new batman sucks big time

[holy king]

saw it last week and almost left the cinema out of boredom. i wasnt alone in that.
now i went to imdb and saw it has a rating of 9!!!.


so, apart from the facts that
a) the main antagonist is a cardboard cutout,

b) the whole catwoman story looks like tacked on with the re-used gaffer tape someone found stuck on his shoes,

c) christian bale goes from sick old man to born again batman, because some character introduced five seconds before gives a speech that is as inspiring as toilet paper, in the blink of a bad cut,

d) hans zimmer's soundtrack pounds over scenes that without it would be as dramatic as watching paint dry with a volume five times that of the rest of the sound,

e) the whole "occupy wall street is a big current issue, so let's go with it somehow" embarassment

what's actually good about the movie?

i found myself questioning the fact that this was the same frekaing director as for the last two movies, and somehow all over the internet people are going crazy about how great it is.

what the hell am i missing?

 

[Angst]

I actually really liked Bane, but other than that, I didn't like Catwoman as soon as she got her costume, I didn't like the warzone feel (Really? Batman in a war?), the anti-rich rebellion wasn't explained properly to make me care about it, the plot twist in the end with the secret villain came out of nowhere, The Bat was stupid and it mattered because it was such a central point of the movie...

Well, for an action movie, it's average, for a climactic end of a good trilogy, it was horrible, for a Batman-movie, the mood was all wrong, and for an experience, it's worth the cinema ticket but not worth buying to view at home.

There were some good parts though. I liked the part about the old policeman, whose name suddenly escapes me, who visited Bane's lair, I liked the subplot of where Bane came from, I liked the prison deal, I really, really liked Batman's face-offs with Bane - I just really, really disliked enough of the movie to declare it average and pretend the trilogy stopped at the second movie.

 

[BvBPL]

There's an arts forum for which this thread would likely be more appropriate.

I haven't seen the new one, but I didn't particularly enjoy the second one. The editing of the fight scenes was just terrible. They make a big deal out of the fancy-pants fight choreography and then shot it in the dark using short, jarring shots with far too much zoom.

Then there's Bale's voice. It's like nails on a chalkboard.

Fun movies, but I don't see how everyone is as taken by them as they are. Then again, I felt the same way about Return of the King.

 

[classical_hero]

We have been discussing the good and the bad in the What movie have you seen thread.

 

[holy king]

you were discussing things like "how does a fusion core work as a nuclear bomb" and "did batman have sex with twist lady" in "batman comics, issue #104".

but apart from technical issues like the flying speed of a helicopter with a coconut attached to it, which really dont interest me all that much, i was rather asking for a defence of this movie as a movie.

 

[Murky]

I'm probably one of the few people who have haven't seen it yet.

 

[BvBPL]

Oh don't be silly, Murky. Lots of people, myself include, haven't seen it yet. Don't let ignorance dissuade you from providing your opinion; I never have.

but apart from technical issues like the flying speed of a helicopter with a coconut attached to it....

An African or European helicopter?

 

[holy king]

i. do. not. know.

 

[Leoreth]

An African or European helicopter?

My thoughts exactly

 

[Save_Ferris]

Even if you don't like it, you have to admit it at least tries to avoid some of the superhero movie cliches.

 

[Mad Man]

I don't think the new BM movie sucks but I wouldn't say it was better than the last one.

 

[History_Buff]

Wasn't better than The Dark Knight, but I really liked the third film. My only real complaint is that they worked in two stupid one liners. The first about 'That what's that's like' when Catwoman vanishes into the night (which was hysterical, but only because of this), and then the quip Catwoman gets about guns not being so bad towards the end of the movie.

Spoiler Relates to the ending :

Also, I was surprised it ended on as happy a note as it did. I really, really thought Bruce Wayne would die, or at least be put permanently out of commission. In ending it the way he did, I think Nolan had the ending I never expected. Good and bad.

The part where Wayne goes from worn out and damaged (ignoring the whole spine thing) to Batman again is odd after the fact, but honestly, when I was watching sickly Wayne in the beginning, I just assumed he was doing the 'Old Chinese Guy' thing from The Prestige, and was never that hurt to begin with. Doesn't make sense when you look at the whole movie, but that's where my head was at at the time, so I did not notice or care.

 

[WindFish]

Spoiler :

Also, I was surprised it ended on as happy a note as it did. I really, really thought Bruce Wayne would die, or at least be put permanently out of commission. In ending it the way he did, I think Nolan had the ending I never expected. Good and bad.

