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Anyone seen The Dark Knight Rises recently? It ages so damn bad!

entremet

entremet

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Oct 26, 2017
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I didn't enjoy TDKR when it came out in theaters, like most of class and taste. But during a recent rewatch, I don't what happened. The Dark Knight is not my favorite of the trilogy, I prefer Batman Begins, but I can appreciate the ambition The Dark Knight. It felt very noir.

The Dark Knight Rises keeps that serious tone, but it doesn't make sense. Bane is a joke with these types of lines in that weird voice:

"Ah you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding!"

I can forgive the terrible fight choreography. Nolan has never been good with this. But really, the ultra realism of the previous entry makes this a bit strange. Bruce Wayne escaping a mysterious jail with barely any help and coming back to Gotham in record time, the Dalia reveal, Catwoman being nothing really. The so called Robin cop dude. This movie is a mess.

I honestly think Nolan was tired at this point with the Batman project and it shows.

Has anyone revisited this recently? Did it age well for you?
 
Visanideth

Visanideth

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Oct 31, 2017
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It wasn't the best even when it was just released. The movie felt too much like the way the titular character was portrayed: tired, defeated and unable to land a convincing punch.
 
Orange

Orange

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it didn't age poorly, it just was never good
 
Yager

Yager

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Oct 26, 2017
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Those things you are listing have nothing to do with aging bad. The problems the movie had were always there and have nothing to do with the context of the film, special effects looking bad or that kind of stuff.
 
Deleted member 11093

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For me TDK is the one who aged the worse, I saw the trilogy last week with my sister who LOVES to nitpick every goddamn plot-hole and I found myself agreeing with her more than I could admit.
 
NHarmonic.

NHarmonic.

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Oct 27, 2017
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I love the batman identity reveal scene, but besides from that yeah. It is kind of ridiculous tbh.

Specially Thalia's death. What were they thinking?
 
JLP101

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Oct 25, 2017
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It was obvious from the start it was the weakest of the trilogy. So many things in the story were laughable.
 
sir_crocodile

sir_crocodile

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Oct 25, 2017
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No plans to revisit it as it was bad enough the first time round. Awful film. Would rather watch Batman & Robin. At least that has some cheese and nice set design
 

Deleted member 1003

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I wasn't a fan when I saw it in theaters, everything about it just felt off. Bane was the worst villain that I could barely understand.
 
DeathyBoy

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Oct 29, 2017
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I mean if you think it's the least of the three, fine. I get that. But a flat out bad film? Really?

I just don't see that at all.

But the old board had people who maintained Alfred dreamed the final scene. So, if anything, Nolan underestimated how much exposition the paying audience needed.

ETA - it's still top tier for superhero films.
 
Pop-O-Matic

Pop-O-Matic

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Oct 25, 2017
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I mean, it came out the same year as The Avengers. It already looked like shit compared to that.
 
Arta

Arta

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entremet said:
I didn't enjoy TDKR when it came out in theaters, like most of class and taste. But during a recent rewatch, I don't what happened. The Dark Knight is not my favorite of the trilogy, I prefer Batman Begins, but I can appreciate the ambition The Dark Knight. It felt very noir.

The Dark Knight Rises keeps that serious tone, but it doesn't make sense. Bane is a joke with these types of lines in that weird voice:

"Ah you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding!"

I can forgive the terrible fight choreography. Nolan has never been good with this. But really, the ultra realism of the previous entry makes this a bit strange. Bruce Wayne escaping a mysterious jail with barely any help and coming back to Gotham in record time, the Dalia reveal, Catwoman being nothing really. The so called Robin cop dude. This movie is a mess.

I honestly think Nolan was tired at this point with the Batman project and it shows.

Has anyone revisited this recently? Did it age well for you?
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That Bane quote was one of the few times where his voice got really dark and threatening. It was badass!

And Bruce escaping and getting back to Gotham is one of those things that only bothers people when they don't like the movie overall. In Batman Begins, Bruce survives going around the world and there is famously no transition between him escaping the League and hopping on a plane for Gotham.

He did it in Rises because he's the legendary Batman. Again, this is one of those script issues that people ignore or handwave in beloved movies, like in TDK when Batman saves Rachel only to leave the Joker and some pissed off henchmen with hostages at the top of Wayne tower.
 
Maximo

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Oct 25, 2017
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Felt like a bad 80s terrorist movie that happened to feature Batman in some of it.
 
Karnova

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Look I don't care what Nolan or the producers say I'm convinced TDKR was done out of obligation and that's purely because of Ledger's untimely demise.

We all know that had he lived we would have gotten a Batman 3 where he played a major element.
 
