THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (Christopher Nolan 2012)

[Chris Knipp]

Christopher Nolan: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012)

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/9529/christianbaleandmarionc.jpg
CHRISTIAN BALE AND MARION COTILLARD IN THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

Nolan ends his Batman trilogy: glossy action, but warm characters too

Nolan's third and final Batman epic is the big summer blockbuster of 2012. Don't even think about overlooking it if you follow mainstream movies. It's destined for and already receiving the double Hollywood dream whammy of equally balanced critical kudos and box office treasure. Only the most eccentric critics (like Rex Reed (http://observer.com/2012/07/the-dark-knight-rex-reed-christian-bale-michael-caine-christopher-nolan/) and Armond White (http://cityarts.info/2012/07/20/bat-guano-economics)) would consider dismissing or panning it. Like its predecessor The Dark Knight it's overweaning in its ambition and almost impossible to describe, and there's more action than there needs to be. What's all this stuff about a remote medieval-style prison in the desert and a painstaking long climb up out of it? Haven't we seen that before? There's too much plot here, with the result that the movie lacks a center. Contemporary political references seem merely tacked on; too much is stuffed in. Nonetheless the stuffing is tidily done. Everything is relatively suave and lucid compared to the previous installment, The Dark Knight, incorporating no doubt lessons Nolan learned making his intricate but precise Inception. If the moral issues of good and evil are complex, the storylines need to be clear, and they are. In the precipitous final segments one particularly enjoys the interweaving of high and low elements. Solemn and epic this may be, but it's watchable and fun, and if you don't enjoy the boom-boom action all that much (it sounds sometimes like a Taiko drum team is on constant duty) you can enjoy the actors.

For the beauty of The Dark Knight Rises is that despite all the Bat buggies and nuclear threats, dastardly plots and grand architecture, the contemporary nods to 9/11, Wall Street graft and global warming, this is an old fashioned story about people. Nolan transcends pop art genre by producing a movie that's smart, yet violent, visually dazzling, but human. At the heart of things are soulful personalities, mellow old folks and young charmers. Of course Heath Ledger as The Joker is gone. Bane (Tom hardy), a supermuscled anarchist with destroy-New York (AKA Gotham City) ambitions and a weird Darth Vader mask muffling his somewhat effete British accent, really can't take the place of Ledger's fierce, gleeful theatricality. Sundry lieutenants of Bane also fail to engage one way or the other. A bad guy should be more than just nerdy. But then there are all the charmers. Even the ghost of Liam Neeson comes back for a quick turn, and Cilllian Murphy appears briefly as a kind of grand inquisitor, meting out exile or death.

Begin though, with Michael Caine as Alfred, the Wayne family butler, driver, and much more. Imagine Jeeves in a Batmobile. Only Caine could carry if off, and his performances is classic -- again. As Commissioner Gordon, Gary Oldman, who has been a chilly villain or just chilly often before, is surprisingly cuddly. Then there's Bruce Wayne's technical and commercial right-hand man, Fox: Morgan Freeman. Mr. March of the Penguins himself: is he not the voice of reassurance? Matthew Modine, a newcomer to the series, adds presence as the overambitious policeman Foley. Well into middle age, no longer on a Vision Quest, Modine still seems eager and intense, if most of his "Weeds" smugness is gone.

When Anne Hathaway comes in as Selina, a black-masked, darkly beautiful cat burglar working for the enemy, stealing pearls and fingerprints, who becomes a key, if unreliable, ally, she and Batman fall in together like some stylish Forties detective couple, a Mr. and Mrs. North, lacking only the white tie and martini. Hathaway may fall short of being the ultimate babe, but she has lips and skin to die for, and a lot of swagger.

But Nolan can even top that, when he brings in Marion Cotillard as Miranda, who's been involved in a clean energy project for Wayne Enterprises. Cotillard can teach us what a sexy, soulful woman is. This actress is magic. Is there anything she can't do?

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has by now shown that he too can do just about anything. (He'll be Bruce Willis' younger self shortly in Looper.) A significant element in Inception, he's even more important in The Dark Knight Rises, as Blake, a young police officer, later detective, bonded with Bruce Wayne because he's an orphan. Even though the way Blake's story is woven into the story is transparent, Gordon-Levitt's cool assurance and charisma add significantly to the film's warmth with a kind of Everyman thread.

