The Dark Knight Rises

Just saw it!

I know about 30% of the movie was pretty much 'meh', but still: I'm blown away. I'd expected a bit of a disappointment after TDK, which I loved, but it didn't happen. Sure, some bits and pieces were silly: why does The Batman, once he's revealed to be Bruce Wayne, not just drop the shitty voice that is fooling absolutely no one except everyone in the cast? How does he know - without the visor shit of TDK and with no proper ways of communicating because of the city's broken down infrastructure - where everyone is all the time? Why does Gordon carry an incriminating letter with him all the time? How come Bane's army doesn't grow: after five months, half of Gotham should've gotten some form of Stockholm syndrome?

Silliness aside, I really hated 'the big reveal', mostly because of the crappy way Ra's Al Ghul floated around a bit and Talia's death was pretty much ridiculous. As was that Batman/Catwoman kiss. Mmm.

On the other hand, I though Bane was magnificent. Even the spot of crying at the end didn't ruin him for me. I'm a little upset they didn't keep the original mix of the voice - subtitles would have been a far more elegant solution I think - but it didn't bother me. He's clearly speaking through a filter, so why not assume it magnifies his voice? You can see Tom speak beneath the mask, and I think the dubbing was well done. I also liked that his accent sounded rather a lot like a poor man trying to speak in an upstanding way. And the physiciality of the character was spot on, to me.
I wasn't too impressed with either Bane/Batman fight, but I did LOVE the fact that he broke his back by smacking him to the floor. I knew it was coming, and while my way-too-empathising self was shifting in my chair, my inner geek was jubilant.

Another thing I loved was the dynamic between Alfred and Wayne. I've always loved Michael Cane's Alfred most in the previous movies, and he was so spot on here. He's the thing that had me in tears at the end, apologizing while he was in fact so right.

I also liked the fact that everyone's right: Gotham's not worth it. It's stupid residents are not worth it. When the bomb explodes in mid-flight, they cheer. They're greedy, ignorant and cowardly, and the few people who are actually trying to make a difference are pretty much at the bottom anyway. That's the whole point, I suppose, but I was really upset when I thought Bruce had actually died (which I would have preferred as an ending) for those people.

I also LOVED the music, it was - in the correct sense of the word - awesome. And I thought it quite fitting that the end of the trilogy was the most comic-booky of all.</blockquote></div></div></div>