The Dark Knight Rises How does TDKR make you feel? How do you feel about TDKR? Hate it?

[milost]

There's a lot of talk in here about "majorities" and "minorities" whenever the quality (or lack thereof) of this movie is brought up. It makes people like me, people that have a contempt for it, feel like our opinion and criticisms for TDKR are invalid. It's right up there with the whole "Dark Knight 2.0" argument that all of us that were disappointed with TDKR expected another Dark Knight. It doesn't seem very fair.

So I'm curious to see how this board feels. I mean, I know individual posters feel for the most part, but I want to see if a poll brings people in. It usually seems split right down the middle with two sides arguing until they're blue in the face.

To those that don't usually contribute in here, how do you feel? Did TDKR disappoint you? Do you dislike it? Hate it? Do you love it and think it's the best Batman movie yet? Did you enjoy it? Think it's better than Dark Knight? Think it's overrated/over blown. How do you feel?




Me? I wish TDKR never came to me. I wish TDKR never existed. I wish none of this had ever happened.

If it couldn't have been improved, I would have preferred if the series ended with, what I feel is the superior film, The Dark Knight. End with Batman driving off into the night like a Western hero of old.

 

[The Joker]

I voted dislike it, could have been better because it's the only option that comes close to my opinion of it.

 

[Senator Pleasury]

None of the choices for me.

I liked TDKR, but it had some serious problems. The outcome of Gordon and Batman's covering proposed in TDK went nowhere, the Talia revealing was pointless, trying to make John Blake Robin was hilarious (for all the wrong reasons) and Batman's fake death and Bruce's new life was everything that Batman should never be.

But I don't remember a better 3rd movie in a superhero franchise.

Overall, it was a 3.5/5 for me. Which is the same I rate Batman Begins for different reasons.

 

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Every movie "could have been better" and no movie has "no problems." I love it and it's a great movie, but I think TDK is better so I don't think TDKR is the "best Batman movie yet." Another poll with pointlessly specific choices.

 

[BatLobster]

Yeah, the choices are too extreme. You're missing a huge chunk of people who really love (not like) the movie even if they think TDK (or BB or both) is the better film. That said, I voted Option 1 for the sake of balance and because it's the closest to my feelings. Option 2 sounded too ho-hum for me, like "Yeah it was fine, moving on now."

As for how it makes me feel? It makes me feel thrilled, entertained, awestruck, pumped up, challenged, scared, inspired, and ultimately gives me this amazing cathartic, fulfilled feeling at the end. Basically a complete roller coaster of emotions where I really feel like I've went on a truly epic journey with the character of Bruce Wayne.

I think the film went some daring, ballsy places, took a lot of risks and really just went for broke. Visually, it's easily my favorite of the trilogy. It's not a perfect film, nor are any of the films. TDK is more concise and taught, but it should be- it's more of a thriller. As an epic, TDKR doesn't feel as tightly bound as its predecessor, but it does feel more sprawling, more vast and more full of possibility. There's a tradeoff there.

So, I don't think it's the best Batman movie yet, to me that title still goes to TDK and probably will for a long time. That movie just has a singularity about it that makes it stand out from the pack, it's really just a perfect storm that's kind of hard to put into words. But The Dark Knight Rises is really just about as good of a conclusion as I could've hoped for, especially considering Heath's Joker couldn't return. It did a lot of the things that I was hoping it would do, but did so in ways that were surprising and refreshing. I consider it a great film by any measure.

Also, a year and a half later, the film makes me feel other things too that have nothing to do with the actual movie. It makes me feel nostalgic for the 2008-2012 buildup. The anticipation, the speculation, the excitement that a third film was even going to happen. Those were good times. Going to Pittsburgh and being a part of the Heinz Field scene was an unforgettable experience. Then getting to see some of the NYC stuff including the final battle in person. I cherished every second of it. As much as I felt attached to the franchise in the BB/TDK days, I really felt a personal attachment to this one since they moved a lot of the production to the east coast where I was able to experience it first hand. I even tried really hard to get a job on the film as a PA but it didn't pan out.

I still listen to the score on a regular basis. That might even be my favorite part of the film, I'm not sure I'd love this film as much as I do if not for Zimmer's incredibly powerful score, which is a character in the movie all its own.

The debates and divisiveness have tainted the film just a bit for me, because now I can't help but associate it with these super heated, hair-splitting debates, but the film triumphs even that for me when it comes right down to it. I still am hoping that one day they'll run a trilogy marathon in IMAX again. The thought of never getting to see TDK or TDKR in IMAX again is a major bummer.

 

[JackWhite]

I went with the second option, even though I do have problems with it.

