The Dark Knight Rises Closes the Epic in Style, but not without Flaws! Michelle’s Review

The Dark Knight Rises

It is times like these when I sometimes hate being a critic. When I walked out of The Dark Knight Rises I was on an high, absolutely loving the film while overlooking some major flaws. I did not find the movie “depressing” at all and left the theater feeling exhilarated and satisfied. The movie at times is just so overwhelmingly gorgeous in its full 65 Millimeter Imax sized visual splendor that you can’t help but admire grandeur of the storytelling and visual flair of the entire thing. A funny thing happened in the three days since I saw it. I actually had to sit and think about what I actually watched and not how I felt about the experience.

Don’t roll your eyes at me, this isn’t going to be another bashing like The Amazing Spider-Man. Ultimately I’m going to go with my first gut reaction and say, in the beginning of this review, that I loved this movie. However, my head deserves to be heard. There will be some minor spoilers in this review so it is fairly safe to read.

Update

This movie does not hold up well to repeat viewings. The flaws become hard to overlook. Character motivations become big problems and there are gaping logic issues.

Ok, you still here?

Where do I start?  Let’s go with the good.  Director Christopher Nolan has done an amazing job of wrapping this trilogy up in a grand fashion.   There are a lot of amazing, grand scale shots of Gotham City that just takes your breath away, especially if you see this in REAL Imax and not the fake one. However, I’m not a fan of Nolan’s realistic take on Gotham and all the daytime shots. It takes away from the specialness of Batman.  To me, I still prefer Tim Burton’s dark, Gothic vision of Batman’s world over Nolan’s any day of the week.

The character work in this movie is mostly outstanding. Christian Bale once again does a fine job again this time out, but somehow seems to get lost in the scale of the sets and all the wide-angle shots. This time out Bruce Wayne isn’t supposed to be larger than life. He’s a man who is lost, listless and no longer has that spark of life. He gave it all up so that Gotham can be the City that he dreams it could/can be.  For some reason he spends the first hour of the movie walking around with a limp until Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) saunters into his life and off with his mother’s pearls. This is enough to get him reengaged with the world.

I did not understand the whole limp thing he goes to a Doctor and they show him X-Rays that show his leg is completely healed, but the Doctor says he can’t go skiing (or some such) then the next scene he’s wearing a brace and back out fighting crime. The transition was jarring.

There isn’t much chemistry between Bale and Hathaway but the Nolan Brother (Chris and Jonathon) script does such a great job of building the story that their lack of chemistry doesn’t really matter.  Usually Catwoman is portrayed as sexy, eye candy, but she comes across as more of a real woman this time and that is both good and bad. We hardly see her be a real bad ass. The police capture her a bit too easily.

Some fans may complain that Bruce would never give up and retire. But there are several stories where that’s exactly what happens namely The Dark Knight Returns, Batman Beyond and some other Elseworld Graphic Novels. So I actually had no problem with this idea. Nolan’s strength is in his ability to tell a story and this being his last Batman Movie he threw everything in there and blended elements from some of Batman’s most famous stories including Knightfall, bit of Cataclysm (although Gotham is just to darn clean) and a bit of old Bruce Wayne into a nice almost 3 hour bow.

This goes to Christopher Nolan’s biggest flaw as a big budget director. He can’t direct a decent action scene to save his life. Only time he ever did was in Inception. While I love the world he created in this series of Batman films none of them had any real stand out action moments and all three of them suffer from the fact that it seems like Nolan took on the Batman project to explore the depths of Batman’s psyche and the character of the people who live in Gotham City; which he does an amazing job at and this material certainly calls for this level of deep exploration, it is also supposed to be a COMIC BOOK movie.  I love the opening shots of Bane hijacking the plane, but the staging of the action felt a bit pedestrian because Nolan wanted it to be real. I also absolutely hated seeing all the tumblers roll down the streets of Gotham in broad daylight in bright desert storms colors. It just rubbed me the wrong way.

