So what was your favorite part of The Dark Knight Rises?

@MooseyMcMan said:

@woolyabyss: He didn't. The auto-pilot was fixed in The Bat, and he jumped out as soon as no one was looking. Remember when the bomb scraped up against the ground? I think that's when he switched it to auto-pilot, and the thing took a second to get going.

Actually, there are still shots of him in the Bat after that happens. I watched the movie twice, so the second time I was looking out for exactly when he got out of the Bat and switched to autopilot, but I couldn't figure it out. They keep showing him in the pilot seat, I believe even when he's already over the water. Not sure if that was an oversight or if I'm just missing something.

@FreakAche said:

@MooseyMcMan said:

@woolyabyss: He didn't. The auto-pilot was fixed in The Bat, and he jumped out as soon as no one was looking. Remember when the bomb scraped up against the ground? I think that's when he switched it to auto-pilot, and the thing took a second to get going.

Actually, there are still shots of him in the Bat after that happens. I watched the movie twice, so the second time I was looking out for exactly when he got out of the Bat and switched to autopilot, but I couldn't figure it out. They keep showing him in the pilot seat, I believe even when he's already over the water. Not sure if that was an oversight or if I'm just missing something.

That's just an Airplane! style autopilot with an inflatable Batman!

@Largo6661 said:

The stab right at the end! You know the part :)

Where Talia penetrates Batman? "Hee. Hee. Hoo. Ha. Ha. And I thought my jokes were bad." Wait, what?

Any scene in which Bane is doing his thing and the scene where all the cops charge at Bane's dudes. That part felt appropriately epic.

This is going to sound weird, but I kind of wish it was even longer.

Seeing Bruce's reaction to the special forces hanging from the bridges was pretty great, I thought. It really spelled out how dire the situation was, and the incredibly uncomfortable score that was playing in that scene was just terrific.

Also, Bane's voice. I absolutely loved what Tom Hardy and the sound "guys" did to the voice. It was very unique and courtly, but still very threatening.

@NTM said:

This is going to sound weird, but I kind of wish it was even longer.

me too o___o

This is going to sound weird, but I kind of wish it was even longer.

Damn, my favorite part is definitely when Bane get's his mask broken and goes nuts. Specifically when Batman slips a few of his punches and he buries his fists into that concrete column in a fit of rage. That part was just so well done.

As much as I really enjoyed the fights I also agree with people that complain about Batman not using enough intelligence and strategy in the movie but there probably wasn't a whole lot he could do given the situations.

Edit: Just a thought that sprung into my head and I felt I need to write it down, I was thinking about when batman fought Bane in the tunnel and when everything went dark Bane remarked that the shadows betrayed bruce since he (Bane) was born in them. He then said that the light was nothing to him but blinding I think by the time Bane first saw it?

If I was to pick a potential way for Batman to defeat Bane in Chris Nolan cinematic style, when Bruce was taken to the prison / lazarus pit, it would essentially be way, way darker than in the movie. Throughout the prison bit, Bruce would learn to defend in absolute darkness, relying on his other senses to get by. Then, in a Chris Nolan-esque reveal, Batman's plan all along would be to lure bane into somewhere pitch black, but instead of fighting him in the darkness, he would bring some sort of extremely bright light emitting, noisy gadgets (for spelunking, of course) and have some nice UV filtering lenses built into his cowl, blind bane, then break his mask.

So perhaps my favorite part of the movie is talking about it :)

@boj4ngles said:

I thought the opening plane hi-jack was the best scene. It was a great way to introduce Bane as a criminal mastermind, and was just awesome all around. Really above and beyond your typical scene from an action movie.

Overall though, I have to say that the film was disappointing. I admit I don't know much about batman beyond what I've seen in the movies, but there was a lot that I didn't get. First, why was Bane always wearing a mask? I understand he suffered some injury, but it was never fully explained. They basically said that if he takes off his mask then he dies right? I was expecting them to go into this more because in the opening scene the CIA guy wants to know about his mask. In general, I feel like Bane didn't get as much attention as previous villains like Joker, Scarecrow and Ra's al Ghul. With those guys, we had a really good idea of why they were doing what they did and what their weaknesses were. With Bane, they just kind of off-handedly say at the end that he is working for another evil mastermind, and fail to explain her much at all. I just feel like we didn't get to know the villains this time around, and that had been something the other films did better.

