Bale was going for the same idea that Kevin Conroy did with Batman: TAS, that Bruce Wayne and Batman would have different voice pitches. Obviously on one hand to aid in the disguise and PR ruse regarding Mr. Wayne, but also it pushes the thematic idea that they are two seperate characters. (Is Batman what Wayne really is and "Bruce Wayne" is his disguise?)





See? Subtle brilliantly-performed differences in the pitch, obviously the same voice actor but it gives a distinct character differential, and without being distracting or becoming a subject of intense public mockery. That's why he gets my vote for the greatest Batman actor.

I suppose Bale and Nolan wanted to make their Batman have a growl, like to build into the idea that he's intimidating people. But I don't know, a dude in a bat costume kicking your ass and dangling you off a rooftop would be enough to share me into cooperating, IMO. Honestly the only conceptual misstep Nolan has taken, if you don't count the useless prop that is Rachel Dawes, though to be fair she had a thematic importance in THE DARK KNIGHT. But she is a dull drag in BEGINS.

RR,

I get that Batman needs to have "another" voice to distinguish Bruce Wayne & Batman. It makes sense for the character. I guess I just find the voice more annoying than anything. It seems Bale could do better.

Btw, I am not following, but is this Batman going to have another "Joker" as a villain? If so, who? I can't imagine anyone topping Ledger in the role.

TIS

I can't remember if I reported this already, but anyway attached to TDKR will be the teaser trailer for next summer's MAN OF STEEL, the new Superman movie directed by Zack Snyder (300, WATCHMEN) and executive produced by Nolan. The trailer premiered last night at Comic Con and got rave reviews.

I'm all for a good Superman movie.

Can't explain why, but Superman, I'm good with too. Always loved Superman movies. Who's in the title role, do you know?


TIS

oh I definately agree. Personally I think Bale's "Bruce Wayne" (basically his Patrick Bateman from AMERICAN PSYCHO carried ver) doesn't get enough respect critically. It's so purposely vapid, telegenic-appropriate and such false sincereity. Reportedly that side of his performance was inspired when he saw Tom Cruise on Letterman.



The villain in TDKR will be Bane, who apparently from what I understand isn't the anarchy of Joker (and enjoying it) and more an ideological terorrist.

Catwoman's also in TDKR.

Henry Cavill, who THE TUDORS fans remember him as Charles Brandon. Incidentally he screentested to play Batman back in the day but of course beaten out by Bale.

Always indictations from tweeter feeds of several critics is that the TDKR review embargo will be dropped by midnight (west coast) so we'll probably start seeing official reviews tomorrow.

Can't say I know Cavill, but I guess he does have that Superman look (whatever that might be).




TIS

Two online reviews, from Empire and Hollywood Reporter, of TDKR. Looks promising. WARNING: some minor spoilers ahead.

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=137000

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/dark-knight-rises-movie-review-batman-349354

And from what I gather on Twitter, Dave Letterman kinda gave away the ending....

Been reading some of the reviews, and one meme I'm noticing in several reviews (notably by Peter Travers and Newsweek) is this accusation that TDKR is Fox News propaganda, depicting Occupy Wall Street as terrorists, that Batman is fighting for the "1%" against the "99%."

What bullshit. I've obviously not seen the movie yet but let me give my interpretation from what I've read and heard. If I'm wrong, I'll admit as much after I've seen TDKR.

But even back in BATMAN BEGINS, they mentioned how the upper-elites of Gotham City have more or less self-enclosed themselves from the rest of that city's populace. They declared that universe's past Depression over, but it was still wrecking havoc on the lower social-economical classes of Gotham.

The exception to the 1%'s indifference is of course Bruce Wayne, he cares about the whole city, the 100%. Batman was created bcak in the 1930s, when the U.S. President was a wealthy aristocrat who as "traitor to his class" did through government try to help the helpless masses and inspire them. (FDR doesn't get enough credit for possibly saving America from Communism.)

But when such economical disparity exists without immediate attention & remedy by the government/society, it's prime seasoning for dangerous demagogues to take advantage for their own goals. Since Gotham failed to solve this real problem, Bane (I assume) uses this great failure for his own sinister needs.

Nolan did say a chief creative inspiration for TDKR was A Tale of Two Cities, which kids if you remember was about the French Revolution. A violent revolution of the impoverished masses lashing out against their indifferent, care-free Aristocracy trapped playing in their own self-enveloped Disney Land reality. It's not a proper metaphor really, but Bane=Napoleon?

I'm reminded of both sides claiming THE DARK KNIGHT was this or that position on the War on Terror, but nobody had velcro really to stick their agendas to TDK. I admire that Nolan is more gray than white & black, willing to ask questions that really nobody has real satisfactory answers for, much less Nolan himself and let audiences worry about the interpretation.

That's what good art does.

If you see TDKR and don't care for it, don't let the Internet know.

Rotten Tomatoes Halts Comments on ‘Dark Knight’



http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/0...night-furor/?hp

The above is what I've been talking about. The Nolan/Batman fanboys are so crazy about all this, if you don't join in on the adulation, it's almost blasphemy. Some of them just really go overboard. And I'm somebody who has liked Nolan's work ever since I saw Memento over a decade ago. But let's not lose our minds here.

It won't be long now before he starts talking about the liberal conspiracy to impurify our precious bodily fluids.
Limbaugh suggests villain "Bane" is a Romney reference

Bane was introduced by DC comics almost 20 years ago in Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1 (January 1993). Does Rush really believe that the left-wing conspiracy reaches that far back?

He's such an an asshole.

What gets me is that these are the same people who repeatedly say "who cares what critics think?" Well apparently they do after all.

One of the great movie-related myths out there is that critics think don't matter, but how many movies have you all checked out based off "word of mouth"? How much do we look at RT scores? When was the last time you gave a movie a chance that initially you thought looked terrible because critics or your friends say it's decent?

