The Dark Knight Rises - No Spoilers

[Achim]

I completely agree with Marie's explanations regarding the ending.

[spoiler]It may not have been made super clear at what point he may have bailed out of the plane, but I think that is a minor point. And indeed as marie said, he lied about the auto-pilot as he wanted people to believe he is dead, which is also why he no problem with revealing his identity to Gordon (through the story with the coat). I am not sure if Batman or Blake repaired the bat signal...[/spoiler]

[Dragonfire]

I completely agree with Marie's explanations regarding the ending.

[spoiler]It may not have been made super clear at what point he may have bailed out of the plane, but I think that is a minor point. And indeed as marie said, he lied about the auto-pilot as he wanted people to believe he is dead, which is also why he no problem with revealing his identity to Gordon (through the story with the coat). I am not sure if Batman or Blake repaired the bat signal...[/spoiler]

[spoiler]I think Bruce fixed the Batsignal.  The way it was shown, it seemed like Gordon found that about the same time that John was finding his way to the Batcave.  At least that is my interpretation.  [/spoiler]

I just noticed I got a spoiler out of order in my last post...oops.  The last two are out of order.  Not sure how I managed to do that.

[northbloke]

Thanks Marie,
[spoiler]it certainly hadn't occurred to me that he could have used the last explosion as cover for bailing out. I think you're right there - that's when he did it.

I'm still not 100% convinced by the Alfred bit though, I think if I'd been Alfred I'd react a bit more at seeing Bruce - you know, like a heart attack or something!  That's what made me question whether he was in on it or not.[/spoiler]

On a more general note (and I don't think this needs spoilers), me and a work colleague were debating who was the better villian. He said Bane because he was more of a threat to Batman, both physically and in terms of his ruthlessness and drive. But I argued the Joker was better because he was so unpredictable, Batman couldn't defend against him because he didn't know what he'd do next. What do you all think?

[Tom]

I just came back from watching it. Here my first thoughts without having read the comments in this thread yet. I will do this after posting this.

[spoiler]
I thought the story was too contrived. And there were too many lengths.
I knew from the beginning that Miranda will turn out to be a bad guy. Just in the way she was introduced. And Bruce Wayne just trusting her and telling her everything. Though I thought that there will be a twist that Bruce also knew and will trap her somehow.
Early on I was thinking that Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character could be Robin. And I was right.
Anne Hathaway did a great Catwoman. I think her character was handled well. Bane was okay for the most part, but towards the end he became grading with all his speeches. It didn't help that he couldn't emote with this mask. Very noticable when the camera stayed much too long on his face.
The story was too much of a rehash of the first one. Especially sending Bruce Wayne again to such a prison. And having the bad guy threatening the whole city in the way he did.
I missed Batman in action. They were too few scenes with him. And when there were some, it was for the most part him being beaten up by Bane.
Overall I enjoyed it to some degree. But as of now, not as much as the first two. [/spoiler]

[Tom]

Some additional notes after having read your comments:

[spoiler]
At the end I not for a second believed that Batman died. I knew for certain, that I will see the Alfred in Florence scene. It has been built up to this. Even though I expected it, I am glad it turned out this way. I was a little surprised that the Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character was called Robin. I would have thought that they would leave it at the hints they left throughout the movie and not explicitly tell so. So I was also surprised that he got to find the Batcave.
I was happy that Batman at least gave Gordon a hint so that he knew he was Bruce Wayne. It would have been sad if wouldn't have gotten to know this fact. Especially as so many people got to find out his true identity in the movie. Gordon deserved it most to know.
The scene I loved most acting-wise was the one were Alfred teared up telling Bruce that he will leave him. Great powerful scene.
[/spoiler]

[DJ Doena]

First off, let me say that [spoiler]I hate it when the bad guys die before their plan is foiled. Where's the payoff for the viewer to see them realize they've failed?[/spoiler]

It was an OK movie. I still like the first one the best, even better than TDK.

Random remarks about this film:

[spoiler]Bane beat Batman and Batman then trained where Bane was raised. In the end Bane couldn't beat Batman and simply tried to punch him into oblivion, missing more and more hits. Rocky III anyone?

I did not see the twist with the child coming. But I didn't care either. Did it make any difference in the end that Bane wasn't the child that climbed up?

Friedrich Schiller wrote in his version of William Tell: "Durch diese hohle Gasse muss er kommen." ("He has to come through here."). This isn't Braveheart. These three thousand police officers only armed with hand guns would die by the hundreds in that street if the defenders had actually used their automated weapons. And the falling bodies would have created an additional barrier that would have hindered the cops and given more time to the baddies. It would have ended in a slaughter, not a rumble in the bronx.

Torchwood's Owen was the guy who died by exile on ice. The cop who blew up the bridge was Dexter's Quinn. The black guy who tries to execute future Robin was Stargate SG-1's Teal'c (almost didn't recognize that one!).