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entremet

entremet

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Arta said:
That Bane quote was one of the few times where his voice got really dark and threatening. It was badass!

And Bruce escaping and getting back to Gotham is one of those things that only bothers people when they don't like the movie overall. In Batman Begins, Bruce survives going around the world and there is famously no transition between him escaping the League and hopping on a plane for Gotham.

He did it in Rises because he's the legendary Batman. Again, this is one of those script issues that people ignore or handwave in beloved movies, like in TDK when Batman saves Rachel only to leave the Joker and some pissed off henchmen with hostages at the top of Wayne tower.
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With Begins, there is more time, though. The time from escaping unknown jail to going to Gotham was rather fast! I think that's what caused people to criticize it. It's very comic booky, and that's fine if the series didn't have more dramatic aims as it did with the prequel.
 
CaviarMeths

CaviarMeths

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Oct 25, 2017
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I remember coming out of the theater in 2012 and feeling so... whelmed. I haven't seen it since. If I'm going to put aside 3 hours of my day to rewatch a movie, I can surely pick one more interesting than TDKR.

I do own it though, because it was cheaper to buy the trilogy than just BB and TDK.
 
Grimm Fandango

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Oct 28, 2017
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Even now I still barely understand Bane. I do have a bit of a hearing problem for voices.

TheEnd said:
For me TDK is the one who aged the worse, I saw the trilogy last week with my sister who LOVES to nitpick every goddamn plot-hole and I found myself agreeing with her more than I could admit.
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I know the limo crash part and Two Face is totally fine is one. What are more? Not trying to sidetrack the thread.
 
Arta

Arta

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Oct 27, 2017
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Karnova said:
Look I don't care what Nolan or the producers say I'm convinced TDKR was done out of obligation and that's purely because of Ledger's untimely demise.

We all know that had he lived we would have gotten a Batman 3 where he played a major element.
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Yeah, I do wonder what we would have gotten with Harvey Dent as the villain with Joker as a Hannibal Lecter type character. We also could have followed up properly on Batman as public enemy number one from the ending of TDK, which is one thing that I'm mad they never really did well in TDKR. Man that would have been a tense as fuck movie!
 
Deleted member 11093

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Grimm Fandango said:
Even now I still barely understand Bane. I do have a bit of a hearing problem for voices.


I know the limo crash part and Two Face is totally fine is one. What are more? Not trying to sidetrack the thread.
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The bus scene at the beginning of the movie and when he leaves the hospital. Just seems that buses work a tad too real in Joker's favor.
 
Haloid1177

Haloid1177

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Oct 25, 2017
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Batman Begins is the only Nolan Batman I can stomach to watch pretty regularly at this point. Rises was always plain bad and the more you watch TDK the more the whole second half of the film just falls apart.
 
Biggersmaller

Biggersmaller

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I love this movie.

entremet said:
Bane is a joke with these types of lines in that weird voice:

"Ah you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding!"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I love Bane's dialogue. Particularly this line. The contempt and condescension is so compelling throughout the movie via the writing and delivery.

entremet said:
The ultra realism of the previous entry makes this a bit strange.
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I am sympathetic to people hating the continuity in this movie. Personally I didn't notice the first time I saw it and can ignore it now. That said, the entire idea of Batman remaining anonymous in the Information age is obscene in any of the films. Making the shadows your ally and using deception my ass.

Still, sometimes I just have to enjoy the ride and not think too hard about it.
 
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entremet

entremet

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Oct 26, 2017
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Haloid1177 said:
Batman Begins is the only Nolan Batman I can stomach to watch pretty regularly at this point. Rises was always plain bad and the more you watch TDK the more the whole second half of the film just falls apart.
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I'm not a huge TDK fanboy. I know that many people love it. But I still find it enjoyable in rewatches. BB is my fav and very much rewatchable. Loved the cast--Katie Holmes, Liam, Murphy, etc.
 
Sgt. Demblant

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Terrible action choreography aside, I still love that film.
A perfect ending for the trilogy as far as I'm concerned, I just wish Batman had actually died or that the ending with Alfred had been a little bit more vague.
But I get caught up in that film every time I watch it. The build-up of the tension is spectacular and I loved Robin's arc. It's not perfect, we all know the memes, but neither were Begins and TDK.

At least I'm glad that outside of this site, it seems to be highly regarded still, so I'm not completely crazy! I particularly loved Kermode's review, I highly recommend it, it's rare to see him that enthusiastic and bullish about a film like this.
 
Strangelove_77

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Oct 25, 2017
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It's such a lazily written movie. I feel like Nolan just didn't care.
 

Deleted member 3058

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It's not that the film aged poorly, it's just that you're now able to watch it for what it always was without hype clouding your judgement.
 
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