[Maritime Q-Scout]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

This movie went exactly as I feared after watching the trailers. I think the best way for me to describe this one is "vapid". The first two movies were fantastic for two reasons: First, they were set in a realistic world, and second, the villains were well developed, both in their own characters and in their conflicts with Batman. For all their efforts, I never got the impression that Bane was anything more than a 'roided up thug while his conflict with Batman was as deep as a bottle cap. Ras al Ghul and Joker were far superior foils.

On Harvey Dent:

Spoiler!

Ridiculously over the top. "Harvey Dent Day isn't one of our oldest holidays, but it is one of our most important"? WTF? Gordon's plans to tell the truth eight years later, for no apparent reason. He changes his mind for no apparent reason. Silly. Bane gets the letter, reveals to the world the truth. The needed to reveal Two Face as the bad guy and Batman as the good to achieve the "Dark Knight Rises" part, but man, they fumbled it.

On lost realism:

Spoiler!

This is where the movie utterly fell down for me. The entire siege of Gotham was completely unrealistic, right up to the point where the outside authorities do absolutely nothing about it. 12 million people have apparently descended into anarchy and other than the ridiculous court scenes, it doesn't seem life has changed much for anyone but the important characters.

I did, however, get a good chuckle out of "So you choose Death ...by exile!" line.

Others loved it, but I HATED the football stadium scene. Both because it was a prime example of the "bigger 'splosions makes for a better story" fallacy, and because it was unrealistic. The football player doesn't realize the world is collapsing below his feet? The stadium itself is perfectly untouched? The crowd simply stops and stares for the most part? Brutal.

Finally, you invent a plot device that has a five-month timer, after which it will become too unstable and blow up. And yet, they can somehow bounce the damn thing around like a basketball within minutes of boom time (as if they'd know precisely when) without consequence? That entire "months to detonate" bit should have just been written out for how worthless it was, given the end game was Talia hitting the trigger instead.

Honestly, this one fell down as badly as Spiderman 3 and Matrix Revolutions did.

(un)fortunately...

Spoiler!

The setup for more sequels was so obvious that they have a chance to redeem themselves.

A few thoughts:

On Harvey Dent

Spoiler!

They praised Dent like a hero, it was his death that got the Organized Crime bill past, which eradicated the mob from Gotham. The mob ran the city for decades, yes having a 'holiday' seems over the top. But it's not like it's unprecedented in the United States to do something like this (Martin Luther King Day comes to mind, not to say that day's not deserving or that King = Dent, just that it happens). As for Gordon wanting to tell the truth for "no good reason" I'd have to disagree. I would think losing your family because of the lie would be more than enough reason to tell the truth to try and get them back, the question becomes, does he do it at the cost of the city? Hence the speech being written and him being tormented on giving it or not.

On Realism

Spoiler!

I think you answered your own question when you state that it's complete anarchy but everything seems normal. Well if everything seems normal it's not anarchy. Anarchy isn't what Bane is going for, he's going for a slow death, suffering, but the people have hope they will survive. They live in fear, but that fear keeps everyone in line. Unless you're the 1% you don't need to be worried about the thugs in the street, you just put your head down, get your supplies and live your life.

As for the stadium, I think it's totally realistic that they could cause an explosion or series of explosions and the football player (Hines Ward) not realize it. It's opening kickoff and the place is going nuts. It's probably extremely loud. I've never played football, but I wouldn't imagine those helmets allow the greatest sound in them either. As for the field being destroyed and nothing else. It's possible to rig the explosions to do just that. For example, in real life they rigged up a series of explosions on top of the field at Hines Field without blowing up the stadium or damaging the seats. This was done for a summer blockbuster this year . Remember, Bane wants people to believe he's a liberator, giving them hope, that yes someone had the trigger but not him, someone in Gotham, in the stands even. He wants the people alive, their attention, and wants Batman to think he can save them when Bane thinks he cannot.

Lastly the "timer". They calculated when the thing would go off. Yes the timer on the bomb was kind of stupid. I'm not a nuclear physicist but I'd assume that you could do the math to figure out an approximation as to when the core would detonate due to instability. I mean they made a fusion reactor why not be able to calculate how the fusion works, decays, etc? As for the fragility of the casing, I just assumed that the casing would be durable, it looked like it would need more than a bump to make it explode. While it was a bomb, it wasn't designed to be a bomb, it was designed to be an energy source, thus I'd assume it's casing would be stronger to withstand things such as an earthquake or tornado. Then again, the flood would short it out (but perhaps that also has to do with the water.

I don't have all the answers, but I think I have some decent theories regarding your criticisms (which are fair, don't get me wrong).

A few things that I picked up that I liked after seeing it twice now.

Spoiler!

1. I liked Bane's voice, there's something sophisticated about it, even though it's mechanical.

2. Anne Hathaway in the catsuit was amazing. That once scene where she's on the bike and goes to shoot an opening in the tunnel, and she arches her back and sticks her butt in the air. It made me feel fuzzy in my nether regions.

3. The Talia al Gul twist was great. I kicked myself for not seeing it the first time. I paid extra attention the second time seeing it to see if the twist did make sense. It does, right down to Bruce assuming the child is Bane. He comes to that realization after the man taking care of him actually mentions Bane in relation to Talia. In addition, Bane tells Bruce that he was a man before seeing the light of day, thus he couldn't have been the child. Clever writing.

4. Almost as clever as having Talia be the one that confirms if the bomb is on a specific truck. First time watching the film I assumed they moved the bomb. Then I realized they "determine" the bomb is on the truck because Talia told them. A very minor detail that causes a major problem for the protagonists.

5. Last, I rolled my eyes and sighed loudly in the theatre last night when John Blake's legal name was determined to be "Robin". But, now I kind of like it. An ongoing theme of the whole series was wearing a mask. Robin did that, he used a different name in stead of wearing a mask (because he learned too late to hide the anger?) He was an orphan, taken under the wing of Batman, knows his true identity, was a ward of the boarding house funded by Bruce Wayne. There actually were a number of parallels to the comics for Robin. However, there were enough changes to make it a neat little between the lines nod, rather than "Holy Metal Batman!"

So yeah, the movie, it was alright I guess I'll give it my worst review yet, seven thumbs up.