I see this thread is still the same.
Had my first viewing of this at home the other day. I think it may be my favourite of the three at the minute.
The bloody god damn music. It's unreal. When those drums kick in and Alfred sees Bruce in the cafe, just pure class.
Great video, better than the Avengers and Spider-Man ones (the I'd argue that there's even more wrong with it than those, way more than 73 and not all plot points). That fire/gasoline batsignal is pretty stupid the more I think abuot it.
I know what they're trying to convey there, "da fire rizes" (oooh movie tagline), "Batman has returned", but it is corny as ****. Crazy how he does that, saves Gordon AND saves Blake in mere minutes but couldn't save Rachel and Dent.
It was pure awesomeness. 
I can't comprehend any Batman fan expending one iota of time complaining about, or overanalyzing, that.
Oh yeah definitely. When I used to have sex with my ex I always would put the Dark Knight and Batman Begins soundtracks on a loop. Totally would get me in the mood.
) It’s most noticeable in his conversation with Catwoman on the roof. I forgot to listen for that problem in TDK, but I have a feeling it’s just always been the nature of the suit. Weird that they couldn’t just give him some better breathing holes. Spoiler:
I recently watched the entire trilogy in two days. Batman Begins (BEGINS) on the first day, and The Dark Knight (TDK) and The Dark Knight Rises (RISES) the next day. Also, I have since watched RISES again for our annual movie party. Below are my thoughts. These are mostly about RISES, but they also touch on the entire trilogy.
- All 3 films have the characters making assumptions that require the audience to suspend disbelief to some extent.
- BEGINS: Ra's assumes Bruce Wayne is Batman (easily the most believable assumption).
- TDK: Joker intuits that Batman loves Rachel because of how he ‘threw himself at her’. He is so sure of this that he builds his entire plan on it, yet he never thinks to look up Rachel’s past? Surly it wouldn’t be too difficult to narrow down Batman’s true identity.
- RISES: Black uses his “orphan powers”/early detection skills to discern Batman’s true identity. Is this sillier than the 2 examples above? Probably, but we suspend disbelief in service of the story.
- I asked my wife if she thought RISES diminishes the ending of TDK at all. She said, ‘the trilogy is a journey, not a fairy tail with one moral’. I couldn’t have said it any better than that. Although I can’t help but feel empowered by Gordon’s “watchful protector” speech at the end of TDK, it has a certain poignancy now. Although sacrificing the truth can serve a purpose for a while, it is not without consequences.
- On the subject of Escalation: The ending of BEGINS has given many the impression that Nolan’s Batman was always going to be fighting Joker-like nutcases, but I just see Gordon’s line as a way to introduce the slightly improbable character of the Joker while simultaneously building fan excitement for the next movie.
- Watching the three together definitely gives the impression that Bruce Wayne always meant to put down the cape and cowl when the under-world of Gotham was cleared out. His hope was always to have a normal life. Of course there is more to his motivations than that, and walking away from the Bat after the Dent act makes him miserable. Rachel’s comment about the true mask being Bruce Wayne is true. The billionaire playboy is just an act. The only thing that is real about him as an adult is Batman. However, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a real Bruce Wayne deep down that can be saved. That Bruce Wayne fell into darkness when his parents died. Batman is a crutch until he truly learns the meaning of “why do we fall?”
- Heath Ledger deserver the Academy Award for best supporting actor, living or dead.
- After multiple viewings, I don’t see how anyone could think that Bane was only Talia’s thug. Do you really think Talia orchestrated the plane attach at the beginning? Or the hit on the stock exchange? Bane is clearly a tactical mastermind. Both Bane and Talia are thoroughly indoctrinated by the League of Shadows and they saw what they were doing as fulfilling Ra's Al Ghul's destiny.
- Although I went into my 3rd viewing of RISES with an open mind with regard to Bane having impure motives in protecting the young Talia, I just didn’t see it all. Bane saw the innocence of the child as their redemption and something to be valued and protected. Only the most cynical would interpret that as him being a pedophile. His feelings for her were like those a father has for a daughter, of a brother has for a younger sister. If the feelings ever grew into more than that, she was much older (perhaps during the time that they were both pupils of the League of Shadows). I actually feel real pity for Bane when I watch RISES now.
- On a related note, it’s interesting that each time I watch RISES different things stand out as being particularly moving. The first time it was Bruce Wayne’s climb from the pit. The second time it was Alfred’s tears at the grave. The third time it was the ending as it relates to the reveal that Bruce is alive. The 4th time I was most moved by all the flash-backs showing Talia’s protector, along with Bane’s tears. In my opinion, if a film can stand up to repeated viewings in this particular way, it means both the characters arcs, and performances are excellent.
- While Bane is fighting Batman the first time, he mentions that he didn’t see the light until he was already a man. It should have been obvious that he was not the child that climbed out of the pit, but those are the kind of details that you miss on a first viewing.
- Watching TDK again, I definitely got the impression that only about a year (or less) passed since the end of BEGINS. However, during Bruce Wayne’s hallucination in the pit “Ras” says something about how Bruce spent “years” trying to save Gotham with ‘all his resources, all his strength’. Not sure what to make of that. I guess even if he was only regularly putting on the cape and cowl for a couple years, he was still Gotham’s Dark Knight for much longer, including the 7-year training period. And (as I said earlier in this thread) even during the 8-year gap he was still a legend in the minds of the people of Gotham.
- On a 3rd and 4th viewing of RISES, I gave serious consideration to the impression I get from Batman in the suit.
- Because I was looking for it did sound like he was suffering with a plugged nose in a couple scenes (thanks to DiFabio for drawing attention to that.
- Although its cool to see all his new toys, Batman does look off his game in the movie’s first act, which I noticed the first time I saw it. But this is intentional. I like what Alfred says about him giving the police a ‘merry chase with a lot of Fox’s new toys.’ Same with the first fight with Bane. Batman looks out of his element as he should. In the third act he looks awesome IMO.
- The second fight with Bane is the first time we’ve seen Batman in full daylight, so he doesn’t give off the same dark predatory feel we are used to seeing, but that feels right to me given the themes of the film along with the knowledge that dark is no advantage when fighting Bane. Some might just prefer to see Batman in the dark. I like both and if I want to see that I can pop BEGINS in any time I want.
- It is very apparent that Batman dislodges a hose on Banes mask only by using on of his gauntlets. First he tries direct punches, then his elbow, and he finally uses a backhanded swipe to hook the hose with a gauntlet blade. He only gets that one hose. If he had not caught it Bane would have beaten him again. As it should be, Bane is Batman’s physical superior.
- I never realized until a 4th viewing that Bruce found Selina by means of the trackable pearls. I’m sure that means I’m daft, but it was cool realization for me. This is another example of something referenced earlier in the film disproving the theory that Nolan changed the ending to have Bruce live.
- Which of the three is my favorite? I see it this way: BEGINS feels the most faithful to the source material, and as such I might call it the best comic book movie ever made. TDK is probably the best film of the three on it’s own merits. Heath Ledger’s performance is pure bliss to watch, and the script is nice and tight. But RISES is still my personal favorite. The other two just cannot compare when it comes to emotional impact, and for me that’s what makes a film a personal favorite.
Nice read, but if you're trying to convince people like Difab and Nam to like this movie, just forget it. Nam was trashing the acting in TDKR in a Resident Evil Retribution thread for christ sake