If I seem to be forgetting Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, well, there have been better and far warmer superheroes. But then he's so damned good looking.

There are some impressive looking gadgets, but this is not a display of futuristic warfare. Indeed the battles are much of the time just old fashioned hand-to hand ones. Bane and Batman don't match wits so much as just duke it out. The ritual of a tight schedule to save Gotham City is obviously important, though at times whether it's worth the effort or not is seriously addressed: Selina begs Bruce to run away with her, urging that he owes the city nothing. But it's really obvious the Nolans were writing about relationships, and it's more about how they're all resolved, with orphans saved and an acolyte off training to replace the retired hero, than about how epic the battles are.

Nolan and his brother, who co-wrote, admittedly aren't much for humor. None of Spider-Man's boy in Spandex enjoying superpowers here either. It's all too complicated even to know what Batman's powers are, exactly. The movie's complexly CGI-engineered wow's and devastation are enhanced with beautiful crisp digital visuals and subtle color, as was Nolan's Inception. Apart from the human interest, we must be content with that. As Armond White notes, this lacks the exhilaration of (the merely playful, but wonderfully so) Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Fans and fanboys may feel let down -- if this is the end of a successful run. But Robin is waiting, so it probably isn't; and the ending of The Dark Knight Rises offers the warm glow of teasing final shots. This is a slick product, and this time it has more warmth and less confusion.

The Dark Knight Rises opened wide in the US and many countries July 20, 2012; in France July 25.

[Chris Knipp]

Alternate views.


Armond White: (http://cityarts.info/2012/07/20/bat-guano-economics/)

A better movie than The Dark Knight Rises would invite discussion of its content, but interpretation (“What’s that?” say Avengers fans) isn’t even required of this third entry in Christopher Nolan’s Batman franchise. A film of empty spectacle, its actual content (formulaic violence, humorless dialogue, unvarying solemnity) runs second to the blatant process of supplying a pre-sold audience with brand-name characters and predictable action.

Rex Reed:
(http://observer.com/2012/07/the-dark-knight-rex-reed-christian-bale-michael-caine-christopher-nolan/)
Silly pop-culture comic book cinema about grown men in rubber masks and Styrofoam jock straps is bad enough, but incomprehensible gibberish to boot is just plain unacceptable. Halfheartedly, I give The Dark Knight Rises—the third and final Batflick in the Nolan trilogy—one star for eardrum-busting sound effects and glaucoma-inducing computerized images in blinding Imax, but talk about stretching things.

Walter Chaw: (http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2012/07/the-dark-knight-rises.html#more)

For all its overreaching (and what's perilously close to a training montage), Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises is fascinating, engaging, and aggressively present. It's a wonderfully-performed melodrama about the sad, intractable state of our sorry state, painted in broad strokes in a muted palette. It's what many would think impossible despite the evidence of its predecessor: a comic book for grown-ups. And it accomplishes what it sets out to do without much in the way of action sequences or hero moments--the irony being, of course, that The Dark Knight Rises is fated to become the best-reviewed and most-lucrative release of 2012 for having the very same qualities for which the deeply-underappreciated Superman Returns was lambasted. I would argue that a wide swath of the people who will adore it will have difficulty articulating exactly why.

Lisa Schwartzbaum (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20589510,00.html)

Chaos reigns for much of The Dark Knight Rises, often in big, beautiful, IMAX-size scenes that only Nolan could have conceived. Yet when the apocalyptic dust literally settles on this concluding chapter, the character who lingers longest in memory is an average Gotham City cop named John Blake, wonderfully played with human-scale clarity by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

[Johann]

Rex Reed likes to hear himself talk.
This movie isn't silly. He is.
To me it's dead serious.
Nolan has crafted something really Revolutionary with this one.
He's making a very VERY strong *cinematic* statement about personal responsibility.

HOLY IMAX BATMAN!

I'll see it a few more times and get back to you.
(and I'll see Oliver Stone's Savages & Spider-Man soon)

[Chris Knipp]

I am not siding with Rex Reed. He's very amusing when he pans a film though. He's one of the few who dares to go all-out and have fun trashing something. Don't get too serious about all this. It's just a movie, and a pop one. It could use some humor.

