The Dark Knight Rises (SPOILERS AHOY)

A thread so those of us who have already seen it can discuss the movie without covering everything in spoiler tags.

Now, I shall bow out until I get back from the midnight screening tomorrow.

"So that's what it feels like."

So could John Robin Blake be the batman in the Justice League movies?

Not much a fan of the Justice League myself.

Robin could very much be the Batman in a continuation (which would also be an in-universe reboot!) series.

I would not object to Joseph Gordon Levitt as Batman.

Spoiler: The movie sucked. Nolan is a hack that ruined Batman. the end.

The theatre lol'd so hard. Well, most of what Catwoman did made the theatre lol.

Death! ... By exile!

Actually, different question. Was Bane playing a vicious game of Xanatos Speed Chess, or was the discovery of Bane's underground tunnels + Gordon's speech just extremely helpful for him?

edited 19th Jul '12 5:43:20 AM by absolclaw

I love that years ago I read a Batman comic featuring Ras Al Ghul in trade paperback, and I'm suspecting Nolan read the same one I picked up as a very casual Batman reader and used it to justify one of the plot twists at the end of this movie.

It's like my brain initially rejected it, but then I remembered... "Wait, Nolan DIDN'T pull this one out of his arse, this is totally legit compared to what I expected, plot twist sustained, next case...".

I also adored how much shit Anne Hathaway as Catwoman utterly ruins in this film. She breaks ALL THE LIMBS.

Her doing a cartwheel and breaking that guys hands casually was hilarious.

Though Bane was the true beast - that was one hell of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. Yay for no shaky cam action!

Also just wanted to note that I liked how Blake learnt that Wayne was Batman. I wouldn't be surprised if some people felt it was cheap, but I liked it.

edited 19th Jul '12 7:08:59 AM by absolclaw

So who killed Bane and why didn't they used the nuke earlier?

Catwoman. He's about to finish off Batman but then Catwoman blasts him with the guns on the Batpod.

EDIT: Okay, I think I can word this better. The bomb is used initially as a threat/deterrent to keep outside forces from entering the city and stopping Bane or trying to escape by an anonymous triggerman. They probably don't want the population knowing the bomb was going to go off either way due to instability.

Now that I think about it, the story itself was very like a comic/The Avengers.

edited 19th Jul '12 7:58:15 AM by absolclaw

So what did most people thought of John Blake being Robin kinda of?

Personally, I am amused to realise that this means that both Marvel and DC have, in their big blockbuster comic book movie adaptations, taken the iconic Kid Sidekick (Bucky and Robin) and reworked his backstory so he's a fully grown adult.

But I think the name was mostly there so the general audience knows that this is the guy who has just been passed the torch. Everyone knows that Robin is Batman's sidekick.

It helps that Blake generally was very likable (and that his plot arc was, in retrospect, basically an origin story for Blake The Hero), but I don't mind it at all. I am generally pretty open to In Broad Strokes adaptations, and I can see the classic teenage hero wouldn't really work well in Nolan's take on the world.

A few things I'd like to know before watching the movie (I don't mind spoilers, and frankly, with my current schedule, I don't know when I'll be able to watch it).

I understand why wouldn't they give Catwoman blatant cat motifs, or even call her that, but does she at least get a few nods? Some mention of her liking and owning cats, for instance?

If I understood it right, at the beginning of the movie Batman has been retired for eight years since the end of TDK, but does that mean he quit just after that movie ended? I got the impression he'd continue working even if he was hunted by the police.

In your opinion, What If? The Joker had been between all those inmates Bane released? (I can see this becoming a common theme in fanfiction for this movie).

I liked it. I mean, he's not really the Robin, rather they took the chance to make a shout out to the character while also reflecting on the 'anyone can be batman' passing the torch thing the movie had going on.

Speaking of Blake, I added to the page that they kind of played with Bruce's Obfuscating Stupidity as Blake saw through it and recognize Bruce was hiding the same pain that he was. Does that count as playing with the trope or is it something different?

I don't remember. Honestly the story didn't focus on her - she felt very much like Jack Sparrow in the original Pirates Of The Caribbean. Also, it's implied that since that night he did retire - he was on the hunt by the police and was a massive priority (which is shown as his attempt to help catch Bane ends up with Bane escaping because of him), with the news shown saying "The Batman is Back?" And no, Joker isn't mentioned - they probably wouldn't have put him in the same prison as those imprisoned as part of the Dent Act.

edited 19th Jul '12 10:18:51 AM by absolclaw

When Bruce and Alfred are looking up Selina and her crimes on the computer in the Batcave, a few of them call her "The Cat" (Which is something of a Mythology Gag, since that was her original name in the comics.) And she's referred to as a Cat Burglar a bit, and wears those cat ears to the ball.

I'm trying to remember if there is anything else.

What happens to scarecrow at the end and did the league of shadows existed before Ra's?

Also did the Dent Act prevented various supervillains from rising in Gotham like the Riddler, black mask, mad hatter, penguin, and etc or were they quickly dealt with it by the Gotham cops?

Catwoman's cat motifs are pretty much limited to the cat ears at the masquerade ball, her rap sheet, and her goggles turning into cat ears when she puts them up. And being a cat burglar. There may have been stuff I missed and will pick up on when I get the DVD release.

And yes, it's implied pretty heavily that Batman retired right after Dent's death.

Scarecrow was presumably put back in prison offscreen after Bane was stopped.

edited 19th Jul '12 2:45:33 PM by Envyus

Eh, it makes the end of TDK a bit of a dramatic letdown in retrospective, then.

Right after being branded an outlaw, right after his best friend states they'll have to hunt him down but he'll keep protecting them because the city needs him... that very night, the man retires. Pfffft. I knew he retired, sure, but I was hoping it'd be after doing some extra work to put the city back on track, not right after capturing Joker.

"Commissioner, the Anti-Batman Task Force we have assembled has just, um, just been sitting there for three months now. Shouldn't we...?"

"(Sigh). Okay, reassign them back to Major Crimes, then..."

Yeah I didn't get that either cause the Harvey Dent Act would've taken awhile to get passed and how would the mostly corrupt police handle the various super-criminals. It would make sense for batman to have retired 6 years ago.

Also does anybody think the ending could've been better?

edited 19th Jul '12 3:55:25 PM by warrior93

I love the ending, honestly.

Batman finally have a normal voice, or does he still think his "Smokes five packs a day" voice makes him seem cool?

edited 19th Jul '12 5:05:04 PM by RichReeders

No normal voice.

He's still audible.

YOUR PUNISHMENT MUST BE MORE SEVERE. Best ironic echo ever.

Also, in this universe there weren't really any super criminals outside of Bane, Talia, Joker, Two-Face, Scarecrow and Ra's.

edited 19th Jul '12 9:57:23 PM by absolclaw

If you want to do the headcanon/fanfic thing, you could probably rework some of them into more mundane criminals: Penguin as the mod boss/night-club runner type, Riddler as a clue leaving wackjob.

Riddler would actually work well as a villain for Blake, since he was a detective more than a fighter.