthropocene needs real news for real people.
When did this site slip so far off the radar that anyone thinks it's appropriate to use it to host a fluff piece like a new Batman movie?
I'm disgusted that this passed the smell test for Slashdot. The Anthropocene denizen, especially in those with enough intelligence to be interesed in anything tech, need a reality check. There's plenty of relevant stories about real applications with practical value, and there's plenty of need for them, worldwide.
The consumer crap world isn't hurting one bit. Take a stand and make them crawl into someone else's niche to market their garbage to people who would rather put on a bat suit and fight the imaginery demons instead of opening their eyes and taking on the ones that exist all around us.
I remember Slashdot when I could count on more interesting discussion of things that actually did matter.
I believe it's on life support now.
Thank you, thank you, Slashdot...for proving me wrong. I thought you had no sense of humor. The twisted, macabre timing of this review, as well as the discussion within, have provided me with pants-pissing, falling-out-of-chair laughter. Seriously, I haven't laughed this hard in a year. You have made this Friday afternoon all the more sweet. I will be checking up on this review later, with gusto. I never thought you had it in you.
-- Ethanol-fueled
If you can't write a review without spoilers, why bother?
What can be "new and exciting" in yet another Batman movie, I wonder...
Spoiler alert: The alien bursts out of Batman's chest and kills Bane as his first victim :-)
LongTail SSH Brute Force analysis tool is here!
I am a I suspect a borderline nutjob, I don't empathize with people in general and I have never felt what most people would classify and deep emotions myself. I have never felt any kind of fear at all and I have done a lot to try to experience it. however I am fascinated by people who do and is one of the reason's why I enjoy movies so much. Had I been at this theater this man would have been dead by my hand if I survived the first burst of fire. I go every where armed with blades or a gun. This guy would would be dead at my hand simple as that, not because I give a shit about the people around me but because he interfered with my movie going experience. It is remotely possible he would kill me instead but I doubt it. If more people took responsibility for there own safety by arming themselves events like this simply not happen or the headlines would read more like "Maniac brandishes weapon briefly before being gunned down by movie goers"
Could have been worse... you could have been watching this movie with James E. Holmes...
See CNN's coverage of someone who took the film a little too seriously, it seems...
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/20/us/colorado-theater-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
I watched the movie last night in Denver. You could definitely tell it was shot in 3D.
This time it's not approved by the Film Board and lacked the certifications of MPAA & RIAA... ... ... ... ...
In Soviet America movies shoot you!
Mass shooting at the Batman opening at an Aurora, CO, theater. 12 killed, 59 wounded. "Police say Holmes, 24, dressed head-to-toe in protective tactical gear, set off two devices of some kind before spraying the Century 16 theater with bullets from an AR-15 rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and at least one of two .40-caliber handguns police recovered at the scene." He apparently thought he was the Joker. He's in custody, and bomb squads are disarming the booby traps in his apartment.
Weapons were provided by Bass Pro Shop in Denver and Gander Mountain Guns (sale on assault rifles this week!).
I thought he was about to have a conversation with the characters from Peanuts.
The Joker's performance this time round should snag Heath Ledger another post-humus Acadamy Award (quite an accomplishment all things considered).
Also slashdot is mostly pro-guns. So I would advise you to avoid slashdot until gun nuts are under control.
And I would like a source for the statements "He apparently thought he was the Joker" and "disarming the booby traps in his apartment".
I would like a source for the statements "He apparently thought he was the Joker" and "disarming the booby traps in his apartment".
CNN: "The suspect in the mass shooting at an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater screening of the new Batman film early Friday had colored his hair red and told police he was "the Joker," according to a federal law enforcement source with detailed knowledge of the investigation."
Denver Post via Mercury News -- "Aurora shooting suspect left apartment "booby trapped," music blaring": "Oates said Holmes made a statement to officers about possible explosives in his home. That prompted police to evacuate five buildings nearby and begin searching his third-floor apartment using a police robot and camera attached to a long pole. Inside, officers found trip wires attached to 1-liter plastic bottles that contain an unknown substance. Police Chief Dan Oates said the explosive devices were "pretty sophisticated." "We could be here for days," he said at midday."
At least it didn't mention that.
Probably because I made it up of course.
I believe a most difficult man to provoke.
And yet the shooter would be "dead at your hand", not because you care about anybody else, but simply because he interrupted your film going experience?
The problem with psychopaths is A) that they don't realize how broken they are, and B) they manipulate at every opportunity as a function of their basic existence.
I misread your post and for a moment thought you meant asking Frank Miller for his opinion.
Just the thought of what that lunatic's comments might be made me want to gag.
Use poison to attack poison, use evil to fight evil.
New Economic Perspectives
Paid posters apparently have no shame :(
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
Personally i thought the movie was to die for.
What'd y'all think of the Lazaras Pit?
The only thing worth seeing at the moment? when I eventually see it i'm guessing it wont live up to the hype.
At the end of Batman Begins, Zsasz (Tim Booth) was shown walking out of the opened jail, and is (for all we know) still at large, doing unspeakable things to the children of Gotham. Won't somebody think of the children?
(this is not a
There, I've just summed up every Batman movie ever.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
and cut down on the blood and screams. Jeez, I could hardly hear my cell.
For Nolan, Gotham City looks like one of those maps of LA or NY that shows the rest of the World as being about the same size. Some dude is in Hong Kong that has information you need, that's like a day trip for Batman. If you were to squeeze the events going on globally into a city, and scale down the wars being fought, it would be just like a Batman movie.
I have lived in 5 countries and visited even more. In every single placed I've lived and visited, there were bad parts of town you knew were not safe and even the good parts of town were not always safe. My Dad missed an IRA pub bombing by about an hour, when he caught an earlier train to get home. When we lived in Greece, there was a coup. In Belgium, 5 of my friends lost their Dads and it seemed suspicious to the rest of us. I don't have any illusions of safety anywhere.
What I don't understand is how this guy was able to walk out and back into an emergency exit. I don't understand how he was able to go to his car and retrieve everything without someone seeing him. If someone had closed the door behind him, this might be a totally different story.
Like the TSA fiasco, we will do the stupidest thing possible in response.
Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money.They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
I don't know why I keep coming here, holy shit. MOVIE REVIEWS? And not for something like Primer which everyone may not know about, but for a superhero movie that the whole goddamn world is going to see. I have an idea, let's take it further off-topic all talk about how people got shot at a theater that was playing this movie and the merits of gun control! I guess next I'll go and comment on some YouTube videos
So if the city has no crime and police continually appear to be obsolete, when the fighting breaks out how do they suddenly have thousands of police officers fighting in the streets? Yeah, it's a movie, it's a fantasy, realism goes out the window and then Michael Bay shows up...
This movie reminded me a lot of Akira (the manga, not the anime). It's going to be very difficult for the live action Akira to get made now, as it would have to be at least this good.
Fuck the MPAA, and those who watch and promote this movie giving them fuel.
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.