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Dark Knight rises
- Thread starter singveld
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‘Dark Knight’ series ends as epic letdown
Christopher Nolan concludes his Batman trilogy in typically spectacular, ambitious fashion with “The Dark Knight Rises,” but the feeling of frustration and disappointment is unshakable.
With Christian Bale as his tortured superhero starting from 2005’s “Batman Begins,” Nolan has explored the complicated and conflicting motivations of man as well as the possibility of greatness and redemption within society.
Here, as director and co-writer, he’s unrelenting in hammering home the dread, the sorrow, the sense of detachment and futility of a city on the brink of collapse with no savior in sight. There’s so much going on here, though, with so many new characters who are all meant to function in significant ways that “The Dark Knight Rises” feels overloaded, and sadly lacking the spark that gave 2008’s “The Dark Knight” such vibrancy.
It’s been four years since “The Dark Knight” came out but eight years have passed in terms of story. Bale’s Bruce Wayne suffers in self-imposed exile, sulking about Wayne Manor, mourning the loss of his darling Rachel and carrying the burden of blame for the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent. His goal of a peaceful Gotham has been achieved, but he’s left as a man without a purpose. Michael Caine, as the ever-loyal valet Alfred, brings dignity and eloquence to the film as he begs Bruce to carve out his own form of happiness. Fellow veterans Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon and Morgan Freeman as gadget guru Lucius Fox are their usual dignified selves, but they don’t register the way they should because the film is so overstuffed.
Several new characters manage to draw Bruce out of his funk in various ways. Anne Hathaway brings some much needed zest to the proceedings as Selina Kyle, otherwise known as Catwoman. The other woman in Bruce’s life is woefully underdeveloped. Marion Cotillard co-stars as Miranda Tate, a philanthropist who hopes to work with Wayne Enterprises on developing sustainable energy. The romance that develops between her and Bruce is utterly unbelievable.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt adds a youthful presence as John Blake, an up-and-coming member of the police force who inspires Bruce to revisit his own childhood as an orphan. Gordon-Levitt is solid as always but there’s not much to his character.
Then there’s Bane, a muscular mass of pure evil who orchestrates an elaborate takeover of Gotham City. The role is a huge waste of what Tom Hardy can do; his character is so one-dimensional, he’s never so much a fearsome figure as a large and hulking one. But he is the instigator of the film’s dazzling opening sequence. That’s probably the most effective of the many set pieces Nolan stages here, although the collapse of Heinz Field during a packed football game also has a visceral quality, with thrills that recall the most imaginative moments of “Inception.”
This is the problem when you’re a visionary filmmaker. When you give people something extraordinary, they expect it every time.
Christopher Nolan concludes his Batman trilogy in typically spectacular, ambitious fashion with “The Dark Knight Rises,” but the feeling of frustration and disappointment is unshakable.
With Christian Bale as his tortured superhero starting from 2005’s “Batman Begins,” Nolan has explored the complicated and conflicting motivations of man as well as the possibility of greatness and redemption within society.
Here, as director and co-writer, he’s unrelenting in hammering home the dread, the sorrow, the sense of detachment and futility of a city on the brink of collapse with no savior in sight. There’s so much going on here, though, with so many new characters who are all meant to function in significant ways that “The Dark Knight Rises” feels overloaded, and sadly lacking the spark that gave 2008’s “The Dark Knight” such vibrancy.
It’s been four years since “The Dark Knight” came out but eight years have passed in terms of story. Bale’s Bruce Wayne suffers in self-imposed exile, sulking about Wayne Manor, mourning the loss of his darling Rachel and carrying the burden of blame for the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent. His goal of a peaceful Gotham has been achieved, but he’s left as a man without a purpose. Michael Caine, as the ever-loyal valet Alfred, brings dignity and eloquence to the film as he begs Bruce to carve out his own form of happiness. Fellow veterans Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon and Morgan Freeman as gadget guru Lucius Fox are their usual dignified selves, but they don’t register the way they should because the film is so overstuffed.
Several new characters manage to draw Bruce out of his funk in various ways. Anne Hathaway brings some much needed zest to the proceedings as Selina Kyle, otherwise known as Catwoman. The other woman in Bruce’s life is woefully underdeveloped. Marion Cotillard co-stars as Miranda Tate, a philanthropist who hopes to work with Wayne Enterprises on developing sustainable energy. The romance that develops between her and Bruce is utterly unbelievable.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt adds a youthful presence as John Blake, an up-and-coming member of the police force who inspires Bruce to revisit his own childhood as an orphan. Gordon-Levitt is solid as always but there’s not much to his character.
Then there’s Bane, a muscular mass of pure evil who orchestrates an elaborate takeover of Gotham City. The role is a huge waste of what Tom Hardy can do; his character is so one-dimensional, he’s never so much a fearsome figure as a large and hulking one. But he is the instigator of the film’s dazzling opening sequence. That’s probably the most effective of the many set pieces Nolan stages here, although the collapse of Heinz Field during a packed football game also has a visceral quality, with thrills that recall the most imaginative moments of “Inception.”
This is the problem when you’re a visionary filmmaker. When you give people something extraordinary, they expect it every time.
Christopher Nolan has responded to the online backlash that followed the publication of negative reviews for The Dark Knight Rises.
Rotten Tomatoes was forced to suspend comments when critics – most notably Christy Lemire and Marshall Fine – received a barrage of abuse on the site in response to their unenthusiastic reviews.
When quizzed about the controversy at last night's London premiere, Nolan said (as reported by the Huffington Post): "I think the fans are very passionate about these characters the way a lot of people are very passionate. Batman's been around for over 70 years and there's a reason for that. He has a huge appeal, so I think you know people certainly respond to the character,"
The Dark Knight Rises hits screens worldwide tomorrow (Friday) and you can check out our take on the film below.
Rotten Tomatoes was forced to suspend comments when critics – most notably Christy Lemire and Marshall Fine – received a barrage of abuse on the site in response to their unenthusiastic reviews.
When quizzed about the controversy at last night's London premiere, Nolan said (as reported by the Huffington Post): "I think the fans are very passionate about these characters the way a lot of people are very passionate. Batman's been around for over 70 years and there's a reason for that. He has a huge appeal, so I think you know people certainly respond to the character,"
The Dark Knight Rises hits screens worldwide tomorrow (Friday) and you can check out our take on the film below.
Batman Review: Is 'The Dark Knight Rises' An Epic Letdown?
By CHRISTY LEMIRE 07/16/12 02:39 PM
Christopher Nolan concludes his Batman trilogy in typically spectacular, ambitious fashion with "The Dark Knight Rises," but the feeling of frustration and disappointment is unshakable.
Maybe that was inevitable. Maybe nothing could have met the expectations established by 2008's "The Dark Knight," which revolutionized and set the standard for films based on comic books by being both high-minded and crowd-pleasing. With Christian Bale as his tortured superhero starting from 2005's "Batman Begins," Nolan has explored the complicated and conflicting motivations of man as well as the possibility of greatness and redemption within society.
Here, as director and co-writer, he's unrelenting in hammering home the dread, the sorrow, the sense of detachment and futility of a city on the brink of collapse with no savior in sight. Gotham is under siege in ways that tonally and visually recall 9/11; what is obviously the island of Manhattan gets cut off from the outside world at one point. Rather than seeming exploitative, it's just one of many examples of the script from Nolan and his usual collaborator, his brother Jonathan, making the franchise feel like a relevant reflection of our times. Identity theft, economic collapse and an uprising of the disgruntled, disenfranchised have-nots against the smug, comfy haves also come into play.
There's so much going on here, though, with so many new characters who are all meant to function in significant ways that "The Dark Knight Rises" feels overloaded, and sadly lacking the spark that gave 2008's "The Dark Knight" such vibrancy. The absence of Heath Ledger, who won a posthumous Oscar for his portrayal of the anarchic and truly frightening Joker, is really obvious here. It retrospect, it makes you realize how crucial Ledger's performance was in making that Batman movie fly.
By comparison, "The Dark Knight Rises" is plot-heavy, obsessed with process, laden with expository dialogue and flashbacks that bog down the momentum and – dare I say it? – just flat-out boring at times. Yes, the Batman world through Nolan's eyes is supposed to be moody and introspective; you've got to admire the fact that he is willing to challenge us this way when summer blockbusters so often feel flashy and hollow. And yet at the same time, it takes some giant leaps with its characters which either make no sense, haven't earned the emotions they're seeking, or both.
