Batman 3

[SinisterDeath]

I'm not sure what to expect of Bane because the way he's portrayed pretty much borders on supernatural or too insane body building and though Nolan's Batman is clearly still fictional I think that we all would prefer it to remain on the realistic side of things. Well at least I would. It's one of the things that I like about Batman that it's all theoretically possible, unlike Superman who just straight up defies the Laws of Physics by flying here and there. Tom Hardy is a great actor though and I'm really glad he was chosen for the role especially after Inception.

 

My theory on supermans flight is through super-sonic expellation of gas, aka farts. And that would also explain his ability to 'fly' in space. Though the vacuum is kinda a silly thing...

 

Oh, and if they are going to make it as realistic as possible, they could attribute Banes aggressive increase in strength to Nanites, the 'pump system could be a replacement for said nanites, and coudl easilly leed to a plotline involving a similar technology being used against something in gotham. ;)

[Tiinker]

I'm not sure what to expect of Bane because the way he's portrayed pretty much borders on supernatural or too insane body building and though Nolan's Batman is clearly still fictional I think that we all would prefer it to remain on the realistic side of things. Well at least I would. It's one of the things that I like about Batman that it's all theoretically possible, unlike Superman who just straight up defies the Laws of Physics by flying here and there. Tom Hardy is a great actor though and I'm really glad he was chosen for the role especially after Inception.

 

My theory on supermans flight is through super-sonic expellation of gas, aka farts. And that would also explain his ability to 'fly' in space. Though the vacuum is kinda a silly thing...

 

Oh, and if they are going to make it as realistic as possible, they could attribute Banes aggressive increase in strength to Nanites, the 'pump system could be a replacement for said nanites, and coudl easilly leed to a plotline involving a similar technology being used against something in gotham. ;)

 

Uhh.. If you say so i'll take your word for it :P Either way I'll still be a Bat fan!

[Krakalakachkn]

Get set for a much more elaborate Batcave in Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises" than the one seen in Nolan's 2005 first chapter "Batman Begins".

 

As previously reported, the exterior entrance will utilise footage shot during a quick two days of filming at a waterfall in Brecon Beacons, Wales. The interior however is being built on a sound stage set in Los Angeles.

 

Today though rumours have emerged via Dark Knight Rises Rumors that extensions to that set will be created using footage shot at the massive Salina Turda Salt Mine in Transylvania, Romania which will double for portions of said cave.

 

Back in January this year it was reported that Nolan unofficially visited the mines and producers had met with Bucharest city officials to discuss some filming.

 

Nolan famously prefers to use real location photography rather than computer generated artificial environments so it would come as no surprise if reference shots from said location were being taken to composite onto the man-made sound stage set. Photos of the quite amazing facility can be seen below:

 

[Krakalakachkn]

 

[Krakalakachkn]

[reyler]

[reyler]

TRAILER

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM6Vs09Vyk0&feature=player_embedded

[Emperor]

[SBoydW]

 

Excellence..

[Majsju]

Recent article in EW...

Bane, compared to the Joker

"The Joker didn't care-he just wanted to see the world burn, and he was a master of chaos and destruction, unscrupulous and crazy. Bane is not that guy. There's a very meticulous and calculated way about Bane. There is a huge orchestration of organization to his ambition."

 

-Tom Hardy

 

Anne Hathaway's blunder

"She convinced herself that Nolan wasn't interested in reinterpreting a character who had already been done well enough (Hathaway loves Pfiefer's Catwoman) and was instead casting a lesser-known villainess from Batman's rogue's gallery named Harley Quinn. Nope. "About an hour into our meeting he said, 'It's Catwoman and I went 'Oh no, I played this wrong' says Hathaway. "I didn't think they would revisit that character because Michelle's performance is so iconic. But Chris just does his own thing"

 

Anne Hathaway.

 

"He has created an epic disaster film."

 

-Anne Hathaway.