Catwoman. Where to start. Well most of my complaints about Bane translate to Catwoman. Her motives are mysterious or inexplicable. On the one hand they imply that she is being blackmailed, that Bane will kill her buddy and her if she doesn't help. On the other hand she tries to tell Batman that she believes in what she is doing because she resents the corruption and materialism of Gotham's elites. I think it's great for a story to have conflicted characters but they don't show how this conflict plays out. She just bounces around, totally unaccountable. I would have liked to know more about her history, especially how she became a master thief in the first place. Also, her romance with Batman seems to just happen without any explanation. Why exactly does he like her? Why does she like him? They basically just exchange sarcastic one-liners the whole film and then run away together at the end. Without knowing more about Catwoman, this just doesn't make much sense.

I think they should have focused solely on Bane or Catwoman. In addition to the already large cast, the film was trying to introduce four major new characters (Bane, Catwoman, Blake/Robin, and Talia) and it felt like too much. Only Blake got all the time he needed and he was the least interesting of the batch. In The Dark Knight, they only had two new characters, Dent and Joker, and that worked perfectly. Finally, I thought there were too many kids. The film had lots of them all over in scenes that seemed intended to elicit our sympathy for the innocent side of Gotham but I thought those scenes fell flat. The part where the kid dramatically sings the national anthem before the stadium blows up was so cliche it bordered on hilarity.

The action was cool though.

the connection between batman and catwoman is that they kind of think on similar wavelengths. they are both supergeniuses that have huge secrets that they keep at bay from the rest of society and at the same time they can turn the charisma and charm on whenever they need to. they are very similar characters and thats where most of the chemistry comes from

@NTM said:

This is going to sound weird, but I kind of wish it was even longer.

Doesn't sound weird at all. When I saw it with my dad, he was saying it could have used another 45 minutes. I'm not sure about that, but I definitely think it could have used some more time to explain some things a bit better.

@MariachiMacabre said:

@NTM

This is going to sound weird, but I kind of wish it was even longer.

I'd love to see a Directors Cut for the Blu-ray release.

Unfortunately, that's not going to happen. Nolan is notorious for having his script finalized before he pitches his film, which allows him to better dictate budgetary allotments. So what we see is what we have. No deleted scenes.

When the movie ended.

I know, what a dick thing to say. What I mean is with the money going to Alfred, 'Robin' being set up as the next Batman, and the setting up of the Wayne Manor for orphans. Batman will never be given a send off in the comics, and even when they do it's something like being lost in time because of Darkseid, so I think the movie gave him probably the only good send off we will ever see for Batman.

But... wow. What a wasted potential for a movie. It's like a really, really good essay paper with a fundamentally flawed theme. You want to give it good marks, because so much though & effort went into it, but the core idea just doesn't work. Oh, well. Guess Nolan isn't the guy to break the 3rd movie curse. Still a damn good movie, just not as great as it could have been.

@BlindRapture said:

Anytime Bane was on screen. And the misdirection and reveal of Talia, if only because they committed enough to it to fool even someone as well versed in the batman mythos such as myself.

EDIT: I knew it was Talia the very second she slept with Wayne. Anytime a beautiful women is introduced to the hero out of no where, immediately shows signs of falling for the him, and then sleeps with him not long after meeting, it means that she's either going to die or be a villain. Or it's a really poorly written movie, but I had more faith in the Nolan brothers than that.

@GunslingerPanda said:

When Bane was on-screen, and the ending up to "lol he's actually alive guys" which was really "lol get ready for the studio milking the franchise again guys." Before that crap, I was legit getting emo, man. Michael Caine was fucking great.

Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale have both said they're done with the Batman franchise(Nolan actually wanted to end it with TDK but came back one last time). They might be able to do something with Robin but I doubt it.

'Do you feel in charge...'

My favorite line was probably "We both know I have to kill you now. You'll just have to imagine the heat."

