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The Dark Knight Rises

I watched this last week. I had quite low expectations (in large part I'm not a tremendous Nolan fanboy, as I think he's a classic "style over substance" director). For the record I enjoyed, but didn't love, Batman Begins and thought the Dark Knight was excellent. This movie was on the Batman Begins level for me.

I am shocked that people here wanted the movie to be longer. I personally feel this film could have easily lost 45 minutes and told the same story. As a quick rundown of cuts: 1) Epilogue section (the film is made thematically worse by the various reveals), 2) Football sequence, 3) Wayne boardroom argument, 4) portions of the charity dinner, 5) "pit time" could have been cut in half, etc etc etc. In my mind the number of films that earn these extended screening times is very very small and The Dark Knight Rises falls far short of the lofty standards of things like The Godfather Part II and Seven Samurai. If I'm investing more than two and a half hours in a movie it better change my life.

The adaptation issue from the comics is a mixed bag. Nolan is taking from a wide variety of Batman stories and in many points the story relies more heavily on the "No Man's Land" storylines than it does on the "Knightfall" storylines that originally featured Bane as a primary Batman villain. The invention of the Ra's Al Gul connection is entirely a function of the movie and probably could have been cut entirely to both save time and give Bane more coherent motivations. Personally I didn't feel that tying the movies together through the Al Gul family was strong enough thematically to justify the extra problems that came with it.

In sum, the best movie of the summer is still Moonrise Kingdom.
 
Sirkickyass said:
I watched this last week. I had quite low expectations (in large part I'm not a tremendous Nolan fanboy, as I think he's a classic "style over substance" director). For the record I enjoyed, but didn't love, Batman Begins and thought the Dark Knight was excellent. This movie was on the Batman Begins level for me.

I am shocked that people here wanted the movie to be longer. I personally feel this film could have easily lost 45 minutes and told the same story. As a quick rundown of cuts: 1) Epilogue section (the film is made thematically worse by the various reveals), 2) Football sequence, 3) Wayne boardroom argument, 4) portions of the charity dinner, 5) "pit time" could have been cut in half, etc etc etc. In my mind the number of films that earn these extended screening times is very very small and The Dark Knight Rises falls far short of the lofty standards of things like The Godfather Part II and Seven Samurai. If I'm investing more than two and a half hours in a movie it better change my life.

The adaptation issue from the comics is a mixed bag. Nolan is taking from a wide variety of Batman stories and in many points the story relies more heavily on the "No Man's Land" storylines than it does on the "Knightfall" storylines that originally featured Bane as a primary Batman villain. The invention of the Ra's Al Gul connection is entirely a function of the movie and probably could have been cut entirely to both save time and give Bane more coherent motivations. Personally I didn't feel that tying the movies together through the Al Gul family was strong enough thematically to justify the extra problems that came with it.

In sum, the best movie of the summer is still Moonrise Kingdom.
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Moonrise Kingdom is great.

Don't compare TDKR to Godfather etc. just because it's long, the average run-time of movies have gotten longer overtime; it's really not an uncommon occurrence to see a movies above 140 minutes long these days.

Knightfall may be Bane's most famous comic series, but it's not his first.

Agreed about the reveals toward the end.

You would get rid of the football sequence?? It's not terribly long (why should length be such a hug issue anyway?..attention spans, people), is probably the most unique action sequence in the film, and is where the bomb plot thread is introduced.

Overall, a large part of me agrees about Nolan being more style than substance, though. And I don't love the style.
 
spycam1 said:
Don't compare TDKR to Godfather etc. just because it's long,
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Economy is a virtue. Bloat is bad. My point was merely that some movies are so large in thematic scope that they earn the extended time, but that TDKR did not do so.

the average run-time of movies have gotten longer overtime; it's really not an uncommon occurrence to see a movies above 140 minutes long these days.
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I don't really know how to evaluate the first statement because I a) don't know if it's true, b) over what period of time, and c) if it controls for anything like genre.

In any event, TDKR is undoubtedly on the high-side of run time for major commercial releases. I dont' think that's disputable. What percentage of films in wide release run over 140? It's gotta be under 5%, if for no other reason than you get less turns of the film on the screen per day. Where the Dark Knight is at 165 minutes you're probably in the 97th or 98th percentile in terms of length for wide release films. A quick informal review (by me) just now suggests that the only other films all year to break 140 were the Avengers and Hunger Games which clocked in at 142 and 143 respectively. If you're the longest wide release film by over 20 minutes that's kind of notable.

Knightfall may be Bane's most famous comic series, but it's not his first.
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At some point we're quibbling. He was technically introduced in a one-shot special three months prior to Knightfall, but Knightfall is his first full ongoing storyline. In any event, I think my original statement that Knightfall is the storyling that "originally featured Bane as a primary Batman villain" is essentially accurate.

You would get rid of the football sequence?? It's not terribly long (why should length be such a hug issue anyway?..attention spans, people), is probably the most unique action sequence in the film, and is where the bomb plot thread is introduced.
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Considering it has a full and relatively slow rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner as a sub-part of the scene I suspect it's longer than you recollect.

My point is that several of the scenes of the films could have easily been consolidated in such a way that the film would have been shorter, better, and had fewer loose ends.
 
spycam1 said:
Damn him to hell.
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reason why he doesnt do directors cut.
is because basically his movie is the director's cut.
normally studio exec get in the way and demand some cutting or such. but nolan has carte blance.

anywho since nolan wanted it longer but due to technical limitations wasnt able. maybe on bluray he will give a longer version.
but i wouldnt count on it
 
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^^ You can pretty much do anything on the internet anyways...real life is for suckers.

Here's where TDKR dissapointed me the most.
[video=youtube_share;ShlukoB1xMY]https://youtu.be/ShlukoB1xMY

I was getting ready for the 1st voice...it sounded so much better IMO. Harder to understand, but much much better.
 
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