 

Plot of the film

"Rises is set eight years after the events of the Dark Knight. Gotham City is at peace and prospering, but Bruce Wayne is still recovering physically and emotionally from the tragic battles with the Joker and Harvey Dent. Batman, who took the fall for Harvey's crimes so Gotham could remain inspired by the lawman's former idealism, continues to be reviled and MIA as the story begins. While old allies Alfred and Lucius Fox and potential love interest Miranda Tate try to revive Bruce's spirits, two new threats to Gotham force Batman to end his exile."

 

Bane's motivation shrouded in secrecy

"Bane's motivation as a villain remains one of Rises' best kept secrets-although the trailers suggest his master plan requires the razing of Gotham and the death of Bruce Wayne. Does Bane represent a specific political or philosophical complaint? The answer is...maybe. "I think the politics of the film are going to be hotly debated one way or another, as they were in the last film," says Nolan."

 

Nolan knew how Bruce's story would end from an early stage

"There has never been an explicitly detailed, throughly mapped-out master plan guiding Nolan's Batman franchise. "The approach has always been to put every damn good idea you have into each movie, so that when you're done, you feel like there's nothing left", says co-screenwriter Jonathan Nolan. However, the director has always aspired to create a unified trilogy with a continuous character arc for Bruce Wayne, and one detail has been in place for years. "From a fairly early stage in the process of making the three films,' says Christopher Nolan, 'we knew how Bruce's story would end."

 

"And so Rises was conceived and written to bring a sense of unity-and finality-to the whole franchise. "It stands alone, yet completes a cyclical work," says Hardy. "Think triplets instead of one child after another-the Dark Knight triplets."

 

Bruce/Batman aging

"Listening to Team Nolan talk about the film, you find yourself wondering: 'Will Batman actually survive till the end credits?"...."We wanted to show a character who is aging, who is damaged, who may not be in his prime," says Bale. "He has never encountered anyone with such blunt force as Bane, and this is not the best time for him to encounter him."

 

Nolan choosing Catwoman

Nolan says that he's naturally drawn to Batman's more iconic villains-as long as they can live credibly within his more realistic neo-noir treatment of Gotham...Hence Catwoman was irresistible to Nolan both because of her pop culture stature and the fact that the crafty cat burglar is Batman's earthiest of baddies. That said Nolan's Selina Kyle is presented as an enigma, maybe even to herself."

 

"Who is Selina Kyle? She's someone who wants you to think she can answer that question."

 

Nolan casting Anne Hathaway

"Nolan cast Hathaway because he believed the actress could handle the role's biggest challenge; suggesting w whole history for the character that's not in the script and never spelled out to the audience."

 

 

"Hathaway prepared by devouring old comic books and watching movies starring Batman creator Bob Kane's two inspirations for Catwoman, Hedy Lamarr and Jean Harlow.

 

And some pics, http://forums.superh...7&postcount=522

[Cillian]

The next trailer will be out May 4th, attached to The Avengers.

[Faun]

 

The Dark Knight rises is going to be beautiful. I *cannot* wait until July 20th. The trailer is great at invoking emotions, I can only imagine how the film will be.

[Emperor]

All the early reviews I have read are VERY positive. No official reviews are coming out before July 18th.

 

According to The Guardian, a group of about 40 to 50 critics wrote feedback on Twitter, Facebook and other websites. While some are up now, several have been taken down.

 

"The Dark Knight Rises has just finished screening for the press and critics, receiving a STANDING OVATION!!!" wrote YouTube reviewer Lauren Hiestand.

 

Critic Tom McAuliffe added: "So much awesome ... can't wait to see it again. And again. And 9 out of 10 for me. I'd put Amazing Spider-Man at a 7.5 and Avengers at an 8.5."

 

"Wow quite speechless at the moment ... It was everything I wanted it to be," wrote Vince Peluso on Facebook. "Some fans will find certain aspects controversial, but in my eyes everything in the film fit the overall scheme of this installment and the series in general, and Nolan really couldn't have made it any more epic."

