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TFG1Mike’s Theatrical Adventures: The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Ttrilogy

THE LEGEND BEGINS: 

Before I get into my thoughts on The Dark Knight Rises, it is only fitting to talk about how the legend began, and continued. On Tuesday July 17, 2012 F/X aired Batman Begins back to back with itself from 8pm to midnight. I watched the 11pm airing, and wow there was so much in that film I forgot about. I remember that Begins was the reintroduction to Bruce Wayne/Batman in film, I remember that Ras was the main villain behind everything, and I remember that Scarecrow was his puppet. I also remember the Lucius Fox scenes, and the Alfred scenes as well. I mean who can forgot Michael Caine as Alfred? He really stepped into the role, and made it his own.

The NolanVerse was all about bringing Batman into the real world, taking the camp out of it, and grounding it. He has done that very well. All the acting in Batman Begins is great, even though I didn’t care for Katie Cruise….. I mean Holmes in the film. I just felt that she and Bale were too far a part in their acting of the roles they were given. I felt no real chemistry between them, other then that Begins was an amazing reboot to Batman in film. This relaunched the franchise for everyone who has seen Batman in film. The other thing I completely forgot about the film, was that at the end the set up the next film!

A TALE OF THE DARK KNIGHT:

In 2008 Batman went BOOM! The Dark Knight was released July 18, 2008. This film changed the scope of comics in film for a lot of people. When we first heard that Heath Ledger was gonna be The Joker, most people were skeptical on hearing the news, but when we saw the marketing campaign, everyone turned around.

I’ve seen TDK at least 20 times or more in the last 2 years. I remember opening day when I saw the film in theaters, it was like oh my god. From beginning to end TDK had everything. Great plot, amazing acting, superb effects, and wonderfully scored music. I think my only complaint between Begins and this is that Bale ate a shovelful of gravel when voicing Batman. The Dark Knight was excellent, and bringing The Joker into the NolanVerse was one of the best decisions in film EVER.

THE LEGEND ENDS: 

And Now the trilogy is complete.

I saw The Dark Knight Rises on opening day, but before I went to the theater, that morning there was tragedy in Colorado. A Man opened fire and killed a dozen people, and injured many more in a Dark Knight Rises screening. This has shocked everyone, and I personally after reading many of the news stories still have no idea why the moron did this.

So going into The Dark Knight Rises I only had 1 expectation. Which was that I expected it to be the Nolan film experience I had with The Dark Knight. Boy did I get that expectation fulfilled, and so much more. I know film companies have third party firms compile trailers, and I saw surprised to see where the trailer scenes came in the film.

PLOT:

As we all know this is how the legend ends, and for me this film felt like a super long episode of Batman: The Animated Series. I do not mean that in a bad way at all. The plot centers around Bane being Gothams Reckoning, and essentially taking over the city. We also find out that it has been eight years since the events of The Dark Knight, and Bruce Wayne is a self exiled recluse.

CAST: 

Of course you have the returning cast in Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Liam Nesson, and Nestor Carbonell who all give amazing performances. The new cast members include, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Marion Cotillard. These new actors in their roles gave amazing performances.

I thought the acting was very well done, Michael Caine as Alfred really pulls on the heart strings, and the addition of Joseph Gordon-Levitt was great. I thought the entire time he would suit up as Robin, yet I also knew Nolan said Robin would never appear in costume in his films. Bale’s Batman sounded like he had less gravel in his mouth, so that is good. I loved the chemistry between Bale and Hathaway in character, that was a great way to portray the bruce/Selina “relationship’  Tom Hardy as Bane was superbly done, he is a brute force to be reckoned with, yet he is very intelligent. All in all the casting was well done with the characters that were gonna be in this film.

EFFECTS:

As we know in the Nolan films everything is practical. I loved the effects in this, and I loved all the new Bat gadgets. I thought The Bat aka the Bat Wing was well executed in the practical world of filmmaking. However I think we could have used a Batwing against moon shot.

MUSIC: 

Hans Zimmer outdoes himself yet again with the NolanVerse Bat scores. The score for the film is very powerful, and fits soooo well, just as the score for The Dark Knight fit that film so well.  You can get The Dark Knight Rises Deluxe Edition on iTunes. So much awesome music.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

The Dark Knight Rises tells an amazing finale story to Nolan’s Bat films, everyone should check it out. I loved it as a ending to the legend, however as a individual Bat film i still like The Dark Knight more.

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TFG1Mike

TFG1Mike is a geek with many interests. He has been podcasting for over a decade, and sees no stopping point in sight. From Transformers, He-Man, Batman, Comics, movies, video games, cartoons, and so much more, Mike has a zeal for the things he loves, and he will bring the hammer down on the things that he has a disdain for. He's generally a postive person, but negativity can creep in there. Mike is all about the innuendos and innuendon'ts too. You'll hear him on many of The GCRN podcasts!

One Comment

  1. Good article mike i also was it at 12 00 opening night but the guy behind me was more excited for the man of steel trailer and cried at the end of the movie when the bomb went off

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