Dark Knight Rises (open spoilers past the first post)

I want to get this thread started, since I’m seeing Dark Knight Rises pretty soon and am going to want a place to discuss it, spoilerishly, after I see it.

I’ll avoid the thread until I see it, but I am putting it in place now. :slight_smile:

Anyone seen it? Thoughts? Also, any thoughts on the overall Batman trilogy Nolan made?

I’ll leave you with my last minute prediction, based on…nothing. I’ve only seen one commercial and some still pictures. I’m totallly unspoiled:

I think Batman will die, though only Batman. I think Bruce Wayne will somehow manage to privately escape, essentially faking his own death and he’ll…uh, retire or something. No idea if the world will know Bruce Wayne was Batman, but I’m guessing he leaves Gotham anyway. Maybe moves to Tibet or something.

OK, begin the discussion or make your last second crazy predictions!

An early review said it had a “literally” back-breaking conclusion so I take that to mean the movie follows the storyline of the comics and Bane will cripple Batman.

Since there doesn’t seem to be a Robin in this Bat-verse I wonder who will pick up the mantle? Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character perhaps?

According to one of the spoilers posted on-line, yes.

**DWMarch: ** This universe most-certainly does have a Robin.

There was nothing after the credits. I really wanted Bruce and Selena looking at a baby saying “Lets name her Helena.”

I saw the “twist” coming – when everyone in the pit kept saying child not boy, I knew it could not be Bane.

One of the thinks that was great was the Noble Lie was corroding those who kept it. Gordon, Alfred and Bruce all paid for the 8 years of that lie.

I’ll write more later, but I thought it was a well done movie but I still like Batman Begins best. I think this was the weakest of the three.

That was a pretty good guess from the OP.

I loved it, it may not have quite reached the highs of TDK but it was a very satisying conclusion. I don’t think JGL will actually become Robin, he’s not Dick Grayson so there’s no reason to think that was anything but a little nod. NightWing possibly, but more likely he’ll take up the cape and cowl himself. It was an ambiguous ending though which I liked.

OK - so I was enjoying it up until the digital copy at my theater went on the fritz 30 minutes from the end (or so) from the end. The theater finally gave up after the revelation of Talia. So anyone want to spoiler the last part of the film for me? (inside spoiler boxes would be fine)

I thought it was good, not great. Certainly better than Dark Knight, which I found mostly plodding and convoluted, but not anywhere near as good as Begins.

It’s kind of weird to have a Batman movie without Batman…I think it threw off the pacing a bit. Also, a lot of things seems very telegraphed in this. Though it was redeemed by having one of the funniest lines in the series (paraphrased): “So that’s what that feels like.”

Did not see Robin coming though, but my friend who saw it with me did.

Not sure exactly when you got cut off, but IIRC (might be small mistakes or omissions): [spoiler]Talia reveals herself as Ra’s al Ghul’s daughter. She was the “child” in the pit prison, and Bane was her protector. After she escaped, she came back with her father but Bane had been severely injured before they got there. Ra’s initially took Bane into the League of Shadows, but then kicked him out because he was such a horrible reminder of what happened to his wife and daughter.

So Talia tries to remotely detonate the nuke (with still about 11 minutes left on the countdown timer), but Gordon had managed to get aboard the truck with the nuke and attack the signal-blocking device. Talia gets in one of the camo-painted tank vehicles (can’t remember the name) and goes to intercept the truck to ensure they can’t reinsert the nuke into the fusion power plant and disarm it. She leaves Batman with Bane, and says she won’t kill him right now because she wants him to burn when the nuke goes off and destroys his city. As soon as she leaves, Bane decides he wants to kill Batman himself. It’s not looking good for Batman, when all of a sudden Bane gets blown away (literally blown across the room) - by Catwoman who has returned on the Batcycle having evidently decided not to get of the city as fast as possible.

