The Dark Knight Rises

[ericadawn16]

The first time I saw The Dark Knight Rises, I wasn't in a good place mentally. I'd spent all morning waiting with a coworker for any news of her family in Aurora. Luckily, they had been too poor to go. Still, it cast a shadow over all of it. Whenever there was shooting, I couldn't help wondering...was it this scene? Was this when they lost their lives?

The second time, I was able to put more distance between them and enjoyed it enough to convince my mom to go again. These are my mixed up thoughts from all three viewings.

The Dark Knight Rises

Even before the shooting, I wasn't exactly looking forward to this film because it looked to be more of the same as The Dark Knight and I didn't enjoy that for film for reasons that I won't repeat but can be found here:
http://ericadawn16.livejournal.com/50111.html

I like the new DC logo, still not as cool as Marvel but getting there...

One of the things that annoyed me so much about The Dark Knight Rises was the portrayal of law enforcement officials. They all seem to be corrupted and/or incompetent like the CIA guy who doesn't realize until it's too late that he has Bane in custody. I just picture Coulson watching it and clucking his tongue at how stupid they are. He'd wipe the floor with them.

Ooh, is that Burn Gorman? Oh, that's right, I did see that he was cast but knowing my luck, his part probably all got cut and he won't even get to say anything...

Oh Selina, I've known you for less than ten minutes but love you already...

Wait a minute, they seriously didn't see a correlation between Bruce becoming a hermit and Batman disappearing?? Oh, look there's Superman! Oops, my bad, that man's wearing glasses! Idiots

After knowing Blake for two scenes, I wanted him to be Robin so freaking hard.

Did you notice that Gotham's football team has Hufflepuff colors? I thought it was pretty cool. I can never find Hufflepuff stuff anywhere. I also wondered if they picked a kid that resembled Christian Bale at that age to sing the National Anthem on purpose. His voice was also very much like Christian Bale in Empire of the Sun. If you've never seen that film, SEE IT! I own it.

The thing about Bane that makes him so dangerous and so compelling is that he has many of the same reasoning and aims as Loki BUT unlike Loki, he has conviction, a LOT of conviction so he's incredibly successful. A lot of people interpreted this film as being against Occupy Wallstreet, Arab Spring and liberal aims, the ying to The Avengers' yang. I think it could go either way. After all, in order to achieve better personal happiness and fulfillment, one character pretends to die; leaving behind the money that had not brought him any happiness while another casts off his government role to be an individual. The rich in this film quickly find out that they cannot control their destiny any more than the poor. People can read what they want into the film and while that worked for some people, some wanted either more concrete answers or those more to their liking.

Trader #1: This is a stock exchange. There's no money for you to steal!
Bane: Really? Then why are you people here?

Anna Hathaway is definitely my favorite Selina now. She has a great mix of mental intelligence, street smarts and ass-kicking. I couldn't help comparing her a lot to Natasha but in a good way. I know most hold Michelle Pfeiffer as their favorite Catwoman but I found her portrayal kind of meh. It was a little too cheesy and she had no chemistry with Michael Keaton. Whereas I felt Anna Hathaway had a lot of chemistry with Christian Bale. I wanted them together and I'd never actually shipped Catwoman/Batman before. I really hope that Natasha and Selina are simply the start of more awesome roles for woman in comic book films...*hint, hint* Princess Diana, Wanda Maximoff, Carol Danvers, etc

Stryver: Do those heels make it hard to walk?
[Catwoman kicks Stryver from behind]
Catwoman: I don't know, do they?

I LOVED that part.

This is the first, and probably only, time that I didn't mind a Burn Gorman character dying. However, I was very happy to see him in multiple scenes although I don't like his American accent that much.

So, she IS Talia! I knew it; not from actual spoilers but she just seemed like that perfect Talia. There are those who like to believe she didn't really die and was pregnant with Bruce's child. On further viewings, her clothes aren't exactly clingy then and we don't know the timeframe. Actually, we don't know the timeframe for like...any of it? Just about?
I Think this was more a of a pet peeve than the law enforcement portrayal. Suddenly, they would be like...Oh yeah, this is six weeks later...we didn't tell you that? Oops. I like having a firm foundation of when events are taking place. Heck, some titles, X-Files/Fringe-style would have been nice...We were told places when it was absolutely necessary...

I'm beginning to think I'm hopeless. By the end, when it became so evident that Bane loved Talia so much and she viewed him more as a tool in her plan...I really felt sorry for him especially when she told him to stay.

Moral Number One of this past summer:
It's a woman's job to come at the last moment and save your ass from the big bad, like Loki's portal or Bane himself.

Moral Number Two of this past summer:
We can't have clean energy because some bad person will come along and mess it up for us.

No, Bruce! No! You don't have a Hulk to save you from the nuclear explosion!

Yay, he IS Robin! I think it would have been even cooler though if his character had been in the first film. I'm not sure how old he would have been.

I had to look up the Charles Dickens piece. i knew it was a book I should know but not which one. I assumed that Gordon knew Bruce was Batman long before know but it was a nice moment when he did realize it and they had the flashback.

Oh gosh, Michael Caine...you made me cry, dammit!
As well as giving me the weird desire to watch Goldmember again...

Yay, Bruce is alive and well and with Selina although I looked on my third viewing and couldn't tell that she was wearing the pearls although I believe the book says she is. The first two times I saw it, I was convinced that this was just a side-trip and he could return as Batman with Robin at his side. The third time, I realized it really was how Alfred had wanted. They were going their separate ways. There was something incredibly sad and powerful about that. It fit. I loved the ending...although an additional credits scene would have been nice...I'm sorry but Joss Whedon has spoiled us all forever.

I know it sounds as though I didn't like it. This isn't true. I loved it. It wasn't the best movie of the year and it had a lot of problems but I feel the awesomeness wins out. Also, it had a lot of humor and that goes a long way with me. The second one wasn't nearly this funny. It felt more like the first one which I also love a lot.

Comments

[jedi-harkness.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on most everything here, and I LOVED the ending. I gotta say though, I hate the thought that Nolan won't be doing any more. I'm hoping another filmmaker will pick up the franchise with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, because I was left wanting to see him kick ass as Batman! ;D

[annissamazing]

I read only the first part of this and skipped the rest because I realized I misunderstood the title and I haven't seen "The Dark Knight Rises" yet. The reason I'm commenting, though, is because I have a similar association with "Batman Begins" and every time I see it, I remember the worry and heartache I was going through when I first saw it. I went to see it because I'd just gotten bad news about my pregnancy. I was supposed to go to work after my appointment, but I was such a mess that I called off. Then I went home and all the shows on t.v. were sad or horrifying, so I turned that off and picked up the newspaper. Bad idea. I needed to get out of the house, so I went to the movies. I ended up sitting in front of a man who talked through the whole damn thing, but instead of being irritated, I was actually relieved to hear him talk because he was making fun of it and I needed to laugh. I kind of wish I'd thought to thank him at the time, but he probably would have thought I was weird.

[filmnoir6.livejournal.com]

I liked DKR and all that went on with the story but I thought it was a little long that's all. Maybe Nolan was shooting for Oscar notice? I'm sure the film get some--and win some too, especially with the effects and sound--but I doubt if it'll get Best Picture.