The Dark Knight Trilogy

Ben Gadot

Rather than resurrect one of the old (and fantastic) threads on these films and risk them being sullied as "zombie threads", I said I'd create a new one in response to a poster calling these films pompous in the Wonder Woman thread.

I'm not going to write an essay but I will say that this trilogy is still the pinnacle in terms of storytelling to me within the genre. I've always seen the common criticism about TDK that the film falls apart when you take The Joker out of it, yet my response would be why would you take him out of it? The story is as much about him as it is about Batman and Harvey Dent. It is their story, and together it makes for a compelling film.

Yet I understand the issue people have with that in that it's not truly a story about Barman and Bruce Wayne......and that's why I love The Dark Knight Rises, because that truly is Bruce's story, where Bale arguably gives his best performance of the trilogy.

Batman Begins deserves a mention for starting it all, where Nolan casually took on the previously dreaded challenge of tackling multiple villains and executed it perfectly. Brilliant cast and the right story to tell at that point, Nolan took the character out of development hell and reset the bar in terms of what we should expect from a superhero film.

Maybe that's what some people have an issue with in that they think Nolan commandeered the genre and made it something that they don't think should be representative of it. I don't think that's pompous however. To me it was just a case of Nolan seeing the potential of the characters at his disposal and refused to tell a by the numbers story.

To me it was truly lightning in a bottle and one that I'm happy to let go of and enjoy this new extended universe stuff. But it will always be the trilogy I take out and watch again at some point each year.

sunny2004

I'm a Wonder Woman type of guy !

fluke

Ben Gadot wrote: »

Yet I understand the issue people have with that in that it's not truly a story about Barman and Bruce Wayne......and that's why I love The Dark Knight Rises, because that truly is Bruce's story, where Bale arguably gives his best performance of the trilogy.

In fairness though (and in a nutshell) I love all three, though I do feel, like you, that Bruce's story is lost somewhere in the mix in TDK, so for me it's refreshing to return to that in TDKR.

Ben Gadot

Fcuking autocorrect.

saintsaltynuts

Batman Begins was good really felt like an intro though.The Dark Knight,Heath Ledger aside, i thought was very overrated.I really enjoyed The Dark Knight Rises thought Tom Hardy was great in it.

Ben Gadot

Hardy is always great empathising physicality in his roles, my only regret about TDKR was that he was sidelined a bit towards the end.

fluke

Ben Gadot wrote: »

Hardy is always great empathising physicality in his roles, my only regret about TDKR was that he was sidelined a bit towards the end.

I kinda like that actually - it almost feels like the movie is saying 'we're done with your pompous talk. Bang. Bye!'

Icaras

To me TDKR feels phoned in from Nolan, opening scene and first Bane fight aside. Hardy and Bales performances are excellent.
Sloppy things like send the whole police force underground, police force and henchmen fight at the end, the poor fight scene on the steps of the building between bane and batman, Babe being someone else's puppet,

I think the other two are excellent but think the enthusiasm faded for Nolan.

Clareman

There's a fan edit of the 3 movies into 1 3 hour movie, it's a great watch. For me, Batman is always about his conflict, either between Batman and Bruce Wayne or between Batman and the villains. For me the Dark Knight works so very very well because the main villain is introduced so early and is central to the whole plot, I think they really dropped the ball by not bringing Two Face into Rises, they had a brilliant introduction of the character and to have him get in contact with the League to bring in Bane only to have Harvey cut through again would have been a better story but wouldn't have been a better trilogy, if that makes sense.

Sad Professor

I never saw Bane as a puppet. Him and Talia are partners. The class warfare plot wasn't her idea.

Clareman

Sad Professor wrote: »

I never saw Bane as a puppet. Him and Talia are partners. The class warfare plot wasn't her idea.

He was willing to sacrifice himself for her and had an extremely weak exit, he was a puppet

razorblunt

I've warmed to the third one over the years, I was really disappointed on first viewing, especially the ending, all aspects to the ending.

Nervous Wreck

Apart from Batman letting R'as Al Ghul die, I loved Batman Begins. Apart from the ending, I loved The Dark Knight. But The Dark Knight Rises was a really poor final act. Over the years, the bad aspects of it have really started to irk me. I defended nonsensical elements of it in the past but, with the value of hindsight, I see through so many cracks and am less willing to let it slide.

willmunny1990

The first two were very good but there were too many things that annoyed me about Rises.

The silly fight on the steps where he was being destroyed and then just happened to get a lucky punch in that dislodged one of the tubes in Banes mask, go back to the sewer fight Batman landed several direct blows and none dislodged anything.

Also why were the cops and villains all fist fighting and not shooting? didn't make sense.

Banes death was also badly done and I didn't like how it ended.

Kidchameleon

All three are amazing. I particularly liked the third one. Im surprised people had problems with it. I get that the second one focused alot on the joker but I suppose each film offered something different

Outlaw Pete

Not sure what it's referred to as but these were the first films that I remember using that slow crescendo building dramatic rumbling drumbeat at the end to build up anticipation for what's to come..... but now loads of films have it. Hope he patented it.

pumpkin4life

Kidchameleon wrote: »

All three are amazing. I particularly liked the third one. Im surprised people had problems with it. I get that the second one focused alot on the joker but I suppose each film offered something different

The third one's my favorite as well.

Bane's a fantastic bad guy. The Joker's great and all, but he's a "I want to watch the burn" kind of lad and is there more to him than that? Bane's the kind of creep who would have been a Bolshevik in Russia. The kangaroo courts with the walking on the ice, the atomic bomb, telling Batman that he wants people to despair because you need hope for that.

The Dark Knight Rises has some flaws in it, but there isn't a single superhero movie out there quite like it.

TheDoc

I can't think of any films that got me as hyped as when I saw the trailers for these coming out.
I can't think of a trilogy of films I love as much.
I don't have a trilogy of films I watch as regularly as these. We must watch them back to back about three times a year.

While I get the flaws people have about parts or bits, it's nothing I ever let bother me. I'm a massive Batman fan, and these are just the pinnacle for me. And whatever about it being Batman, you nearly feel these films would be just as good if it was some random vigilante and villians you never heard of. They are tremendous films imo.

I thought it would be gone at this point, but I still get a little shiver up my spine at TDKR when Batman emerges from the crowd near the end to see Bane and they go at it.

IncognitoMan

The first time Batman reappears in Rises in the tunnel with the lights going out group by group gives me shivers every time. I love the younger cop and the veteran's different reactions to Batman. In the cinema I was grinning from ear to ear.

The Dark Knight Trilogy is up there with the best trilogies of all time.

blue note

I think as a trilogy they are vastly overrated, although I do think the second is just brilliant. It drags at the end, but overall I could sit down and watch it any time it's on. The joker probably makes it, but some of the set pieces are just amazing too.

The first and third though - I've seen them a couple off times each but I just can't get excited about them. I didn't like the baddies in the first one which is a pity with them both being irish. Bane was okay as a baddie. Lots of stupid things in the third one annoyed me.

An overall point on the trilogy though which isn't really a criticism is that I can never really regard them as comic book films. Or even graphic novel films. I always feel with comic book films or graphic novels that they're not quite taking place in the real world. With these I never felt any fantastical element like that. They felt very much like action films with batman in them.