The Dark Knight Rises The TDKR General Discussion Thread - - - - Part 153

[The Shape]

^ One of my favorite Bale Batman pics. I remember when that magazine dropped.

 

[JackWhite]

I haven't watched BB in a long time actually. I'm popping in the blu ray tonight. For old times sake.

 

[The Joker]

Anyone a member here long enough to remember the pre-Begins release days where people would say Bale dammit, Oldman dammit, Neeson dammit etc?

 

[Malicked]

That last shot with Bats overlooking the city and Zimmer's score rising is just... godly.

 

[bilbo baggins]

That last shot with Bats overlooking the city and Zimmer's score rising is just... godly.

it was very epic. but i enjoy it more now that bruce survived.

 

[BatLobster]

Anyone a member here long enough to remember the pre-Begins release days where people would say Bale dammit, Oldman dammit, Neeson dammit etc?

I was only but a lurker back in those days, but I do remember all of that stuff...even just reading it the hype was very infectious.

Don't forget "teh puffy".

 

[Elevator Man]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/d7/78/01/d778014abcf95a01d05948c4e59b2fc4.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/07/d9/ba/07d9ba20819cd7de11303e1010ab9d3e.jpg

 

[Malicked]

Bale sure does look unrecognisable in that first pic! Time sure flies.

There's something that also bothers me with how Bale's Batman is perceived (without sounding like a broken record now lol). A lot of people will now say that Bale just had his one shining moment in Batman Begins because he had the biggest character arc of the trilogy in the very first movie and that he sucked in the sequels because the villains were better or that he just became 'lost' in the increasingly larger puzzle of Gotham City. Which annoys me since a lot of my favourite moments in TDK/TDKR were still Bruce/Batman related. And even if Bale had his best material in the first film, so what? I always liked watching him, even when he wasn't in some big emotional or in a major Batman moment, mainly because he fit the iconography of the character so well. Even when he wasn't required to try like he is in some other scenes, I still thought he was naturally perfect as the playboy billionaire.

I loved Bruce Wayne's arc in Rises but no one other than us fans of TDKR talks about this. And in some ways it's more important than his arc in BB. But no one mentions the character development since debates over various 'plot holes', whether Rises came close to its predecessor as a film or if Bane was as good a villain as The Joker is what's captured discussions surrounding this film. Really frustrating...

With arguably the biggest developmental arc in superhero film history in BB, Baleman gets criticised for somehow not 'living up to the promise' that was 'shown' in BB.

 

[Brother Jack]

It's crazy to me that Begins came out the same year as Revenge of the Sith. For some reason I feel like the prequels are more distant than they are.

 

[Malicked]

It's crazy to me that Begins came out the same year as Revenge of the Sith. For some reason I feel like the prequels are more distant than they are.

I remember how I was far more interested in seeing Revenge of the Sith than what I initially thought of as just another Batman movie.

 

[Kane52630]

I remember when I saw Batman Begins at a dollar theater back when I didn't care too much about movies. I loved it but at the time I didn't fully appreciated Batman Begins until when The Dark Knight was coming out. Still say it's the best one in the trilogy, I think I've rewatched Batman Begins more than both TDK and TDKR combined.

 

[georgec]

It's kind of neat - the prequels ended, and ROTS handed the baton of big blockbuster franchise off to Begins.

 

[BatLobster]

It's kind of neat - the prequels ended, and ROTS handed the baton of big blockbuster franchise off to Begins.

Yup. It's still wild to me that here we are 10 years later, on the verge of a new era for both franchises.

 

[Kane52630]

http://kane52630.tumblr.com/post/121656112489/batman-begins-release-date-june-15-2005-10

 

[Kane52630]

http://kane52630.tumblr.com/post/121660931584/batman-begins-motion-posters-set-one

 

[AnneFan]

Alright guys, I'm going to reminisce.

I wasn't on the Hype in the days of BB, but I definitely followed the film. I remember seeing the image below on the internet and was thrilled.

