I somehow got roped into going to see Dark Knight Rises at the IMAX theater in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Waiting in line was a mess. Tickets from will call was a mess. Getting into the theater itself was a mess, and the show was delayed because a few people just would not sit down.
And then the movie.
So, Batman Begins was my favorite of the Nolan films. I thought it was just about a perfect Batman movie. I didn't much care for The Dark Knight: I felt the movie depended less on a tightly scripted plot and more on action sequences and some psychic mind reading from the Joker.
So I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like Dark Knight Rises. At the same time, there were a couple of things I really wanted to see, themes that had been in the previous films and that I felt deserved a pay off. Would Gordon learn Batman's identity, and understand why the Bat trusted him all those years ago? Would Alfred get his wish for the man who was, basically, his son?
It's been eight years since The Dark Knight. Batman hasn't been seen since. The death of Harvey Dent at the hands of the Bat spurned Gotham into passing a series of laws which allowed the city to dismantle organized crime. "Soon we're going to be running down overdue library books," an earnest cop (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) complains to Gordon. But things are on the stir, the city needs the Bat, and there's a sinister force after Bruce Wayne, a bearded recluse hobbling around an isolated wing of Wayne Manor.
About twenty or twenty-five minutes in we get our first really big action sequence. There's a lot of gunfire. And as it ramped up, as you knew what was about to happen, because it was in all the news reports of the Aurora, Colorado massacre, that the gunman had waited until there'd been shooting on the screen, I won't deny it: I felt my heart flutter.
he plot was not what I expected at all - Batman isn't just defeated, he's broken and cast aside and when finally he steps back into the shadows, always darkest just before the dawn, his return just SINGS. There were some surprises in the film - and I don't mean like, "Oh, that's Bunny Colvin from The Wire playing an Army captain" - and there was one that really took me by surprise. I saw someone on Twitter remark that she was "inceptioned" (and I'm assuming it was by this).
Hans Zimmer's score is absolutely batdamn amazing.
And for fans of LOST and THE WIRE, lots of cameos: I recognized Aiden Gillen, Nestor Carbonell reprising his role as the mayor (still in office eight years later), Brett Cullen and Robert Wisdom (the aforementioned army captain). The end was, I felt, pretty appropriate.
The king is dead. Long live the king.
Registered: Sep 2000
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Though buying tickets (yay Fandango!) and getting seated were much easier for me, it's for a rather yucky reason. The theater those shootings were in? That's the one my dad and I watched every Trek movie from Generations to Nemesis in.
A friend of mine and I had planned to see the movie today anyway (not the same theater, obvs), and though there was the risk of copycats, we decided that the best thing we could do wrt telling this terrorist to go pleasure himself would be to go on. I'd say a good 40 percent of the seats were full, which is understandable given that this is so close to the shootings.
Anne Hathaway is owed an apology from every fan who thought she'd make a terrible Catwoman.
At least this time, the 2h45 minute run time was totally warranted. It didn't seem overly long. (The Dark Knight could easily have been about twenty minutes shorter...)
My first complaint is, paradoxically, related to the pacing. It doesn't really feel like five months passed during the length of it. A little more time exploring the decay of Gotham during Bane's siege would have helped, but not at the expense of making the movie any longer. And I'm not sure what would need to be cut.
My second complaint: It's the first Nolanverse Batman movie to have two major, decently fleshed-out female characters, and they still can't make it pass the Bechdel test?
And re: Inceptioning: Yeah, if it's the scene I think you're talking about, there was an audible gasp from the theater. The one toward the end, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt?
The best line: "So that's what that feels like."
-------------------- "Don't fight forces; use them." --R. Buckminster Fuller
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I saw it yesterday at a surprisingly empty theatre in Harlow. I suspect that the first day of the school summer holidays may be responsible - all the kiddies will be watching it next week.
Anyway, I really enjoyed and came away much more satisfied than I did from Prometheus (which I was looking forward to more). Don't get me wrong, I loved Prometheus, but the plot problems were just far less glaring in The Dark Knight Rises - i.e. if there were some I missed them.
I also agree the runtime is justified and goes without dragging. And while I appreciated the time passing in the story, it was subtle - but that's ok because in this instance it is a cleverly done film not aimed at the gurning masses (well, not soley).
I loved Michael Caine and the ending was just what I'd hoped for after Alfred and Bruce's disagreement set it up.
I didn't like the (every so obvious) bit where the kid from Third Rock from the Sun picks up his bags.
As for audiable gasps, the only ones in my theatre were when Bane and Batman first fought - it's pretty tough stuff, that.
Overall, I loved this and I hope they don't make the obvious sequel/spinoff and leave this as the only trillogy where all the films are good on their own merit.
I should also point out that despite her bottom being very prominant in one or two scenes, Anne Hathaway was not distracting as Catwoman, she was very, very good.
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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Fair enough, Snay. I'd been suspecting something like that twist, though, since I vaguely remembered something like that from the animated series I watched as a kid.
-------------------- "Don't fight forces; use them." --R. Buckminster Fuller
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It occurs to me that Bane's fateful mistake was the same one made by all of the villains in the 1960s Batman show: he defeated Batman and left him for dead. AND THEN!!!!!
Registered: Sep 2000
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Bored & didn't want to sit at home tonight, so I caught a 2nd show of it. Noticed some stuff I hadn't before, like the stock exchange scene seems to take place in morning, then suddenly switches to evening.
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