For instance all of Batman’s gadgets are based on “real world” tech so the Batmobile instead of being the coolest car in the world, it’s just this big hunking tank. I never liked the Tumbler. Batman wears the utility belt but we never really see him use it in this movie.  The Batpod was a cool looking cycle but every time it made a turn, it looked weird, fake and like it didn’t belong in this movie. Remember how exhilarating it was the first time the Batwing is shown in the Tim Burton movie? I really wanted to feel that at least once in this trilogy and I never did.  We also don’t get to see Batman do any detective work in the course this epic finale.  There were times when I  thought I was watching a really good film, but not a real Batman movie.

This isn’t meant to be a slam on the film, because it is the characters and the story that matters. But it is called The Dark Knight Rises, so I wished there was a lot more of, you know, Batman being Batman, doing what he does – kicking ass in spectacular fashion and investigate some mystery. There was not much of that here.  I also did not like Hans Zimmer’s score. The Drums sound great in the commercials, but once you realize that’s all there is to it, it becomes a bit during the course of an almost 3 hour movie.

Nolan is to be commended for thinking outside the box and going with Bane (Tom Hardy) as the villain this time out, however he was sort of bad. It annoyed me that Nolan had Bane on the one had be a normal guy, but then they would show him somehow punching holes in brick walls.  He was also a ridiculous monologuer. Towards the end he was giving 5 or 10-minute dissertations I was screaming to myself “Shut up” get on with it already! His constant speechifying ruined the big initial fight moment. Bain turned out to be about as bad as I thought he would be, maybe even worse.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt was great as the mysterious rookie police officer John Blake.  When everyone else in Gotham stopped believing in Batman, he was the one person who kept hope alive.   The movie kept teasing us as to what his role was ultimately going to be and we find out at the very end. I’m not even that upset with what they do with the character and it leaves open the possibility of another series of movies featuring John Blake in this “alternative” world.

I avoided every spoiler, didn’t watch any of the EPK material, read Press Kits or anything so I walked into this movie as cold as possible. That non “prep” work paid off as the movie rewards its “unsuspecting” audience with an amazing 3rd act that brings it all together in a spectacular way with many twists, turns, cameos that leads to a real satisfying conclusion to this trilogy.

Final Grade B+

35 Comments

  1. No good action scenes in the series? The initial batmobile chase in begins, shanghai sequence and the truck flip in dark knight, the plane escape and the final battle in rises. May have been a good idea to listen to the dialogue too as the doctor didn’t tell him his knees were fine he told him he’d seen worse cartilage in patients but only because bruce had no cartilage left in his knees at all.

  2. HAHA. Like Michael Bay? As the other comment mentioned, the truck flip scene, the chase in Begins. And the last 30 minutes of this is like A+ action, almost on James Cameron’s level. 

    1. Like in many action films this one also went with the bad-guys-watching-in-a-trance bit.  There are quite a few scenes where bad guys with guns aren’t using them to shoot but waiting for their turn for the good guy to face them for hand-to-hand combat.  

  3. Sorry to say it, but your claim that there are no good action sequences in the series is entirely false. Was the bombing of the ground underneath the Gotham football stadium not worthy of “good” status? How about the invasion of the stock exchange? And let’s not forget that fights are action sequences, too: even if there aren’t huge explosions. The fight choreography in this film was STELLAR, particularly the fight in the sewers. Why? BECAUSE BANE (which, by the way, is not “Bain”, but “Bane”) IS THE ONLY VILLAIN CAPABLE OF KICKING BATMAN’S BUTT IN SINGLE COMBAT! He’s bigger, faster, stronger, and in better physical condition than an older, more worn Bruce Wayne. Something that Nolan makes such a good point in is that Batman isn’t going to be 20 years old forever. According to “Begins”, he was already a mature adult by the time he became Batman, to begin with. Heroes are like athletes: their bodies wear out significantly quicker than the rest of us, because they take more of a pounding on a regular basis. While I agree with your point about Batman needing to do more detective work, seriously? You’d take Burton’s Batwing over the Bat? The feeling I got when I saw the Bat was one of nearly peeing my pants. It literally scared me, it was that awesome. And Burton’s Batmobile looks like a Hot-Wheel and is just as impractical. The whole point of Batman being Batman is that he’s practical. He uses high-tech gadgets (and vehicles), not wannabe hot rods that use conveniently placed grappling hooks to scale walls. Also, you completely understand Bane. The original character of Bane is written as both brains AND brawn! That’s why he spouts off random soliloquies (in addition to Nolan’s making philosophical points about the reality of revolution and the necessity (or not) of destroying all that has bad in order to re-start (a la the league of shadows)). The original character of Bane is not only known for breaking Batman’s back (that back-breaking move is ICONIC to Batman fans), he is one of the only villains who is capable of matching intellects with Batman. So, he’s Batman, but bad. And on drugs.