"The Dark Knight Rises" does feature the kind of impeccable production values we've come to expect from Nolan's films; many members of his core team are back, including cinematographer Wally Pfister, editor Lee Smith and production designers Nathan Crowley and Kevin Kavanaugh. "The Dark Knight Rises" feels weighty and substantive – and, thankfully, isn't in 3-D – but it takes on an even grittier look than its predecessors as Gotham City devolves into desperation and ruin.
But Nolan's approach is so coldly cerebral that it's a detriment to the film's emotional core. It's all doom and gloom and no heart. There is no reason to care about these characters, who function more as cogs in an elaborate, chaotic machine than as real people whose souls are at stake.
It's been four years since "The Dark Knight" came out but eight years have passed in terms of story. Bale's Bruce Wayne suffers in self-imposed exile, sulking about Wayne Manor, mourning the loss of his darling Rachel and carrying the burden of blame for the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent. His goal of a peaceful Gotham has been achieved, but he's left as a man without a purpose. Michael Caine, as the ever-loyal valet Alfred, brings dignity and eloquence to the film as he begs Bruce to carve out his own form of happiness. Fellow veterans Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon and Morgan Freeman as gadget guru Lucius Fox are their usual dignified selves, but they don't register the way they should because the film is so overstuffed.
Several new characters manage to draw Bruce out of his funk in various ways. Anne Hathaway brings some much needed zest to the proceedings as Selina Kyle, otherwise known as Catwoman in the Batman universe, a slinky thief who punctures Bruce's bubble when she lifts his fingerprints from his safe, along with a beloved pearl necklace. She's selfish and cynical, only looking out for herself, but at least she goes about her crimes with some verve and style. They never call her Catwoman by name, and she's never as campy as Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry were in previous film incarnations of the role, but she's always fun to watch.
The other woman in Bruce's life, however, is woefully underdeveloped – which is a real problem because she plays a key role in the film's climactic revelations. Marion Cotillard (one of many alumni from Nolan's "Inception") co-stars as Miranda Tate, a wealthy philanthropist who hopes to work with Wayne Enterprises on developing clean, sustainable energy. The romance that develops between her and Bruce is utterly unbelievable.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt adds a youthful presence as John Blake, an up-and-coming member of the police force who inspires Bruce to revisit his own childhood as an orphan. Gordon-Levitt as solid as always but there's not much to his character aside from earnestness.
Then there's Bane, a muscular mass of pure evil who orchestrates an elaborate takeover of Gotham City. The role is a huge waste of what Tom Hardy can do; his character is so one-dimensional and poorly defined, he's never so much a fearsome figure as a large and hulking one. It doesn't help matters that it's often difficult to make out what he's saying beneath the cage-like muzzle that covers his nose and mouth and alters his voice. Hardy can be sexy and charismatic (as he proved in "Inception") but also a dangerous and unpredictable figure. None of that is on display here. He's all brute force.
But he is the instigator of the film's dazzling opening sequence, worthy of the best of James Bond: a daring aerial maneuver in which Bane kidnaps a scientist by hijacking his plane from the skies above. That's probably the most effective of the many set pieces Nolan stages here, although the collapse of Heinz Field during a packed football game also has an urgent, visceral quality, with thrills that recall the most imaginative moments of "Inception."
This is the problem when you're an exceptional, visionary filmmaker. When you give people something extraordinary, they expect it every time. Anything short of that feels like a letdown.
"The Dark Knight Rises," a Warner Bros. release, is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality and language. Running time: 164 minutes. Two stars out of four.
By CHRISTY LEMIRE 07/16/12 02:39 PM
Christopher Nolan concludes his Batman trilogy in typically spectacular, ambitious fashion with "The Dark Knight Rises," but the feeling of frustration and disappointment is unshakable.
Maybe that was inevitable. Maybe nothing could have met the expectations established by 2008's "The Dark Knight," which revolutionized and set the standard for films based on comic books by being both high-minded and crowd-pleasing. With Christian Bale as his tortured superhero starting from 2005's "Batman Begins," Nolan has explored the complicated and conflicting motivations of man as well as the possibility of greatness and redemption within society.
Here, as director and co-writer, he's unrelenting in hammering home the dread, the sorrow, the sense of detachment and futility of a city on the brink of collapse with no savior in sight. Gotham is under siege in ways that tonally and visually recall 9/11; what is obviously the island of Manhattan gets cut off from the outside world at one point. Rather than seeming exploitative, it's just one of many examples of the script from Nolan and his usual collaborator, his brother Jonathan, making the franchise feel like a relevant reflection of our times. Identity theft, economic collapse and an uprising of the disgruntled, disenfranchised have-nots against the smug, comfy haves also come into play.
There's so much going on here, though, with so many new characters who are all meant to function in significant ways that "The Dark Knight Rises" feels overloaded, and sadly lacking the spark that gave 2008's "The Dark Knight" such vibrancy. The absence of Heath Ledger, who won a posthumous Oscar for his portrayal of the anarchic and truly frightening Joker, is really obvious here. It retrospect, it makes you realize how crucial Ledger's performance was in making that Batman movie fly.
By comparison, "The Dark Knight Rises" is plot-heavy, obsessed with process, laden with expository dialogue and flashbacks that bog down the momentum and – dare I say it? – just flat-out boring at times. Yes, the Batman world through Nolan's eyes is supposed to be moody and introspective; you've got to admire the fact that he is willing to challenge us this way when summer blockbusters so often feel flashy and hollow. And yet at the same time, it takes some giant leaps with its characters which either make no sense, haven't earned the emotions they're seeking, or both.
"The Dark Knight Rises" does feature the kind of impeccable production values we've come to expect from Nolan's films; many members of his core team are back, including cinematographer Wally Pfister, editor Lee Smith and production designers Nathan Crowley and Kevin Kavanaugh. "The Dark Knight Rises" feels weighty and substantive – and, thankfully, isn't in 3-D – but it takes on an even grittier look than its predecessors as Gotham City devolves into desperation and ruin.
But Nolan's approach is so coldly cerebral that it's a detriment to the film's emotional core. It's all doom and gloom and no heart. There is no reason to care about these characters, who function more as cogs in an elaborate, chaotic machine than as real people whose souls are at stake.
It's been four years since "The Dark Knight" came out but eight years have passed in terms of story. Bale's Bruce Wayne suffers in self-imposed exile, sulking about Wayne Manor, mourning the loss of his darling Rachel and carrying the burden of blame for the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent. His goal of a peaceful Gotham has been achieved, but he's left as a man without a purpose. Michael Caine, as the ever-loyal valet Alfred, brings dignity and eloquence to the film as he begs Bruce to carve out his own form of happiness. Fellow veterans Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon and Morgan Freeman as gadget guru Lucius Fox are their usual dignified selves, but they don't register the way they should because the film is so overstuffed.
Several new characters manage to draw Bruce out of his funk in various ways. Anne Hathaway brings some much needed zest to the proceedings as Selina Kyle, otherwise known as Catwoman in the Batman universe, a slinky thief who punctures Bruce's bubble when she lifts his fingerprints from his safe, along with a beloved pearl necklace. She's selfish and cynical, only looking out for herself, but at least she goes about her crimes with some verve and style. They never call her Catwoman by name, and she's never as campy as Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry were in previous film incarnations of the role, but she's always fun to watch.
The other woman in Bruce's life, however, is woefully underdeveloped – which is a real problem because she plays a key role in the film's climactic revelations. Marion Cotillard (one of many alumni from Nolan's "Inception") co-stars as Miranda Tate, a wealthy philanthropist who hopes to work with Wayne Enterprises on developing clean, sustainable energy. The romance that develops between her and Bruce is utterly unbelievable.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt adds a youthful presence as John Blake, an up-and-coming member of the police force who inspires Bruce to revisit his own childhood as an orphan. Gordon-Levitt as solid as always but there's not much to his character aside from earnestness.
Then there's Bane, a muscular mass of pure evil who orchestrates an elaborate takeover of Gotham City. The role is a huge waste of what Tom Hardy can do; his character is so one-dimensional and poorly defined, he's never so much a fearsome figure as a large and hulking one. It doesn't help matters that it's often difficult to make out what he's saying beneath the cage-like muzzle that covers his nose and mouth and alters his voice. Hardy can be sexy and charismatic (as he proved in "Inception") but also a dangerous and unpredictable figure. None of that is on display here. He's all brute force.