 

On the Superhero Hype blog, "Scoop" wrote: "I think Bale gives his best performance as Batman and as Bruce Wayne in this one. He was terrific. And I especially loved his bat voice this time around."

 

Advanced tickets for "The Dark Knight Rises" went on sale a week ago, and midnight shows quickly filled up, according to MTV. Scalpers on Ebay and Craigslist are asking for $150 for advance tickets. Recent searches on ticket resale sites are showing sold out seats for midnight showings of "The Dark Knight Rises" for over $120, ScreenCrush reports. The online scalpers are also selling groups of seats for $500. Since then, some of those tickets have gone back up for sale, with price tags inflated up to 80 percent in some cases.

 

A representative from the online ticket outlet Fandango told MTV that their company's standing policy is that any ticket re-sold is declared invalid, so if you are considering purchasing a set of tickets for $300, you might want to consider this. Though the policy would be difficult to enforce, it's something to keep in mind if you're weighing your options.

 

"Dark Knight Rises" will be released nationwide on July 20.

[SBoydW]

There's a great inside look video at the end of this article... I'm even more giddy to see this movie now.

 

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/dark-knight-rises-preview-shows-older-weaker-bruce-213242277.html

[Emperor]

This review has brief set up spoilers but nothing spoiling the ending. Basically the reviewer calls it brilliant but not as good as The Dark Knight.

 

Part prologue, part teaser, at the beginning of “The Dark Knight Rises” we meet our antagonist, Bane. We don’t see him right away. Instead, he’s one of two men with burlap sacks over their heads, purportedly captured by the CIA and whisked away on an airplane in an effort to discover the location of, well, Bane. Before his face is revealed, we hear Bane’s voice — a mix of Darth Vader and Peter O’Toole in “My Favorite Year.” Also on the plane is Dr. Leonid Pavel, a nuclear physicist on whom Bane has been trying to get his hands. You know this isn’t going to end well for him.

 

What transpires next is a mind-blowing aerial hijack so incredible, you almost believe that writer/director Christopher Nolan and company are out of their minds to give us something this good at the start of the movie, because there’s simply no way the rest of “The Dark Night Rises” can match this moment. Then again, Christopher Nolan is both confident, and a genius.

 

Back in Gotham, eight years after the death of former Gotham DA Harvey Dent, whom the world believes was killed by Batman (see “The Dark Knight”), a troubled Commissioner Gordon finds himself at the rebuilt Wayne Manor for a fundraiser, where he’s written a voluminous speech spilling the beans about what really transpired between Harvey “Two-Face” Dent and the Batman. However, he thinks better of it and instead continues to extol the virtues of The Harvey Dent Act, which has helped take a few thousand bad guys off the streets.

 

Also during those eight years, Batman has disappeared and Bruce Wayne has become the ultimate recluse, spending his time holed up in his spacious mansion, rarely leaving it.

 

This is when we meet Anne Hathaway’s fetching Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman. She poses as a maid to gain access to Bruce’s bedroom where she not only meets our hobbled hero but exchanges witty banter, steals his mother’s pearls from his encrypted safe, kicks his cane out from his hand, beats him up, escapes out the window and kidnaps a congressman. Guess who’s intrigued?

 

Selina’s bold and cunning cat burglary is enough to loosen the foundation in the fortress Bruce has built around his heart since the death of his beloved Rachel Dawes and Batman’s symbolic death. And really, who can blame him. Nolan is a stickler for getting the aesthetic right and Hathaway doesn’t just fit the aesthetic, she’s practically her own aesthetic. It’s hard to take your eyes off of her.

 

Then we meet Officer John Blake, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. An orphan like Bruce Wayne, Blake has secretly known Batman’s true identity. When Bane attacks the stock market and the city, Blake pays Wayne a visit in what turns out to be one of the best scenes in the movie. Gordon-Levitt is every bit the actor Christian Bale is and seeing him and Bale go toe-to-toe is thrilling, if you’re into that great acting sort of thing.

