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Rating: 8.5 stars

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All movies seen on 07/18/2020

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The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Action | Crime | Thriller

Most recently watched by VicnaLobster, sensoria, GMOM65, lordofthemovies, ashe5k, jeneot33, SIxBORG, Angjonesy, lolareels, wolverinefactor

Overview

Following the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman assumes responsibility for Dent’s crimes to protect the late attorney’s reputation and is subsequently hunted by the Gotham City Police Department. Eight years later, Batman encounters the mysterious Selina Kyle and the villainous Bane, a new terrorist leader who overwhelms Gotham’s finest. The Dark Knight resurfaces to protect a city that has branded him an enemy.

Rated PG-13 | Length 165 minutes

Actors

Christian Bale | Michael Caine | Gary Oldman | Anne Hathaway | Tom Hardy | Marion Cotillard | Joseph Gordon-Levitt | Morgan Freeman | Matthew Modine | Juno Temple | Ben Mendelsohn | Burn Gorman | Daniel Sunjata | Cillian Murphy | Alon Aboutboul | Liam Neeson | Nestor Carbonell | Josh Stewart | Aidan Gillen | Tom Conti | Joey King | Josh Pence | John Nolan | Warren Brown | Sam Kennard | Nick Julian | Miranda Nolan | Claire Julien | Brett Cullen | Reggie Lee | Joseph Lyle Taylor | Chris Ellis | Duane Henry | James Harvey Ward | Gonzalo Menendez | Cameron Jack | Lex Daniel | Tyler Dean Flores | Thomas Lennon | Trevor White | Rob Brown | Daina Griffith | Fredric Lehne | Courtney Munch | Chris Hill | Travis Guba | Jay Benedict | Will Estes | David Dayan Fisher | Glen Powell | Ben Cornish | Russ Fega | Andres Perez-Molina | Brent Briscoe | Oliver Cotton | Mark Killeen | Sarah Goldberg | John MacMillan | Robert Wisdom | Ronnie Gene Blevins | John Hollingworth | Ian Bohen | Uri Gavriel | Noel Gugliemi | Hector Atreyu Ruiz | Patrick Cox | Aramis Knight | William Devane | David Gyasi | Patrick Jordan | Joshua Elijah Reese | Desmond Harrington | Mychael Bates | Tomas Arana | Peter Holden | David Monahan | Jillian Armenante | Aja Evans | Aldous Davidson | Wade Williams | Jake Canuso | Julie Mun | Rory Nolan | Harry Coles | Massi Furlan | Todd Gearhart | Christopher Judge | Patrick Leahy | Kevin Kiely Jnr | Daniel Newman | Isiah Adams | Charlie Alejandro | Robert Arensen | Grant Babbitt | Fileena Bahris | Rick Bolander | Kyle Patrick Brennan | Scott Churchson | Bill Cowher | Graham Curry | Aaron Eckhart | Stephanie Domini Ehlert | John Farrer | Frank Fata | Christopher Bryan Gomez | Vito Grassi | Michael Wren Gucciardo | Ed Heavey | John W. Iwanonkiw | Cindy Jackson | Daniel Jordano | Tiffany Kemp | Sun Jae Kim | Hrvoje Klecz | Alex Kruz | Tyler La Marr | LeJon | Paul Jude Letersky | Joe Lipari | Silvia Lombardo | Jorge Mardel | Cale McConnell | David Dale McCue | Michael Papajohn | Salomon Passariello | Allen Merritt | Olan Montgomery | Alex Moore | Shane Nolan | Kyle David Pierce | Troy Polamalu | Michael Power | James Rawlings | Kirsten Roeters | Ben Roethlisberger | Mark Roman | Eric Salazar | Emily Schooley | Thomas Tull | Chris Vaina | Barbara Vincent | Justin Michael Woods | Jason Yee | John Zion | Alex Ziwak | Tommy Bayiokos | Jeff Moffitt | Diogo Hausen | Gary Sievers | Orion McCabe | London May | James Quinn | Joe Fishel | Ming Wang | Simon Rhee | Hines Ward | Heath Miller | Collin Taylor | Antonio Piluso | Jackson Nunn | Aljaž Tepina

Viewing History (seen 3 times)

Viewing Notes

Since Classic Cinemas closed again due to the coronavirus pandemic and was unable to sustain their reopening model exhibiting older films I wasn’t gonna be able to see this on the big screen again this week as I did for the previous two films in Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. And this was the one I wanted to see the most on the big screen.

So I got the blu from the library so I could complete the trilogy. If a 4K exists for this I’d really like to own that since this is my favorite film of the three. It’s a strange revisit b/c my mind has misremembered certain things and forgot others. Also hard to believe this was released 8 years ago. Seems like such a different lifetime for me then. Compared the glitz and glamor of the previous film, this is such a blue collar approach from the characters to the motivations to the setting and overall concept.

Bane positions himself as a man of the people and against the authority and corporate greed. Then there’s Selina Kyle born into a life of petty crime and sticking it to the man in her theft exploits. All the cop and orphanage stuff plus John Blake is the everyman take. There’s more but all very blue collar. Perhaps even moving to Pittsburgh is yet a piece of that and it’s a noticeable difference. I def missed seeing the skylines and streets of Chicago.

As much as I love this flick it’s not without its faults. All the opening stuff feels clunky now. The exposition drops are silly and feel so inorganic to the story. Like when Dagget just explains what the “Clean Slate” is to the person (Catwoman) who already damn well knows what it is. And despite the obscene runtime of 2:45 some scenes / plotlines feel so rushed. The biggest one is when Bruce Wayne is dropped in the prison. A couple beats later (months later in the movie) he’s on his feet and training to escape. Also there’s so little of actual Batman in this movie.

I love love love Anne Hathaway as Catwoman and wished she could’ve had more screentime. There should’ve been at least one more sequence of her and Batman fighting together. We get a taste of the rooftop when he rescues her but it’s quick. When she takes Batman to see Bane is another tease. Wild to watch this after viewing BATMAN: HUSH this morning when Bats and Catwoman team up. She’s so great here it seems like a missed opportunity to do more w/them together.

The Miranda Tate / Talia misdirect is also weak given the zero payoff on that reveal at the end. Talia stabs Batman and drops the exposition then drives the truck until crashing. Lame. Counter to this is how wonderful Bane is. I just love his style and attitude and weird voice. Very interesting to see how he’s photographed in all his scenes to make him seem so much larger than he is in RL.

I’ve been viewing a lot of Batman content recently and it’s been nice to see these different takes on the character in different films from Schumacher’s to Nolan’s and the animated version. This film is also my favorite Bale portrayal of the character. It’s nice to see Batman get humbled yet still figure out how to save Gotham and disappear at the end.

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