Escape to the Movies: The Dark Knight Rises

[TheOneBearded]

What other A list non-ridiculous Batman villians could you have instead of 'Bane' though?

If Nolan could have worked in Owlman (somehow), that would have made for an awesome movie. Who else could go toe to toe with the Bat other than his evil counterpart? Don't know who would play him, though.

 

[Kimarous]

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I have low expectations. As soon as I heard Bane say in the trailers "I'm Gotham's reckoning," my heart sank. The big bad of this movie... is nothing more than a rehash of the first film's big bad. It's pretty bad when you already feel like you've seen a movie just by watching a trailer. Being more open and aggressive instead of being quiet and subversive doesn't make your "destroy Gotham because it sucks" plan any less "been there, done that." I don't know much about Bane beyond his Venom enhancement and "breaking the Bat", but is this really the only thing they could do with the guy? Look, I know you want to redeem his goon status from "Batman and Robin", but I'd rather see a different villain take the forefront if it meant a more original plot. Take Hush, for example... a threat more to his Bruce Wayne persona, prompting his Batman identity to take action. Or maybe something with Hugo Strange. *sigh* Again, haven't seen the film yet, but given preliminary impressions, I think I'll pass on viewing it in theatres.

 

[McMarbles]

Y'know, I don't remember the Joker being in "The Dark Knight". I remember this unpleasant hobo in bad clown makeup who kept showing up and stealing screen time from the truly interesting villain, Two-Face.

 

[Alexnader]

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I have low expectations. As soon as I heard Bane say in the trailers "I'm Gotham's reckoning," my heart sank. The big bad of this movie... is nothing more than a rehash of the first film's big bad. It's pretty bad when you already feel like you've seen a movie just by watching a trailer. Being more open and aggressive instead of being quiet and subversive doesn't make your "destroy Gotham because it sucks" plan any less "been there, done that." I don't know much about Bane beyond his Venom enhancement and "breaking the Bat", but is this really the only thing they could do with the guy? Look, I know you want to redeem his goon status from "Batman and Robin", but I'd rather see a different villain take the forefront if it meant a more original plot. Take Hush, for example... a threat more to his Bruce Wayne persona, prompting his Batman identity to take action. Or maybe something with Hugo Strange. *sigh* Again, haven't seen the film yet, but given preliminary impressions, I think I'll pass on viewing it in theatres.

With regards to the 'Gotham's Reckoning' thing there's a reason for it both in the plot for this movie and in the context of the entire trilogy. From the outside perspective, in the first movie we've had scarecrow and the league of shadows trying to destroy Gotham and giving batman his origin story. In the second we've had the joker trying to destroy batman with an all out war between cops and organised crime as a backdrop. There's not all that much left for Bane to have a go at given how few things Bruce Wayne gives a crap about.

As for the plot reason, go watch the movie. It'll either satisfy you or it won't. (No spoilers) I found it to be a very interesting evil scheme but the motivation for the whole thing was a bit lacking.

 

[anthony87]

Gives a 'mild' spoiler warning.

Proceeds to tell the mid-film twist. Fucking hell Bob.

Which mid-film twist? That Bane breaks the Bat?

OT: This isn't a surprise. I expected it would be a good movie, but it wouldn't be as good as TDK and possibly even not as good as BB. Still, it'll get my money, if even for one show.

I've read about eight reviews. NONE OF WHICH stated that.

It's a dickmove. It might not be seen as a massive shock, but when he says 'i have to explain the plot' I didn't think he'd fucking go that far, considering that again, NO OTHER REVIEW has had to say that. Bob has pissed me off before but this is a new level.

I can understand completely why you'd be pissed off but you must remember, Bob's audience-on this site at least comprise mostly of people who know the significance of Bane within the comics. Hell, chances are that most people were expecting that to happen in some way anyway. If you've seen the trailers and know the comic book lore then it's hardly a surprise.

 

[anthony87]

I would have picked Red Hood or Hush to be the trilogy concluding villain. Although I will concede that neither would have made much sense in the context of this particular storyline. (Both of those characters have strong ties to Batman and adding them without any previous buildup would be a major asspull). Which leaves Riddler, I guess, but he's not really...epic material, I don't think.

Isn't the Red Hood the flip-side universe version of the Joker?

Not even flip side, Red Hood WAS the Joker before he became the Joker. Although with so many different continuities and whatnot, I'm sure I'm wrong in one universe or another...

