The Dark Knight Rises

[nessaniel]

Gotham City is on the brink of war again, eight years after the death of Harvey Dent and the fall of Batman. Eight years and Bruce Wayne hasn’t left his home or put on the cape and helmet, watching Gotham wither and die. But when a new evil arises – masked villain Bane – it’s time for Gotham’s one and only hero to make his big comeback and go out with a big fantastic bang.


I absolutely need to stop writing my reviews shortly after seeing the film – everything’s still too raw, so I’m going to babble a lot.

I don’t really know where to start, so as always I’ll put together a list of my three least favorite things and then I will explode in fangirly glitter over the rest. XDD

1)My biggest pet peeve: Catwoman. I am sorry but I haaaaaate that character like whoa. I must admit I’m not completely aware of all the background and stuff but God, she was annoying. -..- Which wasn’t Anne Hathaway’s fault at all, I really liked her in some scenes but the way they handled her character...blergh. Maybe I am too spoiled because Avengers did such a good job with Natasha but Selina Kyle was every “female villain but not so much”-trope pressed into one tight catsuit. I hated her highheels and although they tried to jokingly explain their existence it did not convince me at all. I hated her hair. But I liked the ears. And I hated her interaction with Bruce Wayne (see 3) xD).

2) The dialogue. Urghs. I felt like watching a screen play reading. NOBODY TALKS LIKE THIS, MISTER NOLAN. That might have been my biggest problem: the balance between comic book movie and daaaaaaark and gritty and ohhhhh soooo serious film was completely off. The pacing was sometimes awful (that timeline was great and fucked up at the same time XD), the movie was too long, the moral of the story was repeated over and over again (WE ARE NOT STUPID AND THERE IS A FINE LINE BETWEEN LEITMOTIF AND MINDLESS SUCCESSION MISTER NOLAN) and although I loooooved the complicated plot and the le-Terreur-esque trials and everything (that was amazing and I was afraid and terrified during the second half of the movie) – it wasn’t tied together as neatly as The Dark Knight’s storyline, so that much of its potential was wasted in a hole somewhere in the dessert.

3) Okay, this is going to sound stupid but... right now, I hate Batman.
Like fucking whoa, I hate Batman. He is cold as ice. And whiney. And terrible. And the only reason for me to actually feel something in this movie was Alfred. (Oh, and Lucius Fox. And Timothy Blake. And Commissioner Gordon )
Batman himself? Or the women? Oh please. Go and die, I don’t care for you and you obviously don’t care for the good guys mentioned above either so just... go away and let Gordon and Blake handle all the cool stuff. DAAAAAMN. God damn it, I hate him. He made so many good people cry for selfish reasons. I mean come on how many self-discovery plotpoints can a single person get? -..-

But on to the nice stuff where I quote myself:
[That] was Alfred. (Oh, and Lucius Fox. And Timothy Blake. And Commissioner Gordon )
My heroes. Q_Q Blake was the best, srlsy. But maybe I just fell for the “young idealistic boy saves the world”-trope again. I DON’T CARE. All the side characters were much more convincing and much more thrilling to watch than all the forced chemistry between Wayne and Kyle. (Seriously, WORST PAIRING EVER). I don’t want to spoil anything, but Blake and Gordon were the perfect team, Alfred had me in tears at the end of the film and Lucius Fox was brilliant as always. I wanted more of Blake. I wanted him to be the Bat so badly it almost hurt.
The CGI Department outdid themselves this time (only pet peeve: everyone is talking about the poor pooooooooooor poooooor people of Gotham... and all we ever see are some orphan boys? Really? Is that everything you got, movie?), everything looked the part (Wayne Manor must be Hogwarts though... so many rooms and floors xD) and shiny CGI gimmick stuff was everywhere. *_*
Meh. Sorry guys, I can’t talk about the movie right now. I feel drained (which is a good thing xD) and unsatisfied (which is... not so good), maybe because Joseph Gordon-Lewitt is the next best thing since chocolate but there wasn’t enough of him and my favorite complaint ever: NOT NEARLY ENOUGH CHARACTER INTERACTION. -..-
I know that I shouldn’t do it but when I compare the Avengers to The Dark Knight then I must say that Avengers kept its promise of being an entertaining film in the superhero genre. The Dark Knight Rises didn’t. I’m not even sure what Nolan tried to go for with his movies, but whatever it was... The Dark Knight Rises sometimes felt like scriptwriting101 (“Oh we need some emotional fallout between two major characters! And don’t forget to sprinkle somekissingscenes over it, no matter how forced it is!”) and like editing 101 because some scences were rushed as hell whereas others were drawn out too long.
Everything I just said is sooooo incredibly negative but that’s not what I wanted to convey. Q__Q This movie IS great, it’s edgy and dark and complicated and wonderful and heartbreaking – but also very very flawed in ways which could have been avoided very easily I think. *le sigh*
But please, go and watch it for yourselves and then let’s discuss the hell out of it, please? I’m not sure what to think about it right now. XDD
(And someone go and write me some fanfic about Timothy Blake and Commissioner Gordon being awesome together! Or Blake and his wonderful love interest.OR SOMETHING WITH HIM IT DOESN’T MATTER PUT HIM IN THE AVENGERS IF YOU WANT TO BUT DOOOOOOO IT!)

