The Dark Knight Rises Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake V

Quite the contrary, it was from very early in the movie that it becomes pretty apparent when he talks to Wayne about his identity...and the whole soliloquy about his childhood etc...that they're taking that angle. And I feel even a non-Batfan would pick that up. The name-drop at the end was almost a captain obvious moment. As 'surprises' go, this wasn't really the strongest of the three movies in actual delivery. That's why at he end it's more of feeling that they should have gone farther with it and opened it more. But again, that's the case with a lot of the film.

No, I actually think it was actually executed better than someone else who would have tried to condense as much stuff into it. the problem was in the writing, they filmed/edited it as well as could be given that. And it's no 'farther' fro fact than any opinion, and certainly closer than those who feel it was an editing/time constraint thing that made it feel that way.

 

The execution of Blake was okay. He wasn't a very deep character, but he wasn't a poorly written one, other than his discovery of Bruce's identity.

 

His characterization is terrible. As I've stated many times before, he's pretty much a Mary Sue.

 

I personally love that Blake disappointed people. I think he's the best aspect of the movie. For years people said Nolan would never do Robin or that Robin was unrealistic in this universe. As someone who never liked the idea of Robin, I was gradually eased into it as I watched this movie. Blake does the things Robin would do, but without the mask and all of that is explained. I love that he turned out to be Robin and I loved the character in general. JGL did a superb job and I felt that he stole the show. The haters can eat crow. Pretty funny that the people who waited 4 years for this were disappointed because they didn't like how NOLAN chose to end the series.

 

I don't disagree with you there. He's a bit perfect. They kept calling him a hothead when he wasn't. His only real interesting element is giving up the "structure" of the system, but that gets tossed in there late in the film. He feels more like a thematic/plot device than a person.

 

I would like to eat some crow seasoned with mustard and BBQ for doubting Blake's real identity. He was maybe the best character of the movie after Bruce. I loved him. Wow.

 

I liked Blake the character, and as I mentioned I think he was actually focused on more than any other in terms of 'carrying' the plot along. I was a little disappointed in Gordon's usage in the movie character-wise, though. He was obviously very involved, but he just felt a bit more 'lost in the mix' in this one.

It was a little forced in that he was so obviously right about things when Foley and others were so dismissive.

 

Agreed.

 

totally agreed. I felt at many times he was more heroic than Batman

 

Not more heroic, but he acted. He didn't react. He took initiatives and he was the soul of the movie.

 

I liked Blake and JGL did great job but they seemed to give him more scenes.

 

What I didn't like about John Blake..and see if anyone else noticed this as well...

Spoiler

They tried to make him seem too much like a Batman successor in the scene where he's questioning the drivers and he shoots the back of the truck and the bullet kills him. He looks at the gun like "Oh my god, what did I do!?"...even though I'm sure this isn't the first time he's used a gun in the heat of battle before.

The next scene we see him running around he's carrying a shotgun with his finger on the trigger?

Huh?!

...someone explain this to me.

 

[blackout]Throwing the gun away[/blackout] was a bit much, but I liked the idea of him reflecting on the senselessness of the violence and death as a moral undercurrent of the story, rather than a 'what did I do?' type of thing.

 

Spoiler

Why would you think that isn't the first time he used a gun on somebody. He took a gun to the hospital because the people after Gordon have guns and what else is he gonna do? He obviously didn't like it, but he's not going to let Gordon die just because he isn't a fan of guns.

 

Though it isn't verbally expressed, it's pretty obvious that was the first time he had ever killed a person before...and he didn't like the way it felt.

Despite that, at this point in the film, he is still a cop and has not decided to leave his job behind. Gordon was in danger and he raced to save him with what he had at his disposal. He had to.

It's not as if he already had access to Batman-like tech. The fact that he felt so guilty after killing those people was one of the first inklings of his changing mindset about himself and his job.

 

Yeah, I would imagine most police officers (good ones anyway) who are forced to kill someone for the first time, are going to have a similar reaction, regardless of how often they might have had to run around with their guns drawn. Perhaps in normal circumstances, he wouldn't have been so quick to run around with a gun afterward. But I think that, given how drastic the situation was, it just felt like the natural thing to do, despite the guilt of what had just happened.

 

Spoiler

One of the main actions of being a cop is adapting to gunfire and learning to use one. Gordon doesn't use it that much but think of all the times Gordon has drawn his gun out in defense and to show his force...to Bruce Wayne twice in Batman Begins (FREEEEEZE!) and in The Dark Knight (IIII HAVE TO SAVE DENT!)...

I'm sure Gordon has shot men in his life...as I'm sure Blake has. I just didn't care for the fact he throws off the gun and then has a more powerful weapon in his hands to save Gordon.

 

Why? He's a regular beat cop in a city without organized crime. "Pretty soon we're gonna be chasing down overdue library books."

 

Obviously, i'm not a cop. But I would presume that its one thing to shoot at a person and another to actually kill one.

Hence why I too assumed that Blakes reaction made it clear it was the first time he ever took a life. And he hated that feeling.

 

Uh, Gordon is a seasoned veteran who has already faced countless criminals, not to mention Scarecrow, the LOS, and the Joker and his men. It's much more likely for him to have killed before (which he has) than for Blake, the rookie cop...

It's not about being comfortable shooting a firearm. It's about being comfortable killing someone with one, even in self defense. Later, to Blake, Batman proves to be a demonstration of what one man can accomplish without resorting to guns.

 

Ding ding ding.

They were in denial all those years because of one quote talking about how Nolan didn't want to do Robin, meaning the Robin seen in the Schumacher movies, and the detractors pinned their entire argument on this.

 

Blake dragged the movie down and ate up valuable screen time that could have been spent on more worthy characters. I swear he was a bigger presence in this movie than Bane, Catwoman, Gordon, Alfred and Lucius.

 

Because he was this series' Robin, so it made sense for him to have a big role.