So, our next film, Classic or Crud, Hit or Miss, what say you ALL?

Our next film open for discussion, and ultimately an Overall RATING by you all, is:


Let the discussions flow. Likes, dislikes, classic film or overhyped trash, and DONT FORGET to place an Overall Rating when youre done.

Its easy, just give a Rating from 1 (Jaws 4:The Revenge) to 10 (Jaws), and thats it. Course I'd love to have you all give reasons as to why you feel it deserves this Overall Rating, and more than encourage discussions with us all about them.

ALSO: I urge Any and All of you who have yet to do so, to go back to our older catalogue of RtM films (Very easily done by the Links List right on the top of the Rate The Movies Forum), and vote for your favorite, not so favorite, and anything in between movies. We have HEAPS there already, some Classics, some Crud, let's hear what YOU think about them ALL!

So, what say you all?

Next Film: ??????

Three things keep this movie from being a 10.

First and foremost, is the tragedy that will forever be linked to it. I waited several days before I went to see it and though I really wanted to see it more times, I chose not to simply because I couldn't enjoy it as much as I would have had that shootings not occurred. The stigma was just too much for me, honestly. I say this as a movie fan, as a Batman fan, as a comic book fan, and as an avid firearms collector/enthusiast and Second Amendment proponent.

Second, Bane was difficult to understand at times. I cannot believe that they went a head and released this movie knowing full well (6 months before release) that Tom Hardy was difficult to understand throughout the movie.

Last, it was preceded by The Dark Knight, which is the best comic-book related movie ever put to screen, IMHO. Any comic movie that came before it falls very short and anything after will have a tough time matching it.

The thing about the Dark Knight trilogy is that more than a series of comic movies, they deserve to be mentioned as good to great movies, without quantifying the genre they are in. Everything a person could want in a dramatic series was interwoven in these movies and Nolan and Co. just elevated comic book movies with their story telling, character development, quality acting, great cinematography, writing, etc.

I really liked the way things played out in this movie and how it tied up the series. Aside from the voice issues, I thought Bane was justly done (as opposed to his previous on-screen appearance). He came off as the intelligent brute that he is in the comics.

Bale, Cain, Oldman, and Freeman were gold in their role reprisals and delivered everything that I expected of them.

I liked the John Blake and Miranda Tate characters too. I think they added depth

Honestly, the biggest surprise to me was Hatheway's Catwoman. When Heath Ledger was revealed to be the Joker, many people automatically assumed he was a bad choice because of Brokeback Mountain and because he didn't "fit" the role.

When Anne was revealed to be Catwoman, I didn't feel that she fit the role and I didn't expect much out of her. But she surprised me and pulled it off very well. She was actually my favorite character in the movie.

One thing: I picked out the plot twist very early in the movie and even told my brother what was going to happen with that. So I was kind of bummed to see I was right:


But all in all this was a great movie and I would give it an 9.

Aesthetically, Rises is outstanding. The acting, the music, the cinematography; all great stuff. Where it falls down is in the script. There's a lot of stupid and more than a few leaps in logic which, when they're all added up, really drag the film down for me. I still liked the movie, just not as much as the last two. It's just really uneven.

6.75/10

Having to follow The Dark Knight is a tough bet for anybody. It's just not as good, which isn't exactly damning criticism. I rated TDK as a 10/10, and I stand by that today.

Getting past that point, I still think it's an excellent movie. However, there's a couple of plot inconsistencies that I can accept but I still noticed, and some moments of it diverged too far from the source material.

All together, I think an 8 is fair. I almost bumped it up to a 9, but I don't think it's quite there.

Edit: After seeing DTM's post, I'll go 8.5. I wasn't sure that was allowed.

Just letting you know we to rate by .25 increments here, so you could go with either 8.25, 8.50 or 8.75 if you wanted something between 8 and 9.

I'm torn.

The Dark Knight Rises was aesthetically pleasing, had excellent acting, and it ended the story pretty well - maybe forced and cliched - but it was the ending I was hoping for and it worked out.

But the plot tried too hard and unlike The Dark Knight, it was far more noticeable. Furthermore, while The Dark Knight Rises did everything it could to place the story on an epic scale, it came off more and more like a generic action movie.

This unfortunately brings the rating down a bit, far lower than the other two, which is odd as I thoroughly enjoyed TDKR almost as much as TDK and often times consider Batman Begins a very good, though very generic, Batman origin movie.

Perhaps when considering the three movies as one whole, BB, TDK, and TDKR rise above the rest making the sum greater than its parts.