    Seeing Bane break Batman, while painful to watch, was the most refreshing scene I’ve seen in years. It’s not the end sequence where the hero is left to die against staggering odds, but somehow finds the inner strength to win. For anyone who has not read the Knightfall series, they’re sitting there and have NO IDEA if Batman’s going to survive the encounter or not. It’s gripping.

    Finally, I think Nolan’s movies are darker than Burton’s. Significantly so. Burton’s movies (like all of his movies) are A) dark in a twisted, humerous way, and B) dark for the sake of the darkness, not for the sake of the story, and C) are so unfounded in reality that the darkness is completely pointless. You can’t tell me that Nicholson’s gangster Joker with a touch of a silly drama kid persona is really more dark than the dangerously mad, impulsive, carelessly, recklessly violent Joker as portrayed by Heath Ledger. You can’t deny that the impact of the mentally and spiritually tortured Harvey Dent in Nolan’s TDK can even be touched by the ball of corny cheese that is Burton’s Two-Face. The problem with Burton is that he relies to heavily on darkness and night to convey the feeling of darkness. Many scenes in Burton’s “Batman” films are humorous in almost a disgusting way, despite the cover of night and the ridiculously dark circumstances, while seeing Gotham on the brink of imminent destruction created a sense of dread, even in scenes of full daylight.

    Gotham doesn’t have to have penguins in the sewers or be covered in perpetual darkness to be a dark city. It, like every other large city, has enough of that on its own. So go back to your guffawing Jokers and painted-on Two-Faces and your Catwoman that probably knows more about sex (as her costume suggests) than about actually stealing things. But I prefer the darkness grounded in reality and the light that can then be reasonably brought about at the end of the tunnel.

    1. shashank shasthri

      Absolutely agreed with Jesus. We don’t see Batman the detective in this movie, you say… Well, if a phenomenon like Bane comes and rips opens the doors of your home and city, you don’t need to do too much of deduction do you? You need to show your perseverance, courage and will and that’s exactly what we see Bruce doing in this movie. I have already watched it thrice and I am not bored yet… 

      And yes, you don’t need an entire noir setting to “depict” darkness. You can’t have an over the top fancy dress competition with cheesy jokes that Schumacher tried to sell us, delivering the character depth that Nolan brings. This was Nolan’s gritty, realistic take on Bats and he hasn’t disappointed me one bit. While Burton’s take was groundbreaking for his time, seriously… Can you seriously compare the hammy, over the top Penguin of Burton’s second movie to any of the villains portrayed in Nolan’s trilogy? Even Detective Flass from Begins has better narrative and character depth than Burton’s Penguin! 

      And as for the comment by Michelle that all three movies lack action sequences, I am speechless… I will take the “Batpod toppling Joker’s Slaughter-Truck upside down” any day. You can be happy with the “over the top Optimus Prime sticking a semi-forged sword through the metallic carcass of a decepticon”

    2.  Obviously you have a different opinion and you seem to like change instead of actually sticking to the comics as Hero movies usually -kinda- do. All i gotta say is that i’ll call this a good action movie just not an actual Batman movie. The guy’s supposed to be the world’s greatest detective i mean even Rahj calls him that, in comics, games, etc. and yet he doesn’t really bother to go into the whole detective mode thing. Disappointing really.