The theme of the leading bad guy not being the actual leader was a repeat from Batman Begins and Ra's Al Ghul's charade.

The escape from the prison is merely a plot road block. They have ropes and other stuff. Once you've come this far up surely there is a way to use other items from the prison to help conquer that gap and allow all the prisoners to escape.

The Tumbler was a prototype in the first movie whose primary function (to build a bridge across a river) didn't come to fruition according to Fox. Why are there four of them then?

I didn't like the final action sequence of the Bat against that nuke truck. Yes, they didn't want to stop the truck, just guide it but it looked bad all the same with hime firing all the time and not stopping that thing. Especially considering the fire power of the Bat pod alone.

The Bat was incredibly far out at the sea considering the time that was left. It had to accelerate way beyond 500mph to make that distance - rather unlikely considering he barely managed to lift the nuke.[/spoiler]

[Dragonfire]

Thanks Marie,
[spoiler]it certainly hadn't occurred to me that he could have used the last explosion as cover for bailing out. I think you're right there - that's when he did it.

I'm still not 100% convinced by the Alfred bit though, I think if I'd been Alfred I'd react a bit more at seeing Bruce - you know, like a heart attack or something!  That's what made me question whether he was in on it or not.[/spoiler]

On a more general note (and I don't think this needs spoilers), me and a work colleague were debating who was the better villian. He said Bane because he was more of a threat to Batman, both physically and in terms of his ruthlessness and drive. But I argued the Joker was better because he was so unpredictable, Batman couldn't defend against him because he didn't know what he'd do next. What do you all think?

Bane was more of a physical threat as he showed...but I think Joker was the better villain overall.  Like you said, more unpredictable and harder to figure out how to deal with.

[Dragonfire]

I just came back from watching it. Here my first thoughts without having read the comments in this thread yet. I will do this after posting this.

[spoiler]
I thought the story was too contrived. And there were too many lengths.
I knew from the beginning that Miranda will turn out to be a bad guy. Just in the way she was introduced. And Bruce Wayne just trusting her and telling her everything. Though I thought that there will be a twist that Bruce also knew and will trap her somehow.
Early on I was thinking that Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character could be Robin. And I was right.
Anne Hathaway did a great Catwoman. I think her character was handled well. Bane was okay for the most part, but towards the end he became grading with all his speeches. It didn't help that he couldn't emote with this mask. Very noticable when the camera stayed much too long on his face.
The story was too much of a rehash of the first one. Especially sending Bruce Wayne again to such a prison. And having the bad guy threatening the whole city in the way he did.
I missed Batman in action. They were too few scenes with him. And when there were some, it was for the most part him being beaten up by Bane.
Overall I enjoyed it to some degree. But as of now, not as much as the first two. [/spoiler]

[spoiler]I thought that Joseph Gordon-Levitt -John - would be an ally.  I even started to suspect later in the movie that he could be a replacement Batman..but I didn't expect the Robin connection.  I didn't feel like it was a rehash..more like a continuation since the League of Shadows wasn't fully eliminated before.  And with Ra having a daughter, I think it makes sense that she would try to do what her father couldn't.. She was raised by him and ended up with his...umm..somewhat warped view of things.  I thought it felt more like it was coming full circle and fully concluding everything.
I didn't mind that Batman wasn't in action as much this time.  For one thing, he's older and has tried to put that behind him.  Then he needed to go through what he did to finally deal with everything.

I really liked Hathaway as Catwoman.  It's a good, interesting version of the character.[/spoiler]

[Dragonfire]

Some additional notes after having read your comments:

[spoiler]
At the end I not for a second believed that Batman died. I knew for certain, that I will see the Alfred in Florence scene. It has been built up to this. Even though I expected it, I am glad it turned out this way. I was a little surprised that the Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character was called Robin. I would have thought that they would leave it at the hints they left throughout the movie and not explicitly tell so. So I was also surprised that he got to find the Batcave.
I was happy that Batman at least gave Gordon a hint so that he knew he was Bruce Wayne. It would have been sad if wouldn't have gotten to know this fact. Especially as so many people got to find out his true identity in the movie. Gordon deserved it most to know.
The scene I loved most acting-wise was the one were Alfred teared up telling Bruce that he will leave him. Great powerful scene.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler]I hoped that he wasn't dead..but I was convinced by that funeral scene.  But when the other things started to be shared, then I started hoping..especially when it went to Alfred getting to his table.  I would have been so pissed if we hadn't gotten to see Bruce there.
I liked that he let Gordon know his real identity too. 
That was a very powerful scene.  Michael Caine was great in this movie.[/spoiler]

[Dragonfire]

First off, let me say that [spoiler]I hate it when the bad guys die before their plan is foiled. Where's the payoff for the viewer to see them realize they've failed?[/spoiler]

It was an OK movie. I still like the first one the best, even better than TDK.