 

Enough with the setups and superficial spoilers. Time now to turn our attention to the quality of this film by presenting you with several hyperbolic adjectives that begin with the letter “E.” Exhilarating. Epic. Extraordinary. Here’s another one: Euphoric. As in the action is exhilarating, the scope is epic, the visuals are extraordinary and when the film is over, you’ll feel euphoric.

 

 

 

Bale nails Bruce Wayne and Batman but just like in “The Dark Knight,” the bad guy steals the show. Tom Hardy is terrifying as Bane, a menacing, heartless monster who finds killing as easy as breathing. On the flip side, Michael Caine takes the character of Alfred and turns him into the movie’s emotional core, saving his best performance in this series for last, while Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon also is, as always, excellent.

 

The most common question I’ve been asked but haven’t been answering since I saw “The Dark Knight Rises,” is, “Is it better than “The Dark Knight?” My answer is, nope, it’s not. “The Dark Knight” was perfect and “The Dark Knight Rises,” while great, is not perfect. Still, my issues with it are few and didn’t detract from my love for this film, which I believe you’re going to love, too.

 

Final score: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

[Emperor]

This reviewer was let down and even called the movie boring. I think this reviewer was looking for something more action packed (ala Avengers, Transformers).

 

Christopher Nolan concludes his Batman trilogy in typically spectacular, ambitious fashion with "The Dark Knight Rises," but the feeling of frustration and disappointment is unshakable.

Maybe that was inevitable. Maybe nothing could have met the expectations established by 2008's "The Dark Knight," which revolutionized and set the standard for films based on comic books by being both high-minded and crowd-pleasing. With Christian Bale as his tortured superhero starting from 2005's "Batman Begins," Nolan has explored the complicated and conflicting motivations of man as well as the possibility of greatness and redemption within society.

Here, as director and co-writer, he's unrelenting in hammering home the dread, the sorrow,

the sense of detachment and futility of a city on the brink of collapse with no savior in sight. Gotham is under siege in ways that tonally and visually recall 9/11; what is obviously the island of Manhattan gets cut off from the outside world at one point. Rather than seeming exploitative, it's just one of many examples of the script from Nolan and his usual collaborator, his brother Jonathan, making the franchise feel like a relevant reflection of our times. Identity theft, economic collapse and an uprising of the disgruntled, disenfranchised have-nots against the smug, comfy haves also come into play.

There's so much going on here, though, with so many new characters who are all meant to function in significant ways that "The Dark Knight Rises" feels overloaded, and sadly lacking the spark that gave 2008's "The Dark Knight" such vibrancy. The absence of Heath Ledger, who won a posthumous Oscar for his portrayal of the anarchic and truly frightening Joker, is really obvious here. It retrospect, it makes you realize how crucial Ledger's performance was in making that Batman movie fly.

By comparison, "The Dark Knight Rises" is plot-heavy, obsessed with process, laden with expository dialogue and flashbacks that bog down the momentum and -- dare I say it? -- just flat-out boring at times. Yes, the Batman world through Nolan's eyes is supposed to be moody and introspective; you've got to admire the fact that he is willing to challenge us this way when summer blockbusters so often feel flashy and hollow. And yet at the same time, it takes some giant leaps with its characters which either make no sense, haven't earned the emotions they're seeking, or both.

"The Dark Knight Rises" does feature the kind of impeccable production values we've come to expect from Nolan's films; many members of his core team are back, including cinematographer Wally Pfister, editor Lee Smith and production designers Nathan Crowley and Kevin Kavanaugh. "The Dark Knight Rises" feels weighty and substantive -- and, thankfully, isn't in 3-D -- but it takes on an even grittier look than its predecessors as Gotham City devolves into desperation and ruin.

But Nolan's approach is so coldly cerebral that it's a detriment to the film's emotional core. It's all doom and gloom and no heart. There is no reason to care about these characters, who function more as cogs in an elaborate, chaotic machine than as real people whose souls are at stake.