7.65 out of ten.

I liked The Dark Knight Rises, although it was an extremely flawed film. There are a lot of factors working against it. The pacing is too slow, the villain's plan seems vague and without purpose, there are a number of glaring plot holes and the ending is telegraphed in the first half of the movie (not to mention completely stolen from Good Will Hunting). Nevertheless, it is a compelling story that wraps things up nicely.

My main issue with TDKR, and ultimately the Nolanverse Batman Saga in general, is that it is not the story of Batman at all. It is the story of Bruce Wayne. Batman is just a mask that Bruce dons in order to purge his inner demons, which can be tossed aside once those demons have been slain. Having cast off the mantle of the Batman, Bruce Wayne is free to live any life he chooses.

It's a good Bruce Wayne story, but I didn't go to the movies to see his story. I went to see Batman's story.

In the Batman stories that I know and love, Bruce Wayne is dead. He died alongside his parents in that alley as a boy. What remained in his place would grow-up to ultimately be known as the Batman. Bruce Wayne is just a mask that is a necessary evil for Batman to get things done. Bruce doesn't truly exist anymore, and never will again. There is no happily ever after for Batman. There is only the never ending drive to combat the evils of the world that leave families dead in the street for no good reason. He will be Batman till the day he dies, and it won't be pleasant or quiet.

7/10

On a lighter note...

Current HCR Member Rating:

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES - 7.70 / 10

(5 members rating)

Yeah, I don't know what to say. What a waste of my time going to watch this movie. 'Emo Batman' except that Batman hardly made an appearance in this craptacular movie. 'Emo Bruce Wayne'. 'Rachael Dawes doesn't love me' 'Alfred you betrayed me' 'I'm a billionaire, my life is so rough' This movie was seriously almost unwatchable. Total garbage. 2+ hours of my life I'll never get back. I could not wait for this movie to end, so I could get the hell out of the theater.

1/10

I went to a Dark Knight trilogy marathon which ended with midnight showing of the Dark Knight Rises. I liked the movie a lot but I'd be hard pressed to give it a 10. It has the same problem Spider-man 3 had in there was too much story crammed into the movie. Plus there was a lot of Anti-Batman characterization for Batman which angered me a little. I'd like to see a mix of the Tim Burton Batman and the Christopher Nolan Batman, which would probably be the best Batman movie of all time.

Having said all that, I will get the movie on DVD on or after the release date of 4Dec12. It was a good movie and I won't mind adding it to my collection.

7.5 out of 10

I so wanted to love this movie, but I couldn't.
After an hour or so I actually got bored. It picked up after that, but that's a hell of a thing to come back from for a movie.
The pacing is off, the story doesn't make much sense, a lot of things felt extremely uncharacteristic for Batman.

6.5/10 and I think I'm being generous.
What a shame, Batman Begins was really good and TDK a true masterpiece, but this is not a worthy end for the trilogy.

I think you make an excellent point, though I am hesitant to out and out say that Bruce Wayne is dead and only Batman remains.

I would have preferred more struggle over the thrill-seeking versus actually helping people that Batman Begins and The Dark Knight established.

And my ultimate wish for Bruce Wayne's ending is that he cannot save Gotham by becoming his wreckless alter ego. Instead he chooses to start a surrogate family with Selina Kyle, Alfred, and perhaps a young Dick Grayson (not Blake) and teaches him the lesson why we fall (it's to pick ourselves up).

It would be a good ending for Bruce Wayne. Good enough.

Ultimately the point would be to make it more realistic (Batman cannot exist in the real world because the ideals of justice does not reciprocate well with a man wearing armor and beating people up) and actually have a resolution unlike the source material.

Maybe I need to see it again but this movie dragged a lot also The plot was predictable but I did enjoy myself from time to time so 7/10

1/10

Too many reasons to list, I'll just hit the big ones. I don't like Nolan's style, Joseph-Gordon Levitt is neither a good actor nor an action hero, Bane sounded like crap. I'm a completionist when it comes to movie collections, but this movie sucked so bad I'm just sticking with owning the first two.

The main reason i really liked this movie is its bravery to be different than every comic book movie. So i would give this a 9 out of 10. I don't think we'll ever see another comic book movies like this especially the way it ended. Plus its a franchise. If people didn't like it don't worry because it will be rebooted hundreds of times, i just want to see different versions of it each time. Probably more fantasy this time so we can see some villains they couldn't do in a realistic setting that Nolan choose to do.