Random remarks about this film:

[spoiler]Bane beat Batman and Batman then trained where Bane was raised. In the end Bane couldn't beat batman and simply tried to punch him into oblivion, missing more and more hits. Rocky III anyone?

I did not see the twist with the child coming. But I didn't care either. Did it make any difference in the end that Bane wasn't the child that climbed up?

Friedrich Schiller wrote in his version of William Tell: "Durch diese hohle Gasse muss er kommen." ("He has to come through here."). This isn't Braveheart. These three thousand police officers only armed with hand guns would die by the hundreds in that street if the defenders had actually used their automated weapons. And the falling bodies would have created an additional barrier that would have hindered the cops and given more time to the baddies. It would have ended in a slaughter, not a rumble in the bronx.

Torchwood's Owen was the guy who died by exil on ice. The cop who blew up the ridge was Dexter's Quinn. The black guy who tries to execute future Robin was Stargate SG-1's Teal'c (almost didn't recognize that one!).

The theme of the leading bad guy not being the actual leader was a repeat from Batman Begins and Ra's Al Ghul's charade.

The escape from the prison is merely a plot road block. They have ropes and other stuff. Once you've come this far up surely there is a way to use other items from the prison to help conquer that gap and allow all the prisoners to escape.

The Tumbler was a prototype in the first movie whose primary function (to build a bridge across a river) didn't come to fruition according to Fox. Why are there four of them then?

I didn't like the final action sequence of the Bat against that nuke truck. Yes, they didn't want to stop the truck, just guide it but it looked bad all the same with hime firing all the time and not stopping that thing.

The Bat was incredibly far out at the sea considering the time that was left. It had to accelerate way beyond 500mph to make that distance - rather unlikely considering he barely managed to lift the nuke.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Since there is the connection to Ra with Talia, I think it works for her to be in the background like her father had been given how that was set up.  I didn't expect it, but I think it works.

I can't remember if there were more than one in the first movie.  I'm thinking Lucius talked about 2 of them being used to build the bridge.  The one that Bruce test drove was in that camouflage color..he asked if it came in black.  I guess I thought that they built a new black one for Bruce/Batman. 

I didn't think how far out the Bat went at the end.  Maybe it has some sort of turbo boost or something.[/spoiler]

[Achim]

[spoiler]I didn't think how far out the Bat went at the end.  Maybe it has some sort of turbo boost or something.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]the fact that Karsten even at the very end was thinking about such details showed that he was not fully into the movie. The general belief is, that if the movie captivates the audience enough then the movie makers can pretty much do whatever they want towards the end. Admittedly, I had similar problems in regards to the timer (I mentioned) and the kiss (not sure I mentioned). It just drives me up the wall when there is only two minutes left to save millions of people and the heroes waste time with extensive kissing...

Good points though, Karsten. Shows me yet again how much the viewers can suspend disbelief![/spoiler]

[northbloke]

[spoiler]Bane beat Batman and Batman then trained where Bane was raised. In the end Bane couldn't beat Batman and simply tried to punch him into oblivion, missing more and more hits. Rocky III anyone?

[spoiler]My interpretation of this was that Batman learned that Bane's mask held back the pain, and so in the second fight specifically targeted it. I assumed it was the increasing pain that caused Bane to start lashing out.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]The Bat was incredibly far out at the sea considering the time that was left. It had to accelerate way beyond 500mph to make that distance - rather unlikely considering he barely managed to lift the nuke.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Distance is deceptive at sea. The horizon is on average only 3 miles away, and the safe distance was only 6 miles. I think the Bat could have made that distance easily enough.[/spoiler]

[Achim]

[spoiler]Distance is deceptive at sea. The horizon is on average only 3 miles away, and the safe distance was only 6 miles. I think the Bat could have made that distance easily enough.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Didn't he have less than two minutes on the clock when he took off...? 6 miles in 2 minutes incl. the slow start would require him to go quite fast. Oh, and the moment he needed to get out safely. It's one of those things that don't quite matter when you watch the film, but feels awkward when looked at in the light of day.[/spoiler]

[Dragonfire]

[spoiler]I didn't think how far out the Bat went at the end.  Maybe it has some sort of turbo boost or something.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]the fact that Karsten even at the very end was thinking about such details showed that he was not fully into the movie. The general belief is, that if the movie captivates the audience enough then the movie makers can pretty much do whatever they want towards the end. Admittedly, I had similar problems in regards to the timer (I mentioned) and the kiss (not sure I mentioned). It just drives me up the wall when there is only two minutes left to save millions of people and the heroes waste time with extensive kissing...

Good points though, Karsten. Shows me yet again how much the viewers can suspend disbelief![/spoiler]
[/quote]

[spoiler]That's a good point too.  I was pulled into the movie at that point and not concerned about those things.
With that kiss...it really wasn't extensive.  At least I don't remember it being that extensive.[/spoiler]

[Jimmy]

That almost looks like a meeting between the CSIS, the CIA and the MI6