The Dark Knight Rises

[pzarquon]

This week brings the third and ostensibly final chapter in Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy. We discussed the first entry back in 2008, and it was certainly well received. Now the reviews of "The Dark Knight Rises" are pouring in, saying at worst it's overly ambitious and messy but at best some calling it a masterpiece.

Review: 'The Dark Knight Rises' more than shines, and on many levels (Kenneth Turan, LA Times)
Review: 'Dark Knight Rises' disappointingly clunky, bombastic (Tom Charity, CNN)
Dave’s ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Review: A Worthwhile Spectacle, a Storytelling Mess (David Chen, Slashfilm)
Review: 'The Dark Knight Rises' Delivers Perfect End To Batman Legend (Mark Hughes, Forbes)

Anyone rushing out to see it? Anyone think it has a chance of dethroning "The Avengers" as the biggest movie box office hit of the year?

[Honoruru]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

I really, really want to see this film, more so for the trailers that will accompany it, including what I think might be the most anticipated movie no one has heard of (maybe I'll post more about that one later).

As for the Dark Knight, I loved the first two in the series, and hope the third is the killer. I don't think it will out-sell the Avengers, mainly because it doesn't have a 3-D component, and it runs long (2 hours, 44 min.). Personally, I didn't think the Avengers was a particularly good movie (it was enjoyable, lots of action, but that's about it), so I'm hoping "TDKR" will rise above it. It just might sell more tickets, but it might not out-sell the Avengers, as far as gross take is concerned.

[Walkoff Balk]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=744411

Rush Limbaugh thinks that this movie is bias against Romney.

[helen]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

Plan on seeing this movie some time this weekend with some friends.

[Honoruru]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

I saw The Dark Knight Rises this afternoon. There was added security at the theatre, courtesy of HPD. A uniformed officer came into the theatre as the movie began, hung around a bit, checked the area in back of the screen, and was out of sight for the rest of the movie. Sad that this sort of thing is necessary.

As for the movie itself, I loved it! It’s the perfect ending to the trilogy. It’s not as good as the second segment (The Dark Knight), but it’s still very, very good. Anne Hathaway’s performance as Catwoman (though she’s never mentioned as such) brings much needed levity to an essentially dark movie (Batman’s not known as the “Dark Knight” for nothing), and Michael Caine’s performance is brief but outstanding. As for Bane/Bain, he is scary no matter which way you look at him.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

I saw The Dark Knight Rises this afternoon. There was added security at the theatre, courtesy of HPD. A uniformed officer came into the theatre as the movie began, hung around a bit, checked the area in back of the screen, and was out of sight for the rest of the movie. Sad that this sort of thing is necessary.

It says a lot about us that when a man in a costume with a gun kills people, we ban costumes.

[Frankie's Market]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

It says a lot about us that when a man in a costume with a gun kills people, we ban costumes.

That is a situation that won't change until the National Costumers Association spends millions upon millions of dollars in lobbying, like their counterparts over at the NRA.

What it says about our country is, simply put: money talks. Everything else (including common sense) does, you know.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

That is a situation that won't change until the National Costumers Association spends millions upon millions of dollars in lobbying, like their counterparts over at the NRA.

I like that.

I've not seen the prior two films in this trilogy, but I'm hearing reviews that say while this concludes the set, it still leaves enough plot lines open for a sequel. (Maybe Nolan will follow the "Hitchhiker's Guide" definition of "trilogy.")

[helen]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

Attended the late morning showing of this movie at the Ward Theater with a friend. Both of us have seen the first two movies in the past, I haven't re-watched the previous movies recently and I suspect my friend didn't either.

Overall its a strange and complicated movie. If you are the type that likes the action and superhero genre of movie then this would fit the need. If you want a movie that really makes sense, I don't know, the bad guys in this movie are something else. Sure they got a plan, they got the stuff to pull it off but there are not the type to say or have the mindset of (from the 1960's Batman movie) "Today Gotham City, Tomorrow the world" instead its of the mindset of "Suffer Gotham City".

This movie is not much into the various personal sized bat-gadgets but the bat copter is pretty cool tho.

[HanaleiRay]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

It says a lot about us that when a man in a costume with a gun kills people, we ban costumes.

= great thought.

I hate to say that DKR was a letdown for me. I'm not sure what I was expecting except to be entertained, but I was bored during this film. Loved the first two.

Now, if the new Bond movie isn't good I'm going to really be pissed because the last two with Daniel Craig were my favorite movies.

[scrivener]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy. Directed by Christopher Nolan.

When I was in college, I house-sat for a friend who left a hard-cover anthology of Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986) for me to check out. I am not a comic book enthusiast, but only because I’ve exercised uncommon (for me) restraint in that area, knowing that I could easily get sucked in and become a hardcore fanboy. I have too many obsessions as it is, and there just isn’t room in my life for one more, especially not for one with weekly updates.

But I was on Christmas break, so I dove in and discovered a Batman I’d never known: dark, brooding, borderline psychotic, and vengeful. Gone was the campy image of the television series with its garish colors and ridiculous (albeit sexy) villains, and gone was the Superfriend who fought alongside a gigantic Indian and alien twins with a pet monkey. This Batman kicked butt, sometimes in morally questionable ways.

At its best, the Dark Knight of that comic-book miniseries and of this recent Christopher Nolan trilogy is a character study. I have not seen the first film in the trilogy, and while I was fascinated by Heath Ledger’s terrific study of the Joker in the second film, that fell a little flat with me, with its mind-numbing, endless chase sequences. And while that second film was full of interesting characters, they (except for Batman) lacked the inner conflict that makes a good character study interesting. It didn’t help that Batman himself lacked a certain charisma.

To summarize The Dark Knight Rises would be to reveal the whole film; it’s pretty convoluted and involved. The best I can do is provide the set-up, which basically presents Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) as a recluse in a Gotham where organized crime has effectively been exterminated. A villain named Bane, an enormous, muscular beast of a man wearing what looks like a giant latex octopus over the lower half of his face, is bent on destroying first Bruce Wayne and then Gotham, and Batman is lured out of retirement, sort of.

It’s mostly a senseless conflict, but it provides the backdrop for some interesting interactions between our hero and some of the supporting characters, most compellingly with a burglar named Selina Kyle, played by Anne Hathaway, and a cop named John Blake, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Michael Caine as Alfred, Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, and Marion Cotillard as possible love-interest Miranda Tate also work well in scenes with Bale, helping to define the reticent Batman.

The performances are solid enough to forgive some strange decisions, such as making Bane almost unintelligible in much of his speech, and giving Batman himself very little screen time. Action sequences are so-so, but I’m probably the wrong guy to evaluate them; for me, most chase and battle scenes are just something to endure in between good dialogue.

If not as visually beautiful as The Dark Knight, it is still pretty good to look at, and the introduction of two interesting, hopefully recurring characters sets up what looks like another promising sequel. I really enjoyed The Dark Knight Rises, enjoyed it much more than its predecessor, and would welcome another installment in the series.

7/10 (IMDb rating)
73/100 (Criticker rating)