  4. The action scenes are good, just now “Wow” or particularly memorable. I found them all to be competent, just not innovative or unique.

  5. Michelle I like your article and I think you make good points. I myself agree with several of them. So good job! But you really need to work on your sentence structure and grammar. I won’t point out specifics because I’m not a douchebag, I’m just saying the run-on sentences and typos really detract from your points. I assume you write reviews because you love movies and want to share your opinion, and I just think a few basic improvements in writing will really help you get your message across. 🙂

    1. Haha! good point =) I remember I called her attention on that in “The Amazing Spider-Man” review too..smh


  6. I did not understand the whole limp thing he goes to a Doctor and they show him X-Rays that show his leg is completely healed, but the Doctor says he can’t go skiing (or some such)…”

    That sentence reads like something out of a high school newspaper. The fact that a rambling, incomprehensible review like this gets taken into consideration on Rotten Tomatoes makes me question the integrity of their ranking system. “Or some such”? Are you frickin’ kidding me?

    1. I agree. The reviewer can’t write to save his life and he’s supposed to be a “professional” film critic. Whatever. 

    2. Not to mention that the doctor doesn’t even tell Wayne his knees are healed, he tells him he has no cartilage left. Quite a difference 😉

  7. Sorry to say disagree on most of the negative points here, including the final rating (it’s all opinion of course)

    The hospital scene was so that he could get in to see Gordon in disguise, but I also think that Nolan was trying to tell us just what being Batman has already done to him physically. Furthermore, he’s not completely healed he puts on a leg brace just a few scene’s later. The phrasing is cinematic referencing (for want of a better phrase). ‘You shouldn’t do heli-sking’; then he virtually bungees out of the window to Gordon’s room.

    The whole point about the Batpod working the way it did, is that it can easily turn. Given it’s basically design it’s turning circle would have been immense – this is physics/engineering and good attention to detail which they missed (upgraded from) in DK – It’s Mr Nolan, so I’ll go for upgraded.

    And I leave the comments of others here concerning action sequences, if you want Mr Bay action style scenes go and see a Bay movie.

    You need to check you clock, yes Bane liked to talk (more than a bit I agree), but this is a guy who wants people to suffer and know why. He would killed Batman the fist time round if that had been the case, (that and his 2 timing girlfriend :0)

    And I hate to point out, that having not to be able to save his ‘girl
    friend’, excepting blame for murder he didn’t commit, then moping around
    for 7-8 years feeling he has no place in the world anymore, and then saving Gotham from his ‘Bane’ – pretty good ‘Rise’ in my eyes :0). Though I admit it’s always nice seeing Batman doing Bat things!

     

    However, one point I do agrees on (to some extent) is the lack of detective work, but of course Bane isn’t actually hiding here and this aspect of Batman really isn’t the story Nolan is trying to tell.

    (Oh and I love Zimmer’s score – I know others have mentioned it, but I really didn’t notice it, unless it was making a musical point which when it happened, I thought was very apt)

    I always love it when people start shouting about logic issues (as if most movies and movie characters are actually based on logic ) the point really is internal consistency

    A+ (with a cherry on top)

  8. Well, well, well! I knew you’d be reviewing The Dark Knight Rises.. and I have to admit, I like this review WAY more than your “Amazing Spider-Man” review.. let’s not even go there. I’m surprised I’m saying this, but I actually agree with some of what you said there. It’s extremely HARD to make a 2nd sequel (3rd movie) of a superhero/comic book movie and make it work! Even Christopher Nolan said he was at first reluctant to come back and direct a 3rd movie, because how many of them are actually well-made and successful? Up ’till now, none! Spider-Man 3 failed, X-Men 3 was disappointing, even the old Batman movies started failing when Joel Schumacher took the helm and directed “Batman Forever”. However, I must say, this is the best 3rd superhero movie yet! But that’s still not saying much, especially compared to “The Dark Knight” film. I felt like Nolan had to cram everything into this 3rd movie to tie all loose ends and not make any more sequels of this. As for Bane, I disagree with you there. I thought he was phenomenal! Just not better than the Joker, but they’re 2 different villains, and this is a matter of favoritism than who was better than the other. Anyway, I could go on, but I don’t want to spoil this movie for ANYONE.. because unlike Spider-Man.. this movie is not as predictable at all. Oh well, I personally think that superhero movies should stop aiming for that overrated “trilogy” idea.. Nolan took a risk, but it worked out in the end. Let’s hope that The Amazing Spider-Man doesn’t only make 3 movies, unless it can pull it off as good as Nolan did.