Comments

[merlenhiver.livejournal.com]

LOL, we clearly have very different tastes when it comes to women on screen. I hated Natasha and her stoic aloofness and I loved Anne Hathaway's Catwoman (much to my surprise). ;)

I get where you coming from with your hatred of Batman. There was a minute where I thought Bruce had actually killed himself despite fixing the autopilot - shows how little trust he earned himself during the movie. Blake was my favourite too. <333 (he's everyone's favourite, I'm guessing)

Haha, and "not enough character interaction" was actually my main complaint with "Avengers" ... I could have done with a whole lot more bickering and a lot less CGI and action sequences. That doesn't mean that it was much better in TDKR. What I missed most where the Bruce/Gordon moments which made TDK for me. <3 Just that tiny reveal at the end (which made me bawl, but still) ... meh. :(

But all in all a good movie, if not as brilliant as TDK. (because yeah, that script was way overloaded)

[nessaniel.livejournal.com]

Uhh I like where this is going *_*

First of all, let me agree with you: yes, it was a good and fantastic movie and it scared me, had me in tears and ohhh all the shiny gimmick stuff. *__*

I thought Bruce had actually killed himself despite fixing the autopilot
I'm not sure that this wouldn't have been better than the last scene with Alfred and his Ferrnet Branca. Because FUUUUUUUUUUCK that was a stupid scene and I hated it with a passion. Why oh why couldn't they just have left it with Lucius learning about the Autopilot programming? Or with Alfred sitting down, drinking his drink and... smile or something? Why did they have to show Bruce and Selina o.o This was the Harry-Potter-epilogue all over again and THAT was not a good one. xDD

I think you are guessing right. XDD Blake was just so precious and wonderful (and fucking clever, I mean how did he deduce that Bruce was Batman again? xDD I'm not so sure what to think about that either. On the one hand, they explained it very well on the other hand I thought it was done a tad over the top because you could smell "PLOT CONVENIENCE" like from a mile away. But still Gordon-Lewitt. <3 I need him to find himself a wonderful love interest).

As for Natasha and Selina: that's indeed surprising. xD In my opinion, Natasha had way more agency. She was even friendly to all the other guys! xDD Selina behaved like your typical action girl - and she needed to be rescued by the Batman which was one of my major pet peeves because ffffuuuuuu she proved herself to be strong and independent but nooo she can't bring herself to do the right thing in the end she needs the man to tell her what to do. BLERGH.

Was mich aber wirklich traurig macht, ist, wie konventionell der Film war. Klar, der Plot war cool und alles. Aber ein Großteil der Szenen, die für den emotionalen Impact des Films sorgen sollten, die waren einfach nicht stark genug. Als ob es jemals einen Zweifel daran gegeben hätte, dass Bruce Wayne aus dem Loch kriecht, z.B. Oder daran, dass Selina wiederkommt, um Batman zu helfen.
Das ist von Anfang an alles so klar und deutlich gewesen und trotzdem wird es hunderttausend Jahre lang durchgekaut und breitgetreten, bis es nur noch nervig war. Wie oft hat er der Katze denn gesagt, dass sie wiederkommen wird... und dann war sie tatsächlich wieder da OH WUNDER und wir sollen das neu und toll und aufregend finden?