But he is the instigator of the film's dazzling opening sequence, worthy of the best of James Bond: a daring aerial maneuver in which Bane kidnaps a scientist by hijacking his plane from the skies above. That's probably the most effective of the many set pieces Nolan stages here, although the collapse of Heinz Field during a packed football game also has an urgent, visceral quality, with thrills that recall the most imaginative moments of "Inception."
This is the problem when you're an exceptional, visionary filmmaker. When you give people something extraordinary, they expect it every time. Anything short of that feels like a letdown.
"The Dark Knight Rises," a Warner Bros. release, is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality and language. Running time: 164 minutes. Two stars out of four.
'Dark Knight Rises': Everything You Need To Know
Before you see Christopher Nolan's Batman finale, here's your primer.
"The Dark Knight Rises" is a big, ambitious movie that shows little mercy to those audience members who can't recall the finer details of Christopher Nolan's previous two Batman films. As the conclusion to a true trilogy, "Rises" name-checks and calls back to almost all of the major plot points and characters from "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight."
To get you prepared for "The Dark Knight Rises," here's a rundown of some of the most pertinent information from Nolan's trilogy to make the final conclusion that much more satisfying.
Just Re-watch "Batman Begins" For months, when we sought any ounce of plot information from the cast of "The Dark Knight Rises," the best we could get was a tip from Gary Oldman that the trilogy has a circularity to it and that the final chapter will double back to some "Batman Begins" territory. Suffice it say, he was correct. As much as "Rises" is the natural story progression from the events of "The Dark Knight," it doesn't ignore what happened in the first film, a flaw far too common in franchises. Nolan's trilogy tells one story, so you can't just ignore the first third. We won't say how "Rises" connects to "Begins," but we will say it's significant.
Rachel Dawes The love of Bruce's life, Rachel's presence is still felt in "Rises" in a greater capacity than the framed publicity still of Maggie Gyllenhaal that shows up. Bruce's self-imposed exile has just as much to do with Rachel's death as Batman's status as an outlaw, if not more so. The final conversations between Rachel and Bruce, about the possibility of future together after Batman, have stuck with him all of these years. He never knew that Rachel planned to leave him for Harvey Dent, and that has shaped his idea of Rachel.
The Life and Death of Harvey Dent Gotham's former beacon of hope became the one thing that could destroy everything Harvey Dent worked so hard to achieve while he still had one face. To protect that legacy, Gordon and Batman agreed to a lie that would keep the sterling image of Dent intact, while throwing Gotham's silent guardian under the bus. The fruits of that lie play a key role in setting the stage for the Gotham of "Rises."
Batman's Exile We know that "Rises" begins after eight years without a Batman sighting, but the same also applies to Bruce Wayne. He has become a Howard Hughes-like Hermit, locked away in the rebuilt Wayne Manor. With Batman considered an outlaw and Bruce's "only chance at a normal life" gone, there is nothing left for him but to try to do some good with his money and keep out of sight.
Before you see Christopher Nolan's Batman finale, here's your primer.
"The Dark Knight Rises" is a big, ambitious movie that shows little mercy to those audience members who can't recall the finer details of Christopher Nolan's previous two Batman films. As the conclusion to a true trilogy, "Rises" name-checks and calls back to almost all of the major plot points and characters from "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight."
To get you prepared for "The Dark Knight Rises," here's a rundown of some of the most pertinent information from Nolan's trilogy to make the final conclusion that much more satisfying.
Just Re-watch "Batman Begins" For months, when we sought any ounce of plot information from the cast of "The Dark Knight Rises," the best we could get was a tip from Gary Oldman that the trilogy has a circularity to it and that the final chapter will double back to some "Batman Begins" territory. Suffice it say, he was correct. As much as "Rises" is the natural story progression from the events of "The Dark Knight," it doesn't ignore what happened in the first film, a flaw far too common in franchises. Nolan's trilogy tells one story, so you can't just ignore the first third. We won't say how "Rises" connects to "Begins," but we will say it's significant.
Rachel Dawes The love of Bruce's life, Rachel's presence is still felt in "Rises" in a greater capacity than the framed publicity still of Maggie Gyllenhaal that shows up. Bruce's self-imposed exile has just as much to do with Rachel's death as Batman's status as an outlaw, if not more so. The final conversations between Rachel and Bruce, about the possibility of future together after Batman, have stuck with him all of these years. He never knew that Rachel planned to leave him for Harvey Dent, and that has shaped his idea of Rachel.
The Life and Death of Harvey Dent Gotham's former beacon of hope became the one thing that could destroy everything Harvey Dent worked so hard to achieve while he still had one face. To protect that legacy, Gordon and Batman agreed to a lie that would keep the sterling image of Dent intact, while throwing Gotham's silent guardian under the bus. The fruits of that lie play a key role in setting the stage for the Gotham of "Rises."
Batman's Exile We know that "Rises" begins after eight years without a Batman sighting, but the same also applies to Bruce Wayne. He has become a Howard Hughes-like Hermit, locked away in the rebuilt Wayne Manor. With Batman considered an outlaw and Bruce's "only chance at a normal life" gone, there is nothing left for him but to try to do some good with his money and keep out of sight.
Review: The Dark Knight Rises (2012) Continues the Curse of Comic Book Threequels
First and foremost, I cannot decide at the moment if The Dark Knight Rises (trailer) is a 'better film' than Spider-Man 3, Batman Forever, and/or X-Men: The Last Stand. The fact that I have to outright state as much should tell you what a comparative disappointment this film is. Overall, its many storytelling flaws bring the picture down, offering only engaging acting, entertaining character interaction, and the kind of empty-headed (but oft impressive) action spectacle associated with more conventional blockbusters.
It is a hodgepodge of several classic Batman stories squished into one chaotic narrative that ends up resembling a mash-up of Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Rocky III. There are moments of emotional engagement in the first third and the final moments pack an appropriate wallop. But the film frankly drags for much of its middle 90 minutes on its way to a surprisingly unremarkable climax. Save for mostly fine performances, including a terrific supporting turn by Anne Hathaway, and some wonderful character beats scattered throughout, this is sadly the very definition of an unnecessary sequel.
A token amount of plot: Eight years have passed since Batman took the fall for Harvey Dent's crimes in order to salvage the hope he represented to Gotham's populace in the wake of The Joker's rampage. Batman hasn't been seen since and Bruce Wayne has become a Howard Hughes-esque hermit, forever mourning Rachel Dawes (seen in photographs as Maggie Gyllenhaal, not Katie Holmes), who he believes was going to leave Harvey for him before she was murdered by Health Ledger's anarchist clown. However a chance encounter with an entrancing jewel thief (Hathaway) leads to Bruce slowly coming of his shell. News of Wayne Enterprise's financial misfortunes in his absence, and the apparent emergence of a new city-wide threat in the form of international terrorist Bane (Tom Hardy), forces Bruce to take control of his life and embrace both sides of his former identities. But with Wayne Industries being manipulated from within and Bruce long past his physical prime, what could can Wayne or Batman accomplish in a city that scorns them both?
Obviously I'm going to avoid explicit spoilers, but you'll be frankly shocked at how few genuine surprises this film has in store. It unspools in a stunningly predictable and straightforward manner. If you have any inkling of what comic book stories are being referenced, you'll know where the plot is going, even though it takes forever to get there. Like Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the film spends its first hour with supporting characters (Gary Oldman and Joseph Gordon Levitt in this case) trying to deduce a loosely-constructed mystery that, when revealed, makes you realize that you really didn't need to see that first hour at all. Sure, there are some wonderful character beats, especially from Michael Caine and Anne Hathaway (including a terrific introductory scene between Bruce Wayne and Levitt's rookie cop John Blake and a devastating exchange between Bale and Caine), as well as a terribly silly motorcycle chase, but from a plot standpoint, very little of what happens in the first hour or so of the film ends up being remotely relevant. Even Bruce Wayne's character arc, trying to be vague here, basically puts him right back where he started at the midway point.
The picture spends its first half very slowly getting to what should be the end of act one, dragging what is arguably the film's inciting action well past the hour mark and giving incredibly short shrift to what should be the meat of the story, mainly Gotham City in prolonged peril. And for all the talk of how the film somehow speaks to our times socially and politically, HA! Look, I'm the guy who calls The Dark Knight the defining post-9/11 movie. But Bane's few seemingly revolutionary speeches are vague and ambiguous while his actions (using escaped prisoners as his personal army) are that of any super-villain. Bane speaks about 'taking back your city from corruption' but we never see any regular Gothamites doing anything revolutionary, nor do we really see them reacting to much of the second-act peril in any real way. The level of political discourse in this film is on the level of the Penguin's 'glory of Gotham!' speeches in Batman Returns (whose 'Penguin runs for mayor' plot-line was of course a brutal satire of personality politics).
We're told that Gotham City is filled with corruption and that the rich are fleecing the poor, yet we see no evidence of this beyond the machinations to bring down Wayne Enterprises. Even the idea of Gotham having turned itself around post-Dark Knight based on a lie is only dealt with in regards to how it personally affects Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman, fine as always, is once again basically tasked to play the role of sidekick this time around, ala Batman Begins). Anything Chris Nolan and company have to say about economic inequality and its harmful effects on society were said much better in the first act of Batman Begins by Katie Holmes, Richard Brake, and Tom Wilkinson.
Action was never Chris Nolan's strong suit, and I generally don't care if a Batman film has decent action (here's a dirty secret -- comic books are soap operas and readers devour them for the melodrama, not the fisticuffs). But the action beats in The Dark Knight Rises are pretty unmemorable, with only the prologue qualifying as somewhat different (even if that terribly written and acted beat borrows from Cliffhanger and Moonraker). Selina Kyle has some fun fight scenes, but otherwise the fist fights and vehicle chases are shockingly generic. And the emphasis on flying vehicles costs the film much of the practical magic that made its predecessor so entertaining (I think the Dent/Joker van chase is slightly overrated, but at least it felt real and unique). Without going into details, at least a large portion of the finale ends up featuring so much 'faceless vehicle versus faceless vehicle' action that yes it does resemble a Transformers film (yes, the film's 'heroes sneak around rescuing a city in peril' third act does resemble Transformers 3).'
The film looks dynamite, and dear lord see this in an IMAX theater if you can, but the pure spectacle mostly fails to engage on any personal level. And even the much anticipated Batman vs. Bane brawl ends up being irrelevant to the overall story (basically, whether or not Batman defeats Bane in the finale doesn't mean a damn thing to the story). That speaks to the core of the film's problem: Lots of things happen with little connective tissue to the overall story, so that seemingly big events end up being merely digressions in the overall narrative.
The marketing campaign has been hiding the film's best new addition, that being Hathaway's wickedly entertaining performance as Selina Kyle (never referred to as Catwoman, natch). To be blunt, anyone who thought Hathaway couldn't pull this off should smack themselves in the face right now. Aside from being scorchingly attractive both in and out of costume (pruriently speaking, she reaches Ella Enchanted levels here), Hathaway gives a genuinely engaging star turn that never calls attention to itself. Her Selina Kyle is whip-smart and genuinely witty, but in a low-key manner that never suggests that what she does should be remotely noteworthy. She also has crackling chemistry with Bale, which makes Wayne's shoe-horned romance subplot with Wayne Enterprises board member Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) a waste of screen time in a very long film.
Also failing to intrigue is chief antagonist Bane (Tom Hardy). With Hardy's expressive mug hidden behind a mask and speaking in an indecipherable accent that would make Christopher Lambert jealous, Bane is just not very engaging or intimidating. I'm not asking for Bane to be as interesting an antagonist as The Joker (who is?), but I found myself missing Cillian Murphy's delicious off-the-cuff menace from Batman Begins. His plans cause the deaths of many people, albeit the violence is bloodless and relatively video game-like (Bane makes a weird decision to keep a certain group of victims alive, primarily so they can be around for the climax). Lessening some of his impact is the fact that seemingly every character (Gordon, Alfred, etc.) somehow knows all about this monstrous foe in such detail that you have to wonder if Bane has a Facebook page. His membership in the League of Shadows (revealed in the opening scenes) only serves to make Nolan's Batman universe into a very small one, and his connection to Ra's Al Ghul only serves to take up valuable time spent connecting the needless dots.
With a scattered mess of a screenplay, relatively generic action beats, a weak central villain, a needless love interest and countless plot beats that go nowhere and accomplish nothing, The Dark Knight Rises is in the end a mild failure. It earns kudos for apparent ambition, and for telling a supremely comic book-ish story in a manner that suggests grand drama. The central performers are all generally aces, with Christian Bale giving a better performance here than he did in The Dark Knight (although once again he's much more interesting as Bruce Wayne than as Batman). The opening act has a number of strong moments and the very last minutes offer a completely satisfying and fair resolution to this three-film Batman story arc. I just wish the film didn't take so long to get where it was going that it had to skip past the meat of its own story. I wish the majority of the onscreen events actually tied into each other in a way that made them matter. I wish Gary Oldman had more to do save for one great scene with Gordon Levitt in the second act, or that Levitt's John Blake served a function in the story beyond being a place holder.
This is easily the least personal film that Chris Nolan has delivered and arguably his (relative) 'worst'. Seeing the final product, I'm half-inclined to wonder whether or not Nolan ever wanted to return to Gotham in the first place, especially in light of how hard Heath Ledger's death affected him four year ago (there is not one reference to The Joker even while his misdeeds are mentioned on occasion). The end result is a mishmash of various classic Batman stories that doesn't quite fit into a cohesive whole; with a powerful finale that tries its best to justify what has come in the prior 150 minutes (it's one clear advantage over The Avengers is that it has a genuine climax).
Despite a top-flight cast, impeccable production values, and a number of emotional beats that genuinely work, the film doesn't stand up to scrutiny and it pales in comparison to what came before. Moreover, much of the middle of the film is downright dull, as we wait for the inevitable confrontation while little happens between Bane's big attack and the action climax. The Dark Knight Rises is arguably a good movie in that it's mostly entertaining and is worth seeing once on the big screen. But it's the first Chris Nolan Batman picture that doesn't qualify as a good film.
First and foremost, I cannot decide at the moment if The Dark Knight Rises (trailer) is a 'better film' than Spider-Man 3, Batman Forever, and/or X-Men: The Last Stand. The fact that I have to outright state as much should tell you what a comparative disappointment this film is. Overall, its many storytelling flaws bring the picture down, offering only engaging acting, entertaining character interaction, and the kind of empty-headed (but oft impressive) action spectacle associated with more conventional blockbusters.
It is a hodgepodge of several classic Batman stories squished into one chaotic narrative that ends up resembling a mash-up of Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Rocky III. There are moments of emotional engagement in the first third and the final moments pack an appropriate wallop. But the film frankly drags for much of its middle 90 minutes on its way to a surprisingly unremarkable climax. Save for mostly fine performances, including a terrific supporting turn by Anne Hathaway, and some wonderful character beats scattered throughout, this is sadly the very definition of an unnecessary sequel.
A token amount of plot: Eight years have passed since Batman took the fall for Harvey Dent's crimes in order to salvage the hope he represented to Gotham's populace in the wake of The Joker's rampage. Batman hasn't been seen since and Bruce Wayne has become a Howard Hughes-esque hermit, forever mourning Rachel Dawes (seen in photographs as Maggie Gyllenhaal, not Katie Holmes), who he believes was going to leave Harvey for him before she was murdered by Health Ledger's anarchist clown. However a chance encounter with an entrancing jewel thief (Hathaway) leads to Bruce slowly coming of his shell. News of Wayne Enterprise's financial misfortunes in his absence, and the apparent emergence of a new city-wide threat in the form of international terrorist Bane (Tom Hardy), forces Bruce to take control of his life and embrace both sides of his former identities. But with Wayne Industries being manipulated from within and Bruce long past his physical prime, what could can Wayne or Batman accomplish in a city that scorns them both?