I still love everything up until Bane's takeover of Gotham coming to fruition, besides a few odd things here and there. The second act is where it loses steam for me. Then everything picks up when Bruce finally gets out of the pit. But then I feel that while the third act is very exhilarating, that it could have been so much more had Nolan not trimmed off so much. But it's the same things I have mentioned before anyway.

I'd love to see it again in IMAX, hell I'd love to see TDK in IMAX too.

 

[DACrowe]

I loved it...but it's not the best Batman movie yet. TDK is much, much better.

Also, I love how the title of this thread includes the word "hate." Not leading at all, I am sure.

 

[BatmanBeyond]

There's a lot of talk in here about "majorities" and "minorities" whenever the quality (or lack thereof) of this movie is brought up. It makes people like me, people that have a contempt for it, feel like our opinion and criticisms for TDKR are invalid. It's right up there with the whole "Dark Knight 2.0" argument that all of us that were disappointed with TDKR expected another Dark Knight. It doesn't seem very fair.

See, I think you misunderstand that argument. I can only speak for myself, but when I say things like "people were disappointed by TDKR because of TDK" or something along those lines, I'm referring to the fact that TDK created some sky-high expectations for the sequel and TDKR was always bound not to live up to those expectations, whatever type of movie it may have been. Those expectations, in turn, have at least some part to play in why people were disappointed or outright hated TDKR. Simple as that. Besides, let's face it - at the end of the day, could Nolan really have surpassed TDK? (which btw, would probably be a more interesting topic than yet another take on the endless TDKR opinion merry-go-round )

 

[shauner111]

It all comes down to TDK. The expectations, how people interpreted the ending, and if they were willing to accept something different to what was in their mind originally or not. We all had 4 years to come up with our own story for a sequel. Our own ending to this universe once the premise was announced in late-2010ish. Whether we wanted things to return to Batman Begins or leave it alone alltogether. If we wanted Batman to be active for 8 years or not. If we wanted the movie to pick up a year later or not. If we wanted Bruce to live, die, pass the torch.

That's alot to take in.

All we had going into TDK was a movie with the Joker. We wanted a good Joker and a good movie. Some people didn't see Batman Begins. Some thought it was fantastic, some thought it was just OK. It seemed like the expectations were just too high after Dark Knight.

So ill say this..

It's not Nolan's fault. And it's not the fault of TDKR. Dark Knight was just too damn good and even if the ending wasn't the conclusion to the story...people would have been nitpicking the choice of Hugo Strange, no Joker, no Riddler, the fact that Nolan wasn't directing Bale again, etc etc.

The fans were always going to be split. But in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter. Because Batman is the new Bond franchise in a sense. It will go on for 50 plus years and Warner Brothers will happily rub it in everyones face that they can continue making Batman movies for eternity. If a section of the fanbase hates a movie, they can easily wait for the next which may suit their geeky needs.

People can always ignore Rises too. Act like Begins/Knight were it. I dont even think it would be a contradiction if the hating fans pretended that Dark Knight was the prequel to this Man Of Steel/BvS universe. Just set 10 years after the events of TDK. I mean, what contradicts that? The only thing would be if they literally show Harvey/Two-Face alive in the next Affleck movie.

 

[BatLobster]

Nice post shauner, well said. And dude! That's a great point about how you could probably even pretend Affleck Batman is a continuation of post-TDK Batman if they keep his history vague. If they end up doing prequels with Affleck and reinventing the whole rogues gallery then that would shoot it down, but as of now it might as well be an alternate post-TDK timeline, since a lot of people felt that ending set up the longterm future of the franchise.

What amuses me though is that I've lost count of all the polls that have been made on here that have attempted to ascertain what the board thinks of TDKR.

But you're never gonna get a big enough sample size here to come up with any sort of reliable results. As you often say milost, this section is more or less dead minus the usual suspects and a few random noobs here and there, and I don't think this poll is going to attract a significant influx of posters. The results of this poll aren't going to prove anything. On top of that, SHH! is only one community, and every web community is different.

However, I do enjoy the idea of a thread to talk about the movie on more of a gut-level rather than the same ol', so for that I appreciate this thread.

 

[shauner111]

For sure dude. I dont want to derail this thread but i really think it can be pulled off. It's all about how vague they make it. Im sure Joker will be locked in Arkham when we see Gotham. They'll probably act like Batman has had run-ins with him over the years and keeps throwing him back in. They just need to stay away from Two-Face. The last 10 years since TDK could be like a greatest hits thing, where he's taken in Dick Grayson, made him Robin then he grew out of it. Lucius is out of the picture, Bruce has redone the batmobile and batcave. He's met different versions of Catwoman, Riddler, Penguin, other rogues. Boom, Man Of Steel happens. It's like you had 2 directions to go in after TDK, Nolan's way and Snyder's way (the more classic comic way).