    1.  Hey GG, welcome back to the debate… See you can do it when you try 🙂

      1. haha I didn’t have to try tho honestly.. I just agreed with most of what you said this time =P . 
        Anyway, what happened last time is water under the bridge. But now, I think you got some New angry fanboys here this time, lol

      2. haha I didn’t have to try tho honestly.. I just agreed with most of what you said for this movie=P . 
        Anyway, what happened on the last review is water under the bridge. But now, I think you got some New angry fanboys here this time, lol

  9. Oh yeah.. forgot one more thing you said.., the action sequences! I also agree with that.. let’s be honest, since Batman Begins, Nolan’s actions scenes always kinda bothered me a little bit, although they’ve gotten BETTER! He actually does a better job at the vehicle action scenes than the hand-to-hand combat.. that’s why Everyone loved the Joker/Batman showdown in the streets of Gotham, when he was trying to protect Harvey Dent in the SWAT team car. That was single-handedly, the best action setpiece Nolan’s ever created in a Batman film. But then when Batman starts fighting, it gets dizzy, clunky and I can’t follow it. It was worse in Batman Begins, which made me believe it was his Heavy suit that was prohibiting him, that’s why they had to change it and make it lighter in Dark Knight. Have you noticed that the fighting scenes of Bruce training with Ra’s al Ghul in Batman Begins are more fluid than when he actually becomes Batman? That’s because he’s just dressed as a ninja warrior and not wearing a big Batman costume. The action scenes do get a lil better in TDK, but still quite dizzy and too much camera cuts/edits. I hope TDKR action scenes are more fluid. That’s one thing I love about Spider-Man, no matter how CGI it can be, the action sequences are never hard to follow or bland! 

  10. I really enjoyed this movie but I felt it had its issues.  The movie might have been better titled Gotham’s Reckoning.  The movie seemed more about Gotham than about Batman.  I’ve always been disappointed in Nolan’s no-gadgets approach to Batman.  Oh in the previous two movies we seem him using gadgets a bit.  In this movie almost none.  No batarang in this movie.  I also haven’t liked the tumbler as the batmobile.  The “corvette” style batmobile is much more enjoyable.  And yes Tim Burton’s Gothem was more of what we wanted.  I don’t want Gotham to be another NY City.. which Nolan turned it into.  

    The 2nd Batman vs Bane fight didn’t make sense to me.  Batman didn’t suddenly gain strength and Bane lose it.  I would like to have seen Batman out-wit instead of out-muscle Bane.  This was the best time to see Batman lead Bane into a trap and use his gadgets to gain the upper-hand.  Instead we get the same slug-fest from the first fight.

    But overall this was a good story and a good triology.  I just find this last movie leaves room for justified nit-picking.   

  11. I really enjoyed this movie but I felt it had its issues.  The movie might have been better titled Gotham’s Reckoning.  The movie seemed more about Gotham than about Batman.  I’ve always been disappointed in Nolan’s no-gadgets approach to Batman.  Oh in the previous two movies we seem him using gadgets a bit.  In this movie almost none.  No batarang in this movie.  I also haven’t liked the tumbler as the batmobile.  The “corvette” style batmobile is much more enjoyable.  And yes Tim Burton’s Gothem was more of what we wanted.  I don’t want Gotham to be another NY City.. which Nolan turned it into.  
    The 2nd Batman vs Bane fight didn’t make sense to me.  Batman didn’t suddenly gain strength and Bane lose it.  I would like to have seen Batman out-wit instead of out-muscle Bane.  This was the best time to see Batman lead Bane into a trap and use his gadgets to gain the upper-hand.  Instead we get the same slug-fest from the first fight.