 

[irishda]

Avengers and Batman. Apples and oranges, man. Apples and oranges. I believe Vince Mancini over at Filmdrunk put it best in his Avengers review.

The biggest difference between this and something like the Dark Knight is that where Chris Nolan is concerned with redefining genre (and can border on overly self-serious), Joss Whedon writes gushy love letters to genre (and can border on overly kitschy).

Considering this movie *gasp* changes things from the original comics, it's no surprise Bob elevates Avengers above it.

I haven't seen it for myself, but I stopped taking Bob's word on anything since Sucker Punch.

As for villains, I sent a treatment over to WB for the third movie before DK came out with Mr. Freeze out on his typical vendetta mission against the CEO of his former company. The twist was Freeze formerly worked with Alfred in a mercenary group (along with Fox), and the company he was working for was a subsidiary for Wayne Corp. Alfred and Fox left to protect the Wayne family, fearing Freeze's retribution. Alfred was to look after them at home, and Fox would watch him at work.

Freeze may not have been much in the comics before the animated series, but Dini definitely turned him into a real complex villain on par with the Joker. Freeze definitely could've stacked up beyond Riddler, and deserves better than Schwarzenegger's pun machine from Schumacher

 

[Kopikatsu]

I would have picked Red Hood or Hush to be the trilogy concluding villain. Although I will concede that neither would have made much sense in the context of this particular storyline. (Both of those characters have strong ties to Batman and adding them without any previous buildup would be a major asspull). Which leaves Riddler, I guess, but he's not really...epic material, I don't think.

Isn't the Red Hood the flip-side universe version of the Joker?

As was mentioned, Joker was Red Hood before being knocked into the vat of chemicals that 'turned' him into the Joker. Later, Jason Todd (The second Robin, who was killed by Joker but later resurrected) took up the mantel of Red Hood and went around murdering criminals. He tried to shut down Black Mask's operation (By this point, Black Mask more or less controlled Gotham's underground), and would kill anyone indiscriminately, even the police.

He was eventually beaten by the Bat family and became a member of the Outlaws.

 

[Varya]

I was not expecting TDKR to beat TDK, but it good to know it still a good movie on it own. I will be seeing this on Friday.

that's flawed logic. Movie Bob loved the Avengers, so he's saying it's not as good as his favorite movie of the year, you really can't say yo'll hate it because of that.
Yes, it's a superhero movie, but apart from that, the Avengers movies and the Batman movies are different in every single way.

 

[Evil Smurf]

the death of Batman made me cry till the end credits, I was like "no Batman, no!" I wonder why Nolan set Batman up to be Jesus in this film?

 

[thereverend7]

This is about what I expected from Bob. I would have been shocked if he thought it was better then TDK.

So good, but not what you were expecting? my expectations are lower then yours (i.e. im not a movie critic) so I'm still definitely going to see this. But this was a good, balanced review, didn't feel preachy like other comic book related stuff can sometimes.

 

[jackinmydaniels]

So Bob lauds everything but one thing so that means it'll be good.

If he totally loves it, it's probably not that great (if not worse). Read Sucker Punch.
If he totally hates it there's a good chance that it's better than it is. Read Amazing Spider-Man.

Got you figured, Bob-O, got you figured.

I despise MovieBob. I hate him a video game critic, have no respect for him as a film critic, and loathe him as a person. But Sucker Punch was a decent movie. Monumentally depressing, devoid of character development, but a good movie.

captcha: SKYNET WATCHES...

...what the... fuck...

^ This, I can't fucking stand Moviebob or anything he does, but I did enjoy Suckerpunch, if only because it was something interesting to look at.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Don't just take one reviewer's opinion guys. There are many more. It has 80% average on Metacritic right now so read some other reviews and then decide if you want to see it.

 

[Sexy Devil]

Spoilered the big stuff in this post, not really any spoiler in my opinion are in the open but still if you want to know nothing about the movie then look away.

Just on the Bruce learning to be Batman again in the second act, can I just say I don't think that's what was happening. He fully admitted that he was completely prepared to die in the battle for Gotham while in that pit, but it never even occurred to him that he could die any other way until what's his face pointed it out. Seems more like the pit was doing double duty of reminding him that Batman wasn't just a thing about thrill seeking, and that he has an identity beyond Batman, which he had clearly forgotten in this movie. He got invested in the idea that he is Batman, when it was meant to be an incorruptible symbol and the pit set him straight. Hence why ENDING SPOILERS

Spoiler

He ran away with Selina after the bomb detonated, with John taking up the mantle.

