The Dark Knight Rises

[Canadouche]

So, have enough seen it to discuss what happens?

Yes. SKO and Slaky are right, it was the balls. No point in responding to Chuck.

The initial fight between Batman and Bane was just brutal. And although you knew he was going to make the leap in the prison, it didn't make it any less satisfying when it happened. The one quibble my wife had was how Batman got back into Gotham so easily what with it being entirely cut off. It took me a minute but then I realized: it's because he's fucking Batman.

It sucks that Ledger died after the last one. Considering that there were callbacks to basically every major character from the first two, you just have to think he would have been involved somehow.

SPOILER ALERT

Nah. It'd be impossible to involve the Joker in that one and not make it his show. I love Christopher Nolan because he based all three movies off of my favorite Batman story arcs and yet went way beyond the original material so I had no idea what would happen. Batman Begins was based on Batman: Year One, while The Dark Knight combined The Long Halloween and The Killing Joke. This one was Knightfall. I spent the entire movie waiting for Bane to break his back. When it happened I was somehow still shocked and traumatized. The ending of this film was beyond satisfying. I'd have been perfectly content had he lived or died, since he pulled off both so well.

Well said. It would have been cool if they included the venom that made Bane grow when he was ready to kick ass but Bane has to be one of the best villains I've seen in a long time. He was truly frightening. When Batman began winning that rematch and finally broke his mask with a punch I was ready to cheer like it was some kind of walk-off home run. So bad ass.

If someone has the guts to make a Batman with JGL as Robin and maybe loosely base it on older Batman  or even Batman Beyond, it could be pretty cool.

I mean, every so often it seems that these series reboot - like Spider-Man this year - but how can you reboot Batman knowing the Herculean effort it would take to even come close to being as good as this trilogy? What's the point?

The good news for me, as a video game dork, is that as long as they keep making the Arkham Asylum/City games it's almost like the series can never die. If you truly can't get enough Batman - I suggest you pick up both games. It's all of the voices from Batman: The Animated Series (which fucking owns) and the art and storylines are dark, epic and creepy as fuck. They do tons of callbacks and include as many characters as possible. Rumors are the next game is going to use Gotham City as a sandbox environment and the game will be more do whatever you want than ever before.

Anyway, I'm going to go read my Batman books again.

Batman!

Batman: The Animated Series is so fucking good. I was four when it first started, so I never got much beyond HEY BATMAN during the original run. My friend owns them all and Mask of the Phantasm on DVD and insisted I watch them again a few years ago. Utterly brilliant. I respect the Burton films, but Mask of the Phantasm is the best non-Nolan Batman film. Period.

Also, Slak, I actually fist pumped when he broke Bane's mask, so you can decide whether that makes you awesome or lame in my company. I'll also cop to real, human tears from the moment he bid farewell to Gordon by mentioning the coat from the first movie right up until the end.

Why can't Christopher Nolan make every movie ever?

Because he'd then have to be responsible for the Twilight franchise.

[Canadouche]

SKO: Knightfall is a big part, but it also works in some Dark Knight Returns. And a really cool nod to Batman '66 with trying to dispose of a big round bomb.

Yeah, I meant to toss that in. He usually borrows major elements from two-three major storylines and then the rest is all of his genius finding a way to combine them and create something entirely new with them. Definitely a lot of odes to the the Dark Knight Returns, with people speaking about "the Batman" like a thing of the past and wondering if he'll ever come back.

You know, and the whole heroic death that isn't actually a death. That's from Returns, as well.

Like Yeti, haven't read any of the comics. Is all of Nolan's source material Frank Miller/Alan Moore stuff?

Some of it. He tends to incorporate elements and plot points from stories throughout the entire Batman universe. I wouldn't say he's more reliant on Moore or Miller than anyone else. Nolan's interpretation of Batman himself certainly is more reminiscent of Miller's, whereas I'd say Burton's was more the 1930s-1940s brooding detective Batman and Shumacker's was barely better than the campy 60s version. I would recommend to anyone who hasn't read the comics and wants to see where Nolan got a lot of his source material the following arcs or one shots, which are usually available in collected editions at bookstores or libraries:

Batman: Year One
The Long Halloween
The Killing Joke
The Dark Knight Returns
Knightfall

I'm guessing Bort or Slaky can fill in the ones I've left out, but those five stick out the most to me.

Also No Man's Land.

/edit FACED by Bort.

[Quality Start Machine]

I now lose all of my cool points for opposing Slaky

Slaky is all the things you could only hope to be.



(Bravo, Morph)

[Tonker]

Anyway, just got back from the cinema.  I chuckled all the way home.  Shit, what a fucking phenomenal film - the best of the three, I'd say, and the ending just fucking blew me away, even if I saw some of it coming.  I sincerely hope they can persuade Nolan and the current cast (including JGL, clearly) to make one more...

[SKO]

Anyway, just got back from the cinema.  I chuckled all the way home.  Shit, what a fucking phenomenal film - the best of the three, I'd say, and the ending just fucking blew me away, even if I saw some of it coming.  I sincerely hope they can persuade Nolan and the current cast (including JGL, clearly) to make one more...

I don't. JGL and the rest can certainly make a new series that, like Slak suggested, has a Batman Beyond type storyline, but let Bruce Wayne be. That ending was too fucking satisfying as a lifelong reader of Batman to mess with. Bringing him back would be just like the comics, where every satisfying Bruce Wayne dies/walks away/retires storyline is pissed on by fanboys who can't accept a Batman that isn't him. Nolan pulled off a nigh impossible task and I don't think he'll fuck it up. I think Nolan said he's done anyway.

If someone who is Nolan-approved takes JGL and makes a successful series I'll be right there of course.

[Bort]

Anyway, just got back from the cinema.  I chuckled all the way home.  Shit, what a fucking phenomenal film - the best of the three, I'd say, and the ending just fucking blew me away, even if I saw some of it coming.  I sincerely hope they can persuade Nolan and the current cast (including JGL, clearly) to make one more...

I don't. JGL and the rest can certainly make a new series that, like Slak suggested, has a Batman Beyond type storyline, but let Bruce Wayne be. That ending was too fucking satisfying as a lifelong reader of Batman to mess with. Bringing him back would be just like the comics, where every satisfying Bruce Wayne dies/walks away/retires storyline is pissed on by fanboys who can't accept a Batman that isn't him. Nolan pulled off a nigh impossible task and I don't think he'll fuck it up. I think Nolan said he's done anyway.

If someone who is Nolan-approved takes JGL and makes a successful series I'll be right there of course.

Hear me out: a live action Bayman Beyond movie with Adam West as the elderly Bruce Wayne.

[Slaky]

I now lose all of my cool points for opposing Slaky

Slaky is all the things you could only hope to be.



(Bravo, Morph)

Good god.

[Quality Start Machine]

I now lose all of my cool points for opposing Slaky

Slaky is all the things you could only hope to be.



(Bravo, Morph)

Good godDAMNIT, MARIE!

[Bort]

There are days when I love this site.

[PenPho]

This is real?

What the fuck.

[CBStew]

 As for the showdown between Batman and Bain---two finely trained fighting machines, yet they were toe to toe throwing punches to the head with about as much finesse as any end zone brawl between a 49'er fan and a Raider fan.