Obviously I'm going to avoid explicit spoilers, but you'll be frankly shocked at how few genuine surprises this film has in store. It unspools in a stunningly predictable and straightforward manner. If you have any inkling of what comic book stories are being referenced, you'll know where the plot is going, even though it takes forever to get there. Like Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the film spends its first hour with supporting characters (Gary Oldman and Joseph Gordon Levitt in this case) trying to deduce a loosely-constructed mystery that, when revealed, makes you realize that you really didn't need to see that first hour at all. Sure, there are some wonderful character beats, especially from Michael Caine and Anne Hathaway (including a terrific introductory scene between Bruce Wayne and Levitt's rookie cop John Blake and a devastating exchange between Bale and Caine), as well as a terribly silly motorcycle chase, but from a plot standpoint, very little of what happens in the first hour or so of the film ends up being remotely relevant. Even Bruce Wayne's character arc, trying to be vague here, basically puts him right back where he started at the midway point.
The picture spends its first half very slowly getting to what should be the end of act one, dragging what is arguably the film's inciting action well past the hour mark and giving incredibly short shrift to what should be the meat of the story, mainly Gotham City in prolonged peril. And for all the talk of how the film somehow speaks to our times socially and politically, HA! Look, I'm the guy who calls The Dark Knight the defining post-9/11 movie. But Bane's few seemingly revolutionary speeches are vague and ambiguous while his actions (using escaped prisoners as his personal army) are that of any super-villain. Bane speaks about 'taking back your city from corruption' but we never see any regular Gothamites doing anything revolutionary, nor do we really see them reacting to much of the second-act peril in any real way. The level of political discourse in this film is on the level of the Penguin's 'glory of Gotham!' speeches in Batman Returns (whose 'Penguin runs for mayor' plot-line was of course a brutal satire of personality politics).
We're told that Gotham City is filled with corruption and that the rich are fleecing the poor, yet we see no evidence of this beyond the machinations to bring down Wayne Enterprises. Even the idea of Gotham having turned itself around post-Dark Knight based on a lie is only dealt with in regards to how it personally affects Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman, fine as always, is once again basically tasked to play the role of sidekick this time around, ala Batman Begins). Anything Chris Nolan and company have to say about economic inequality and its harmful effects on society were said much better in the first act of Batman Begins by Katie Holmes, Richard Brake, and Tom Wilkinson.
Action was never Chris Nolan's strong suit, and I generally don't care if a Batman film has decent action (here's a dirty secret -- comic books are soap operas and readers devour them for the melodrama, not the fisticuffs). But the action beats in The Dark Knight Rises are pretty unmemorable, with only the prologue qualifying as somewhat different (even if that terribly written and acted beat borrows from Cliffhanger and Moonraker). Selina Kyle has some fun fight scenes, but otherwise the fist fights and vehicle chases are shockingly generic. And the emphasis on flying vehicles costs the film much of the practical magic that made its predecessor so entertaining (I think the Dent/Joker van chase is slightly overrated, but at least it felt real and unique). Without going into details, at least a large portion of the finale ends up featuring so much 'faceless vehicle versus faceless vehicle' action that yes it does resemble a Transformers film (yes, the film's 'heroes sneak around rescuing a city in peril' third act does resemble Transformers 3).'
The film looks dynamite, and dear lord see this in an IMAX theater if you can, but the pure spectacle mostly fails to engage on any personal level. And even the much anticipated Batman vs. Bane brawl ends up being irrelevant to the overall story (basically, whether or not Batman defeats Bane in the finale doesn't mean a damn thing to the story). That speaks to the core of the film's problem: Lots of things happen with little connective tissue to the overall story, so that seemingly big events end up being merely digressions in the overall narrative.
The marketing campaign has been hiding the film's best new addition, that being Hathaway's wickedly entertaining performance as Selina Kyle (never referred to as Catwoman, natch). To be blunt, anyone who thought Hathaway couldn't pull this off should smack themselves in the face right now. Aside from being scorchingly attractive both in and out of costume (pruriently speaking, she reaches Ella Enchanted levels here), Hathaway gives a genuinely engaging star turn that never calls attention to itself. Her Selina Kyle is whip-smart and genuinely witty, but in a low-key manner that never suggests that what she does should be remotely noteworthy. She also has crackling chemistry with Bale, which makes Wayne's shoe-horned romance subplot with Wayne Enterprises board member Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) a waste of screen time in a very long film.
Also failing to intrigue is chief antagonist Bane (Tom Hardy). With Hardy's expressive mug hidden behind a mask and speaking in an indecipherable accent that would make Christopher Lambert jealous, Bane is just not very engaging or intimidating. I'm not asking for Bane to be as interesting an antagonist as The Joker (who is?), but I found myself missing Cillian Murphy's delicious off-the-cuff menace from Batman Begins. His plans cause the deaths of many people, albeit the violence is bloodless and relatively video game-like (Bane makes a weird decision to keep a certain group of victims alive, primarily so they can be around for the climax). Lessening some of his impact is the fact that seemingly every character (Gordon, Alfred, etc.) somehow knows all about this monstrous foe in such detail that you have to wonder if Bane has a Facebook page. His membership in the League of Shadows (revealed in the opening scenes) only serves to make Nolan's Batman universe into a very small one, and his connection to Ra's Al Ghul only serves to take up valuable time spent connecting the needless dots.
With a scattered mess of a screenplay, relatively generic action beats, a weak central villain, a needless love interest and countless plot beats that go nowhere and accomplish nothing, The Dark Knight Rises is in the end a mild failure. It earns kudos for apparent ambition, and for telling a supremely comic book-ish story in a manner that suggests grand drama. The central performers are all generally aces, with Christian Bale giving a better performance here than he did in The Dark Knight (although once again he's much more interesting as Bruce Wayne than as Batman). The opening act has a number of strong moments and the very last minutes offer a completely satisfying and fair resolution to this three-film Batman story arc. I just wish the film didn't take so long to get where it was going that it had to skip past the meat of its own story. I wish the majority of the onscreen events actually tied into each other in a way that made them matter. I wish Gary Oldman had more to do save for one great scene with Gordon Levitt in the second act, or that Levitt's John Blake served a function in the story beyond being a place holder.
This is easily the least personal film that Chris Nolan has delivered and arguably his (relative) 'worst'. Seeing the final product, I'm half-inclined to wonder whether or not Nolan ever wanted to return to Gotham in the first place, especially in light of how hard Heath Ledger's death affected him four year ago (there is not one reference to The Joker even while his misdeeds are mentioned on occasion). The end result is a mishmash of various classic Batman stories that doesn't quite fit into a cohesive whole; with a powerful finale that tries its best to justify what has come in the prior 150 minutes (it's one clear advantage over The Avengers is that it has a genuine climax).
Despite a top-flight cast, impeccable production values, and a number of emotional beats that genuinely work, the film doesn't stand up to scrutiny and it pales in comparison to what came before. Moreover, much of the middle of the film is downright dull, as we wait for the inevitable confrontation while little happens between Bane's big attack and the action climax. The Dark Knight Rises is arguably a good movie in that it's mostly entertaining and is worth seeing once on the big screen. But it's the first Chris Nolan Batman picture that doesn't qualify as a good film.
That is freedom to bear arms 4 U.
Or the action came out from the movie. Bane henchmen.
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Or the action came out from the movie. Bane henchmen.
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Last edited:
14 shot dead at 'Dark Knight Rises' screening in Aurora, Colorado
Fourteen people were killed and at least 50 others wounded early Friday when a gunman opened fire at a midnight screening of the summer blockbuster "The Dark Knight Rises" near Denver, authorities and witnesses said.
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates told reporters that 10 people died at the scene and four others died after being taken to local hospitals. A three-month-old and a six-year-old girl were among those treated, according to reports.
Police said the gunman had appeared at the front of the theater during the movie and released a canister which let out a hissing sound, which is believed to be tear gas. Witnesses told reporters that gunfire erupted during a shootout scene in the film.
Jennifer Seeger, who was inside the Aurora, Colo., movie theater where a gunman opened fire early Friday, describes the scene of the shooting as "mass chaos."
"It was mass chaos," witness Jennifer Seeger told TODAY. "He was five feet away from me."
The gunman shot the ceiling and then "he threw in the gas can, and then I knew it was real," Seeger added.
"Everyone's going for the door and then everyone starts saying, 'no, he's going to shoot people going for the door, and he did," she recalled. "They're trying to escape, and he shot those people as well."
A suspect was apprehended in the shopping center's parking lot, Oates said. He was named as 24-year-old James Holmes, two federal officials from different agencies told NBC News.
The incident occurred in the Century 16 Movie Theaters at the Aurora Town Center, police told NBC News. Aurora is a suburb less than 10 miles east of downtown Denver.