    But overall this was a good story and a good triology.  I just find this last movie leaves room for justified nit-picking.   

    1. I couldn’t agree more Mark. The 2nd Bane v Batman fight made no sense & was a bit cringeworthy.. out in broad daylight among his army of police men?! Batman should have been allowed to use his superior cunning and guile, not suddenly find random extra strength, & beat Bane, like a blunt instrument.  I couldn’t quite put my finger on what bits I didn’t quite like about this movie, but you are totally correct, this was about Gotham and not Batman. I found Bane a not very credible nemesis. He’s a sensitive guy 1 minute who helps girls out of dungeons, shedding a tear, has a social conscience & next minute he wants to kill everyone in the city. At least scarecrow and joker were genuinely unhinged. Plus his soliloquies while fighting were very annoying.  
      For me Burton’s Batman will always survive the test of time, while movies that rely on incessant action will always wear badly. Burton created a Gothic world in which we could immerse ourselves. It wasn’t slavish towards the comics or reality or anything. It was just his unique take on Batman that had atmosphere, style, superb acting and clever dialogue. Fair enough the 2nd installment , Batman Returns was a bit pantomimish. 
      Without a shadow of a doubt, Hathaway’s
      performance was the finest by a leading lady in all of Nolans’ Batmans. When I
      first heard that Anne Hathaway was in the film I groaned to myself and thought
      of how I couldn’t watch Batman Begins again because of Katie Holmes woeful performance.
      But I was pleasantly surprised by her. I really liked the subtle way she was introduced
      as a “cat-woman” through her cat burglary activities. She lit up the screen and
      came across as a very slick and intelligent character.
      Overall I found TDKR epic, engaging, but a bit over-reaching, loose with plenty of holes.

    2. In my mind batman did outwit bane in the second fight. The way I saw it batman got the first hit in but then bane started beating him just like before, but this time batman knew that he couldn’t win attacking bane, but instead attacked banes mask because he learned that it was stopping him from feeling excruciating pain. He was able to win because he broke that and the pain made bane unable to fight to his full ability. 

  12. The action sequenes in the batman movies do suck.  In fact, most of the action sequences in all movies suck.  There is no choreography these days.  You can see the change in film.  I’m a fighter and a martial artist so I see things differently.  Fight scenese in movies used to be done by people that knew what they were doing.  Now a days it’s all a jumbled mess, with a camera that’s too close to the action.  I think that when Saving Private Ryan came out peope were taken by the gritty, chaotic style of the camera work.  Batman Begins had some decent hand to hand combat but the Dark Knight was horrible.  Watching the Dark Knight there would be no reason to believe that Batman is a skilled martial artist or warrior.  Tim Burton’s Batman had the finest hand to hand combat of all the films.  

    That said, Nolan’s Batman series is still highly entertaining and well-crafted.  But Batman, the supposed skilled martial artist who traveled the world studying at the feet of various masters is nowhere to be found.  I think with all these tens of million dollar budgets that hiring competent martial artists and choreographers was lost.  

    1.  Agreed, the combat scenes were absolutely terrible. I was extremely disappointed.

  13. so you prefer a catwoman with nine lives, a comedic joker, and a penguin that kills babies? the burton films were terrible compared to the raw emotions TDK trilogy brings. Bane spoke with his expressions and was a far superior viallain than any of the past batman villain. He would rip the joker apart if they met in this world. Now The Joker was a superior in the aspect of written dialogue by the Nolans and Heath’s interpretation of the character. worst critic ever

    1. The woman in this movie wasn’t Catwoman…she’s never actually called that so i don’t know where you got the idea to even try to insult michelle pfeiffer by saying her 9 lives role was bad, bad ass perhaps ’cause i rather watch her whip bad guys than Anne Hathaway kick some more guys around in her shiny high heels…I mean i completely understand that the movie was NOT about Catwoman but they could at least try and call her that for sake of her role since it plays a major one in the movie.