It's been four years since "The Dark Knight" came out but eight years have passed in terms of story. Bale's Bruce Wayne suffers in self-imposed exile, sulking about Wayne Manor, mourning the loss of his darling Rachel and carrying the burden of blame for the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent. His goal of a peaceful Gotham has been achieved, but he's left as a man without a purpose. Michael Caine, as the ever-loyal valet Alfred, brings dignity and eloquence to the film as he begs Bruce to carve out his own form of happiness. Fellow veterans Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon and Morgan Freeman as gadget guru Lucius Fox are their usual dignified selves, but they don't register the way they should because the film is so overstuffed.

Several new characters manage to draw Bruce out of his funk in various ways. Anne Hathaway brings some much needed zest to the proceedings as Selina Kyle, otherwise known as Catwoman in the Batman universe, a slinky thief who punctures Bruce's bubble when she lifts his fingerprints from his safe, along with a beloved pearl necklace. She's selfish and cynical, only looking out for herself, but at least she goes about her crimes with some verve and style. They never call her Catwoman by name, and she's never as campy as Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry were in previous film incarnations of the role, but she's always fun to watch.

The other woman in Bruce's life, however, is woefully underdeveloped -- which is a real problem because she plays a key role in the film's climactic revelations. Marion Cotillard (one of many alumni from Nolan's "Inception") co-stars as Miranda Tate, a wealthy philanthropist who hopes to work with Wayne Enterprises on developing clean, sustainable energy. The romance that develops between her and Bruce is utterly unbelievable.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt adds a youthful presence as John Blake, an up-and-coming member of the police force who inspires Bruce to revisit his own childhood as an orphan. Gordon-Levitt as solid as always but there's not much to his character aside from earnestness.

Then there's Bane, a muscular mass of pure evil who orchestrates an elaborate takeover of Gotham City. The role is a huge waste of what Tom Hardy can do; his character is so one-dimensional and poorly defined, he's never so much a fearsome figure as a large and hulking one. It doesn't help matters that it's often difficult to make out what he's saying beneath the cage-like muzzle that covers his nose and mouth and alters his voice. Hardy can be sexy and charismatic (as he proved in "Inception") but also a dangerous and unpredictable figure. None of that is on display here. He's all brute force.

But he is the instigator of the film's dazzling opening sequence, worthy of the best of James Bond: a daring aerial maneuver in which Bane kidnaps a scientist by hijacking his plane from the skies above. That's probably the most effective of the many set pieces Nolan stages here, although the collapse of Heinz Field during a packed football game also has an urgent, visceral quality, with thrills that recall the most imaginative moments of "Inception."

This is the problem when you're an exceptional, visionary filmmaker. When you give people something extraordinary, they expect it every time. Anything short of that feels like a letdown.

[Emperor]

More reviews, this one mixed. Again slight set up spoilers.

 

Nordling here.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is a juggernaut of a movie, and that's not necessarily a compliment. At times it simply overpowers when subtlety would have worked just as well, if not better, and there's nothing in Christopher Nolan's way in this movie. He got the clout to make the movie he wanted to make, and so THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is probably the biggest scale movie you'll likely see this year, IMAX notwithstanding. By the way, IMAX is the only way to see this film - no ifs, ands, or buts about it. There are moments where even the IMAX screen doesn't feel big enough to hold in all the splendor, and if anyone gets an Oscar from this, it should be Wally Pfister.

But there are moments - only a few of them - where the movie shuts up for a moment and lets the quiet in, and for me those moments might be the most effective of the movie. Most of those involve Alfred (Michael Caine) whose face is so emotional and expressive that even Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) can't look at it without almost breaking into tears himself. For me, Alfred is the heart of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, and I wanted more of him, and of those moments.

