I really enjoyed the lack of Bruce Wayne and focus on Batman in this. It’s probably my biggest gripe with Begins and Rises.
i agree it’s nice this film didn’t focus on that aspect of the story (i’m assuming we get much more in the sequels) but i completely disagree re: begins/rises. that wouldn’t be in my top 20 complaints for both movies lol. bale is probably the best wayne we’ve seen.
For sure, he’s probably a better Wayne than he was Batman. I think aside from Heath’s performance the reason I liked TDK so much was it felt the most “Gotham” centric.
Having a lot of Bruce in Begins makes perfect sense. When he finally suits up we do get a lot of suit time for the last act and even a good bit in the second act. It is pretty standard in almost every superhero origin movie. In Rises, it does rub me a little bit that it’s a lot of Bruce vs Batman, especially since the big picture of the movie is to emphasize the role of the symbol of what Batman is for Gotham. But at the same time, the restraint in keeping him out of the suit sort of only makes those scenes stronger.
the bruce stuff is the best part of rises, watching back yesterday. everything with batman is borderline incomprehensible.
I really don’t click with Bale’s Bruce, like, at all, lol. Something about that particular energy misses hard for me. (Funny enough, Knight of Cups is also my least favorite Malick film.) Michael Caine as Alfred is the one very good thing about the civilian shit in those films. The Batman side of Rises is on average the better half for me for sure, both in spite of and because of it being nonsense. Love Hathaway’s Catwoman, love Tom Hardy hamming it up, and love the decision to have a literal old school ticking time bomb.
I didn't really care for either the Bruce or Batman parts of Dark Knight Rises and it's very easily my least favorite of the three
Saw it with my wife for my second viewing (in IMAX) this time and please sign R Patts and Farrell up for lifetime contracts to play Batman and the Penguin
This would be the best use of the Penguin, IMO, especially in his Iceberg Lounge information broker role, where he can be grilled by Batman for leads. Penguin as a character is much better as part of Gotham's scenery than as a main villain.
The worst part of rises is nothing takes place at night. the whole movie is in broad daylight. Then the punch fest at city hall? Or wherever just feels anti climactic. also the batwing or whatever doesn’t work in that universe. Kinda love hathaways catwoman. Like Tom hardy as bane. Like the pit stuff. But overall a bit of a wonky / uneven end to the trilogy. just watched all the Batman solo flicks. Rank time TDK The Batman Begins Rises Returns Batman Forever and Robin are so fucking stupid I wouldn’t mind never seeing either again.
I distinctly remember watching Batman Forever and Batman & Robin back to back at 6 years old and never wanting to see anything Batman related ever again
Haha oddly enough I was invited on to a podcast recording last night about the movie and when we were discussing the Batmobile stuff I joked that this movie was lacking an iconic line like “I’ll get drive thru”.
TDK The Batman Returns Begins Batman (1989) The LEGO Batman Movie TDKR Forever & Robin Batman: The Movie (1966) Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice