Why The Dark Knight Rises Sucks
I tried to give this another watch for the first time since 2012 and it sucks on so many levels.
1. Bale's Batman voice - still as laughable as ever. Seems he learned nothing from the criticism of his throat cancer voice in The Dark Knight.
2. The Batsuit - Bale just looks like some weirdo dressed in a poorly designed Batman costume. The helmet looks awkward like its crushing his head, and the body of the suit just looks clumsily put together.
3. Batman's magical leg brace - why introduce the plot point of Batman having no cartilage in his knees only to resolve it with the laziest solution possible. A 10 second sequence featuring a magical leg brace that not only fixes his knees but allows him to kick through concrete walls. Lazy writing.
4. Gotham City - Gotham has always been almost a character itself in the comics, it provides the setting and atmosphere of the franchise. In TDKR Nolan wasn't bothered to give Gotham any personality at all. It's basically just Chicago.
5. The score - loud and bombastic for the sake of being loud and bombastic. I like some of Zimmer's past scores but this is some of his most uninspiring work.
6. Bane and the loyalty of his minions - I don't buy that his minions would willingly die for him. Especially the opening scene where Bane just casually asks one of his men to burn to death in a plane because he needs a dead body in the wreckage. He also seems to kill his men willy nilly for small mistakes. Not a great way to encourage loyalty.
7. Catwoman fight choreography - the scene where Hathaway is selling Bruce Wayne's fingerprint has some of the least convincing fight choreography i've ever seen. At one point, a bad guy is pointing a gun at Selina while she has her back turned and then waits for her to turn around so she can disarm him. Lazy directing.
8. Lazy ass script-writing - so Joseph Gordon-Levitt could tell Bruce Wayne was Batman just by recognizing a look in his eyes? Really? Is this the level of script-writing we're dealing with? Even if this was in the comics, it doesn't translate well to film. It seems Nolan chose the worst aspects of the comics to stay loyal to, and left out the more important aspects of the Batman universe.
9. Nolan seems to be ashamed of the source material - despite Hathaway's character clearly being Catwoman, she is never even referred to as Catwoman once in the movie. This is the problem with trying to create a realistic version of an unrealistic concept. You almost have to be ashamed of the source material and shy away from established character traits and even the goddamn names of the characters. I feel like Nolan would have avoided calling Batman, Batman if he could get away with it.
Edit:
10. Commissioner Gordon sending every cop in the city into the sewers - just a ridiculously stupid plot point that is commonly brought up with good reason. Who was answering 911 calls at this time? If there's an army of bad guys in the sewers that requires thousands of cops, they would call the National Guard. So many aspects of this movie felt like it was written by a child or some fanfiction fucktard.
11. Skinny twig Hathaway knocking out grown men with one punch - this is something I could overlook if the movie had a comic book movie tone, but this is the problem with trying to make Batman realistic, everything goofy and unrealistic sticks out like a sore thumb. Hathaway has the muscle mass of an emaciated poodle, she ain't knocking anybody out.
12. Talia death scene - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQS0y95yAL0 genuinely some of the worst acting i've ever seen in a death sequence for a movie of this magnitude. The video speaks for itself.
I couldn't even finish the movie this time around, what a load of hogwash.