NBC station KUSA-Denver cited a witness as seeing a black-clad 6-foot-tall man wearing a riot helmet, goggles and bullet-proof vest.
However, many people attended the film dressed in Batman-related costumes.
Witnesses said the gunman entered the theater through an emergency exit door.
The suspect was found in possession of a gas mask, Oates said. Ammunition was found in the suspect's car, police said.
Three firearms
Citing officials, NBC News' Pete Williams reported that the shooter had three weapons -- an assault-type rifle and two handguns. Holmes' car has Tennessee plates but authorities believe he was living locally.
Oates said there was no evidence of additional suspects.
At least 14 people were killed early Friday when at least one gunman opened fire at a midnight screening of the summer blockbuster "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colo. NBC's Matt Lauer reports.
Holmes's apartment building in north Aurora was evacuated after he made a statement to police about possible explosives at his home, Oates said.
An FBI official told NBC News that the agency was working with local authorities on the investigation, but that there was no early indication of a link to terrorism. Holmes was not on any federal law-enforcement watch lists, Williams reported.
President Barack Obama had been notified by counterterrorism chief John Brennan and was aware of the incident, KUSA said.
In a statement, Obama said: "We are committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice, ensuring the safety of our people, and caring for those who have been wounded. As we do when confronted by moments of darkness and challenge, we must now come together as one American family."
'Get us some damn gas masks'
Police raiding the theater in the hunt for the suspect had to ask for gas masks.
"Get us some damn gas masks for theater 9, we can't get in it," one officer radioed back to emergency dispatch during the operation, according to an excerpt aired on KUSA.
Brenda Stuart, of 850 KOA radio, told Sky News that bullets had passed from one theater into an adjoining one.
Karl Gehring / The Denver Post
Aurora Police respond to the shooting at the Century 16 Movie Theater early Friday.
'50-60 gunshots'
One young man told KUSA that he was in front of the theater with friends when the shooting broke out.
"Next thing you know you hear 'boom' like tear gas, a bomb. ... Then you hear gunshots go off, like a fully automatic weapon. [There were] like 50-60 gunshots," he told KUSA.
"I was just worried about getting out of there," he told KUSA.
The man, who did not give his name, said he heard gunfire continue for at least 20 minutes.
"People were coming out of there screaming, some of the people were coming out of there bleeding. ... People were coming out with their shirts covered in blood," he said.
As he left the theater, eyewitness Hayden Miller told KUSA said people ran up to him and said "there was a gunman setting off bombs and shooting people. ... He wasn't giving anyone a chance to get out ... It's insane that this can happen in a movie theater where people had gone to have fun."
Another eyewitness, Alex Milano, told KUSA that he "saw at least four, maybe five people limping, slightly wounded. ... I saw one girl covered in blood.
"I don't know whose little girl that was, but my heart goes out to them. ... A cop came walking through the front door ... holding a little girl in his arms and she wasn't moving, she wasn't moving," the young man, whose voiced cracked as he spoke, told KUSA.
Milano, who was in theater 8, told KUSA he spoke to a young woman who had been in theater 9 with the shooter.
The woman and her boyfriend crawled and then ran for an exit. “When she turned around, all she saw was the guy slowly making his way up the stairs, just firing. ... Just picking random people,” the witness told KUSA.
'I thought it was pretty much the end of the world'
Salina Jordan, 19, told the Denver Post she saw one girl struck in the cheek and others in the stomach, including a girl who looked to be around 9 years old.
Corbin Dates was inside the Colorado movie theater where a gunman opened fire during a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises." He describes the masked gunman dressed in black, saying he first thought the shooting was "a stunt" for the movie, and recalls crawling on the ground to escape to the lobby.
Jordan told the newspaper she saw police carrying bodies out of the theater as well as officers opening fire.
Roland Jones, 28, said he first thought the smoke and sounds of gunshots were all part of the film's special effects.
"I thought it was pretty much the end of the world," Roberts told the Denver Post.
Tammi Stevens, who son was inside the cinema when the shooting started, told the Post he saw a man walk into the theater wearing body armor.
"You let your kids go to a late night movie ... you never think something like this would happen," Stevens told the newspaper.
Cathy Canzanora, a 911 dispatcher, told NBC News that emergency dispatchers were deluged with calls from "everybody who had cellphones in the theater" at 12:39 a.m. Friday local time (2:39 a.m. ET).
Police cars transport the wounded
The injured were being transported to several local hospitals, police told NBC.
KOA's Stuart said that police officers were taking victims to hospitals in their cars and not waiting for ambulances.
Natalie Goldstein, of Children's Hospital Colorado, said the facility was treating six patients from the shooting, ranging in age from 6 to 31.
PhotoBlog: More images from the scene of the shooting in Aurora
Justin Bentzinger, a house supervisor at the Swedish Medical Center, told NBC News they were treating three patients. Two were in critical condition, the third was in fair condition.
Kalena Wilkinson, a public information officer for Denver Health, said six patients were taken to that hospital, with one in critical condition and the other five in "fair" conditions.
Tracy Weise, of the public relations department at Aurora Medical Center, told NBC News they were treating 12 patients with a range of injuries from minor to critical.
Further local coverage from KUSA
Jacque Montgomery, a spokesperson for University of Colorado Hospital, told NBC News that they were treating 20 patients from the shooting.
At least three people had been treated for chemical exposure, KUSA reported.
Hundreds of witnesses who have not been injured have been taken to Gateway High School for a debriefing, local media reported.
It was the worst mass shooting in Colorado since the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999. Students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, opened fire at the school in the Denver suburb of Littleton, about 15 miles west of Aurora, killing 12 classmates and a teacher and wounding 26 others before killing themselves in the school's library.
"The Dark Knight Rises," starring Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway, is the latest in the popular Batman action movie franchise. Friday was its international premiere.
Fourteen people were killed and at least 50 others wounded early Friday when a gunman opened fire at a midnight screening of the summer blockbuster "The Dark Knight Rises" near Denver, authorities and witnesses said.
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates told reporters that 10 people died at the scene and four others died after being taken to local hospitals. A three-month-old and a six-year-old girl were among those treated, according to reports.
Police said the gunman had appeared at the front of the theater during the movie and released a canister which let out a hissing sound, which is believed to be tear gas. Witnesses told reporters that gunfire erupted during a shootout scene in the film.
Jennifer Seeger, who was inside the Aurora, Colo., movie theater where a gunman opened fire early Friday, describes the scene of the shooting as "mass chaos."
"It was mass chaos," witness Jennifer Seeger told TODAY. "He was five feet away from me."
The gunman shot the ceiling and then "he threw in the gas can, and then I knew it was real," Seeger added.
"Everyone's going for the door and then everyone starts saying, 'no, he's going to shoot people going for the door, and he did," she recalled. "They're trying to escape, and he shot those people as well."
A suspect was apprehended in the shopping center's parking lot, Oates said. He was named as 24-year-old James Holmes, two federal officials from different agencies told NBC News.
The incident occurred in the Century 16 Movie Theaters at the Aurora Town Center, police told NBC News. Aurora is a suburb less than 10 miles east of downtown Denver.
NBC station KUSA-Denver cited a witness as seeing a black-clad 6-foot-tall man wearing a riot helmet, goggles and bullet-proof vest.
However, many people attended the film dressed in Batman-related costumes.
Witnesses said the gunman entered the theater through an emergency exit door.
The suspect was found in possession of a gas mask, Oates said. Ammunition was found in the suspect's car, police said.
Three firearms
Citing officials, NBC News' Pete Williams reported that the shooter had three weapons -- an assault-type rifle and two handguns. Holmes' car has Tennessee plates but authorities believe he was living locally.
Oates said there was no evidence of additional suspects.
At least 14 people were killed early Friday when at least one gunman opened fire at a midnight screening of the summer blockbuster "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colo. NBC's Matt Lauer reports.
Holmes's apartment building in north Aurora was evacuated after he made a statement to police about possible explosives at his home, Oates said.
An FBI official told NBC News that the agency was working with local authorities on the investigation, but that there was no early indication of a link to terrorism. Holmes was not on any federal law-enforcement watch lists, Williams reported.
President Barack Obama had been notified by counterterrorism chief John Brennan and was aware of the incident, KUSA said.