That alone told me visually this was going to be a return to the dark, serious version of the character that I craved. Up until BB going into production I had largely moved away from the character. But this was re-stoking the fire. I was a big fan of Batman from the 89-92 days, as well as BTAS.

The BB trailers and promo pictures were hitting all the right notes. When the film finally came out, I took the day off school.

I remember taking my seat, arriving about 30 minutes early and striking up a conversation with a guy nearby. We basically said how much we had anticipated the movie, and how it would bring the character back from the brink. And then the movie commenced.

In many ways I think BB could be Nolan's best Batman movie in terms of visuals and action, and I loved how the focus was on Batman's journey.

I thought the movie itself was a breath of fresh air. It made me proud to be a fan again.

 

[Kane52630]

 

[Travesty]

Did Jett make that? Why is there a BOF logo on the bottom right?

 

[Greens]

Did Jett make that? Why is there a BOF logo on the bottom right?

It's just an annotation, not part of the actual video.

 

[shauner111]

As each year passes, i think Batman Begins is the heart of the entire Batman franchise. No matter who reboots it, or how many films happened before Begins or how many will happen in the future. Much like how Superman: The Movie will always be the essential Superman movie to go to, no matter how fancy Zack Snyder makes it. Begins is the origin story much like that 78' film, and it's that first origin story that defines the character (if done properly). They may tell a new origin in 20 or 30 years but Begins will always be the heart and soul of Batman on film. In my opinion of course. Im sure for some it's Batman 89 because it was the first movie. But i find that to be a stylized and quirky take on the character and Gotham City. You get small glimpses of the origin but it's changed quite a bit. The execution of the scene involving Bruce's parents may be more accurate or effective in Batman vs Superman for all we know, but as a whole movie, Batman Begins really captured it first. Not to mention the rest of Bruce's upbringing, training, his very first appearance in the cape/cowl, the first time he meets Jim Gordon, the first time the bat-signal is created. Christian Bale is the first actor to make me feel something for Bruce Wayne instead of waiting for Batman to come on screen or just finding a certain scene funny or cool. I dig Keaton without the mask but im not sure if i truly cared about his Bruce like i did with Christian. Maybe it's because i see that performance now as "Keaton being Keaton".

 

[Tacit Ronin]

Pfft, we all know if Zack Snyder directed the BB script he would've made a much better film. Or so I've been told by some people from Batman vs Superman boards.

 

[Malicked]

Definitely. People forget just how committed Bale was when preparing for Batman and knowing what he had to do to get into such shape is one of many kudos I give to him. Keaton was also the Batman I grew up with, never thinking that I would ever consider another actor as Batman. Now Bale is MY Batman.

With regards to Nolan's Gotham City, what I always loved was how from the outside it looked like any great metropolitan American city. But underneath the facade, the corruption was like a cancer. The past versions of Gotham we've seen from the Burton/Schumacher to the Arkham games, it's in your face that Gotham is a really bad 'place'. But with Nolan's Gotham, it's extremely subtle. We're shown mainly through the institutions (mainly the police and the judicial systems) as well as through characters succumbing to the corruption that Gotham is not a healthy place.

 

[BatLobster]

I like that, the heart of the Batman franchise. Good way to put it. It definitely is the Donner Superman of the Bat-franchise. That's not a knock against Batman 89, it's still a tremendously important film in the history of superhero cinema and Batman Begins would definitely not exist without it doing what it did to establish Batman as a dark and serious character in the public consciousness. It's just more of an apples and oranges thing if you compare it to Donner's Superman, and Batman being the other pillar of DC definitely deserved an equivalent of that.

Feeling lots of warm feelings for Begins in mah bones 'n stuff.

 

[shauner111]

Pfft, we all know if Zack Snyder directed the BB script he would've made a much better film. Or so I've been told by some people from Batman vs Superman boards.

They're an incredible little bunch.

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

I think both BATMAN '89 and BATMAN BEGINS deserves their respective praise within the Batman legacy.

They both kickstarted franchises and deeply impacted the character in a unique manner. They also produced many positives and negatives for the overall film industry.

Two great director, two great actors... two very different, but equally significant films.

I love both.