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

[BatmanBeyond]

Bale's Batvoice had some amazingly perfect moments in Begins, probably the best voice snippets of the trilogy, but it was still occasionally uneven and inconsistent from scene to scene.

I think Bale's absolute best presentation of his Batvoice in Begins came during the "rattle the cages" scene with Rachel (in which the Batsuit also looked amazing). He speaks in the voice with such ease during that scene, as he is calm, cool, and collected. It's also not as or the top as it was other times during the trilogy.

After that, I'd list the "Swear to me" and "Backup" scenea, along with his "I'm Batman" and his whisper of "Here" as Bale's best use of his Batvoice in BB.

Otherwise, there are a few moments in which the voice sounds a little wonky and inconsistent with other scenes. Same goes for the other two films. A bunch of great voice moments, and several less-than-stellar moments peppered throughout.

Bolded part is probably the main reason the voice has gotten so much stick over the years. But yes, it's at its best in BB and I think part of the reason is that you can still hear it's Bale, whereas with the filter applied to it in TDK and TDKR it's too over the top growly a lot of the time and doesn't even sound like him anymore. There's this nice little moment in BB as well, the one with Rachel in the cave, where it's just Bale whispering basically, but it makes sense since Rachel is one of the only people around which he feels comfortable being his 'real' self. On the flipside, there's also the scene where he calls Alfred for help after getting pwned by Scarecrow the first time, where he's supposedly saying "Alfred, help me!", but all I can hear is "Alfred, Alfred!", I think it might just be the first instance of the dreaded filter being applied in the trilogy.

The Joker interrogation scene seems to loose the filter though and it kinda sounds like the 'Rattle the cages' iteration again, which was an inspired choice because it was key for it not to go into quasi-ridiculous territory again in such a pivotal scene. Now that I think of it, I don't really mind the over the top anger in the 'Where's the trigger scene?!' either, it's the dialogue which lets it down - the 'you'd neverrrr give it to an ordanary ****izhen' line has always sounded awkward to me.

I mention this because I couldn't really get over the filtered iteration in TDK, upon rewatching the latter and BB recently, when it's never really bothered me before. I don't think it's as bad as it's been made out to be either (I've never had a problem understanding the lines themselves), but it just seems like such a peculiar and awkward choice when they had a pretty flawless approach for it in BB.

I also found it interesting that upon the aforementioned rewatch, I felt warmest towards BB, while TDK left me kind of cold this time. I've still got to watch TDKR and, granted, I've watched the first two over twenty times each by now, but usually it would be that I would watch BB and appreciate it for what it is, but I couldn't wait to get to the 'meaty' part that was TDK. It's not that I didn't appreciate it before, but it really does feel like BB is the underrated one of the trilogy with the manner in which it weaves the origin story and gets you invested in the character's arch.

Oh, and of course, I still love this scene to bits. t:

 

[Tacit Ronin]

You know the best Gotham city on film? The "city" in Se7en. It's got the lived in feel of a real city while still being exaggerated, evocative of a place that revels in corruption and crime, a place and people abandoned by the god they rejected. Fincher creates a perfect vision of hell on Earth. I can't think of a better Gotham.

 

[titansupes]

Nobody said it wasn't, a few if us just think the Gotham in Begins feels more like something from a comic with the stuff in the Barrows. In that it feels a little more surreal and gothic. Nobody said there weren't or aren't comics with a more real world feel to Gotham.

I'm not talking about this exact convo taking place right now, but over the years, in this forum and every other one-- There's always a group of people saying "Gotham doesn't look like that!!1"

If people prefer a more out-there looking Gotham, that's all well and good, but uh... Yes it does look like that, guys. For Most of its history, even.

 

[titansupes]

You know the best Gotham city on film? The "city" in Se7en. It's got the lived in feel of a real city while still being exaggerated, evocative of a place that revels in corruption and crime, a place and people abandoned by the god they rejected. Fincher creates a perfect vision of hell on Earth. I can't think of a better Gotham.

That was possibly the most depressing city I've ever seen on film.

 

[shauner111]

Always. Raining.

 

[Brother Jack]

You know the best Gotham city on film? The "city" in Se7en. It's got the lived in feel of a real city while still being exaggerated, evocative of a place that revels in corruption and crime, a place and people abandoned by the god they rejected. Fincher creates a perfect vision of hell on Earth. I can't think of a better Gotham.

I'm not sure Gotham should be that dark necessarily. Though I guess it is dependent on the tone you're going for. There's a lot of nihilism in seeing a hero try to better a city that refuses to be anything other than a hellscape.

 

[Kane52630]

http://kane52630.tumblr.com/post/137532748979/suit-up-batman-begins

 

[I Am The Knight]

Love that

 

[Victarion]

The Narrows, the League Monastery, the Warlord's Prison, Crane's Courthouse and Bane's Lair are my favorite...sets? Environments, maybe is the better word, from the TDKT.