In a statement, Obama said: "We are committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice, ensuring the safety of our people, and caring for those who have been wounded. As we do when confronted by moments of darkness and challenge, we must now come together as one American family."
'Get us some damn gas masks'
Police raiding the theater in the hunt for the suspect had to ask for gas masks.
"Get us some damn gas masks for theater 9, we can't get in it," one officer radioed back to emergency dispatch during the operation, according to an excerpt aired on KUSA.
Brenda Stuart, of 850 KOA radio, told Sky News that bullets had passed from one theater into an adjoining one.
Karl Gehring / The Denver Post
Aurora Police respond to the shooting at the Century 16 Movie Theater early Friday.
'50-60 gunshots'
One young man told KUSA that he was in front of the theater with friends when the shooting broke out.
"Next thing you know you hear 'boom' like tear gas, a bomb. ... Then you hear gunshots go off, like a fully automatic weapon. [There were] like 50-60 gunshots," he told KUSA.
"I was just worried about getting out of there," he told KUSA.
The man, who did not give his name, said he heard gunfire continue for at least 20 minutes.
"People were coming out of there screaming, some of the people were coming out of there bleeding. ... People were coming out with their shirts covered in blood," he said.
As he left the theater, eyewitness Hayden Miller told KUSA said people ran up to him and said "there was a gunman setting off bombs and shooting people. ... He wasn't giving anyone a chance to get out ... It's insane that this can happen in a movie theater where people had gone to have fun."
Another eyewitness, Alex Milano, told KUSA that he "saw at least four, maybe five people limping, slightly wounded. ... I saw one girl covered in blood.
"I don't know whose little girl that was, but my heart goes out to them. ... A cop came walking through the front door ... holding a little girl in his arms and she wasn't moving, she wasn't moving," the young man, whose voiced cracked as he spoke, told KUSA.
Milano, who was in theater 8, told KUSA he spoke to a young woman who had been in theater 9 with the shooter.
The woman and her boyfriend crawled and then ran for an exit. “When she turned around, all she saw was the guy slowly making his way up the stairs, just firing. ... Just picking random people,” the witness told KUSA.
'I thought it was pretty much the end of the world'
Salina Jordan, 19, told the Denver Post she saw one girl struck in the cheek and others in the stomach, including a girl who looked to be around 9 years old.
Corbin Dates was inside the Colorado movie theater where a gunman opened fire during a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises." He describes the masked gunman dressed in black, saying he first thought the shooting was "a stunt" for the movie, and recalls crawling on the ground to escape to the lobby.
Jordan told the newspaper she saw police carrying bodies out of the theater as well as officers opening fire.
Roland Jones, 28, said he first thought the smoke and sounds of gunshots were all part of the film's special effects.
"I thought it was pretty much the end of the world," Roberts told the Denver Post.
Tammi Stevens, who son was inside the cinema when the shooting started, told the Post he saw a man walk into the theater wearing body armor.
"You let your kids go to a late night movie ... you never think something like this would happen," Stevens told the newspaper.
Cathy Canzanora, a 911 dispatcher, told NBC News that emergency dispatchers were deluged with calls from "everybody who had cellphones in the theater" at 12:39 a.m. Friday local time (2:39 a.m. ET).
Police cars transport the wounded
The injured were being transported to several local hospitals, police told NBC.
KOA's Stuart said that police officers were taking victims to hospitals in their cars and not waiting for ambulances.
Natalie Goldstein, of Children's Hospital Colorado, said the facility was treating six patients from the shooting, ranging in age from 6 to 31.
PhotoBlog: More images from the scene of the shooting in Aurora
Justin Bentzinger, a house supervisor at the Swedish Medical Center, told NBC News they were treating three patients. Two were in critical condition, the third was in fair condition.
Kalena Wilkinson, a public information officer for Denver Health, said six patients were taken to that hospital, with one in critical condition and the other five in "fair" conditions.
Tracy Weise, of the public relations department at Aurora Medical Center, told NBC News they were treating 12 patients with a range of injuries from minor to critical.
Further local coverage from KUSA
Jacque Montgomery, a spokesperson for University of Colorado Hospital, told NBC News that they were treating 20 patients from the shooting.
At least three people had been treated for chemical exposure, KUSA reported.
Hundreds of witnesses who have not been injured have been taken to Gateway High School for a debriefing, local media reported.
It was the worst mass shooting in Colorado since the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999. Students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, opened fire at the school in the Denver suburb of Littleton, about 15 miles west of Aurora, killing 12 classmates and a teacher and wounding 26 others before killing themselves in the school's library.
"The Dark Knight Rises," starring Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway, is the latest in the popular Batman action movie franchise. Friday was its international premiere.
'The Dark Knight Rises' ... and Falls
"The Batman," Police Commissioner Gordon croaks weakly to Bruce Wayne early in The Dark Knight Rises, "must come back." The commissioner frames the matter as a civic obligation, though one imagines that Warner Bros. Pictures may have harbored motivations of a rather more commercial nature. In any case, here we are, with the third—and theoretically final—installment of writer/director Christopher Nolan's take on the caped crusader.
Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) makes his plea to Wayne (Christian Bale) after suffering multiple bullet perforations and a near-drowning at the hands of Bane (Tom Hardy), a seething mass of bicep and trapezius who is also, unfortunately, a terrorist mastermind. Bane is assembling an army in the sewers beneath Gotham City and the police, commanded during Gordon's recuperation by a fainthearted deputy (Matthew Modine), seem unequal to the gathering threat.
Of the Batman films, it's the one in which Nolan's ambitions have most clearly outstripped his results
It's been eight years in movie time since the conclusion of the last film, The Dark Knight, when heroic-attorney-turned-sociopathic-killer Harvey Dent died in the midst of an altercation with Batman. The latter demanded to be held responsible for the former's crimes, in order that Dent could remain a symbol of hope for the denizens of Gotham. And indeed, the city subsequently used his memory to pass the Harvey Dent Act, which granted the police extraordinary powers to combat organized crime. (The film toys with the idea that this may not have been a good thing to do, but briefly and without much conviction.) As a result, there has been relative peace in the city, and Bruce Wayne has retired to his manor to live as a Howard Hughesian hermit. Batman has not been heard from at all.
But you know how it is: Just when you thought you were out, they pull you back in. Soon enough Batman is onto the scent of Bane, taking the occasional break to swap jabs, jibes, and a layer or so of lip gloss with cryptic cat burglar—yes, this would be Catwoman, but Nolan is sharp enough to skip the moniker—Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway). Selina warns Batman that Bane is too strong for him after his long layaway, as does his loyal butler Alfred (Michael Caine). And sure enough they prove, at least for a time, to be correct.
The Dark Knight Rises is two hours and 45 minutes long, and it's easy to consider it to be made up of two roughly equal halves—especially as there is a shocking incident at around the 80-minute mark which splits the movie in two almost literally.
The first half of Nolan's film is bold, innovative, and darkly thrilling. The opening sequence, in particular, is a tour de force, an aerial extraction that puts The Dark Knight's shanghaiing in Hong Kong to shame. And while the movie's other big set pieces don't rise to the level of its predecessor, its fight sequences are a considerable upgrade—vivid, visceral, and raw.
The credit is owed primarily to Hardy's Bane, who, while not quite so indelible a villain as Heath Ledger's Joker (how could he be?), is one several times the size. Hardy has been big in past roles—he gained more than 40 pounds of muscle for his breakthrough role in Nicolas Winding Refn's Bronson—but here he is almost implausibly immense, a mountain of flesh with a neck as thick as a normal person's waist. With his volcanic physique and a voice that booms metallically from behind a tube-crossed facemask, Hardy commands nearly every scene he is in.
Hathaway does about as well with the Selina Kyle role as one could reasonably hope, and evinces surprising combat agility of her own. But the whole good/bad-girl role demands a tricky dance, and one made no easier by a leather jumpsuit and goggles that flip up on top of her head like, yes, cat ears. Though she occasionally lets the hint of a purr escape her lips—don't do it, Anne!—she thankfully never goes the full Eartha Kitt. Oldman and Morgan Freeman (as Batman's avuncular weapons designer, Lucius Fox) are customarily terrific, and space is carved out nicely for Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an aggressive young cop. Bale is again solid as Bruce Wayne, but even he looks as though he's tired of the breathy rasp he's required to adopt when he slips on cloak and cowl. And Marion Cotillard is largely wasted as a clean-energy philanthropist and possible love interest.