There’s a car/tank chase scene, with the tanks firing missiles at the Bat vehicle/copter. Talia manages to climb from one of the tanks into the truck carrying the nuke. Eventually the three bad guy tanks get taken out one by one. The truck carrying the nuke crashes and Talia is mortally wounded. In her dying speech she reveals that she has activated the flooding system for the facility under the river where the fusion plant is (intercut to Lucius Fox narrowly escaping the flooding room by climbing a ladder). So even though they have the nuke, they will be unable to reinsert it into the reactor, and her father’s plan to destroy Gotham will be fulfilled.

During this last little while, those scenes are intercut with Blake getting all the boys from the orphanage/boys home onto a school bus and trying to get them and a bunch of other city residents across the last intact bridge out of town. But the soldiers stationed on the bridge to prevent people from escaping won’t let them leave, since they’re convinced that will cause Bane to detonate the nuke. Blake tries to explain that the nuke’s gonna go off anyways, but they won’t listen. They fire warning shots at his feet, then they blow demolition charges and take out a small section of the bridge to ensure no one can leave.

So now Batman/Catwoman/Commissioner Gordon have the nuke but there’s only four or five minutes left before it blows. Batman hooks it up to the winch on the Bat and decides to fly it offshore. He says he has to fly it himself since there’s no autopilot. Catwoman kisses him. Commissioner Gordon asks who he is, and says people should know who their savior is. Batman won’t give his name, and says that it’s better that Gotham doesn’t know who he is and that he’s just Batman. But then he tells how he remembers a time when a policeman put a jacket on a little boy’s shoulders and comforted him (I can’t remember the line exactly). As Batman takes off, Gordon flashes back to the memory of him comforting the young Bruce Wayne after his parents were killed. He incredulously realizes that Batman is Bruce Wayne. The Bat flies away from the city over the ocean into the foggy distance with the sound of stirring music. The little kids in the bus on the bridge are like “Hey! That’s Batman!” Blake looks wistful. The Bat flies out of sight and the nuke goes off with a bright flash and a mushroom cloud far out over the ocean.

Cut to Commissioner Gordon doing a reading at Bruce Wayne’s funeral on the small family plot (him and his parents tombstones) just outside Wayne Manor. The only other people at the funeral are Alfred and Blake.

Cut to a lawyer reading Bruce Wayne’s will. He had very little money left, but he bequeaths his house and grounds to the city as long as they never tear it down or alter it in any way, and they use it as an orphanage/boys home. The rest of his estate was left to Alfred.

Cut to Blake going somewhere to pick something up (I can’t remember what - maybe paperwork?) but there’s nothing there under John Blake. He says that maybe it’s under his full legal name, and gives them his ID. The lady says she likes his name, and maybe he should start going by Robin instead of John.

Cut to Blake talking to Commissioner Gordon. Gordon asks if he will reconsider resigning from the force, but he says he can’t stay any longer.

*Cut to *Blake putting on climbing gear and going through the waterfall into the Batcave - cut to Lucius Fox talking to R&D guys about how the Bat didn’t have an autopilot, and they say that it does and that Bruce Wayne did a patch and fixed it six months ago - cut to Alfred going to that cafe he used to go to on vacation, and he looks up and sees Bruce looking happy and relaxed and casual and sitting with Selena Kyle, then Bruce catches Alfred’s eye and nods - cut to Blake walking into the Batcave and some of the machinery activating - roll credits. [/spoiler]

Unboxed spoilers below!

Went to the midnight showing with my older two kids (18 and 16). They enjoyed it. Overall it was a decent loud summer popcorn movie, but I had two big issues. I do try to keep in mind that willingly accepting an eccentric billionaire-superhero fighting supervillains with physics-defying technology on the one hand and then nitpicking the film for not being realistic in other areas is somewhat lame, these two things took me totally out of the film:

  1. When climbing out of the prison pit, filled with lots of metal things that could be crafted into anchors and climbing gear, and days and days of spare time prepping for the climb, why, oh why, Bruce, do you not use anchors and a belay system when attempting to climb out? And if not anchors, why not at least wrap a turban around your head so you don’t crack your skull a second time when you make the second attempt? And if not anchors, belay, and skull padding, do you not craft a climbing harness instead of just wrapping the rope around your waist?