So in my opinion it wasn't an unnecessary retreading of ground.

I disagree with the Bane stuff, the Selina romance, etc but really I doubt anyone cares about me arguing characterisation. I will say that the twist gave Bane's character all kinds of levels of depth (though I thought he was good before it).

Honestly I thought it was the best of the trilogy. Everything about it was just holy shit, they actually topped TDK to me. But to each their own, at least you weren't trying to hate it. Personally I held back the overpowering urge to piss just so I wouldn't miss a moment and I did it with a smile.

Also the Cillian Murphy cameo was nothing but awesome.

 

[MorganL4]

I think we are all echoing the same thing, it will probably be a pretty decent film, and we will probably enjoy it just fine. However, no Batman film will ever come close to matching the sheer awesomeness of "The Dark Night"

 

[MovieBob]

So Bob lauds everything but one thing so that means it'll be good.

If he totally loves it, it's probably not that great (if not worse). Read Sucker Punch.
If he totally hates it there's a good chance that it's better than it is. Read Amazing Spider-Man.

Got you figured, Bob-O, got you figured.

I despise MovieBob. I hate him a video game critic, have no respect for him as a film critic, and loathe him as a person. But Sucker Punch was a decent movie. Monumentally depressing, devoid of character development, but a good movie.

captcha: SKYNET WATCHES...

...what the... fuck...

^ This, I can't fucking stand Moviebob or anything he does, but I did enjoy Suckerpunch, if only because it was something interesting to look at.

Three things:

1- Bob is in no way a "video game critic", his knowledge of video games is so puny and biased in favor of the very small selection of Nintendo games he does play that calling him one is an insult to actual video game reviewers who do it for a living.

2- I'm surprised people keep going back to the Sucker Punch review to show how questionable Bobs taste in movies are, i mean it really wasnt that great a movie but the real evidence of this is that Bob like that train wreck of a blacksploitation movie RedTails.

3- People really should take this review with as much salt as they can find. its been said before and i'll say it again; Bob is a biased fanboy. As soon as he said it wasnt as good as The Avengers i knew what was coming, in fact go back and watch the other stuff he's done where he's talked about this movie and you'd have known what his opinion was going to be ages ago. The review was as good as written long before he even saw the movie, "Not as good as The Avengers" was always going to be the outcome.

 

[Shocksplicer]

What's that? Moviebob didn't like it? I'll just go ahead and assume that it's utterly fantastic then.

Because, you know, fuck Moviebob.

 

[Darth_Payn]

I heard that Robin Williams was in consideration for the role of Hugo Strange early on in production.

And instead of Talia al Ghul, they should have brought back Raas al Ghul(is that how it's spelt?) like there was rumours about for so long, he's immortal in the comics anyway. But maybe that was a bit far-fetched to the Nolan films, and it would have tied the film to Batman Begins instead of being the stand alone film that it is.
[alot of speculation in this post as I haven't seen the film, maybe Raas is in it, Bob did mention special Cameos did he not?]

Ra's al Ghul. It's a weird name.

He actually isn't "immortal." He has to be put in a Lazarus Pit to be brought back to life and when someone does that to you, you lose more and more of your mind. Plus this Ra's was in more of an Asian area where the Ra's from the comics is from the Middle East where most of the pits are located.

I don't want to spoil for you with your speculation, so keep speculating.

(side note: Jesus Christ I'm a Batman nerd.)

You say that like you're ashamed of it. This is the internet. Be proud of your Batman knowledge!

 

[godofslack]

I mean the mild spoiler Bob isn't surprising in the slightest. It's Bane's only notable action, he broke the bat. Having Bane not break the Batman is like not having an insane joker, it's who he is. I would of preferred other villains namely Poison Ivy and Mister Freeze, mostly because they aren't one trick ponies, but alas no luck.

 

[mattttherman3]

Superman trailer was weird, it had the song that played during the scene following Gandalfs death in Fellowship. WEIRD.

I thought the movie was great, and I won 20 bucks because my friend bet me that Bane would break Batman's back at the END of the movie. lololololololol