As you can see, I really enjoyed this one. You may think I'm being critical, but I admired its high level of accomplishment and had a good time. I didn't think I needed to add to the hype, however. How much has been spent promoting it? $100 million? $150, $200 million?

[tabuno]

Unlike Chris Knipp, I found the hell hole sequences as an integral part of the overall plot and as such added a much needed resurrection (Phoenix arising) theme, as well as highlighting the humanity of the big twist towards the end of the movie which made for a fascinating balance of humanity for the movie.

The Dark Knight Rises joins There Will Be Blood (2007) as one of the extremely few flawed movies to rise above its slight annoyances to almost completely overshadow any lingering irritating oversights or logical flaws to become by the end a genuinely satisfying and qualitative, substantive action thriller movie, which only speaks to its strengths and integrity as a movie. The sizable number of flaws that began to notice included: the stolen necklace that is so easily traced and for Catwoman not to have notice (unless she really wanted to be caught later); Batman's camouflage of his flying Bat-aeroflighter consisting of flimsy army stock from World War II instead of invisible James Bond car that used techno-mirrors as in Day Another Day (2002); the ease of just leaving Bane on top of the roof (which of course if Batman had caught him, the whole movie would have ended there); the overly too convenient angle of the road barriers allowing the criminals to just ride over them from their escape from the Stock Market building; and even Batman's own escape using a similar ramp he created later in the movie; the fusion bomb being so easily armed without a failsafe instead of recognizing the likelihood in reality of doing preventing the fusion from being armed, an almost unlikely mob scene of good and bad fighting sequences (unlike even what would be an even more authentic Civil War battle of hand to hand combat), and the absence of the better direction and choreography of the jumping in the hell hole scene which would have included more actual footage of the jump (somewhat like that used in Speed (1994) with the bus facing a freeway that wasn't completed. But the martial arts scenes have been vastly improved for their clarity and visual impact since the first of the three movies in Batman Begins (2005). Nevertheless for all these apparently convenient script devices or oversights, The Dark Knight Rises is aptly named and the darker serious thread as well as the humanity both bad and good that arises sometimes in the same character is so riveting and dramatically authentic that it strikes at the universal themes of the lives of almost everyone watching the movie. The more controversial element of the movie is whether one can make a statement about the movie as being an indictment of our existing capitalist system in America or whether it can be a more subtle endorsement of the present system of structure and political law enforcement in our society. It is fascinating that there is some ways a resemblance to themes that can be found in the epic romantic drama Dr. Zhivago (1965) shot against the background of the Russian Revolution where the masses revolted against the rich elite. The Dark Night Rises is edited, even though a few scenes seem too short (that considering the overall length of the movie) were nicely timed, the characters are both hated and loved, quality of the substance of the deeper dialogue of human existential being is offered up and the energy and tension, keeps increasing and the audience angst and anguish at the pull of good versus evil and martyrdom of many characters both good and and in this movie continues to build until the end which has its own nicely wrapped, enfolded conclusion as if there was any doubt.

[oscar jubis]

There is plenty of enjoyable elements in this film, as have been pointed out, most of all its purely kinetic properties. However, I get supremely annoyed in action films by the sound design drowning the dialogue and by characters with unintelligible speech. And...think about it a little...isn't the film ultimately on the side of political complacency since the alternative to savage, hegemonic corporate capitalism is construed as anarchic, chaotic, nihilistic and psychotic?

[Johann]

Anarchy and chaos yes. Nihilism and psychotic no.
What other alternative is there?

No Ghandis walking around today who are capable of bringing down foul Empires...

[Johann]

Don't confuse nihilism with anarchy- they are two different animals.
Nihilism is belief in nothing having meaning.
Anarchy is a belief in the self as a way to live, outside of government control. Personal responsibility, as in: "don't tread on me".
Negation of control is a huge theme here.

[Johann]

What ARE the alternatives to corporate capitalism?

Anarchy has to be in the stew. Because the chaos that capitalism creates is never punished, and if it is, it's not anything that affects the culprits in any significant way. This is a movie, and wouldn't it be nice if we could act like some of these characters in response to the evil?

