Rate THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

[The Batman]

TDKR...a great conclusion to the Nolan trilogy, or a disappointing follow up to TDK? Discuss.

 

[XtremelyBaneful]

it was good. av2 was mediocre as comparison

 

[Unbreakable Lex]

It was the worst of the trilogy. The production and look of the film were fantastic. The story was horrid and really didn't make a lot of sense with timelines and other feats that took too much stretching of one's imagination.

I'd compare it to Avengers Age of Ultron. Both were just a big mess that looked great.

 

[Mandon Knight]

Served as conclusion to what went before well, but as stand alone film in comparison to BB & TDK, much inferior but with elements, moments of equal value.

 

[BH/HHH]

I would have preferred a poll option with ratings from 0-10. I'd probably give it a 607 so guess I'd vote good. I think it's easily the worst of the trilogy but still the 4th best Batman film overall.

I think Bale gives probably his best Bruce Wayne performance but he's going through the motions as Batman IMO. Anne Hathaway completely stole the film and I do like Hardy as Bane just not that bloody voice which I think was a dreadful decision to this day (still we got some funny videos out of it. Bane Cat anyone?). I liked JGL as John Blake but I didn't like the way he figured out who Batman was but whatever not important. Marion Cotillard and Matthew Modine were dreadful in the movie, it's a shame because we know they are good actors but they were awful in this. Of course Oldman, Caind and Freeman were fantastic as always, the most consistent performers throughout the trilogy for me.

From the get go I wasn't really keen on the idea of this film, the way the Dark Knight ended I thought we were going to get a continuation it's Batman on the run but trying to stop crime. Instead it starts with a secluded Bruce Wayne whose given up been Batman. It's just not what I like, they say crime is virtually nil in the film but again I didn't like that aspect. I also didn't like how little we got of Batman in costume in this, it really lacked that IMO.

Still there are things I like, the opening plane sequence is fantastic as is the return of Batman scene. I just find the film drags in places and Batman retiring, again it's just not really for me.

I also hate how closely it ties into Batman Begins, that story was done with and the Dark Knight moved on from that. I still don't think the series needed an ending either, it could have been the early years of Bats career and the movies could have continued with different casts and directors. They could do a Bond and not have what came before exist exactly the same in a new take. But we're getting BvS now so I'm kind of over that.

The film did end fantastically though with John Blake finding the Batcave.

All in all its a decent movie but a poor continuation from the Dark Knight. Also I will agree with whoever said it was way better than AV2.

 

[John Locke]

It's the weakest of the three but not by much. It was a great end to the trilogy.

 

[DarkKnight]

Still a great film. Great closure to the Nolan series. Loved Hardy in it.
I do agree it was the weakest of the three. I did love all three films though. What is funny is I rank them in order lol. Batman Begins is my favorite. The Dark Knight was amazing and Ledgers performance is Legendary. But Begins is still my favorite.

 

[Vampyr]

I put TDKR above The Avengers, TWS, GOTG, BB and just a little bit below TDK. It's a very compelling story full of amazing actors and outstanding scenes. It also doesn't look like a video game, which is a big plus to me. The same can't be said about 90% of the cb movies. There are less positive things about it, but let's not pretend that the same can't be said about any other comic book movie.

 

[Batmannerism]

The first time I saw TDKR I loved it, but the more I thought about it, and with each subsequent viewing, I like it less.

It did what it needed to do, and I think it deserves props for actually bringing Bruce Wayne's story to an end. It was ambitious, but it's reach exceeded it's grasp..... and all that is a fancy way of saying that it wasn't great IMO.

However, following up TDK was always going to be a tough ask, it's probably the greatest superhero movie of all time, and IMO the best bat-film to date.

I'm really looking forward to B v S, but I'm not expecting a lot from Batman - certainly not the same kind of performance that Bale put in.

The Batman/Joker interrogation room scene has got to be one of the all time great moments in superhero cinema IMO. Ledger has to take a lot of credit for that, but so does Nolan.

I think with TDKR he wanted to do something very very different from TDK and ended up going a bit too far with it - I mean, yeah, amazing stunts and production values but his villain is a bit too mumbly, Marion Cotillard (who's an amazing actress) does a **** death scene, the whole "did he make it out of the Bat in time" thing, and just the whole jumping around in time thing, for me none of that really worked.

However, I do really love the ending montage where we see that Bruce actually did get on with his life. Also, despite a little dodgy choreography I did really enjoy the Batman v Bane fights - particularly the first one because it's so brutal, and it's so weird seeing Batman get smacked down.

