The Dark Knight Rises

[ShyViolet]

I love the trailer too!

Here's another article on the Bane problem:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-v ... ane-275489

*some language in comments

[LotsoA113]

Just pre-order my Blu Ray copy. Glad Warner Bros. is giving up on their barebones Blu-Ray ideal for this title, as the final Christopher Nolan Bat-flick deserves a ton of behind-the-scenes goodies!

On a side note: recent rumors purport Armie Hammer to be the newest cinematic incarnation of Batman in a Batman reboot and a Justice League movie. In my opinion, it's about time since he was in the running for Batman Begins as well and has showed real talent in The Social Network, though if he'll take on another franchise after The Lone Ranger is debatable...

[Ben]

I was blown away by TDKR.

It took me a few goes to get into Batman Begins, and I only saw The Dark Knight once in the theater and snippets of it on TV, so I need to see that again, but I just didn't really warm to the films right off. But although I hated the Rises title (just seems so "middle film" to me, should have been The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, The Dark Knight Ends...or something, you get my drift, instead of WB worrying no-one would go and see a Batman film without Batman in the title), I loved this third movie.

I know there's a bigger, better edition coming next year, but as someone who only so-so likes the first two (although I really did like Begins again when I saw it before Rises), I went for the Dark Knight Trilogy set. Not only does it keep all the extras from the Begins and 2-Disc Dark Knight, but it has the 2-Discs for Rises, and there's enough stuff there to keep me interested. Best thing? How could I pass up the Blu-ray collection at just $29.99!?

Although it does seem that Bats will return in a Justice League movie, I do hope they keep the Nolan storyline going using the revelations in the closing minutes of Rises...that was all so cool/crazy/nonsensical-but-brilliant that they would do well to pay it off somehow!

[Randall]

I enjoyed TDKR while I watched it, and I'll buy the Blu-ray, but... so many things about it bug me. I can get over some of it by thinking of it as an "Elseworlds" Batman story, but even then, one has to deal with all the plot problems. Oh, so many issues there...

I appreciate that Nolan is a bit of a visionary, but I find some of his films (the first and third Batman ones, Inception and The Prestige) overly pretentious and full of problems that I just can't get over.

[EricJ]

I appreciate that Nolan is a bit of a visionary, but I find some of his films (the first and third Batman ones, Inception and The Prestige) overly pretentious and full of problems that I just can't get over.

ALL he was hired to do was to "reboot" Batman Begins, so that Warner could get the taste of Joel Schumacher out of their mouths, and actually finish another Batman movie. (They'd already dropped at least two others, and were desperate enough to revive Tim Burton's Catwoman.)

That's all. He didn't sign up to be the next Zack Penn, they just wanted to throw a little Memento into the Bruce Wayne mix, and start thinking seriously again. But when he was more interested in how mob finance works in Gotham than in showing us the Batcave, I think we know where Nolan stands on comic-book fantasy.
(I remember that at least half of the mania over TDK was "It doesn't look like a comic-book movie!" which raises the question of what critics thought "A comic-book movie" looked like. Back in '08, we thought it looked like Fantastic Four, since Iron Man had only been in theaters for a month. TDKR came out after The Avengers, and now "It doesn't look like a comic-book movie" suddenly wasn't a compliment anymore. )
I don't think he even wanted to do three Batman movies, let alone be forcibly write-in appointed the new "czar" of Warner/DC movies. I enjoyed how Nolan could do a "serious" version of Two-Face in the second Dark Knight to de-historize the Schumacher/Tommy Lee Jones version, but the "homemade" Heath Joker that all the wishfully-identifying high-school Internet kids latched onto?....Nnnno. No, no, oh, dear heavens, NO.

I admire a director who knows when to make his Final Chapter in a series, so long as he sticks to it.

[Ben]

I liked the The Prestige and could get over its problems by going with what it was doing and the ideas it had, but I hated Inception. I thought it was a very dumb movie: an "intelligent" movie for dummies.

Like I said, it took me a while to get into his Batman pictures too, and when I said I loved TDKR maybe that was because I knew this time around what kind of film it was going to be and had in no way got any hopes up. We were almost not going to see it, there was nothing else on and we thought "what the heck" and went. So expectations were low and easily surpassed. There were a huge ton of plot points and issues I had with the film, but for what it was it was good, and I just liked how the ending (seen from a mile off I grant you) fell into place.