I think I got that right...

Dunno, probably the first 3 hours.

@mutantgenius: Yeah. This, probably. Bane was surprisingly terrifying.

As others have said anytime Bane was onscreen and also the scene where catwoman disappears and he says "Now I know how that feels", it made me legit lol.

Also the scene where Bane breaks Batman was amazing was just Batman being hurled about.

Bane and that was all Tom Hardy's doing. Nolan didn't do much with his character, so I'm pretty amazed that Hardy still managed to make him interesting. Loved the voice and that weird accent. In fact, when the movie comes out on bluray I'm gonna rip it and edit out everything but Tom Hardy.

@Svenzon said:

Bane and that was all Tom Hardy's doing. Nolan didn't do much with his character, so I'm pretty amazed that Hardy still managed to make him interesting. Loved the voice and that weird accent. In fact, when the movie comes out on bluray I'm gonna rip it and edit out everything but Tom Hardy.

He sounded like Darryl Hammond doing Sean Connery.

I thought the best part was the evolution of JGLs character from regular cop to become the inheritor of the Batman identity. I REALLY hope they continue the series with him as the lead. Also, The nods to comic fans were pretty great, like the comment about hunting giant crocodiles in the sewers.

There are a few things that I have trouble suspending disbelief on, or just flat out don't understand. First, when Wayne sees the mark on Talia's back, shouldn't he have instantly recognized it as the one given while in the Shadows' ranks? Also, how does Wayne get from the pit all the way back into a nationally locked down Gotham--let alone traveling the distance between the two places? What was Bane's mask actually for? I realize he got punched the the mouth a lot by angry pit men, but why was it needed to keep him alive? I would expect that point to be more well explained, considering Batman uses it to beat him in their final fight. It seems odd to give a character a weakness with no explanation of why he has it (other than "he got punched in the mouth A LOT, you guys), and then to bank so much in the plot on that specific weakness. I felt similarly about the autopilot conceit. It was essentially "too bad there wasn't autopilot as mentioned previously in the movies!" followed by, "there totally was it was patched in 6 months ago," "oh." That just felt weak. And lastly, how lazy was the Robin reveal? So Levitt's character's ACTUAL NAME is Robin? That's like telling me Bruce Wayne's real name is Batman to reveal his identity! C'mon!

I liked the movie overall, but it really has some issues.

Fave parts were Alfred telling Bruce how much he cared about him over and over and Bruce not accepting it. Michael Caine is awesome.

@Trav said:

First, when Wayne sees the mark on Talia's back, shouldn't he have instantly recognized it as the one given while in the Shadows' ranks?

(Didn't even notice this in the movie. Yeah, that's stupid.)

Also, how does Wayne get from the pit all the way back into a nationally locked down Gotham--let alone traveling the distance between the two places?

(No fucking clue. All of his money was gone, he was in a foreign country and he couldn't contact anyone for help.)

What was Bane's mask actually for? I realize he got punched the the mouth a lot by angry pit men, but why was it needed to keep him alive? I would expect that point to be more well explained, considering Batman uses it to beat him in their final fight. It seems odd to give a character a weakness with no explanation of why he has it (other than "he got punched in the mouth A LOT, you guys), and then to bank so much in the plot on that specific weakness.

(Actually, they say the mask dulls his pain, not that it keeps him alive. So the idea was that once the mask was broken he could feel pain again.)

I felt similarly about the autopilot conceit. It was essentially "too bad there wasn't autopilot as mentioned previously in the movies!" followed by, "there totally was it was patched in 6 months ago," "oh." That just felt weak.

(Yep.)

And lastly, how lazy was the Robin reveal? So Levitt's character's ACTUAL NAME is Robin? That's like telling me Bruce Wayne's real name is Batman to reveal his identity! C'mon!

(This was, by far, the dumbest thing about the movie. It was so unnecessary and so tone deaf.)

The first music-less fight between Bane and Batman.

@mtcantor said:

@Trav said:

First, when Wayne sees the mark on Talia's back, shouldn't he have instantly recognized it as the one given while in the Shadows' ranks?

(Didn't even notice this in the movie. Yeah, that's stupid.)