 

[BatLobster]

I'm definitely curious to see how they handle all that. It'd be really ironic if after all this, Snyder's version is more of a soft reboot loosely based off of Nolan's universe ala Superman Returns (which also kept the first two films in a vague continuity and disregarded the rest). I wonder if that's what Affleck means when he says "it's in keeping with what Nolan did but still a part of the Batman canon" or whatever it was he said. Or, maybe not, maybe it'll be more of hard reboot.

Interesting times ahead indeed. I'm just kicking back and not sweating over it too much since I'll always have my DK Trilogy. I feel like I have much less to lose as a fan now than I did back in 2005.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

I still love The Dark Knight Rises. You can point out the flaws till the cows come home, but frankly, I don't care. To me, it's still a kick ass movie and a worthy end to the trilogy; a great ending for Bruce Wayne, a powerful villain in Bane, and ****ing Robin out of nowhere. It's not as good as the predecessor, but it's a helluva lot better than most movies that aren't so hotly debated.

 

[Shikamaru]

Assuming the announcements of Batfleck being a crazy right wing extremist with surveillance drones and estranged to Robin are true, I don't see how it could be a soft reboot of BB/TDK. But even then, I don't like the direction that whole universe is going in.

As for how TDKR makes me feel, I think it is one of the biggest wastes of potential in all of comic book film history. I think that's what makes the film more disappointing for some people than some of the really bad stinkers out there.

But yeah, that's how it makes me feel. I pass the pillow to milost.

 

[kvz5]

Frustrated. There's a masterpiece in there somewhere that could've been better than both BB and TDK combined but it just never came out so I'm left absolutely loving some parts/characters and disliking (or even hating) the rest.

Also, emotional. Because this was the final installment of the Nolanverse and I was very attached to this one.

 

[BatLobster]

I've already made a lengthy post, but if I were to more succinctly express my feelings about the movie, it would be with this one shot:

It's funny, I've actually seen chalk graffiti of that version of the symbol a few times in real life since the movie came out. But to me, that's what it all comes down to, the power of that symbol and it's ability to transcend. In the movie the symbol transcended being just one man, and similarly this trilogy transcended being "just" a set of movies to me (and a lot of other people too who aren't even hardcore Batman fans). The same way Batman transcends being "just" a comic book character to all of us.

This film more than any of them really felt like it was specifically honoring the power and enduring nature of that symbol. And that really struck a chord with me.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I voted love it because it best reflects how I feel about the film. It is not the best Batman film, but it is the second best and the second best comic book film ever.

I won't even go so far as DACrowe and say TDK is much, much better. TDK is better, but it doesn't stand on the mountain by itself the way Spider-Man 2 does in that trilogy. TDKR is worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as TDK, kind of like Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back (although I would say that both of those are better than the Batman films).

This is the only third film in a superhero franchise that I was truly satisfied with, and The Dark Knight Trilogy is one of the few trilogies without an installment that I would consider weak. The Dollars Trilogy, The Original Star Wars Trilogy, The Indiana Jones Trilogy (yes, I really like Temple of Doom), The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and the Back to the Future Trilogy being the others.

 

[Tequilla]

You feel your opinion is invalid ? In superherohype tdkr boards ?......What ?

 

[OutOfBoose]

I voted "hate it". I initially liked it, because the hype was so strong. I didn't really analyze the story or characters. But as time went, I grew up hating it. It can't be fixed.

 

[antonydelfini]

I just rewatched this. Last time was 2 years ago. I got burned out with it because I used to watch this 2-3x a month. After re-watching it today, I'm in love with it again. I actually missed the movie. What an awesome Batman movie. 9/10

Edit: i thought i was in the TDK thread.

 

[Thoix]

Voted "Love it". I don't think it's the best movie of the trilogy, but it is still close to TDK and my favorite. TDK and TDKR are the only two superhero films that I give 10/10. Overall though I give the trilogy a 10/10.

 

[Green Goblin]

Honest Trailers nailed it,

"It will mildly entertain you when watching it but ultimately disappoint and anger you when you really start to think about it."

 

[BatLobster]

The Honest Trailer for TDKR was actually the real disappointment. Very unfunny and predictable.

 

[BatmanBeyond]

The Honest Trailer for TDKR was actually the real disappointment. Very unfunny and predictable.

Yep.

 

[Travesty]

trying to make John Blake Robin was hilarious (for all the wrong reasons)