Mike86

I actually like Batman Begins the best too but I do love all three films. I think that people put The Dark Knight on a ridiculously high pedestal and thought that if The Dark Knight Rises didn't live up to every expectation they had it was immediately going to suck. Truth of the matter is The Dark Knight Rises really isn't as bad as a lot of people like to make it out to be and for the most part the complaints people have about it are nitpicky things that a normal person would only complain about if they were looking for reasons to tear it down.

We don't necessarily have to see all of how Bruce came to be Batman again but that's everything I loved about Batman Begins frankly. Everything from the training sequences at the beginning with Ra's to his returning to Gotham and Wayne Enterprises and putting together the equipment. To me that was awesome as a Batman fan to see.

PhantomStranger

The Dark Knight Rises has severe structural issues, if that same movie had been made with less popular characters it would have gotten a much worse reputation. Bane's voice alone is enough to criticize as a major weakness. It really feels like two movies that Nolan tried to cram into one.

The Dark Knight is just about the pinnacle of superhero storytelling in film, and Batman is about my tenth favorite comic book character. This is not a Batman fanboy speaking its praise.

Josh-da-man

I think TDK is probably the highest regarded film because it has the Joker and Two-Face.

BB is problematic because it uses Scarecrow and Ra's Al Ghul as the villains. Neither were really a part of the pop culture consciousness like some of the other members of Batman's rogue's gallery.

TDKR also suffers from rehashing Ra's Al Ghul from the first movie and being the final installment of what should be an open-ended series.

TDK, on the other hand, features the Joker, Batman's best known nemesis, and has a fully active Batman ... neither a neophyte superhero nor a battered Batman nearing his retirement. And it not only features The Joker and Two-Face, but fresh takes on both characters.

fumanstan

All the movies are appropriately rated!

RocShemp

I agree. BB is easily my favorite.

I'd actually rank the films in release order as they got progressively worse. However, I am entertained by all three.

PhantomStranger

The whole marketing campaign is a ruse. Batman Vs. Superman is really going to be unveiled as...wait for it...Batman Vs. Robin. They were going to call it Batman Vs. Nightwing, but about 3000 people know him as Nightwing. I hear Superman does make a cameo as Clark Kent in one scene.

Hazel Motes

See I find the same to be true of The Dark Knight but even moreso. The way they introduced Harvey Dent, cast doubt on his character, killed Rachel, turned him into Two Face and killed him, all in the same film was comically rushed. The film was 2 hours and 40 minutes, but still felt like it was cramed with enough plot for 3 movies.

Why So Blu?

Agreed.

auto

Weird we've never had this discussion before.

PhantomStranger

Except they tried to cram two or three good movies into The Dark Knight. The Dark Knight Rises has two or three bad movies crammed into it.

I'll never forgive Nolan for some of the stylistic choices he made in TDKR, especially his nameless version of Catwoman and the Robin that isn't Robin. WB should have forced him into making it a series of four movies instead of a trilogy. He must have really hated the characters by the end.

Mike86

I agree with the Selina Kyle storyline. Her character should have gotten more screen time than what The Dark Knight Rises gave us. I liked Hathaway's version of the character from the little bit that we saw. I think the problem with her in the film is that the film probably worked her in just enough to show her as a love interest for Bruce and a reason for him to stop being Batman and live his life happily after the events of the film.

I think that the Blake (or Robin if you really want to think of him that way) storyline was fairly good though. I feel that the way the film ended and left it open ended for the viewer to make their own assumptions as to what happens next was a good fit to end the trilogy on. I don't feel like we necessarily had to see him in action as Robin or Batman but we have a good idea that he's capable of being that figure in the future.

PhantomStranger

The comics are always my reference point, I grew up with them. I felt it kind of hollow that Bruce would fall in love with a thief he barely knew and then retire with her. In the imagined future of most what-if scenarios, there is a long history between the two and it takes decades for the two to eventually end up together in a committed relationship.

I understand that storyline is a non-starter in this trilogy, but it felt like Hollywood forcing a conclusion towards happiness because the audience demands it.

I didn't mind Hathaway as Catwoman and even a lack of costume didn't bother me that much, but not including a small reference to her codename was a petty move by Nolan.

Solid Snake

Meh. She had the suit, played the character, and she worked well for it. By that point I didn't need the name.

I didn't mind the romance bit in Kyle and Wayne. The Talia bit was way more ridiculous.

I actually liked how Bats was going out. That was a rarity for us to see in our more famous heroes.

Saying that... The script had a lot of issues of stupidity but I really enjoyed it. Damn you, Wally and Nolan.

Mike86

I do think that the love story between Bruce and Selina was probably a bit of pressure that Nolan maybe gave into but truthfully I didn't hate it. I believed enough by the end of the film that Bruce believed her and him were pretty similar and could be a decent couple. It's obviously not fair to compare their relationship from the comics to the film since a film you only have so much time to devote to a story whereas comics can run for ages and build up relationships. The film left it open enough though that a variety of things could have still happened at the end even though we saw them together. It's not like they were madly in love with children or something at the end.

As for Nolan not calling her Catwoman directly, it honestly didn't bother me. We got the idea of who she was and there was the hint about her being a cat burglar in the headline we saw Bruce looking at when he was trying to find out more about her which to me was enough. I don't think it's got anything to do with him being petty as we got other characters who have supervillain names but more just that it wasn't necessarily needed. Plus I think most non comic readers who don't know the backstory of Selina Kyle/Catwoman probably think of her more as a villain if you call her Catwoman rather than the good and bad character from the comics. I think calling her Selina and making her a bit more of an antihero made people realize that she's not always bad.

RocShemp

Nolan havin Selina referenced as a cat burglar in one of the newspaper clippings Bruce looks through is a reference to the character originally being called "The Cat" in her first appearance in the comics. Nothing petty by the Nolan Bros. at all.

PhantomStranger

I'm almost positive that Nolan would have never called him Batman if WB would have allowed it. Nolan certainly was no fanboy growing up.

Solid Snake

Where does all this bullshit of Nolan hating Batman? He liked Batman fine. His brother was the fanboy. Nolan had an idea for the tone and look of Batman, WB was attracted to it and ran with it. He was a moderate fan of it. You don't have to be a fanboy to do a superhero movie.

Abob Teff

I hear they cast Christian Bale as Batman ...

RocShemp

Rumour is Liam Neeson is playing Ra's Al Ghul. But the magazine that broke the story issued a retraction and now a picture was leaked of Ken Watanabe as Ra's Al Ghul. But if you compare the photos, Neeson looks more like Ra's and Watanabe kind of looks like a live action version of Ubu.

Solid Snake

Hey, amoo. Shut the fuck up with your canned meat shit and fuck off.

JumpCutz

Please, someone ban this amoo idiot. I think his intentions are obvious.

Solid Snake

He wants to honor us with his canned meat?

JumpCutz

Indeed.

He's an account manager at Hormel. Nuff said.

Mike86

Yeah Nolan didn't hate the character. He may have not been a huge fanboy but he at least respected the character and used a lot of ideas to base his films on from comic arcs. I think he did justice to the character but just wanted to go about it in a different way than comic book films are traditionally done. It worked well regardless of what people like to think after the fact and I think Nolan should still get a lot of credit for bringing credibility back to the character (on screen at least) after it was all but destroyed with Batman & Robin.

Abob Teff

Who is amoo? Will Ben Affleck be playing him?

Has this thread completely jumped the rails?