Also, how does Wayne get from the pit all the way back into a nationally locked down Gotham--let alone traveling the distance between the two places?

(No fucking clue. All of his money was gone, he was in a foreign country and he couldn't contact anyone for help.)

What was Bane's mask actually for? I realize he got punched the the mouth a lot by angry pit men, but why was it needed to keep him alive? I would expect that point to be more well explained, considering Batman uses it to beat him in their final fight. It seems odd to give a character a weakness with no explanation of why he has it (other than "he got punched in the mouth A LOT, you guys), and then to bank so much in the plot on that specific weakness.

(Actually, they say the mask dulls his pain, not that it keeps him alive. So the idea was that once the mask was broken he could feel pain again.)

I felt similarly about the autopilot conceit. It was essentially "too bad there wasn't autopilot as mentioned previously in the movies!" followed by, "there totally was it was patched in 6 months ago," "oh." That just felt weak.

(Yep.)

And lastly, how lazy was the Robin reveal? So Levitt's character's ACTUAL NAME is Robin? That's like telling me Bruce Wayne's real name is Batman to reveal his identity! C'mon!

(This was, by far, the dumbest thing about the movie. It was so unnecessary and so tone deaf.)

It makes me feel better knowing I wasn't just a crazy person and my concerns were justified, thanks! I must have missed that about Bane though, that makes his final showdown with Batman much more sensible.

One of the very understated parts IMO was when Bane placed his hand on Daggett's back, in a non threatening way. It was intimidating, but he didn't grab his neck, it was the back of his hand on his shoulder. Very cool moment.

It was great. Perfect end to the trilogy, and the trilogy is a wonderful tribute to Batman as a character. It's the peak of Batman. To me, Batman will never be greater than this trilogy.

If there's ever another Batman movie (probably inevitable), they have a lot to live up to. I'm not sure if I can handle another reboot.

Best moment? So difficult. I liked it all. I had a huge grin on my face throughout the entire movie, basking in its awesomeness.

I have mixed feeling about the movie at this point. I realized at the end that Batman didn't do enough stuff in that film that make Batman excellent . A comment was made earlier about him spending too much time in vehicles, and I agree with that. You know what was great about the climax to TDK? It was a perfect blending of advanced technology, quick thinking on Batman's part, and athletic ability and combat that was more than just a punching fight with one other dude. I feel like the action in both previous movies, but especially TDK was more inventive and fun to watch in more cases than not.

I don't think Talia was great. After the twist she did nothing to earn her status, and pretty much sat there looking scared in quick shots of her during the car chase. Before that, Bane got unceremoniously dumped. Y'know what was great about TDK? The joker was both captivating to watch and dangerous and important to the plot up until after his last scene. Bane was captivating and Talia was dangerous after her last scene, but the two pieces added together just didn't match the the previous films villain and climax.

TDKR uses a lot of time to set up character motivations with exposition and flashbacks that feel like chunks between the stuff that made the main plot speed along. This made the movie longer and more disjointed and resulted in me feeling bored at points. TDK sets up characters and teaches us about their motivations and feelings fluidly along with the plot, making the film feel incredibly tight; filled with information that feels like its never said. This comparison excludes the opening plane scene in TDKR which kicked ass. I feel that overall, however; the non-action sections of both BB and TDK were more interesting to watch than many of the character development sections in TDKR.

I know its probably unfair to compare to compare TDKR to TDK, but since I watched that film the previous night before I saw the new one its impossible not to be disappointed, even with checked expectations going in.

I love Bane, loved Catwoman, and loved Alfred. They were all great characters. I liked Blake, I liked Batman (when he was Batman) and Gordon. I feel like TDKR was a really good movie, I just don't think it succeeded as a Batman movie like the other ones did. BB and TDK both satisfied on so many levels and I TDKR lacked in many areas.