Everybody's a critic, but really America is interestingly the only country in the world where "word of mouth" and critical opinion seem to affect box-office. Elsewhere on the globe, movie stars and genres sell the pictures with critical opinion making zero difference.

Example: THE TOURIST, a very mediocre thriller starring two of the world's biggest movie stars in Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. Critics in America hated it, and it was a massive box-office disapointment at home. But overseas, it was a considerable hit.

The same happened earlier this year with the lousy BATTLESHIP which opened up overseas before coming to America, did extremely well ($200+ million) but in America it tanked and critics hated it.

Got tickets for Friday at 2:30 PM.

Opening day but not with the circle jerk fan boys who will be there at the midnight shows.

This is pure win.

The people at the Hub channel cut the TDKR trailer using footage from Batman: The Animated Series.

That was pretty good. Loved the animated series.

FIRST!

Saw it a couple hours ago, great flick. Depressing as hell though. And it had about 5000 plot twists and revealed secrets. Will say no more!

For the record, I'm buying ERC's predictions for a $185 million weekend for TDKR. I just don't believe it will break AVENGERS' opening weekend record because of too many factors against it: nearly 3 hours long, No 3-D (thus no $ sur-charge), and not necessarily will appeal to as many kiddies as AVENGERS did.

Not to mention what happened in Colorado last night, I wouldn't be surprised if many folks are turned off from seeing it because of that massacre.

(But still, $185 million for a nearly 3 hour movie in 3 days is outstanding none the less.)

****1/2 out of 5

Exceptional summer blockbuster spectacle entertainment. Maybe draggy here and there, but the set-up and built-up is worth it.

And for the record, this movie isn't Anti-OWS or whatever nonsense. For the political record, Bane is a Fascist here and I'm shocked most people haven't detected that. I mean he even outright say what his plan is, and he follows through on it. What do all dictators have in common? Establish rule by showing/using your armed force, and then maintain rule by setting the masses against each other by fear and let society decay like that plot device.

Like TDK, it has convoluted plotting (he and Nolan must've roomed together at college) but that's little complaints. Well, another one I'm still trying to figure out:



I'll tell you one thing: This movie contains Nolan's best action filmmaking work yet, and that first fight between Batman/Bane was brilliantly done. Nolan chooses not to sensationalize it, and for the first time in a Batman movie, Batman has a rival (if not superior) adversary in the physicality department.

So what is better, this or THE AVENGERS? I dunno, it's like picking between the Rolling Stones or Beatles, Michael Jackson or Prince. Both have advantages and drawbacks compared to each other, but in the end of the day nobody is picking a loser because both are winners.

They both get a gold star.

In wake of the Colorado disaster, WB has cancelled the Paris premiere of TDKR and pulled all ads and TV appearances for the cast this weekend. Nolan has also released a statement.

Rather than go into minute detail, I'll just sum up my review. I'd rate it about the same as the second one - **1/2 stars. Maybe ***. Like the Joker was for The Dark Knight, the saving grace for The Dark Knight Rises is Bane. Nolan's best work is still Inception.

I will say one thing though...

Good movie. Dark knight was better. When I first heard Bane's voice, I thought it was a joke.

In the first scene, he sounds like a fairy on laughing gas. But, he grows on you and is actually more intimidating than the Joker ever was. The movie was OK., but a half an hour too long and much more comic book like than the previous movies.

Also, I didn't like Batman getting his ass kicked the whole movie.

That was one thing I liked about it. Batman finally comes up against somebody that is superior to him physically. Also, if you're familiar with the comics, Bane nearly kills Batman.

I have to agree with Ivy. I mean that first fight with Bane, Nolan made the decision not to use music (used usually to sensationalize, drama-sauce up the fight) really adds to the brutality of what happens.

I mean that's storytelling 101: Greater your adversary, greater your hero. Shit I'll even argue Nolan's Bane was better than the Bane in the comics. Sure in spite of that one thing he's remembered for, Bane is usually never mentioned in the top 10 of Batman's villains. Rather a B-villain quite frankly.

Tell me guys, did the people at your screening gasp when

In answer to your hidden question, I was expecting it because that's what happened in the comics. There were some audible responses during other parts of the fight, though I don't remember any at the point you were talking about.

But I also had a problem with it. All the beating they gave each other and there was hardly any blood. C'mon.

I had a problem with the fact that after the incident you guys are talking about....

Oh, believe me, I know what you're talking about. I can nitpick with the best of 'em.

* While I'm aware the movie was nearly 3 hours, I felt it was rushing along too fast in the sense that they were trying to fit too much in. And because of that, there was a lack of "pacing" between individual scenes.

* Again, after the brutal fight between Batman and Bane, no blood? Or, for that matter, after the cop (played by Matthew Modine) got shot.

* And when the cops were charging Bane's guys in the street, what happened to their guns? Yes, they were trapped underground for 3 months but I don't remember seeing their guns confiscated. Anyone notice the few female cops charging along as well?

* And speaking of guns, why did Joseph Gordon Leavitt's character throw his gun away after he shot those two Bane guys dressed as construction workers? Heaven forbid a COP use his gun in SELF DEFENSE!

* While I loved Michael Cain's acting (very emotional) the ending would have been better if you took away the final 2 minutes or so. You know, since Bruce/Batman felt he hadn't given "everything" he had to Gotham yet. People who've seen it will know what I mean.

I could go on...

I've noticed some of those points too, and some other things. It's why I said in an earlier post that this part felt much more like a comic book to me, and less realistic.

What about the scene where he first appears again and is just standing there on the freeway, with a million cops approaching. When you watch that scene, there is no way he escapes. But, he steps on his bike and does anyway.