The Front Row

Saw it last night. It was outstanding... however Dark Night left me sppechless for days because of Heath Ledgers performance. I give it a A-, with Dark Knight a A+. The bar was just set so high after the sequel. With that said Bane was one scary dude and catwoman was fantastic.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

I'm with Kirk in that I was a tad disappointed. Giving away Catwoman's identity straight out of the shoot? Really? Alfred would NEVER quit or walk away from Bruce Wayne, PERIOD!!! Fox spent 7 years getting all of the tech under 1 roof so that we could only get The Bat as a new gadget? Blake, as a child, knew Wayne was Batman just from looking at him?

If all I knew of Batman was what I'd seen in the previous 2 films, I'd probably be happier. I feel like this was a lazy story. It looked good and I'm glad they went back and adjusted the audio for Bain and Gordon right after he went into the hospital. Just too much for me to ignore or suspend to truly enjoy this film. I don't feel that I wasted my money on it but it could have been so much more.

We'll agree to disagree, then.

I thought it was good but Anne hatheway really needed to wear something more revealing. She imho is hot as hell and her personality was sexy but cleavage would have been nice.

It was wierd seeing Batman in that light.

Definitely dragged a little and was half as good as dark knight. On another note the upcoming superman looks great and so does the Hobbit. I love that they were able to get the actor who played gandolf to reprise his role.

I can't believe they got me again at the end.

I'm a big Batman nerd and Nolan got me again. I thought "ok, they are altering the mythos". But nope. They kept to it and it caught me by surprise.

Need to go watch again. The IMAX sound sucked at Polaris. Gonna go to again later this week to a smaller theatre. The sound ruined a lot of things for me since I couldn't understand a lot of the characters and Bane was almost incomprehensible.

I was there at midnight, even though I had to drive out to help run a weekend camp first thing in the morning the next day.

I have my own issues with the film, but they aren't what anyone here has brought up. I'm not even going to get into them because honestly I want to see it a couple more times to make sure I'm accurately deconstructing a few things.

SPOILERS BELOW!

So a lot of people seem to not have followed what Rises was really about. The entire theme was life after Batman. We open with a Bruce Wayne that doesn't believe it exists and is just withering away. Then he gets drug back into the world but has a death wish. The rest of the film is about the supporting characters carrying Bruce Wayne through a transition where he believes there really can be life after Batman for him. The entire ending is about killing Batman and living on (off the grid) as Bruce Wayne. Blake's story line of someone else taking up the mantle is important to the concept of life after Batman. He says in the film that the whole point of creating a symbol was that Batman can be anyone. He makes a reference to how Gordon is as much Batman as anyone in a great moment. Bruce Wayne getting brought back to that belief that he had when Batman got started in the first film is what allows him to let go and move on.

In the middle of all this you have the tale of two cities, you have Bruce Wayne getting his ass handed to him and having to work back to fight for his city, overcoming some personal battles while in the pit that are key to him truly becoming Batman again. He can't overcome his fear if he just ignores it, and how bad Gotham gets strikes a chord within him. Bruce Wayne has always cared deeply about Gotham and never wanted to give up on it. It's his city, and he'll go to any length to protect it.

The two fight scenes with Bane were also amazing. Great choreography, directing, and acting all coming together. The first one was terrifying to see, and the second one was epic with stakes as high as they could be.