I must say, I really rather enjoyed it. It should be stressed at this point that I go to the cinema to be entertained, and aspects like how 'canon' things are is completely lost on me (ditto things like the soft focus, wouldn't notice things like that at all).

Above all else I left the cinema with a smile on my face, which is always the most important thing. Other than that, I enjoyed Bain as a bad guy. No he wasn't as entertaining as the Joker, but the Joker was really exceptional to me. The physical presence thing when Wayne is so beat up was a good choice in my opinion. The only thing that I didn't get is why the guy who was turning everyone mad in the previous film was there as the 'judge' character in this film. Have I missed something to explain that?

I think all of the prisoners were released and that would have included the Scarecrow.

Yes, I would say so. No problems on the 8m high, THX certified screen at Plymouth



Well it was more than just themes. It was emotional. Begins is emotional, yet very "real" and has some great set pieces. TDK is epic in scale and very psychological, but also has "themes" and mind-blowing set pieces. TDKR is REALLY emotional and epic in scale with the emotion, the journey and the photography, whilst also having some great set pieces.

Is TDK the better film? Yes - if you wanna watch Heat with comic book characters, or you enjoy globe-trotting action pics with amazing set pieces and great acting. No - if you can appreciate the difference in tone between the three movies and especially the last two.

I had the biggest grin on my face when about a third of the way in, Bats makes his appearance to chase down Bane and an older cop says to a rookie, "Boy, you're in for a show tonight!"

I may write a blog post about it. If I do, it'll talk about the similarities with the end of Lost.

Much like with Episode III - the circle is now complete.

See, thing is, it wasn't consistent throughout the movie. Go from one cut to another and it was fine, which is what makes me think it might not be the projector.
Think back to that scene where he meets Bane for the first time, and he's looking back at Catwoman through the steel grill. I wanted his eyes to be pin sharp, since that's what we're looking at, and they just weren't.
Likewise there's times with Bane where it all got a bit soft, cut to an action sequence and we're sharp again on the wide.
Sadly, I can't really back this up without getting a camera out in the cinema...

TBH, in parts I kept thinking of The Voiceover Man - Peter Dickson

I honestly don't remember the eyes or whether there was soft focus or not since I was anticipating the fight with Bane. I agree with the idea of emotions and themes being greater in this one but I still felt it wasn't finished properly.

The voice was fine but as noted above, Bane just wasn't intimidating enough. He genuinely came across as a pawn rather than a player.

Not saying I know for sure and you're much more in the know on this stuff, but it sounds like maybe cuts between IMAX and regular sequences which on a sub-par screen....?

Maybe the sheer size of the screen at Plymouth helped mask the changes? Yet another reason to see a movie with 1hr of IMAX at an actual IMAX.

Talk like Bane:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx3IlbmGFoM

GQ inadvertently gets details on deleted scenes amid fashion gibbering:

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/tv/blog ... n-arm.html

I would have sooner had more backstory than unnecessary characters...

There was a Bane backstory that got cut.
I read about that just recently.

Mark

This is one of the reasons I didn't like the film as much as everyone else. Too many characters means not enough character development. I still think that police kid should have been present in one of the earlier films. IIRC the second film introduced only the Joker. Miranda could have been present at a board meeting (I can't recall much of her story in TDKR as Miranda) and Blake could easily have been say trainee cop or something. A few seconds to establish he was a cop, was called Blake and was in awe of Batman. Would have made it easier to accept them both in the new film. That way, the only new characters were Bane and Catwoman.

Watch the second film again and tell me the same problems you have with Rises aren't right there in the second one.

I don't follow

It's too long, the Joker and Two Face both needed more back story and development, and it would've benefitted from being two movies. IMHO, of course.

Will go off memory. I loved TDK.

Issues I had with TDKR:

1. Too many characters. TDK really only had Batman (established) Gordon (established), Harvey and the Joker ie 2. TDKR had Miranda, Blake, Bane and Catwoman (4). Any other new characters in TDK were small fry.

2. Too much going on. TDK was almost singularly focussed IMO, like following a single thread. TDKR felt like a mish-mash.

3. Nothin developed to its fullest extent. We didn't get this with TDK - we saw Gordon and his family; Harvey being good, turning, and becoming bad. Joker's rise. Batman doing more and pushing harder.

4. Batman being out of action for so long despite being active for such a short time. Again, TDK saw him in the swing of things.

5. The way that Bane basically took control of Gotham was a bit pants. Compare this to the Joker's entrance in the film, the way he took the bad guy's money, holding people to hostage etc.

6. Bane/Batman fight - could have been more "theatrical". Again, compare this to Batman fighting at the beginning, fetching Lau, and fighting baddies + swat. HUGE!

7. there's a bomb in the truck, less than two mins and yet they have to listen to her speech and catwoman had to kiss bats. Again, Batman got Lau within the two minutes of him setting the bombs.

8. People knowing Batman's identity. I think Rachel/Alfred/Fox knew and that was largely established in the first film.

9. No close ups of The Bat. Compare this to the Tumbler and the Pod, both of which were IMO adequately and clearly shown off.

Were there any other problems I had that you wanted me to talk about?