Before I get to the Batman stuff, I have to say I wasn't all that impressed by the Man of Steel trailer. The whole fishing boat stuff at the beginning was confusing. After seeing the DC logo, I suspected it was the Man of Steel trailer, but then we see the fishing boat and I was wondering if there was a secret Aquaman movie I hadn't heard about.
I liked that Selina's "cat ears" on her costume were the night vision part of her mask flipped up, and I don't believe anyone ever referred to her as "Catwoman".
I liked how they used Bane's origin story from the comics, but twisted it to make it Talia's.
It's strange that when they first showed the flashback to Talia escaping the prison, my first thought was "that looks like a girl", (and considering the actress who played young Talia has been the little girl on countless movies and tv shows in recent years: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1428821/, it's no wonder I kind of recognized her). I still didn't clue in that the kid in the prison was actually Talia until it was revealed in the movie. I expected Miranda to be Talia, and I knew that the kid was R'as Al Ghul's child, but I was still expecting the kid to be Bane (probably because I knew Bane's origin story from the comics).
One weird thing about that though, is that Bane was an adult when he was Talia's protector as a child, so he should be around 50 years old in the present, assuming Talia is the same age as Cotillard, but Tom Hardy is actually younger than both Bale and Cotillard.
The reveal of Blake's real name was also a nice touch, and as someone pointed out earlier in the thread, it means that he was Robin all along and we just didn't know it (how's that for a secret identity?). When he first said that whatever he was getting might be under his given name, I was thinking it was going to reveal that his real name was Dick Grayson (or Tim Drake).
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Really enjoyed it. I agree with getbak on Catwoman. I liked how they did the ears, and the fact there are only 2 cat references, but neither major. It was clear who she was without needing to cheese it up with the name.
Things like the 3000 cops all at once rushing into tunnels was definitely unrealistic, but I usually ignore points like that. All 3 of them have giant leaps in logic, but they all fit well with the stories. I'm probably a bit biased though. No trailer for Chinook IMAX really sucked. Justin, were you at the 11:00 pm show?
Really enjoyed it. I agree with getbak on Catwoman. I liked how they did the ears, and the fact there are only 2 cat references, but neither major. It was clear who she was without needing to cheese it up with the name.
Things like the 3000 cops all at once rushing into tunnels was definitely unrealistic, but I usually ignore points like that. All 3 of them have giant leaps in logic, but they all fit well with the stories. I'm probably a bit biased though. No trailer for Chinook IMAX really sucked. Justin, were you at the 11:00 pm show?
Yeah I was there. G11 and G12 The movie just started, I like the trailers to get into the whole theater movie vibe and it felt a little weird, though that feeling only last like 30 seconds.
I thought Bane's voice was well done. I think it was an interesting contrast, as to me he sounded rather smart and well spoken (when you could understand it), which I think most people wouldn't expect from such a powerful man. Just giving him some manly beast voice would have been more comical to me.
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"Think I'm gonna be the scapegoat for the whole damn machine? Sheeee......."
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.
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Bale has softened his stance lately from he would never do another to he would never do another without Nolan
I know Nolan has said this it it for him, but I would imagine if he comes up with a great idea before WB does the inevitable reboot or Justice League (probly 2-3 years) I am holding out hope he come up with a great idea and gets the desire to go back
I would love to see him do something with the Riddler, just based on his filming/writing styles I think it would have been a perfect fit
is with respect to Talia/Bane's master plan. Was it to detonate the bomb all along? If so, why wait 5 months months and run the risk of Batman/the people of Gothham/the US military foiling their plan? Why not just detonate the nuke as soon as they had the chance to? What was the point in letting the people govern themselves when the bomb was always going to blow up no matter what? Did I miss something in the movie that explained this (entirely possible as I had a difficult time understanding Ban)?
is with respect to Talia/Bane's master plan. Was it to detonate the bomb all along? If so, why wait 5 months months and run the risk of Batman/the people of Gothham/the US military foiling their plan? Why not just detonate the nuke as soon as they had the chance to? What was the point in letting the people govern themselves when the bomb was always going to blow up no matter what? Did I miss something in the movie that explained this (entirely possible as I had a difficult time understanding Ban)?
Spoiler!
As Bane explained when he was dragging Bruce to the pit, he wanted to give people the hope for survival first. Let Gotham try and organize and rebuild, only to to blow up the city anyway. Also he wanted to force Bruce to watch as all of his friends and Gothamites were slowly brought into submission.
His plan mostly exemplified what Ra's al Ghul said in the beginning, the League of Shadows plan wasn't only about the total destruction of Gotham. As he said he wanted its destruction to fall like Rome and Constantinople before it, which happened over a long period of time and not just in a day.
Then you add in Bane's sadist personality and you have a guy who takes pleasure in watching other people suffer. As Joker said "Some men just want to watch the world burn", and that's Bane. He just incorporated Talia and Ra's' plan with his own need to watch Gotham be destroyed.
The same goes for why he didn't just kill Batman after the beating in the sewer.
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For those who didn't get the Man of Steel trailer, there are two versions of it, one with Kevin Costner's (Pa Kent) voice over, and one with Russel Crowe's (Jor-El):
I believe the version they showed at Sunridge was the Jor-El version.
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Are the crowds still crazy for this? Like how early should I go to the 1015 pm show?
It's the opening weekend, so the crowds will still be crazy. If you have reserved seat tickets, I'd get there a little before 10, so you have time to hit the concessions. If you're going to a showing without reserved seating, I'd aim for 30-45 minutes before showtime.
These days, I avoid going to movies on Friday and Saturday night of opening weekend, so I could be wrong with those numbers though.
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