Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises opens eight years after the events of The Dark Knight. Physically and emotionally scarred from his fight with the Joker and the loss of Rachel Dawes, Bruce Wayne has retreated into hiding. His body has deteriorated and Wayne Enterprises stands upon ruin. Meanwhile, under the Dent Act–which vaguely sounds like the Patriot Act–, Gotham is experiencing a renaissance. A past nemesis lurks in the shadows though, and Bruce Wayne/Batman are in no condition to fight.
The premise of The Dark Knight Rises is fantastic; the execution, not so much.There are so many ideas, characters, and plot lines going on that Nolan either needed to make the movie into a television mini-series or into several separate films. I find this overstuffed baked potato odd seeing that Christopher Nolan is a master of editing (see Memento).
I was disappointed by plot inconsistencies/actions not true to characters/magical moments:
- In one scene we are told that Bruce’s body is destroyed, that he has no cartilage in his knees or elbows. The next thing we are introduced to is a magical knee brace. Good thing that fixes everything else too. Wonder if they sell one of those on Amazon?
- Alfred letting Bruce mope for 8 years and then dropping a bomb on Bruce that Rachel didn’t want to be with him. Huh?
- Alfred leaving. I’m not going to say anymore. About as true to character as Superman killing someone. Oh wait…
- Does anyone really think that Bruce Wayne would have allowed Wayne Enterprises to tank? After all the preaching on responsibility and taking care of Gotham in Batman Begins, I have a hard time with Bruce letting his company go.
- Lucious Fox. Why didn’t the Wayne Enterprises Board fire Lucious? If the company is running into the ground, changes are needed from the top down. Send the man back to R&D.
- How did Bruce magically appear in Gotham at the end? He called his friend Harry Potter.
Overall, The Dark Knight Rises lacks focus just as Spiderman 3 did. Too many characters, plots/subplots, and loose editing ultimately kill a film I desperately wanted to enjoy.
JohnnyBGamer 
This film was incredibly bad. Really, really bad. I didn’t like the Dark Knight at first, but I’ve grown to enjoy it. I watched both the other movies beforehand, and I don’t know what happened here with Rises. I wrote about it angrily a while ago, I’m sure.
Nolan definitely need restraint and a good editor, honestly. Not sure how we got here!
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Alfred walking out on Bruce was my breaking point.
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Batman Begins is my favorite out of the trilogy. What did you think of the first film, Zach?
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I’m a little late on this one, but I like the first one.
I prefer my TIm Burton Batman, I suppose, but it’s more a matter of personal taste than any real dislike of the first two Nolan films.
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I liked all of Nolan’s Batflicks. But I saw this one the day after the shooting. The fear was palpable – both in the movie and the setting. I guess my attention was so much on the concept of fear that I wasn’t a quarter as critical of the storytelling as yourselves.
Here’s my initial thoughts related to it: http://lovesubverts.com/2012/07/dark-knight-rises-and-fear/
I need to watch it again with a more critical eye, perhaps?
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