The Dark Knight Rises The TDKR General Discussion Thread - - - - - - - Part 156

[The Joker]

Also don't know if you've all seen this, but the power of Ledger's Joker still stands strong 11 years later.

 

[OutOfBoose]

Recently played Persona 5 (awesome game) and this really cracked me:

 

[BatLobster]

But, then don’t “kill” Batman just so Bruce can live out his days. This was always going to be the end to a trilogy... so killing him/having him make a sacrificial play made sense.

No, that's the whole point though. Bruce moves past the Batman persona and can finally begin to attempt living a life free of the weight of all his traumas. The whole movie about separating Bruce from Batman/Gotham so Bruce can have his shot at a different life, while Batman can continue on as "more than a man" for generations to come. It's about allowing Bruce to realize "I've done enough", coming to terms with his own limitations and giving happiness a shot.

It's fine to not like that ending for the character or find it un-Batman like, but the whole movie basically frames itself so that this is the logical resolution of the character arc. And looking at the trilogy as a whole, where he always saw Batman as a finite mission that eventually he'd move on to attempt some sort of normal life, it works as the ending for the larger story too.

 

[Brother Jack]

Nolan has his cake and eats it too with the ending. Bruce and Batman "die" and yet get to live on at the same time. You'd have to rewrite the whole film to have Bruce actually die, especially given the symmetrical nature of the ending in how it mirrors the opening of Begins. It's also very much a Dark Knight Returns ending; the skeleton of Bruce's arc is virtually identical to that book, only with some characters and circumstances changed. Ironically, it's actually much more faithful an adaptation than whatever Snyder was doing.

 

[TheGuy]

What's crazy about Ledger's Joker, on a non-Batman POV, is that it was preceded and followed by Anton Chigurh and Hans Landa. Both are all-time great villains too. Each are legendary in their own right, but Joker stands out more.

 

[Dede]

That's a really good video. Makes some excellent points.



Its definitely a loud minority. There is absolutely no stats that show TDKR is even close to being hated by any kind of consensus. Its not even divisive.

That’s what I thought. I even see people say it’s the weakest of the trilogy but from all the data I find it goes tdk 1 then tdkr 2 then BB 3. And Batman Begins is an amazing film even if it’s the weakest which I think it is .

 

[The Joker]

That’s what I thought. I even see people say it’s the weakest of the trilogy but from all the data I find it goes tdk 1 then tdkr 2 then BB 3. And Batman Begins is an amazing film even if it’s the weakest which I think it is .

Personally I would rate Rises third, but after TDK I wouldn't actively question anyone rating either one second place as they're both great movies.

 

[Dede]

Personally I would rate Rises third, but after TDK I wouldn't actively question anyone rating either one second place as they're both great movies.

I can respect that

 

[Filmfreak]

I always go back and forth between BB and TDKR as the second best movie in the trilogy. Begins has a tighter script and is more balanced overall but Rises is far more ambitious and bigger in scope and excels in pretty much all technical aspects. I agree both are remarkable films anyway.

 

[Brother Jack]

Rises is just so thematically dense and pulls off a lot that other films are unable to do. I love Begins, but it feels the most "studio" of the three, at least by the time it reaches the third act (first act is a different story). It's crazy to think that it might be the most simplistic film Nolan has made, not that that's a bad thing.

 

[BatLobster]

I always feel like it's a coin toss between Begins and Rises because on one hand, I do think Rises is a more epic and ambitious film, but on the other hand Begins deserves a ton of credit for kicking this whole thing off and setting the tone for the trilogy, not to mention inspiring other franchises. The whole idea of hard rebooting a major film franchise was unprecedented at the time.

I think in the end I look at Begins as a bit of more an "important' movie in terms of its larger impact, but I lean towards Rises because I think it told a really powerful story and helped turn the trilogy into one coherent larger body of work. And also I think Bane and Catwoman add a bit more comic book-y cool factor and fun to the proceedings, even though Ra's is a fantastic and super quotable villain.

 

[The Joker]

 

[Kane52630]

 

[Penguin]

Gotta say that I prefer Begins over the other two. As much as I enjoy the others, Begins has those Year One elements that I'm a sucker for. Not only that, every time I watch Begins, I get that same warm feeling I get from Mask of the Phantasm. I can't quite put my finger on it.

 

[Kane52630]

I feel the same way. Begins got the right kind of world building I've always wanted since BTAS.

It's the perfect movie to rewatch.

 

[Dede]

I really wonder how much money if the trilogy was released today it would make. I was looking on China’s film IMDb equivalent Douban and maoyan
And the tdk trilogy especially tdk and tdkr is well loved there higher than all or almost all mcu films. I’d imagine Batman begins would get close to a billion and the sequels 1.5 billion or more even. Especially with the extra gross from China.

 

[Man in the Suit]

 

[Gothamsknight]

The Dark Knight has made it on the list of guardians top 100 films of the 21st century.

The 100 best films of the 21st century

 

[Slade W]

What's crazy about Ledger's Joker, on a non-Batman POV, is that it was preceded and followed by Anton Chigurh and Hans Landa. Both are all-time great villains too. Each are legendary in their own right, but Joker stands out more.

It was amazing that in those three years we got three all-time great villains. All three are so much fun to discuss and dissect, IMO. Landa interrogating Shoshana is a very interesting scene to discuss for me.

 

[The Joker]

The Dark Knight has made it on the list of guardians top 100 films of the 21st century.

The 100 best films of the 21st century

Entirely deserved.

 

[TheGuy]

 

[Kane52630]

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Just re-watching this trilogy after getting the 4K boxset and man do BB and TDK hold up great. Just 2 amazing movies. Rises is next on my list and is a movie I have always liked even if it couldn’t match it’s predecessor (no mean feat considering for me no CBM has since). I am curious to see how Rises holds though as it’s been a while since I watched any of them, TDKR included.

 

[BatLobster]

FanScription on Channel Awesome did a two-part episode imagining what TDKR would've looked like if it had included The Joker. I have to say, I think they did a pretty good job organically fitting Joker into the existing story. They split the movie into two parts to make room for it, so it definitely changes things. But as far as fan-fiction goes, I think this was pretty well done and didn't go off the rails. You can almost believe that it would've gone something like this, had Heath been around to reprise the role. The direction makes sense, and it keeps the overall trajectory of TDKR largely intact.

I think it's a fun watch:

 

[Blade Hoarder]

LMAO