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

[Filmfreak]

Where is Adam West's Batman movie?

 

[OnLeatherWings]

Where is Adam West's Batman movie?

#7.

 

[Filmfreak]

#7.

Ok I'm officially blind (as a bat).

 

[BatLobster]

Rises made the AFI top ten of 2012. That's canon baby :coolguy:. Can't retroactively pretend that didn't happen. It's had its loud detractors from the beginning but I dislike how it gets treated like that was a consensus opinion. A film being "divisive" inherently means there's no clear consensus. I actually think it kicked off the era of divisive blockbusters which has gotten more extreme with the likes of BvS, The Last Jedi, etc. In retrospect it makes TDKR's reception more middle of the road.

 

[OnLeatherWings]

I wouldn't even call Rises divisive, actually. There was a pretty clear consensus.

I think its detractors have tried to hijack that consensus and manufacture it as divisive.

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of films I love that were divisive (or even hated) and I don't mind admitting they are, one iota. So it's not like a film being divisive bugs me.

Rises just doesn't qualify, from what I can see.

 

[BatLobster]

I think maybe a better word for TDKR might be underrated. There was some divisiveness for sure at the time, but I think it gets hazy because that was much more extreme in the hardcore fanbase.

I feel like even if people are favorable to the movie overall, the gripes tend to get talked about more when it has a lot of strengths that are maybe taken for granted due to I guess sky high expectations from the series and Nolan at that point. But it comes with the territory.

Ironically, it IS the trilogy's and Nolan's highest grossing film though.

 

[Filmfreak]

I think maybe a better word for TDKR might be underrated. There was some divisiveness for sure at the time, but I think it gets hazy because that was much more extreme in the hardcore fanbase.

I feel like even if people are favorable to the movie overall, the gripes tend to get talked about more when it has a lot of strengths that are maybe taken for granted due to I guess sky high expectations from the series and Nolan at that point. But it comes with the territory.

Ironically, it IS the trilogy's and Nolan's highest grossing film though.

I wouldn't even call divisiveness a small portion of fans that was nagging about what was mostly (but not entirely) small imperfections of the film. Everyone I know that is not a comic fan who liked the previous two films, liked this one equally. And film scores, like posted above, are a big proof that not only the majority of people doesn't have mixed feelings about it, but that they consider it one of the very best comic book movies.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

TDKR is the best in terms of production values and scope. Its Nolan at his apex. You can certainly see the money on the screen. Its epic filmmaking.

But that script was not very good. Bloated with three massive comic book stories overstuffed into it (DKR, No Man's Land, Knightfall) and yet parts still feel underdeveloped and half-baked (like Blake figuring out Batman's secret identity in a very contrived and dopey way, how Bruce got back to Gotham, how the No Man's Land part of the story got the short end of the stick, how Bane's entire character gets his main villain role taken from him in the climax for a contrived twist).

As far as plotting and story, its a big step down from TDK, which is very much the Empire Strikes Back to TDKR's Return Of The Jedi.

 

[Awest66]

As far as plotting and story, its a big step down from TDK, which is very much the Empire Strikes Back to TDKR's Return Of The Jedi.

I actually really love Return of the Jedi, It was my favorite Star Wars movie for years as a kid.

I'm also a firm believer in the notion that a sequel can just be good, not better than the original but still worth it by being good in it's own way.

 

[OnLeatherWings]

I think what I mean is that Rises feels artificially divisive.

That there's been a minority of fans trying to manufacture it to be so, for years. Trying to shape it into Spider-Man 3.

 

[OnLeatherWings]

This is my favourite use of the logo in the entire Trilogy, bar none. Love this poster.

 

[antsman41]

...for me it will be how they used the bats to build the logo in BEGINS' media;

...as well as this poster;

 

[BatLobster]

The use of the bat-symbol was really creative and cool throughout the trilogy, from the way they appear in the opening logos to how it was used in the marketing. A lot of variety.

I actually really love the crude chalk symbols from TDKR. A really simple and effective way to visually represent so much of what the movie is saying about the character and symbol. I do feel like there's a slight nod to the Nightwing logo there and I find it hard to believe that's entirely unintentional. I like to think that's the logo that goes on Blake's chest eventually.

 

[Gothamsknight]

This was posted on the Batman Reddit, today.

It compiled all the scores from RottenTomatoes, IMDB, and MetaCritic to quantify reception for the films.

Needless to say, Rises took a beating in the comments as if it's Phantom Menace and fans of Reeves were very angry the Nolan films ranked ahead.

But a cool list to see, IMO.