I would.
This movie is to be savoured. Over and over.

[Chris Knipp]

It's nice to know people are debating what anarchism means and how this movie is a critique of capitalism (or something more fancy and redundant). There has been much debate on the Web about Frank Milller's relation to these ideas, but he is no enemy of modern capitalism. He has apparentl expressed contempt for the anti-corporate anti-bank/capitalist Occupy movement demonstrators and described them as "pond scum" and "a pack of louts, thieves and rapists." A Guardian article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/nov/15/frank-miller-politics-visible-comics)that quotes Miller's rant in full leaves us finally in doubt as to what the comic book artist's "mxed messages" mean, but he seems pretty right-wing, pro-law and order, anti-Islam and belligerent to me. But mixed messages and extremes is what I would expect from my childhood reading of superhero comic books. I don't think for all their jazzing up into "graphic novels" for grownups and dissemination around the world as iMax or 3D blockbuster Hollywood movies that they have basically changed. Only I don't find the sound levels, the violence, or the content of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES offensive. I found it more coherent than Nolan's previous film and a very polished piece of work of its kind. There are other comic book movies that I've enjoyed more. None of them really are my thing. I'd rather watch Eric Rohmer. Or the Marx brothers. I still maintain that though Nolan is undeniably skilled, movies made from comic books are no better or worse than comic books themselves, and I am clear that the time when comic books meant the most to me ended around my tenth birthday.

[oscar jubis]

My point is that this movie is not a "critique of capitalism" but acquiescent to it.

[Chris Knipp]

But not clearly that either. That's the Guardian writer's point.

[oscar jubis]

What is Miller's contribution to the script of this movie? Is the film faithful to his original conception?

[Chris Knipp]

I do not know but Miller seems to be regarded as a guiding influence over the whole trilogy and these ideas seem to be often discussed with reference to him. Your own comments seem to reenforce the sense that he is the guiding force. The fracas at rottentomatoes against reviewers critical of the film seems to reflect a totalitarian trend among fans as well. It seems more interesting that way than from its own vague and trite content.

A possible analogy -- Wagnerian opera?

[Chris Knipp]

New Yorker film critic endangers his life?

Anthony Lane's review of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2012/07/30/120730crci_cinema_lane?currentPage=all)comes out this week and like Rex Reed, Armond White, and a few other brave souls, he has the audacity to say nothing good to say about it. As is to be expected from the dapper, witty Lane, he gets off some good lines.

First on the limitations of the character:
"We see how Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), the compulsive loner and eccentric billionaire, has transformed himself into Batman, the scourge of evil and savior of Gotham City. At last, we are able to grasp what links these two incarnations: each, it turns out, is a pain in the neck. . ."

"]Basic human tasks are beyond his reach; direct Batman to the bathroom, and it would take him twenty minutes of hydraulic shunting simply to unzip. . .Caped or uncaped, the guy is a bore. He should have kids; that would pull him out of himself. Or else he should hang out with Iron Man and get wasted. He should have fun. . ."

His accoutrements:
"This time, he has an addition to his stable: a flying craft, with two enclosed rotors underneath, which allow it to dink around tall buildings and, presumably, to chop vegetables in the event that Alfred wants to make a pot-au-feu. Visually, the new toy is less striking than the Pod, as you can tell from its unambitious name. “I just took to calling it the Bat,” Lucius says. Not so fantastic, Mr. Fox. . ."

His sex life:
". . .over three films, we have waited for him to have Bat-core sex, hanging upside down from a rafter and emitting cries of sonar, and what has he given us? Not a squeak. " A bat squeek, that is.

On the sound:
"'The Dark Knight Rises'. . . is murky, interminable, confused, and dropsical with self-importance. It is also inaudible. Batman speaks in his usual bronchial whisper, and Bane wears a crablike mask over the lower part of his face—a disastrous burden for Tom Hardy, whose mouth, sensual and amused for such a tough customer, is his defining feature.[/quote]

Land has something he likes though: Anne Hathaway's mouth, and she herself. Like me, he thinks her character from a more elegant, lighter film, "Hitchcockian pleasure ground of light fingers and matching repartee." Mr. North -- or Emma Peel, perhaps.