One could say it was all too easy and simple, or one could just enjoy it (or both!). But I agree that he should at least end it there: the set-up for another one (maybe not actually a Bat movie) is obviously there, but how they would figure that out could be messy and they would be best to leave it with the natural open end they have and stick to their word that this particular trilogy is over.

There was some talk that Nolan is the next Kubrick, but I don't see that by a long shot. He's his own director, that's for sure, but the writing can be weak and in being too twisty-turny he locks himself into places from which there is no escape except for a dumb, clunky get-out.

[Randall]

Actually, I should clarify--- I did quite like The Prestige for most of its runtime. My only issue with it was that the "big reveal" at the end was so obvious to anyone who'd been paying attention. So, after all the hype, it was a yawn moment for me.

And, in fairness, I absolutely loved TDK. The only problem was how its ending turned into the 8-year self-imposed exile seen in TDKR. I intially read the TDK ending as: Batman then works outside the law for a year or so, then redeems himself in the eyes of Gotham. I guess I'm repeating myself now, but to say that Batman retired after basically 2 cases, after training for YEARS, is just dopey.

[EricJ]

I liked the The Prestige and could get over its problems by going with what it was doing and the ideas it had, but I hated Inception. I thought it was a very dumb movie: an "intelligent" movie for dummies.

And even though it was for another studio, with Inception, I still like to raise the specter of "So, whatever DID happen to that 'Americanized live-action Paprika' Sony made a big deal about announcing they were going to make a while ago, and were looking at either Nolan or David Fincher to direct?..."

[ShyViolet]

Loved all three Nolan Bat films, my favorite being TDK (although I wish there had been more Two-Face).
Love Memento, love The Prestige (it's downloaded on my ipod lol). REALLY like Inception, but after having seen it an absurd number of times, I have a few problems with it:

1.) Ellen Page is completely miscast. She's way too young looking despite being talented and seemed way too much like her teenage self in Juno to make a real impression.
2.) How DO they share dreams? This is never explained. At least in DreamScape (an 80s film that actually resembles Innception in certain ways) there is an explanation.
3.) Loved Cillian Murphy but hated how his character's mind is treated as an afterthought; despite never hurting anyone he is manipulated into doing something he had no intention of doing.
4.) We never really understand what motivates most of the characters other than money. Cobb is explored more but there is a mercenary coldness in his character that the film never recovers from.
5.) His dead wife's projection was incredibly grating.

Really liked TDKR (Bane was SCARY, moreso than the Joker IMO) and liked seeing Wayne more human

and vulnerable. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was excellent as well.

[Ben]

Anyone that liked Inception (or didn't like it for that matter) should see Shutter Island. Now THAT's a Leo-mind-freak movie of the kind of depth Inception could only dream of being!

[EricJ]

Anyone that liked Inception (or didn't like it for that matter) should see Shutter Island. Now THAT's a Leo-mind-freak movie of the kind of depth Inception could only dream of being!

(Oh, please--Just sat through Shutter Island a month or two ago, and I saw through the trick immediately.
It was an okay mind-trick for the first two thirds, but then Scorsese had to shoot off his big artsy mouth: In the scene where Leo talks with the missing woman in the cave, and she says "They'll never believe you, that's the Kafka-esque genius of it."...Oh, duh. Of COURSE. Scorsese just had to go and use the K-word and drop the big penny.
All of a sudden, I realized all I was watching was a big do-it-yourself updated Kafka fan-fic, where the character simply runs around in a big odyssey from Point A to Points, B, C, D, X, Y, and Q, running into a (literally) endless parade of loony anecdotal throwaway bureaucrats who show up, spout symbolic nonsense hinting at a conspiracy that's never spelled out, and disappear for the rest of the story, until he finally ends up in the same quicksand pit he's been searching for, as a victim of the System....Yeah, Marty, I saw Anthony Perkins in Welles' "The Trial" too, so what?
I had to give up on it after that point (since it was about to expire on Netflix), I trust I didn't miss much after that point or was too far off. But then, that was Scorsese ripping off authors, not Nolan ripping off anime.)

[Ben]

I can see how that would work. But the final twist is still worth it.