I can understand why people love this film, but ultimately I think it's the weakest of the trilogy by quite a bit.

My ratings would go Batman Begins 8/10, TDK 10/10, TDKR 6/10.

At the end of the day, just IMO.

 

[Victarion]

The strongest story of the trilogy that, I feel, pulled some punches when it came to the post-apocalyptic elements of Bane's takeover. Otherwise, I enjoyed Bane's plot, the way he tied into where Bruce had come from, where he could go if he kept up his fool's crusade etc etc. This is still my gold standard for superhero movies - whereas you can look at TDK and find elements of the heist genre, in TDKR you have touches of post-apocalyptic SF with a bit of a war story thrown in. I enjoy those genres, post-apoc SF, war stories, more than I do heists, so that probably figures into it too.

 

[Flint Marko]

Good but not great. A mild letdown compared to the previous two, but still a damn good movie with a lot to like.

 

[BatLobster]

I'm probably one of the film's most vocal defenders here, so yeah, no surprise how I voted here haha. I still think it's great- a bold, stirring, badass conclusion to a trilogy that had already set the bar very, very high with the first two films.

I don't want to get too lengthy about it here since I'm sick of hearing myself gush over this film by now, but I guess what I like most about Rises is it kind of brought the whole trilogy into focus for me. Before it, we had Begins and we had TDK. Two very different films that told a sort of complete story, but were just wildly different in so many ways. I feel like what TDKR sacrifices as a stand alone film, it makes up for as being a near-perfect trilogy closer that breaks a lot of new territory while fusing together elements of the first two movies. All in all it's just a very satisfying package for me, and it deepened my appreciation for the other movies at the same time. I could go on and on about the incredible production values, I mean just the fact that they had a scale model of The Bat alone zipping around the streets of Pittsburgh and LA...unreal. That stuff goes a long way in keeping me invested in the story, because it makes the stakes feel real, and it makes it stand out in a really good way from the majority of other modern blockbusters.

I can admit that there was a mild sense of letdown for me when I first saw it, perhaps because the movie was more predictable than TDK was (though the back break moment was pretty shocking to see). But on subsequent viewings I really began to appreciate it more, and in a way all the harsh criticisms it received forced me to take a closer look at it and I ended up coming away from it feeling more affirmed in my favorable view of it. I still consider it the second best of the trilogy, but the most emotionally powerful and possibly my personal favorite. I still teeter back and forth on that.

It's divisive though, for sure, and I get why.

 

[DlAMONDZ]

Kinda dragged at times but overall I enjoyed it. Would rather watch this over BB tbh

 

[dude stannis]

Excellent. Sure it's got it's issues, but to me Nolan finally found his Batman groove on TDKR. It's him laying back and making a big, **** off comic book epic.

 

[-Arya-]

I thought it was the weakest of the trilogy but not bad by any means. It just hasn't left much of an impression on me over the years like BB and TDK did.

 

[BH/HHH]

Still a great film. Great closure to the Nolan series. Loved Hardy in it.
I do agree it was the weakest of the three. I did love all three films though. What is funny is I rank them in order lol. Batman Begins is my favorite. The Dark Knight was amazing and Ledgers performance is Legendary. But Begins is still my favorite.

Same here mate

 

[Micromind]

Good but not great. A mild letdown compared to the previous two, but still a damn good movie with a lot to like.

^ This.

 

[Batsfan1]

It was the worst of the trilogy. The production and look of the film were fantastic. The story was horrid and really didn't make a lot of sense with timelines and other feats that took too much stretching of one's imagination.

How was the story bad and the timeline not make sense?

God bless you! God bless everyone!

 

[Batmannerism]

I'm probably one of the film's most vocal defenders here, so yeah, no surprise how I voted here haha. I still think it's great- a bold, stirring, badass conclusion to a trilogy that had already set the bar very, very high with the first two films.

I don't want to get too lengthy about it here since I'm sick of hearing myself gush over this film by now, but I guess what I like most about Rises is it kind of brought the whole trilogy into focus for me. Before it, we had Begins and we had TDK. Two very different films that told a sort of complete story, but were just wildly different in so many ways. I feel like what TDKR sacrifices as a stand alone film, it makes up for as being a near-perfect trilogy closer that breaks a lot of new territory while fusing together elements of the first two movies. All in all it's just a very satisfying package for me, and it deepened my appreciation for the other movies at the same time. I could go on and on about the incredible production values, I mean just the fact that they had a scale model of The Bat alone zipping around the streets of Pittsburgh and LA...unreal. That stuff goes a long way in keeping me invested in the story, because it makes the stakes feel real, and it makes it stand out in a really good way from the majority of other modern blockbusters.