Conclusion:
"Christopher Nolan, for all his visionary flair, wants to suck the comic out of comic books; Anne Hathaway wants to put it back in. Take your pick."

Well, if you put it that way, Mr Lane. . .

[oscar jubis]

Good stuff. Thanks.

[Johann]

How does it bow to capitalism? Can you explain more, Oscar?
Do you mean box office? Or in the story itself?

[oscar jubis]

I am referring to the story. I'm not sure I want to get too detailed here... but it is clear to me that Gotham is governed by a plutocracy and that it is a society where technology has become a fetish, where everything has been turned into a commodity, where giant corporations run the show (sounds familiar?) and need Batman to save them from anarchic, leftist revolutionaries like Bane who is ultimately nothing more than a sick fuck who wants to empty the prisons and stage assaults on institutions like the Stock Exchange and just blow it all up. Something like that, no?

[Johann]

Bravo Oscar. You've got it nailed, and in only 3 sentences.
It is VERY familiar, this scenario, and you are dead-bang on.
But still a thumbs down for you?
Not enough glimmers of hope in it?
Too much noise and not enough oomph?

[oscar jubis]

No, I enjoyed it (with reservations). Most of what makes it fun for me has to do with spectacle and movement but there are also performance bits that are interesting. Film is "working for the clampdown" though, far as I'm concerned.

[Johann]

True. Grand, Grand spectacle here.
Everybody should go home happy with this one, but if you don't, you don't.
It re-works the Christ-myth (something I hadn't considered but it made me think. (by Katherine Monk, a fine film reviewer).
She also said Friedrich Nietzsche is also present, and personal responsibility is huge.
Bane has a voice that out-creeps Darth Vader's. I mean, his voice is Awesome.
His lines are chilling, and Tom Hardy's almost silent film-like performance is excellent- kabuki or some kind of mime- his mask is interesting. Chris Nolan changed it from the comics- a mask that I really dig- but this new one makes sense. Batman's cowl covers his whole cranium, save his jawline. Bane's mask covers only his jawline and face up to the eyes, with straps. His bald scarred head is exposed, -the complete opposite of Batman's. Bane is mysterious, his motives and his backers or source of resources are not apparent.
His theatricality is more direct and refined than Bruce's. (as he was Ronin'd from the League of Shadows- an interesting thing, because that makes Bane a much more formidible foe than the Joker, and that's saying something).

Bane is Pure Anarchy. He does not care. He knows what he will do, and he dramatizes his speech much like Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now. (at least to me anyway).
He breaks Bruce's back & shatters his cowl, and utters the immortal line he said in the Knightfall series:
I Will Break You.
with zero emotion. Like a horror movie.
"The Bat" is a fucking beast, no?
That flying technology marvel- a "modern fetish", as it were- is pretty damn cool. The shots of Batman manouevering that thing- Oh Yeah.-and his revelation to Commissioner Gordon was nicely handled.
And those tanks-turrets- firing away. Loud movie indeed. Gotham is more than under siege. Surround Sound that really works your subwoofer.
Gotham City is being left for dead.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES has bad acting, like all 3 Bat-movies do, as Monte Hellman mentioned on facebook- he's a great man.


But the urgency and sheer cinema overwhelm the viewer. It's almost too much. I can see some people getting a headache from that pulse-pounding score, but this is no Joel Schumacher Batman flick with stupid rubber nipples and neon garishness.
Christian Bale is a mean m*********ing Batman, Yo.
He puts it all on the line, and he's got a sexy intriguing Cat-burglar telling him that he doesn't owe the people anything and that he should take off with her and live the life of Riley.
Plot twists were aplenty, and I was smiling a lot, just grinning, Man. How did he top what was untoppable? Because Chris Nolan is smart, he knows what fans want and he knows what the character needs in order to be done properly, with respect, because even though he's fiction, you have to have much respect for Batman (or pick your Icon out of thousands of pulp fiction/comics heroes). This movie just does not let up from the get-go.
We got a great gift handed to us.
The best "popcorn" movie to date. Certainly of this summer.
Gary Oldman is better than Jack Bauer! riding garbage trucks and shit! Going all-out gangster with the soon-to-be Robin, teaching the whippersnapper a thing or two about policing a city like Gotham. Give Gary an Oscar please? And Michael Caine? They earned it. People say that The Dark Knight Rises will be snubbed at the Oscars. Oh? Too "summer" for the Academy? I hope not.
Excellence in cinema should be rewarded with Oscars. Mr. Nolan, the Esteemed Mr. Christopher Nolan has not won a directing Oscar for Batman. Can someone explain that? He's a Master. Extremely gifted. And a quiet guy, I heard, from an interview with Michael Caine.