Mines is close with a few small changes

The Dark knight
Batman Begins
The Dark Knight Rises
Batman Returns
Batman 89
The Batman
Batman Forever
Batman 1966
Batman & Robin
Batman v Superman

 

[OnLeatherWings]

The Dark knight
Batman Begins
The Dark Knight Rises
Batman Returns
Batman 89
The Batman
Batman Forever
Batman 1966
Batman & Robin
Batman v Superman

Our Top 5 contains the same films - just in a different order. But everything after #5 is the same, for me.

1.) Batman Returns
2.) Batman Begins
3.) The Dark Knight
4.) The Dark Knight Rises
5.) Batman '89

I sometimes want to put The Batman at #5. It's tempting. The writing issues keep it from permanently occupying the #5 spot, though.

 

[Awest66]

My ranking.

1. The Dark Knight
2. Batman Begins
3. The Batman
4. The Dark Knight Rises
5. Batman 89
6. Batman Returns
7. Batman 66
8. Batman Forever
9. Batman v Superman
10. Batman and Robin

 

[Filmfreak]

Mines is close with a few small changes

The Dark knight
Batman Begins
The Dark Knight Rises
Batman Returns
Batman 89
The Batman
Batman Forever
Batman 1966
Batman & Robin
Batman v Superman

I have very similar ranking as well. I would maybe still put Rises over Begins and '66 over Forever, but the rest is pretty much the same.

 

[AntonGobbs89]

These are always fun to do:
1. The Dark Knight
2. Batman (1989)
3. Batman Begins
4. Mask of the Phantasm
5. Batman Returns
6. The Batman
7. The Dark Knight Rises
8. Batman The Movie
9. Batman Forever
10. Batman & Robin
11. BvS

 

[Brother Jack]

This is my favourite use of the logo in the entire Trilogy, bar none. Love this poster.

It was an ingenious idea to have the emblem be formed in negative space for Rises. Whoever came up with that should get a raise haha. It’s crazy how the logos for the trilogy follow a narrative arc where you have the symbol established in the first movie, then blown apart in the second, then formed in a cracked hole in the third. Story progression communicated even in the marketing.

 

[BatLobster]

It was an ingenious idea to have the emblem be formed in negative space for Rises. Whoever came up with that should get a raise haha. It’s crazy how the logos for the trilogy follow a narrative arc where you have the symbol established in the first movie, then blown apart in the second, then formed in a cracked hole in the third. Story progression communicated even in the marketing.

I feel like the negative space, along with the use of those white title cards in the marketing really subliminally played into the "oh my god Batman might actually die" factor.

 

[Herofan]

I know some of you have talked about seeing this kind of thing on Twitter, so I just have to laugh at how toxic Batman fandom is. It's annoying as hell, but we were all young and dumb at some point.

And that's all this is. I was nearly triggered by this until I noticed the age in the bio, and then I had to just laugh cause it's all so silly. If you're devoting your online presence to attacking one interpretation of the Batman mythos then clearly you've got a stick up your butt because it's still beloved to a lot of people.

That he was only active for a year is true and a fair criticism/complaint although I do think most viewers do realize, know that, just disagree that that's a particularly bad thing.

 

[Herofan]

Snyder/BatFleck fans have always felt threatened by how the Bale-era films were and still are beloved because they feel their beloved nature makes people unable to accept anything non-Nolan/Bale. Which just isn't true.

I did earlier see a lot of TAS/Nolan fans bash to heck the Burton films, that they just like the Schumacher films were rubbish (B89 maybe OK), they were actually all goofy camp, only TAS and then the Nolan films were the good right version.

Fandom in the 21st century has often become less about what you love and more about what you hate. Or about what you hate about what you love.

Of course with there now being multiple (widely available) versions there is more comparison and to a degree competitiveness between and about the versions but I think there still is a lot of positivity and focus on that as well in particular praise and appreciation of Nolan, Raimi, Feige, Spielberg.

It seems like such a deliberate thing to do and it's like going out of their way.

Why bother? Why do they feel compelled to both bring up something from the past just to crap on it?

To me 2008 just doesn't feel like that long ago and when you still have a lot of people now saying it's the best superhero movie, maybe best movie ever, timeless masterpiece that is impossible to equal or top you will also have people (especially those who are younger and didn't experience, don't identify with, get the adulation) arguing that it did have flaws, wasn't great let alone masterpiece.

 

[Herofan]

I do think from month 1 a lot of people were saying that Bane was pretty good but also a bit too hard to understand and it was a dumb aspect to have the Talia twist and make her Bane's boss, there even were the jokes/complaints that he was a lackey again and I think that was meant to be exaggeration for humor but grounded in thinking that anything like that including what did happen shouldn't have happened at all.

Otherwise there wasn't a lot of reaction to the 8 year retirement but it's easy to see that there would not be much reaction, discussion of that initially and then it would become a love it or hate it element, likewise to Blake being a big supporting character and revealed to be Robin/next Batman.

 

[OnLeatherWings]

 

[Gothamsknight]

I still love this