I can admit that there was a mild sense of letdown for me when I first saw it, perhaps because the movie was more predictable than TDK was (though the back break moment was pretty shocking to see). But on subsequent viewings I really began to appreciate it more, and in a way all the harsh criticisms it received forced me to take a closer look at it and I ended up coming away from it feeling more affirmed in my favorable view of it. I still consider it the second best of the trilogy, but the most emotionally powerful and possibly my personal favorite. I still teeter back and forth on that.

It's divisive though, for sure, and I get why.

The back break moment is very intense. I like hearing people defend the film - because that reassures me that the bits of it I enjoyed aren't just my general love of Batman and Nolan clouding my judgment.

I can't dispute that it had some spectacular moments - the series of explosions that sealed off Gotham was pretty amazing. My problem is that when we think a little about it (all the cops went into the sewers at once ?) the questions won't go away.

I mean, I can suspend disbelief for a lot of things, but if a film tries to make itself appear as though it takes place in a world that is very similar to ours (as in governed by the laws of physics and nature, unlike most superhero worlds) then when it then breaks those rules it's a bit jarring. There were so many better ways they could have handled Bruce's injury, and his recovery than prison chiropractics ( my sister is a chiropractor, and she wasn't fond of that part of the film).

I've got no problem with Bruce being able to sneak from India back into Gotham (despite the lockdown) because he's gone underground before, and he's Batman ! But, the ejecting from the Bat with 10 seconds to go just doesn't work - I've heard the "he changed Bats" theory, and if you watch the film it doesn't work either.
I'm really glad he got a happy ending - I mean that's the emotional payoff we've wanted for him since the start of BB, but just how he got there bugged me a bit.

Something I do really credit Nolan for is that Bruce didn't just walk away from being Batman - he walked away from being Bruce Wayne altogether - which made total sense. I loved that Nolan's vision of Batman had a beginning a middle and an end.

 

[Johnny-Oh]

More than just good but not enough to be excellent, still infinitely better than Batman Beginssleepy but not as good as TDK

 

[kedrell]

Better than it's abysmal predecessor but still not a good movie in it's own right and still far from the high water mark of the first film, which was pretty good. I voted mediocre but then I'm interpreting your mediocre rating to be my bad and your bad rating to be my terrible rating since mediocre is not a rating I usually use.

 

[BH/HHH]

Better than it's abysmal predecessor but still not a good movie in it's own right and still far from the high water mark of the first film, which was pretty good. I voted mediocre but then I'm interpreting your mediocre rating to be my bad and your bad rating to be my terrible rating since mediocre is not a rating I usually use.

Wow! You thought the Dark Knight was abysmal? Would love to hear your thoughts on it?

I preosnally think TDK touches greatness myself, although it's still a flawed movie and one I think dragged towards the end.

 

[kedrell]

Wow! You thought the Dark Knight was abysmal? Would love to hear your thoughts on it?

I preosnally think TDK touches greatness myself, although it's still a flawed movie and one I think dragged towards the end.

My days of debating TDK are done, I'm burned out on it. Been doing it for 8 years now. I'm sure you could do a quick search and find one of my many rants about how I think it's terrible and why. It's all about how they use the Joker, that's all I'll say.

 

[psylockolussus]

Better than it's abysmal predecessor but still not a good movie in it's own right and still far from the high water mark of the first film, which was pretty good. I voted mediocre but then I'm interpreting your mediocre rating to be my bad and your bad rating to be my terrible rating since mediocre is not a rating I usually use.

Didn't you put all (12 released) Marvel Studios films in your top thirteen Marvel films with Kick-Ass the only non-MCU film to reach inside of your top 13? If I had a hard time getting that ranking, then this is no exception.

 

[BH/HHH]

My days of debating TDK are done, I'm burned out on it. Been doing it for 8 years now. I'm sure you could do a quick search and find one of my many rants about how I think it's terrible and why. It's all about how they use the Joker, that's all I'll say.

I shall have a look and hope you don't think I was trying to start anything. I was just genuinely interested. After all you can't be wrong on your own opinion it's how you feel if someone defends the film to you then that's just stupid cause you're not gonna change how you feel.