Morgan Freeman is Rock Solid, as always. The casts have always been great with these Batmans.
Cilian Murphy returns, *bizarrely* and Matthew Modine is a cop who is so in fear of Bane and what he threatens to do that he hides at home and pretends he has no uniform. Gordon can't believe it.

Joseph-Gordon Leavitt (sp?) is a great actor and he arguably gives the best performance of them all. Everybody's great- everybody has a distinct character, and it all works beacause Nolan knows exactly what he's doing and he's been saving some wonderful cinematic surprises. He did it with The Dark Knight and he's done it again with this. And we're all better for it. Movies like this can save the world, Man.
You can laugh, but I really believe that. This is powerful stuff, even though it is based on "silly Comic books for kids"
Nolan made it dramatic, gave all aspects respect, and never ever lost his mind or went off the rails with the sequels- letting them get away from him. Not only did he surprise the shit out of Batman fans, (Who didn't like the sequences of Bane's origins?- cinematically adapted to the screen with a twist) but he went all Terminator on us with this one. Weapons and technology and WMD's, capitalism- it's stunning because it makes you think about todays' world and "What if some anarchist actually blew up the stock exchange? a football stadium? Bridges? crippling a city and creating mass panic and fear?"

It's heavy.
It's dark, but Batman does indeed Rise.
A Masterpiece of a movie. Thank you to Chris Nolan and every single craftsman who worked on it.
You don't need no stinking Oscars but you should damn well get them.
What a gift to movie fans. This is like Star Wars-level of quality here. I mean it.
Chris Nolan ranks as one of the best film directors to ever yell cut.
A priviledge to see something so Grand and Visually Amazing.

[Johann]

And Chris,

NO! THERE IS NOTHING MARION COTILLARD CAN,T DO.

[Johann]

I've re-watched The Dark Knight trilogy over the holidays, and I thought I'd post about The Dark Knight Rises again.
These films are amazing on Blu-Ray.

Anthony Lane is rather flippant about this movie. I think it helps to be a fan and reader of Batman comics to truly love this movie. Others may be bored or detached from it. I can see that.
For me, I think all three films are masterpieces, and The Dark Knight Rises is a perfect way to wrap up what Nolan started with Batman Begins. The story is about Bruce Wayne, his journey. Bane is a more formidable foe for Batman than The Joker. He is Bruce's equal, as he was also in the League of Shadows. Nolan stayed true to Bane's origins, which is showcased in a one-shot comic from the early 90's called Vengeance of Bane. I was super-stoked when I heard that Bane was gonna be in this. The Joker is obviously the best Batman villain, the "greatest trickster character ever" according to Denny O'Neill, and Heath ledger did a masterful job. But Bane is my 2nd favorite Batman villain, and Tom Hardy played the character Awesome. I thank Chris Nolan for casting him and directing him in that way. It's what makes this film really rock and roll for me.

It is solemn, very solemn indeed. But solemn is fine for a Batman movie. I love how seriously this was taken, the approach Nolan took. It was right, it was Modern. People love to mock comic book movies for being fluff, but people like me want some serious treatments once in a while. The Dark Knight Rises is serious entertainment. Yes, it's violent. But it's engaging as hell to me. It has a Kubrickian feel, which Nolan's latest film (Interstellar) doesn't have, but could use.
I don't want him to "ape" Kubrick- I don't want anybody aping Kubrick. But I'd like to see nods to the Grand Master. I'd like to see techniques that he would appreciate. Chris Nolan can do that no problem and still keep his style, still keep his own stylistic vision. It doesn't have to be blatant, just little nods, like Alex gives with his milk in hand at the Korova.