It's Alfred who is desperately trying to get Bruce Wayne back into the world - 8 years have passed since THE DARK KNIGHT and the night Harvey Dent fell to his death, and for Bruce, he hasn't recovered, physically or mentally. He still pines for Rachel - he doesn't know about the letter that she gave Alfred before she died, choosing Dent over Bruce - and Wayne and Commisioner Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) have allowed the lie that Dent died a hero's death at the hands of Batman to fester and grow. That lie has given way to the Dent Act, a provision in the law that made it easier for Gotham to prosecute organized crime. The lie is eating at Gordon too, and even young cop John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) can't break Gordon of this malaise.

However, Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) is in town to loot the rich and powerful, specifically the rebuilt Wayne Manor, and in particular, Bruce's fingerprints. But she's merely the harbinger of something far worse and deadly - Bane (Tom Hardy) is coming to Gotham, and he will finish what Ra's Al Ghul and the Joker failed to do - destroy Gotham in any way possible. His plan - a bit convoluted and too spoilery to go into here - involves a fusion reactor that Bruce sank much of Wayne Enterprises' finances into before discovering that it was too dangerous. Because of that venture, Wayne Enterprises is in financial trouble, and Bruce has to turn to Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard), a wealthy philanthropist, for help.

So, the pieces are placed on the board, and for the first 40 or so minutes of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Christopher Nolan has set the house of cards quite elegantly before taking a sledgehammer to the table. Bruce Wayne must be brought to his lowest point before he can truly save Gotham, to a place where even Lucius Fox's (Morgan Freeman) gadgets can't help him. Bane is a force of nature the likes of which Batman has never experienced - while the Joker was pure chaos, Bane has a plan in mind to break Batman in every way possible.

For those keeping score, or needing an easy reference point, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES simply isn't as good as THE DARK KNIGHT, and a lot of that may be due to expectations that the audience may have. When Nolan made BATMAN BEGINS, he brought some real-world semblance into a very comic-booky origin story, possibly to make fans of the character happy as well as other, less-steeped in Batman lore audience members. THE DARK KNIGHT, in comparison, is mostly real-world, inspired by Michael Mann's HEAT and even crime films like THE GODFATHER. The Joker may be an over-the-top villain, but in the way he was written, as well as performed by Heath Ledger, the character became very believable. THE DARK KNIGHT also had its politics to play with - the War on Terror is very prevalent in that film, some places fairly obvious and some not so obvious - and it really felt like the movie was a commentary on America at the time.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, though, gives the audience a bit of a tonal whiplash. This third film is very much a comic book movie, much more reminiscent of the first film than the second. Some of the plot contrivances represent nothing close to reality, and any political statements that the movie might want to make are lost in the scale and the bluster of it all. You can sense at moments that the movie might be wanting to comment on the whole Occupy movement, and even the Tea Party movement, but THE DARK KNIGHT RISES isn't sophisticated enough to follow through with those ideas, and really, it shouldn't have even bothered, because the movie works best when it dispenses with the serious, weighty self-importance.

This movie, more so than the other two, is about Bruce Wayne's struggle, and Bale has never been better as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Even the gravelly voice of Batman feels subdued, beaten. Wayne is a ghost of a man, barely in his own skin, wanting nothing more than to fall away from the world, and Bale plays him with a hesitancy and a subtlety that's been missing from the first two movies. But that may be due to the arc of the character - this isn't the cocksure Batman of the first two films. Gotham may have won something when Harvey Dent died, but Bruce has lost everything, and Bale finds that pain in the character and makes it palpable.

Anne Hathaway also does good work as Selina Kyle - she adds a good bit of physicality to the role and plays Kyle as a conflicted jewel thief who is intrigued by Bruce Wayne even as she tries to rob him blind. She also knows how to handle herself in a fight, and even when her conscience eats at her she is still a very self-reliant character. She's never mentioned as Catwoman, by the way, but the movie doesn't have to; her presence does that all by itself.

Tom Hardy's Bane isn't nearly as charismatic as Heath Ledger's Joker, of course, but Hardy has the harder part in a lot of ways here. His face is mostly covered by a mask, and his voice guttural even through the rich British accent, Hardy has to put most of his performance in his eyes and his physical presence. He dominates the screen when he's on, and you can believe that this is the man who could easily defeat Batman in hand-to-hand combat. We've seen Bruce at his most frail, and with Bane Hardy has made a villain that could easily crush anyone who stands in his way.