Apart from Hardy, it's Caine who is the real standout among the cast, offering a more melancholy turn on Alfred Pennyworth than in the earlier films. Particularly moving are the scenes in which he pleads—and ultimately does more than plead—with Wayne to understand that Bane is too powerful to tackle head-on. "You're not the Batman anymore," he implores. "You have to find another way."
There was an opportunity here for Nolan to show us that other way, to (again) stretch the boundaries of what is possible in a superhero film. Instead, alas, the latter half of The Dark Knight Rises retreats toward conventionality and, while perfectly fine on its own merits, can't help but disappoint. As was the case with the previous two movies, Nolan bites off a great deal but proceeds to chew somewhat less.
It's a common trap for sequels to be handcuffed by nostalgia and the desire to tie up loose ends. One of the strengths of the previous film, The Dark Knight, was that it broke free, abandoning the airy mysticism of Batman Begins for something bleaker and grittier, positioning itself as a kind of gangland neo-noir. But The Dark Knight Rises instead harkens back to the first film, to Ra's al Ghul and the League of Shadows, to slender, overwrought meditations on the nature of fear and the soul. And while some of the backward references—to Martha Wayne's pearls, for instance—are touching, they ultimately become wearisome. Three flashbacks to Batman Begins are at least one too many.
There are more particular missteps as well. An oddly off-key, Occupy-Wall-Street-inspired political undercurrent suggests that a substantial population of ordinary Gothamites would be so dissatisfied with their civic institutions that they would join Bane—who has by this time done some decidedly terrible things—in a violent insurrection against the city's wealthy elites. (Yes, this is an anti-Bain Bane.) And one character's recovery from a rather crucial impairment defies pretty much everything that I believe is known of human physiology.
Is this setting too high a bar for what is, after all, a superhero movie? One can surely make the case. But it's Nolan himself who put the bar up there. Moreover, it's hard to escape the sense that that a movie as self-serious as this one—it is even more grandiose than the The Dark Knight*—ought to display a little more, well, seriousness.
The Dark Knight Rises is a good movie, and at times a very good one: complex, intense, and sharply executed. But of the Batman films, it is the one in which Nolan's ambitions have most clearly outstripped his results. Last time out, he reinvented the superhero genre. This time—even at his best—he is merely recycling it.
"The Batman," Police Commissioner Gordon croaks weakly to Bruce Wayne early in The Dark Knight Rises, "must come back." The commissioner frames the matter as a civic obligation, though one imagines that Warner Bros. Pictures may have harbored motivations of a rather more commercial nature. In any case, here we are, with the third—and theoretically final—installment of writer/director Christopher Nolan's take on the caped crusader.
Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) makes his plea to Wayne (Christian Bale) after suffering multiple bullet perforations and a near-drowning at the hands of Bane (Tom Hardy), a seething mass of bicep and trapezius who is also, unfortunately, a terrorist mastermind. Bane is assembling an army in the sewers beneath Gotham City and the police, commanded during Gordon's recuperation by a fainthearted deputy (Matthew Modine), seem unequal to the gathering threat.
Of the Batman films, it's the one in which Nolan's ambitions have most clearly outstripped his results
It's been eight years in movie time since the conclusion of the last film, The Dark Knight, when heroic-attorney-turned-sociopathic-killer Harvey Dent died in the midst of an altercation with Batman. The latter demanded to be held responsible for the former's crimes, in order that Dent could remain a symbol of hope for the denizens of Gotham. And indeed, the city subsequently used his memory to pass the Harvey Dent Act, which granted the police extraordinary powers to combat organized crime. (The film toys with the idea that this may not have been a good thing to do, but briefly and without much conviction.) As a result, there has been relative peace in the city, and Bruce Wayne has retired to his manor to live as a Howard Hughesian hermit. Batman has not been heard from at all.
But you know how it is: Just when you thought you were out, they pull you back in. Soon enough Batman is onto the scent of Bane, taking the occasional break to swap jabs, jibes, and a layer or so of lip gloss with cryptic cat burglar—yes, this would be Catwoman, but Nolan is sharp enough to skip the moniker—Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway). Selina warns Batman that Bane is too strong for him after his long layaway, as does his loyal butler Alfred (Michael Caine). And sure enough they prove, at least for a time, to be correct.
The Dark Knight Rises is two hours and 45 minutes long, and it's easy to consider it to be made up of two roughly equal halves—especially as there is a shocking incident at around the 80-minute mark which splits the movie in two almost literally.
The first half of Nolan's film is bold, innovative, and darkly thrilling. The opening sequence, in particular, is a tour de force, an aerial extraction that puts The Dark Knight's shanghaiing in Hong Kong to shame. And while the movie's other big set pieces don't rise to the level of its predecessor, its fight sequences are a considerable upgrade—vivid, visceral, and raw.
The credit is owed primarily to Hardy's Bane, who, while not quite so indelible a villain as Heath Ledger's Joker (how could he be?), is one several times the size. Hardy has been big in past roles—he gained more than 40 pounds of muscle for his breakthrough role in Nicolas Winding Refn's Bronson—but here he is almost implausibly immense, a mountain of flesh with a neck as thick as a normal person's waist. With his volcanic physique and a voice that booms metallically from behind a tube-crossed facemask, Hardy commands nearly every scene he is in.
Hathaway does about as well with the Selina Kyle role as one could reasonably hope, and evinces surprising combat agility of her own. But the whole good/bad-girl role demands a tricky dance, and one made no easier by a leather jumpsuit and goggles that flip up on top of her head like, yes, cat ears. Though she occasionally lets the hint of a purr escape her lips—don't do it, Anne!—she thankfully never goes the full Eartha Kitt. Oldman and Morgan Freeman (as Batman's avuncular weapons designer, Lucius Fox) are customarily terrific, and space is carved out nicely for Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an aggressive young cop. Bale is again solid as Bruce Wayne, but even he looks as though he's tired of the breathy rasp he's required to adopt when he slips on cloak and cowl. And Marion Cotillard is largely wasted as a clean-energy philanthropist and possible love interest.
Apart from Hardy, it's Caine who is the real standout among the cast, offering a more melancholy turn on Alfred Pennyworth than in the earlier films. Particularly moving are the scenes in which he pleads—and ultimately does more than plead—with Wayne to understand that Bane is too powerful to tackle head-on. "You're not the Batman anymore," he implores. "You have to find another way."
There was an opportunity here for Nolan to show us that other way, to (again) stretch the boundaries of what is possible in a superhero film. Instead, alas, the latter half of The Dark Knight Rises retreats toward conventionality and, while perfectly fine on its own merits, can't help but disappoint. As was the case with the previous two movies, Nolan bites off a great deal but proceeds to chew somewhat less.
It's a common trap for sequels to be handcuffed by nostalgia and the desire to tie up loose ends. One of the strengths of the previous film, The Dark Knight, was that it broke free, abandoning the airy mysticism of Batman Begins for something bleaker and grittier, positioning itself as a kind of gangland neo-noir. But The Dark Knight Rises instead harkens back to the first film, to Ra's al Ghul and the League of Shadows, to slender, overwrought meditations on the nature of fear and the soul. And while some of the backward references—to Martha Wayne's pearls, for instance—are touching, they ultimately become wearisome. Three flashbacks to Batman Begins are at least one too many.
There are more particular missteps as well. An oddly off-key, Occupy-Wall-Street-inspired political undercurrent suggests that a substantial population of ordinary Gothamites would be so dissatisfied with their civic institutions that they would join Bane—who has by this time done some decidedly terrible things—in a violent insurrection against the city's wealthy elites. (Yes, this is an anti-Bain Bane.) And one character's recovery from a rather crucial impairment defies pretty much everything that I believe is known of human physiology.
Is this setting too high a bar for what is, after all, a superhero movie? One can surely make the case. But it's Nolan himself who put the bar up there. Moreover, it's hard to escape the sense that that a movie as self-serious as this one—it is even more grandiose than the The Dark Knight*—ought to display a little more, well, seriousness.
The Dark Knight Rises is a good movie, and at times a very good one: complex, intense, and sharply executed. But of the Batman films, it is the one in which Nolan's ambitions have most clearly outstripped his results. Last time out, he reinvented the superhero genre. This time—even at his best—he is merely recycling it.