*SPOILER* actually think the talia/ ra's al ghul stuff fit nicely and really tied the trilogy together [/thedude]

bane had some neat moments and i kinda liked his accent (though mixed way too loudly), and maybe it was kind of a nifty twist that you thought he was the main villain/mastermind and got shoved aside so easily, but actually that made me want a bigger focus on talia all the much more (also wouldn't hurt to see marion contillard on screen more, giggity)

none of the action scenes impressed me the way the tumbler chase and the truck chase did in BB and TDK. i did like the first fight with bane, but the first Bat chase, and the climatic scenes at the end just felt kinde limp, tepid, and rote.

Anne Hathaway did a much better Catwoman than we deserved, considering how much people doubted her.

when alfred was crying it kinda felt a bit forced and cheesy, and i was kinda squirming in my seat during it.

i will conclude by saying these and all my other opinions are really subject to change, as a three hour movie is a shitload to take in especially watching it from 10:45PM to 2 AM in a stuffy theater. i'll be trying to catch it again soon (hopefully on imax this time!)

I just saw it today. Agree with most of the complaints. It was okay. I still enjoy Batman Begins the most, personally. Felt Batman, himself, was the best part of that movie while The Dark Knight was more about the Joker and Rises he kind of just irritated me.

For instance... one point that I haven't seen mentioned... how many f*cking chances is he gonna give Catwoman? Steals from him, feeds him to Bane which causes him to get his back broken and imprisoned. Yet he still wants to team up with her. I get he has a soft spot for her from what I know about the characters but it was rather silly to me. He just keeps giving her chances because he "sees more in her." Just forget about the part where she nearly got him killed and did nothing to help.

one single shot- bane breaking the bat. fuckin straight from the images in the comics, i was so happy they included that shot

Loved Caine in the film. Went to the film with my brother and a lot of his friends, and afterwards we told anybody who would listen that Alfred went to our old school. 

I really enjoyed all the action scenes, specifically the finale/break the Bat scenes.

Bane, everthing about him was awesome specially when he's adressing other people, the way he talks and stands there holding his coat and he is just so calm when he talks but yet so final(?) I don't know how to put it but when he said something it felt really convincing even though his methods were harsh and "evil" the speach he gives when he takes over the city is so great I really liked him in the probably my favorite character in the movie. His resolution wasn't as great kinda abrupt but I think it wouldn't have fitted to have him survive or just let Batman having the last word after all he wasn't going to kill him and who other character could put an end to him that was believable in that situation? I think none so it was better that way... also that battle chant.. Basara! (Basara) Deshi! (Deshi) Basara! (Basara) .... turn that to 11 and you have the best epic movie chant ever.

@Tim_the_Corsair said:

I loved the charge of the cop brigade. Nonsensical when looked at logically? Certainly. But, honestly, if that sort of thing were to ever happen in real life (super villain and his criminal army conquering Sydney is admittedly unlikely), I could see my dad and the cops of his era donning his old uniform and standing up even knowing the result was probably not going to positive... ...of course, they probably would have taken cover and shot at the enemy, but hey, movies. Still an awesome scene that gave the "normals" a moment of insane bravery contrasted against all the costumed larger than life characters.

I just can't believe the movie hasn't gotten a ton of flak for that part. It's just so fucking stupid. Walking in ranks like it's some medieval battle against people with assault rifles. That fight would be over in less than a minute. And then it all ends up in a massive fist-fighting brawl somehow, performed by a bunch of terrible extras doing horrible job. Nah, that was the bottom-point of the movie if you ask me.

Anyways, the best part of the movie if you ask me was Banes "presence". The character wasn't developed well or anything, but every time he was on screen great things were happening (which I wasn't expecting at all). Other than that there wasn't much to brag about. As others have said, too many characters.

No idea if it's been mentioned yet or not:

Perhaps because of my attachment to the character, my favorite part was when Blake goes to rescue Gordon, yet Gordon had already totally fucked up Bane's hitmen.

I was concerned that the way Gordon had been handled throughout the movie was leading up to his death, and the way they showed that scene made it appear that he had bit the bullet, so I got so excited to see he lived that I signed to my wife "FUCK YES".

Edit: Also, my favorite (hated? not sure how to word it) parts was the Alfred/Bruce fight and Alfred at the wayne burial. I had come to love Michael Caine's Alfred's stoic belief in Bruce, and continual fatherly love for him. To see him Break down and cry tore me up inside a bit.