My favorite performance, though, lies with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the optimist of the piece and the ray of hope that shines through an otherwise pretty bleak movie. His John Blake is a cop who wants to do the right thing, who looks at Wayne and sees a fellow orphan, and even serves as a kind of inspiration to Jim Gordon and Batman. It's during the heavy midsection, when Batman is at the lowest he can sink, that Gordon-Levitt ups his game and becomes the hero that the audience needs. There's a vitality to his role that makes us pay attention when he's onscreen; even when his story gets clunky he charms us through the rougher parts of the plot.

And does this plot get rough. Those complaining of the various plot issues of THE DARK KNIGHT might want to pop their knuckles and go to work - from a daylight chase scene that inexplicably turns into night, to the convoluted plot and some of the twists that defy logic, Christopher Nolan blasts through these story issues with a confidence that either audiences won't notice, or they'll be enjoying the movie's bombast too much to care. It reminded me, actually, of Nolan's THE PRESTIGE - when the third act revelations come in for that movie, you're either on board or you aren't, especially with some of the odder plot turns. Like BEGINS and DARK KNIGHT before it, there is very little grace in the story, but it's Nolan's skill as a director that plows through and smoothes out the edges. In retrospect, people will unravel this movie like a cheap sweater, but while you're on the ride, you're just having too much fun to notice. The last hour, especially, is Nolan unleashed and it's worth seeing a great director, with his wonderful toys, fully at play.

As the final entry in a very successful trilogy, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is a fitting end. It's big in scale - bigger than the first two by far, and I was surprised where this movie was willing to go in some sequences. THE DARK KNIGHT feels almost intimate by comparison. And still, one can't help but feel that Christopher Nolan should have simply embraced the comic book nature of the material and not planted one foot in reality and one foot in fantasy. That more than anything else gives the movie a confusing tone - when the movie cuts loose and doesn't even attempt to stay close to reality the movie really takes off; although THE DARK KNIGHT's reality-inspired storyline works better for that film, this movie seems more aware of its pulp-comic roots. But it's almost as if Nolan is embarrassed that he's making a comic book movie here, and that's unfortunate. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is a good movie, and at times almost touches greatness. It's a hard job to approach this material without being silly, and while THE DARK KNIGHT RISES skirts it from time to time, it feels like the movie takes itself too seriously, almost as if Nolan's afraid of going there. It's in the quieter character moments, and when the movie lets go and embraces its nature, that the movie really soars.

Nordling, out. Follow me on Twitter!

[ironcross]

im going to go see this tonight. the local drive in is doing a dark knight, dark knight rises duble headder for one night only. both movies for 6 bucks

[Tiinker]

PHENOMENAL! AMAZING! WILL COME BACK WHEN I'VE CALMED DOWN AND CAN FIND WORDS!

[Emperor]

Linking a review due to language I don't feel like editing.

 

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/57109

 

Basically he hated the film and actually makes a good case. It is also CHOCK full of spoilers. So I would suggest reading it after you have seen it. Even after reading the review I still think I am going to love it.

[Krakalakachkn]

Oh mah lord.

 

 

It was awesome.

[ironcross]

saw it last night, was good, will be posting review in watching thread

[reyler]

I just came back from it. It takes about an hour, hour and a half to stop being clunky and really figure out what it's doing, but once it does, holy shnikeys.

 

Also, at least one of those character-based points that Harry Knowles makes, without getting spoilery, is straight from the comics on which parts of this movie are based. I get the feeling reading that that someone didn't pay him enough for his good review this time and he subsequently didn't feel like paying too much attention to the movie.

[Az]

Anne Hathaway was exceptional as Catwoman.

[Krakalakachkn]

I just came back from it. It takes about an hour, hour and a half to stop being clunky.

 

This.