"The Dark Knight Rises" (2012)

[bevs_plaything]

I saw the movie at the weekend and enjoyed it.  I did find it a little too long (dreading the Director's cut! Lol!), and need to see it again...but will wait until I can legally watch it at home.   I loved Catwoman...meow!

Good end to this particular Batman saga, but I think I preferred the last movie. :)

[Geoff G.o.B]

long indeed, not as good as The Dark Knight. Some aspects all seemed a little rushed.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I liked this movie too, not as good as the 2nd, and it felt rushed, but it was good overall. Bane's voice was a bad choice. I really had to strain and listen for his lines, especially if the music or action was really pumping up the scene, that was just a bad choice. Overall though, I enjoyed my time.

Also: Catwoman: Meowwwww, in all the right ways. Loved her character, loved her look, she kicked ass. We could have an entire movie on her I think. And not that one done by that other actress.

[ChrisMC]

I don't think it was rushed..after all it was almost 3 hours long... ;P

I liked Bane's voice. Maybe I'm in the minority, I had no trouble understanding him. The sound in my theater may have been extra good. I also think that I liked this more on first viewing than my first viewing of the Dark Knight. There were moments of lightness that were missing from TDK. That movie was VERY serious. A little smidge of fun was to be had with the Batman character, and I loved it.

[Bryancd]

Back from the Bat! Overall...it was good. Not great and I liked the Dark Knight more, but it was fun. I really disliked Bane's voice and could understand at most 40% of what he said, so clearly I was lost on certain aspects of the story. Like really lost. I think the theater I saw it in had way too much base and the soundtrack was too loud which managed to drown out other dialogue as well. The other thing with Bane's voice is he sounded like an old Sean Connery and it just didn't seem to fit the body and attitude at all. Otherwise I though he was a serviceable villain although I still don't know why he needed that mask. Anne Hathaway was TERRIFIC. She played the character spot on with tension, humor, sarcasm, and a sprinkle of drop dead sexy. Perfect. I also really liked Joseph Gordon Levitt, he was the real heart of this movie along with a nice performance by both Michael Cane and Morgan Freeman. They always deliver. The movie moves along great...up until..

[spoiler]the entire 20min or so from the time Batman is captured by Bane and brought to that whatever prison and when he makes his return to Gotham. I really disliked that entire part of the movie focusing on Bane's machinations, which I wasn't following, and the ugly class warfare with the mobs in the street. I don't often like to get too political watching my superhero movies but that whole part of the movie I found very distasteful. In fact the overall portrayal of wealthy people and Wall Street crooks was so blatant and pandering and totally not necessary. [/spoiler]

But after that, things really picked up and I thought the twists and turns towards of the last 20min was great, though incredibly implausible, fun. And I really liked the last couple scenes and what they hinted at. All in all, a good time, not quite as good as Spiderman or The Avengers, but worth the price.

[Rico]

Bryan - you and I have a VERY similar take and view of this movie.  I agree with pretty much all you have to say.  I said a few other things on the podcast about it this week too and will say a bit more once the movie has been out longer too.

[Bryancd]

Bryan - you and I have a VERY similar take and view of this movie.  I agree with pretty much all you have to say.  I said a few other things on the podcast about it this week too and will say a bit more once the movie has been out longer too.

And I should add I can't get the Zimmer theme song out of my head! It's so bombastic an epic!

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Back from the Bat! Overall...it was good. Not great and I liked the Dark Knight more, but it was fun. I really disliked Bane's voice and could understand at most 40% of what he said, so clearly I was lost on certain aspects of the story. Like really lost. I think the theater I saw it in had way too much base and the soundtrack was too loud which managed to drown out other dialogue as well. The other thing with Bane's voice is he sounded like an old Sean Connery and it just didn't seem to fit the body and attitude at all. Otherwise I though he was a serviceable villain although I still don't know why he needed that mask. Anne Hathaway was TERRIFIC. She played the character spot on with tension, humor, sarcasm, and a sprinkle of drop dead sexy. Perfect. I also really liked Joseph Gordon Levitt, he was the real heart of this movie along with a nice performance by both Michael Cane and Morgan Freeman. They always deliver. The movie moves along great...up until..

