Dark Knight Rises - Saw this, it was good. I'll have to think about it vs. the first, initial kneejerk is that TDKR is a bit weaker but I'll have to reflect on that, there are some things it does better.
Eh, spoilers for everything.
Was a fan of:
-Catwoman. As good as the Nolan movies are they really lack characters with any moral ambiguity; Catwoman definitely delivers there. I think her perspective and her differences from Batman are pretty valid ones and the exploration of them is fun. Also she's badass.
-Scarecrow's cameo as a giant troll. "Death... by exile!" best line. Narrowly beating out Batman's "So that's how that feels."
-Holy shit they made a Robin who is actually a real human being and not annoying, cool. I'm somewhat apathetic to the character but I liked the way he was set up as the Batman successor and his scenes were generally fine.
-Alfred steals scenes as usual. It's a crying shame he's virtually absent from the back half of the movie.
-The villain reveal twist I thought was very effective, I was a bit suspicious but still largely blindsided (not familiar with the comics though). Also the "ohhh shit she DID have the ability to flood the control unit fuck" is great.
Was not a fan of:
-The league of shadows is baaack! Okay, I'll admit, I never liked these guys. Their ideology seemed kinda stupid and nebulous, but y'know what? At least Liam Neeson could act. Bane felt like Neeson minus some acting pedigree and plus a stupid mask. We get another whole movie of League of Shadows and this time their plan makes as little sense as their ideology. Why not just blow up the bomb days earlier? At the VERY least detonate it the moment the cops mount their overt resistance or... something. C'mon guys. The Dark Knight is the best movie in the series for the sole reason that it has Joker and Dent instead of these losers.
-Gordon and Fox made less impact on me in this movie. They aren't bad (Fox's "Q moment" was fun), but I list this as a negative because I definitely liked them a lot in the first two films. This is largely a byproduct of their roles being reduced due to Catwoman and Blake, and I liked them so I can't really complain.
-Not sure what I think about the ending. Somewhat agree with Grefter there I guess. If you're going to have Batman live (which seems improbable to me given the bomb has a blast radius of how many miles again?) you can maybe not have him lie to all his friends.
The good outweighs the bad as usual and the movie should be seen etc.