Spoiler :

I knew that was going to be the ending as soon as Alfred started talking about it

 

[History_Buff]

Spoiler :

I knew that was going to be the ending as soon as Alfred started talking about it

There's a bit of that. But it would have been even more awesome if he'd said that, and then it didn't happen.

 

[sophie]

saw it last week and almost left the cinema out of boredom. i wasnt alone in that.
now i went to imdb and saw it has a rating of 9!!!.


so, apart from the facts that
a) the main antagonist is a cardboard cutout,

b) the whole catwoman story looks like tacked on with the re-used gaffer tape someone found stuck on his shoes,

c) christian bale goes from sick old man to born again batman, because some character introduced five seconds before gives a speech that is as inspiring as toilet paper, in the blink of a bad cut,

d) hans zimmer's soundtrack pounds over scenes that without it would be as dramatic as watching paint dry with a volume five times that of the rest of the sound,

e) the whole "occupy wall street is a big current issue, so let's go with it somehow" embarassment

what's actually good about the movie?

i found myself questioning the fact that this was the same frekaing director as for the last two movies, and somehow all over the internet people are going crazy about how great it is.

what the hell am i missing?

I actually did discuss in depth what I liked about the movie in the what movies thread. Basically I liked it because Nolan stuck to his guns; making good use of the things he's very very good at. He's very good at casting; on top of the classic Bale and Cain and Oldman, he also added a very good casting in Hathaway as Selina Kyle, the always solid Joseph Gordon Levitt, and some very well acted minor roles.

The movie was also spectacular in its sound mixing. Sound is 60% of the film experience, so you can't really harp on Nolan for making good use of sound in this film, as he always does. The Zimmer soundtrack is stunning and Nolan makes good use of it. Additionally I liked Nolan's decision to keep Bane's voice disproportionately loud compared to the rest of the sound. This wasn't an error in the mixing, this was an artistic choice. It makes Bane feel omnipresent, creates a sense of dread for every scene he's in, because no matter where he is he can get you without a second thought. An implication that was reinforced visually during the end of the movie.

Most importantly Nolan is exceedingly good at creating a complete, visceral, filmgoing experience for the audience. He's very good at conveying emotion and packing feeling into every scene. He's not the best screenwriter; most of his film plots are extremely simple, but he's very good at taking these simple plots and attaching a deeper feeling to them. He does this in this movie very well. I especially liked the shot where they unveiled the statue of batman towards the end of the movie. It was a very simple low-angle shot but it really hammered home the sense of resolution. Batman didn't just stop the bad guy, he has brought about lasting change to the people. Cinematographically the movie wasn't particularly special, as is usual with Nolan, it was just as solid as it needed to be.

At the end of the day, it's no Kubrick-ian masterpiece, but it is a very very good movie in a summer full of excessively sub-par ones.

 

[Save_Ferris]

Spoiler :

There's a bit of that. But it would have been even more awesome if he'd said that, and then it didn't happen.

Spoiler :

When I saw it, I thought Wayne at the end was a mirage, as if Alfred had secluded himself in hopes of his child. Then someone explained to me how Wayne survived.

 

[Eat_Up_Martha]

One scene that really challenged my suspension of disbelief (admittedly rather low, given that this was a gritty 'realistic' Batman) was when...

Spoiler :

near the end when the entire Gotham police force just charged a position of hundreds of men armed with automatic weapons and the whole thing ended up as a barroom brawl. It struck me as both cliche, unrealistic, and not in the spirit of the previous films.

Really, TDKR could have been an excellent trilogy on its own. There were three very separate 'chapters' that didn't get as much play as they individually deserved. It was just too much to cover and as a result, a lot of the movie felt cramped and plot and relationships very forced.

Ultimately, I'd say I still enjoyed it, but it was probably the weakest of the three.

 

[cegman]

Meh it felt like a symbolic retelling of a Tale of Two Cities. It wasn't too bad for action. I don't expect much from my action flicks.

 

[MobBoss]

One scene that really challenged my suspension of disbelief (admittedly rather low, given that this was a gritty 'realistic' Batman) was when...

This is the one that ruined it for me:

Spoiler :

When he was in the prison and had a compound fracture of his spine (i.e. the bone sticking out) the other inmate just hits it to put it back in and within months he's once again an olympian level athlete. I mean really.

I could hardly watch the movie after that.

 

[Mad Man]

Spoiler :

stop the spoiler talk please.