The Bat (flying vehicle) is maybe not as impressive as the Bat-Pod, but I still like it. It works. It's better than a bat-jet or that thing Michale Keaton flew in Tim Burton's Batman. I like that Robin may get his own movie in the future. I hope Chris Nolan is involved. I'm not against Robin as a character, it's just that he's kind of not needed. Batman is fine on his own. But I will never say "No Robin! Ever!" That's kinda lame. Robin is just as Iconic a character as Batman. There's no question about that. It's just that he's a sidekick, and you'd have to really write something juicy to make it work. But it can be done. The Robin in Joel Schumacher's two bat-flicks was inconsequential. He was just window dressing, and nobody talks about him nowadays. What expensive failures those movies were! They killed Batman as a movie franchise! For almost 8 years! Thanks George Clooney!

But we batman fans were saved by a one Christopher Nolan. He saved us like Batman saves Gotham.

[Chris Knipp]

Of course Anthony Lane is flippant about the movie. And why not?
I think it helps to be a fan and reader of Batman comics to truly love this movie. Others may be bored or detached from it. I can see that.
For me, I think all three films are masterpieces Well, that says it all. You have to be an enthusiast of comic books to love this movie. So you have to have the mind of an 11-year-old. I'm raising by one year the year when I lost interest in comic books. My last ones were Classics Illustrated Comic Books, which are more like illustrated Cliff Notes. The men in tights with capes I'd left earlier. If you see all three films as "masterpieces," there's really no discussion. This becomes just a fan outlet for you.

[tabuno]

Even without really having gotten into Batman Comic books growing up, The Dark Knight Rises really rocks on its own.

[cinemabon]

I wrote a short story about Batman having to go "commando" because underwear pinched him when he wore his suit. He had problems when he ran into Catwoman as his response to her became quite obvious.

Alfred: You don't wear anything under that?

Batman: Alfred! You surprised me. You usually don't watch me change.

Alfred: I'm the only help in this house. I have 64 rooms to clean. I saw enough of you when you were little Bruce. You didn't answer my question.

Batman: They pinch.

Alfred: They?

Batman: Underwear, it binds up underneath when I swinging around town. None of the supers wear underwear - Superman, Spidey, Green Lantern...

Alfred: TMI, Bruce, TMI. (walks away)

[Johann]

Getting back to my fan outlet, there are references to Kubrick in Chris Nolan's Batman movies.
The Spectacle can maybe distract you from noticing. Wayne Manor's exterior is the same as seen in Eyes Wide Shut.(It's burned to the ground at one point).
Rade Sherbegia (Millich in Eyes Wide Shut) is in Batman Begins. The Joker is as depraved as Alex in A Clockwork Orange was, and just as fearlessly evil. The attention to detail that Mr. Nolan has in these films is Kubrick-level. He is a craftsman, like Kubrick was. His last film (Interstellar) disappointed me. But I guess it's like The Beatles- you can't be number 1 all the time. Sooner or later you slip to 2. Even Kubrick had failures. Barry Lyndon was a flop. An expensive one. It got Oscars, yes, but it made no money, and critics ravaged it. Pauline Kael panned another Kubrick movie.

The Dark Knight Rises is my favorite of the three, and I'm amazed it even exists, that the Batman characters are taken seriously, Gotham City is a real place- what phenomenal sets that flick has! Bane is a badass, a psychopathic anarchist mercenary who's hired to do some major damage to Gotham. He's "Gotham's Reckoning". Bruce Wayne comes out of retirement to face Bane and save his city. He dons the Batsuit again and Rises to take down true evil. And he succeeds. This 3-act set is awesome to true Batman fans. Yes there's bad acting (it's supposed to be there, hyper-real verbiage a la comics) and yes there's hokiness to Batman's voice at times. But the sheer cinema is there, hitting you right between the eyes. I never get tired of watching the Blu-Rays. Vision is there, cinema is there, action is there, dramatic characters & situations are there. It's marvelous.

Anne Hathaway is sexy and strong as Catwoman. Her and Batman fight with baddies on a rooftop, and Batman says: No guns. She replies angrily: Where's the fun in that?. Chris Nolan said he wanted to make sequels like the Star Wars sequels, topping what came before but still remaining true to the world you originally created.