My favorite part was Bane.

A few scenes in particular:

- The first scene with Bane on a plane. It was just a great sequence. Especially seeing it in full 70mm IMAX.

- The first fight with Batman. They did a great job showing Batman being out of his league. He was fighting sloppily and letting Bane get into his head. He was broken both physically and mentally even before the fight started. Bane was in full on beast mode and downright disturbing. I loved the little growls and snarls they mixed in with his voice modulation as he fought and spoke too like when he said, "I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding!"

- Bane's speech exposing the truth about Dent. I loved the way he played it up with his delivery, eyes, and body language. There was more crazed intensity in that performance than a lot of people could muster even without 2/3 of their face covered.

Hathaway's Catwoman was pretty good as well. I'll admit I really wasn't expecting much from her performance, but she was fine. Also, she was fine. She definitely could have used more development, but I suppose there was no time to get too much into her story.

The first time I saw the movie I didn't like the sort of unceremonious end of Bane, but the second time around it didn't seem as bad. They did a decent job tying up his story just before the end. And he was about to straight up blow Batman's face clean off with a sawed-off shotgun. Not a whole lot of time there for anything but one shot from the Batpod with Catwoman's foreshadowed return to Batman's side.

I didn't like what they did with Talia at all. Her introduction, backstory, and motivation were all extremely lacking for what was such an important character in Bruce's life. Also, her death scene got giggles both times I saw the movie. It was just ridiculous. Speaking of ridiculous, I always found Bale's Batman voice ridiculous too, but I suppose no more ridiculous than a dude that dresses like a bat. It goes along with the League of Shadows' theatricality thing.

All told, I thought it was great. I liked TDK more, but this was a decent end to the trilogy.

@uniform said:

Hines Ward running on a collapsing field Those dudes hanging from the bridge cables Batman moving towards camera with flashes, like a horror movie

Those are really odd choices.

I saw it yesterday and, tbh, thought it's a terrible movie. The two thinks I did like were the plot twist in the end (bringing Talia in was kinda clever) and the way they handled Catwomans "costume", using those goggles as her cat-ears/mask was a good idea.

I really liked Joseph Gordon Levitt's mask your anger speech and Alfred's trying to turn Bruce Wayne against Batman bit.. They are two of the most heartfelt bits, and both Actors nailed them..

Definitely loved when Batman first returned. The first fight with Bane was outstanding. Loved that Crane was the judge at those sentencings. The giant flaming bat on the bridge was awesome.

Thought the movie was great myself, I don't really understand the sudden Christopher Nolan backlash, it's like a bunch of people suffering from Tall Poppy syndrome decided that it was about time Nolan made a misstep. I don't think he did.

I rather enjoyed it, it seemed more focused on Bruce Wayne learning to move on, along with Batman being a symbol/legacy to inspire other people to rise up and make a stand. Rather than just a movie of Batman punching villains, etc. I also found the whole Bruce Wayne health problems thing interesting, because anyone living that sort of life would indeed likely completely ruin their body. Scene with the doctor was both informative for the damage, and delivered in a kind of amusing way.

Maybe people just went in expecting more batman and action *shrugs*. Personally I liked the focus moving more towards other people and Bruce Wayne himself, rather than his Batman persona.

The part where you realized that Bane was the protector, and the moment where you saw him soften with that single tear. heart breaking stuff.

Oh man, I just remembered that Talia death scene. It was such a downer. It felt so out of place. How could they let that get into the final cut? Geez.

Everything else was awesome. Can't wait to see it on blu ray.

Best interpretation of Catwoman for a film. I liked what he did with Banes voice too. Overrall I thought the movie was good but certainly not perfect.

@nywt said:

My favourite part was when Batman was screaming "where is the detonator" at Bane. Christian Bale did it with the same delivery as "where are the other drugs going" from Batman Begins and "where are they" from The Dark Knight. Every time I hear one of those quotes, I can't help but laugh because Bale's Batman voice is so over the top. Other than that, I really did not like the film.

That is absolutely my favorite part of the movie as well. So fucking hilarious!