  14. Where was Batman? I like to see it again just to time how many minutes Batman was actually on the screen. I also was very disappointed in the last fight. Let’s see? Bruce Wayne had a vertebrae sticking out of his back but in a few short weeks he was fightning Bane? Bane can punch a hole in concrete but within minutes Batman pounded him into submission? It felt like a video game where someone used a cheat code.

  15. This is a dreadfully written review, repetition of the same word in a sentence, getting plot points completely wrong (such as the doctor telling Bruce his knee is healed), and the ridiculous comparison to Michael Bay. 

    Anyway, just to pick up on a couple of things, having now watched the film twice. Yes, there are some flaws, but there’s also so, so much more depth than your average popcorn flick, so I think one or two minor plot holes can be forgiven. That they’re being picked out, if anything, is testament to the level of expectation Nolan has generated throughout this trilogy.

    One such ‘plot hole’ that I’ve seen raised a number of times is ‘how come Batman is stronger than Bane in their second fight’. He isn’t, until he damages Bane’s mask, Bane is on top. However, once the mask has taken a few hits Bane goes nuts, losing his discipline and striking out wildly, allowing a now more focused Batman (courtesy of his 5 months spent in ‘hell on earth’) to tactically outwit his opponent. At no stage does Batman necessarily overpower Bane.Like others, I thought the action sequences were really well done. I far prefer this ‘real world’ approach of Nolan’s over Bay’s horribly over-the-top CGI approach. The fact that there was a grit and realism to the setting and the action made the 2nd act of the film far more terrifying. In my opinion, this is the best film of the year so far, and it’s exactly for the reason that Nolan isn’t afraid to transcend the superhero genre, while others allow themselves to be restricted by it’s boundaries.

  16. In your update, did you delete the reference to Nolan being no Michael Bay? Hard to take this review seriously when you make comments about how you preferred Burton’s Batman and how Nolan can’t direct an action sequence. In The Dark Knight when Batman is after the Joker in the truck, it was easily one of the most spectacularly choreographed action sequences because it looks so real compared to Michael Bay-esque action sequences, which we can dismiss just as easily as we can quickly because it looks so fake, stupid, and insulting to our intelligence. Maybe we’ll just have to disagree on Michael Bay being the best action director.

  17.           This is hands down the worst film review I have ever read.  I love Batman, to a flaw in the case of a non-biased review.  There are definite flaws in this movie.  It shouldn’t be an argument that it’s the worst film in the series; I re-watched the two previous installments today.  Character depth wasn’t achieved and it really could have been a four hour movie.  Needless to say I still enjoyed it, especially on true IMAX format (Navy Pier.)  That being said, this review is inaccurate, not in opinion but in factual points of what really happens.  Rotten Tomatoes needs to step their game up because I doubt this juvenile, bargain basement “critic” can beat them to the punch.

  18. This reviewer is mentally challenged from all those silly over the top explosions from Michael Bay movies.

  19. Noone of Consequence

    You actually think Michael Bay directs action (or anything) better than Nolan (or anyone, for that matter)?

    You fail as a human being, not just as a film critic. Please kill yourself.

    1. Noone of Consequence

       Did someone already (deservedly) smack you fiercely across the face for the Michael Bay comment? Because while it was in the excerpt on Rotten Tomatoes it doesn’t appear to be in the same bit of the review posted above.

      So, kudos on having the sense to take it out if you really did take it out. But if you now or at any time in the past ever suspected that Bay was in ANY way a superior director to Nolan, even and perhaps especially insofar as directing action (which is something Bay sucks at tremendously, contrary to popular belief amongst complete idiots)… it would still be a good idea for you to kill yourself.

  20. A whooole lotta typos in this review, just sayin.

  21. Didn’t like this Batman movie nearly as much as the other two by Nolan, but you lost me at prefering Tim Burton’s Gotham. Child please!

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