 

[AnneFan]

My favourite suit up, drive out sequence from any Batman movie. People criticise the Nolan films for realism but he really did present the comics as purely as anyone, as evidenced above. Gliding down with his cape and rocket boosting out of a waterfall covered cave.

 

[Shikamaru]

As far as Gotham goes, I do prefer the grittier atmosphere of BB and TDK (especially of BB) to the lighter one we saw in Rises, but I liked how Rises' Gotham felt the closest to New York in scope and size.

I thought Chicago worked just fine, but Gotham's always been the dark side of New York to me. I think Batman is such a larger-than-life character that he needs a setting more akin to New York, especially since Batman is a story about a man taking on the world (IMO), and New York is often seen as the center of the world.

 

[shauner111]

Rises only felt lighter at times because Gotham had been cleaned up quite a bit in the story over the course of 8 years and they showed more scenes in daylight. The night scenes were still quite dark, and dare i say, as good or even better than the night sequences in TDK. Especially the night that Batman returns (dat roof scene and reveal of The Bat, lawwwwd).

Im looking forward to Detroit.

Oh, Shikamaru, i don't think i read your reaction to the Batman v Superman tv spots. Feel free (if you haven't already) to give us your thoughts in the lounge thread!

 

[Tacit Ronin]

I prefer the Gotham of Rises because it's a composite of NY, LA, and Pittsburgh, lending it the same lived in feel without the negative of feeling the locality of one place. TDK was just plain Chicago.

 

[The Shape]

As someone who has never been to Chicago and has no special connection to that city, I had no problem with TDK's Gotham being a spitting image of Chicago. It never "took me out of the movie", as some people like to say about these things.

 

[shauner111]

I never been either, so i was able to look at it as Gotham and not Chicago.

 

[JackWhite]

I always go back and forth with my favorite Gotham from the trilogy but I still think TDKR gets the nod. I would have preferred a few more night time scenes though, but I understood what the story was going for with more daytime scenes.

Bane's lair was amazing. I remember being Team Cave back in the day, but I'm glad the first Batman vs Bane fight was in the sewers. Great atmosphere in that scene.

 

[Brother Jack]

I went to Chicago after seeing Knight. Felt a little bit like stepping into Gotham. I spent the whole trip trying to spot the filming locations. At one point I was taking pictures of this street and a nearby native immediately knew why I was taking the pictures and pointed some more filming locales, including the then unfinished Trump tower which stood in for the Pruitt building.

 

[C. Lee]

I went to Chicago after seeing Knight. Felt a little bit like stepping into Gotham. I spent the whole trip trying to spot the filming locations. At one point I was taking pictures of this street and a nearby native immediately knew why I was taking the pictures and pointed some more filming locales, including the then unfinished Trump tower which stood in for the Pruitt building.

It's funny....a couple of decades ago when I was in Chicago, I took pictures of that street because of THE UNTOUCHABLES.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

Anyone played Watch Dogs? I am not embarrassed to admit I "play acted" Chicago as Nolan's Gotham in that game.

 

[Panthro]

I went to Chicago after seeing Knight. Felt a little bit like stepping into Gotham. I spent the whole trip trying to spot the filming locations. At one point I was taking pictures of this street and a nearby native immediately knew why I was taking the pictures and pointed some more filming locales, including the then unfinished Trump tower which stood in for the Pruitt building.

Watching the chase scene in "The Dark Knight" I sometimes feel like the Blues Brothers should drive by and be like "Uh-oh" when they see Batman riding around on his Bat-Pod.

 

[batfreakforever]

Love playing Arkham knight with the Dark Knight suit and Tumbler. Its my go to suit.

 

[Kane52630]

Seems like the most of the TDKR cast had something big come out last year...

Christian Bale- The Big Short

Michael Caine- Kingsman

Gary Oldman- Child 44

Anne Hathaway- The Intern

Tom Hardy- Mad Max

Marion Cotillard- Macbeth

Joseph Gordon-Levitt- The Walk

Ben Mendelsohn- Black Sea

 

[Brother Jack]

Ben Mendelsohn has been on the rise lately. Really good actor.

 

[Greens]

Seems like the most of the TDKR cast had something big come out last year...

Christian Bale- The Big Short

Michael Caine- Kingsman

Gary Oldman- Child 44

Anne Hathaway- The Intern

Tom Hardy- Mad Max

Marion Cotillard- Macbeth

Joseph Gordon-Levitt- The Walk

Ben Mendelsohn- Black Sea

Didn't The Intern fizzle out before it was even released?

Anyway, I need more Oldman in my life.

 

[The Joker]

Oldman is what I call a chameleon actor. He can play so many various roles and seem so different in all of them. How he has not won an Oscar yet is beyond me.

Who ever plays the next Jim Gordon has big shoes to fill. Along with Ledger's Joker, Oldman's Gordon has to be one of the most praised interpretations of a Batman character.