  2. Why, in the cops vs thugs battle near the end do the thugs, who up to that point have used snipers very effectively to subdue even the most isolated and remote acts of resistance, and who have at their disposal several miltary-grade Wayne Enterprises tanks, all of which fire lots of large lead projectiles and explosives, not take out the massed cops with their superior firepower? Why allow the fight to become a hand to hand affair? Especially when the cops appear to have decided to make a charge that would make the Redcoats proud? All on foot, all on the street, all walking from one direction, all standing shoulder to shoulder? Mow 'em down like corn!

There were several smaller others, typical gun and tactics mistakes in just about every action movie, but the two I’ve cited are so glaring and so jarring (to me, at least) that the films borders the absurd. Any movie that tries so hard to be serious but becomes absurd is tough to enjoy, at least for me. YMMV.

Got any stock tips for us? Or maybe tomorrow’s lottery numbers? :stuck_out_tongue:

Unboxed Spoilers Below!

Was I the only one who was a little :rolleyes: at Tate’s reasoning of becoming a terrorist? Yet another “I hated my dad but since he’s dead I’ll avenge his death to honor him” reasoning that never really made sense to me. It seemed to come out of nowhere to me.

Also, the chanting used in the well for “rise,” is that from a real language? I can’t make it out from any language that I know. My boyfriend said that to him it sounds like “fish fish, pasta! pasta!” to me, which I think is funny and now that’s all I hear. :slight_smile:

“Deshi Basara” - “He rises” in Moroccan Arabic.

I would guess there are rules about that.

My fanwank: The people behind the thugs (Bane and Talia) care more about theatrics at this point than actual effectiveness in the battle.

Did she say that’s when she turned to crime? I didn’t catch that… I mean, she was raised in a prison, and her dad later taught her how to be a badass ninja in the service of evil (albeit under the guise of “balance”)–so I’d imagine she was up to some pretty bad things already.

There’s no indication from her story that she had a permanent, unmoveable hatred for him. He did something that made her very angry, and she thought she couldn’t forgive him–til he was killed. Nothing unbelievable about that IMO.

I have a question for people who may have been paying more attention to detail then I was - how did the public know Bruce Wayne was dead? They read his will, so it was not just Blake, Alfred and Com. Gordon, who were at gave side that saying he died. I had thought when there was no birth death dates on his grave that it might have been private - just the three of them and then they would wait 7 years to have him declared dead, but that was not the case. Anyone see something I missed? Or if I didn’t miss something anyone got a good fanwank?

I kept thinking I was seeing plot holes–when they all turned out to be foreshadowing the surprises toward the end. I need to remember that in the future…

The one thing about the film I would have changed is, not having Albert see Bruce Wayne directly at the end, but just the (very recognizeable but still ambiguous) back of his head (maybe a sharp angle from the back on his face) talking to Selina Kyle. I don’t think the movie should have made it so plain that Wayne survived. It shouldn’t matter, especially given the way the film tries to have a message involving the idea that “real identities” don’t count and only actions matter.

I disagree. This is an actions count moment. Alfred has said the only important thing to him is that he sees Bruce being happy.

Some closure is nice, every once in a while. Last thing I want to see is another did the spinning top fall discussion.

Huh? As in the guys in the prison purposefully making it harder for themselves to escape? If so, then why does BW push the thick coil of rope off the top of the well (presumably anchored to surface) down to the guys below to make it easier for them to follow him?

Aren’t they the crazies and prisoners released from the “Bastille”? Why would they opt for theatrics over firepower?

A good movie wouldn’t rely on the fans covering for poor story telling, IMO.