[spoiler]the entire 20min or so from the time Batman is captured by Bane and brought to that whatever prison and when he makes his return to Gotham. I really disliked that entire part of the movie focusing on Bane's machinations, which I wasn't following, and the ugly class warfare with the mobs in the street. I don't often like to get too political watching my superhero movies but that whole part of the movie I found very distasteful. In fact the overall portrayal of wealthy people and Wall Street crooks was so blatant and pandering and totally not necessary. [/spoiler]

But after that, things really picked up and I thought the twists and turns towards of the last 20min was great, though incredibly implausible, fun. And I really liked the last couple scenes and what they hinted at. All in all, a good time, not quite as good as Spiderman or The Avengers, but worth the price.

[spoiler]Thinking about it more, I have to agree with you Bryan. That whole 20mins should have been redone. The whole Batman getting caged up and then getting himself free with a lot of work is a huge cliche in the superhero verse and ultimately, wasn't very entertaining because we already knew Batman was going to rise up and out of the prison. Heck, the movie is named such. Thinking about it now, my enjoyment went down during that, but after he got out, the movie picked up its pace and I was really enjoying it again. I would have preferred that we had focused on perhaps more battles between Batman and Bain or something, idk. [/spoiler]

That said, I still enjoyed it, but the 2nd one definitely feels a lot tighter.

[Jobydrone]

I think the 20 minute section you guys are talking about pays off with the twist that comes right after, which as I said before blew me away and was just about my favorite part of the movie.  For me it finally made Bane's motivations clear and understandable after being kind of in the dark about it for the majority of the film.  Also it was a nice callback to the classic Bane story "the Breaking of the Bat" and the "vengeance of Bane" from the 90's Batman comics, even though it's a major deviation from that story. 

As far as the politics of the film, well, Bryan, you'll just have to face it...you money men are easy targets for us 99 percenters. 

;) ;) just kidding ;) ;)

[Bryancd]

Wise guy. ;)

I did read an interesting analysis over on the Now Playing forums which made the connection between Nolan's vision for the movie and elements of the French Revolution (power to the people and such) and the jury room with the desks piled high as an allusion to the balistrades from Les Miz!

"Can you hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men!"

[Meds]

Also remember that over here in England the banks have been rather naughty (google it i'm not going into it here) so there is a bit of a dig at our banks via Nolan. Any of course there is the element of the French Revolution and communism but hey ho.
I had no problem at all with Bane's voice. I understood every word but is  that because its a very English style delivery or the cinema I was in?

[ChrisMC]

Bane's voice was awesome. A nice contrast to the musclebound giant to have a posh sounding (to us anyway) English voice.

[Meds]

Yeah, plus when he says that "what a lovely lovely voice" was just class.

[Bryancd]

Bane's voice was awesome. A nice contrast to the musclebound giant to have a posh sounding (to us anyway) English voice.

I wish I could have heard it clearly! No joke, I was only able to understand 40% of it and it's not because of the accent as I can understand Meds and Kel. ;) But i think the sound in my theater was way off as the soundtrack was exceedingly loud and the bass way too high. It drowned out other dialogue as well. I still think Bane was fine but I never understood his backstory or who he really was. He was just a thug to me doing stuff. That I blame on nolan, I think he failed to really create a sense of menace with bane like he and Ledger did with Joker.

[Rico]

Christian "Batman" Bale paid a visit to the victims of the theater shooting.  I hate to give this any more press, but I admire Bale for doing this. 

http://photos.denverpost.com/2012/07/25/photos-batman-actor-christian-bale-visits-aurora-theater-shooting-victims/