Ich erwarte ja nicht von jedem Film, dass er die Grenzen des modernen Kinos neu definiert. Aber von einem Christopher Nolan kann ich immerhin etwas erwarten, was sich nicht völlig eingliedert in die konventionellen Genrebedingungen des üblichen Actionkinos. >___<

Was ich genial gefunden hätte, wäre, wenn Blake die Bathöhle schon viel früher gefunden hätte und sich mehr schlecht als recht als Batman 2.0 durchgeschlagen hätte, sodass nicht ganz klar gewesen wäre, ob Bruce wirklich überlebt.
Man hätte sich sehr viel mühsames Gekraxel in einem Brunnen sparen können und etwas wirklich Überraschendes machen können. >.<

So und jetzt hab ich keine Zeit mehr mich über den Film aufzuregen, ich muss Schuhe kaufen gehen. XDDD Bis dahin!

[merlenhiver.livejournal.com]

Hey,

du hast so Recht wegen dem Ende, irgendwas hat daran gar nicht gepasst. Sie hätten ihn einfach sterben lassen sollen, basta. Damit hätte ich leben können. Das war so ein halbgares Ende, sie hatten den emotionalen Moment, haben sich aber letztendlich doch nicht getraut, es durchzuziehen. :(

Definitives JA dazu, dass Blake schon viel früher als Robin in Erscheinung hätte treten können (bzw. überhaupt). Wäre sehr viel interessanter gewesen als Bruces Selbstfindungsmomente breitzutreten.

Aber ja, Blake und sein 7. Sinn, dass Bruce Batman ist ... das fand ich schon SEHR weit hergeholt. Und ich habe sowas von Gordon in dieser Szene vermisst. Das war doch sein Part!!! Er hätte es doch rausfinden sollen!!! Meh. :(((

Das Schlimmste an dem Film finde ich, dass er so opulent ist, dass ich nach 5 Tagen immer noch relativ ratlos bin, was ich nun eigentlich von ihm halten soll. War er gut? Richtig gut? Oder haben mich diese Sachen oben doch zu sehr gestört? I DON'T KNOW! ;)

[nessaniel.livejournal.com]

Oh Gott, mir gehts ähnlich. Ich bin auch immer noch total verwirrt und weiß einfach nicht, was ich vom Film halten soll: einerseits bin ich plötzlich wieder Eames/Arthur (Inception xD) verrückt, andererseits denk ich mir: wie kann man so viel Geld und Arbeit in ein Projekt stecken und im Endeffekt hat man sowas wie "Transformers" von der miesen Charakterdarstellung her. @__@

Brr. Mal sehen. Ich schlaf nochmal zwei Wochen drüber und vielleicht schau ich ihn einmal im O-TOn an.

Wäre sehr viel interessanter gewesen als Bruces Selbstfindungsmomente breitzutreten.
Aber absolut. Hmpfh. Ich mein, wie viele denn noch? Das Problem war ja, dass er im Endeffekt die gleichen Probleme hatte, wie im ersten Film, nämlich Trauer und das Nicht-Wissen, dass er viel Wertvolles im Leben hat (die "Ich-habe-keine-Angst-vor-dem-Tod"-Nummer war nett, zugegeben, aber auch zu wenig ausgespielt. MWAHH!). Und das kann man noch so ausschmücken, wie man will, im Endeffekt ist es abgeschrieben und uninspiriert. >.<

Und ich fands auch unfair, dass Gordon mit so ner dummen, kitschigen Erklärung abgespeist wurde, während Blake, der bis date gerade mal zehn Minuten im Film war, einen SHINING MOMENT OF INTELLIGENCE haben durfte. WAT ZEEEE FUCK!! >___> Nicht, dass ich Blake nicht über alles liebe, aber das war einfach sehr over the top.

Aber Gordon. Oh Gott, Gary Oldman hat diese Rolle so gerockt, ich war so fertig. Q__Q Ich fands schön, dass er es im Endeffekt war, der Blake den letzten Stoß gegeben hat, mit seinem "Gesetze sind Fesseln, ich bin zu alt um sie zu lösen, mach du das, Jungspund/Hitzkopf!" Awww. Q___Q

[merlenhiver.livejournal.com]

Glaub mir, O-Ton hilft in diesem Fall auch nicht weiter ... *seufz* (eher im Gegenteil, ich hatte teilweise echt Schwierigkeiten, Tom Hardy unter seiner Maske zu verstehen)

Oh Gott, Eames/Arthur ... ein Fanfiction-Himmel. <333