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Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: SypheDMar on July 20, 2012, 09:26:29 pm

Title: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: SypheDMar on July 20, 2012, 09:26:29 pm
Who's watched it yet? Saw the premiere and loved it! An excellent conclusion to Nolan's Batman trilogy. Lots of twists and cameos too!

Spoiler:
In the first movie, Ra's almost destroys Gotham. In the second, Joker nearly broke the people of Gotham. In the third, Bane actually destroys Gotham and breaks its people! And while the reactor felt very gimmicky, given what happens in this universe, it felt believable to me. Gotta say I was immersed.

Three minutes after watching Miranda Tate in the movie, I knew she was Talia. However throughout the movie, I thought she would be working with Bruce Wayne against her "Nolanized version" of her step brother and the radical remnant of the League, but it turns out that she was the Big Bad all along! And it turns out that Bane has been a Red Herring since the beginning. All the flashbacks up until the reveal kind of hints that he's not Ra's child (no messed up face) but I didn't put two and two together until then.

So if you've paid attention to the movie at all (or I may have imagine the whole event to fit what I think I saw one day after watching), you'll notice that Christopher Judge has an eye patch, and he was about to kill Blake. He's also dressed in a military uniform. Eyepatch. Military uniform. Working with League of Shadows. Anti-[read below] HEY EVERYONE! IT'S SLADE WILSON!!!

Oh, and John Blake turns out to be Robin John Black and succeeds Bruce Wayne as Batman! Brilliantly got me thinking there was no Robin at all (couldn't imagine the first Robin not being a Dick Grayson) despite the movie hinting that he's "Robin".

The ending of the movie is just amazing, and it felt finished. Everything tied in perfectly (unlike the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy.) The League of Shadows is destroye, and so is our Batman. He's saved and redeemed Gotham. In turn, he moves on with his life. The mantle of Batman is given to another when Gotham needs another Batman.

This is one trilogy worth watching from start to finish. Definitely recommend. I think I like Christopher Nolan.

By the way, this isn't really a review and definitely not a professional one. Don't treat it as such.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: achtung on July 20, 2012, 10:03:05 pm
inb4 Colorado massacre and gun ban debate
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: SypheDMar on July 20, 2012, 10:12:41 pm
No! That's not for here!!! Get out! :mad:
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Mongoose on July 20, 2012, 10:31:18 pm
No debate, but that tragedy certainly casts a pall on what should have been a really awesome weekend. :(

I can't wait to see it myself, though.  I think I'll sit through the first two beforehand, to do things right.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: SypheDMar on July 20, 2012, 10:47:32 pm
Yeah. I was pretty upset today when I read about it. Sad for the families who lost their loved ones and sad for the people who had to experience such a traumatic experience. Just the afternoon before the premiere, I donated blood to the Red Cross, too. I wish I could've done much more.

Now that that's out, let's turn back to Batman. I'm Batman!
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: SpardaSon21 on July 20, 2012, 10:57:56 pm
I saw the Dark Knight Trilogy special showing.  It was pretty awesome.  Batman Begins was okay, but seeing Dark Knight in the theater again was pretty awesome, and it led up to Dark Knight Rises really well.  If you haven't seen it, what the hell are you waiting for?  I got a pretty sweet Bat Poster too of all three movie posters, shrunken down and placed side by side.  I ended up sticking it to my Bat Wall with Bat Tacks.

(Everything's a Bat Something where Batman is concerned :P)
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: SypheDMar on July 20, 2012, 11:29:57 pm
Excellent! :yes: By the way, I just want to verify something:

Spoiler:
Did Christopher Judge (the Black guy) wear an eye patch? I remember him having one, but I just want to make sure it's not my mind trying to turn him into Slade Wilson.

I wanna rewatch the movie again now!
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Dark Hunter on July 21, 2012, 01:06:39 am
That was definitely awesome. Can't get the chanting out of my head, even a full 24 hours later.

Wonderful to see Bane as he was meant to be. My only previous exposure to the character was that god-awful Batman & Robin movie where he was nothing but a thug, but I'd heard he was quite the awesome badass in the comics, and now I know why.

Still can't compare to the Joker, though.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Scourge of Ages on July 21, 2012, 02:48:33 am
On November 28th, 2011, Cracked.com columnist Cody Johnston wrote a well thought out and logical take on the end of the Batman trilogy.
Spoiler:
Read it here (http://www.cracked.com/blog/advanced-batman-theory-why-nolan-will-kill-bruce-wayne/)  (spoiler is in the link, so don't even highlight if you don't want to see.)
It was pretty much spot on. Looking back, there was a huge bit of foreshadowing in the first two films anyway, but still pretty cool.

And yes, I really liked the movie.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Flipside on July 21, 2012, 12:00:46 pm
Must admit, as tragic as the shooting was, I saw the BBC headline "America Mourns Batman Shooting Victims', and thanks to this place, the first thought that went through my head was '****ing Batman....'.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: mjn.mixael on July 21, 2012, 12:46:56 pm
Must admit, as tragic as the shooting was, I saw the BBC headline "America Mourns Batman Shooting Victims', and thanks to this place, the first thought that went through my head was '****ing Batman....'.


:wakka:

I had the same thought...

Anyway, I read that one of the victims was only 3 months old... Part of me says that age shouldn't matter and it just sucks regardless.. but the Dad in me gets really pissed off to read about the kids that were injured or killed. I get even more pissed as it becomes clear that he did it just to be on the headlines...
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Klaustrophobia on July 21, 2012, 07:04:34 pm
It was good.  I don't know if I'd say it was better than The Dark Knight.  To me it had a different feel than the other two, and definitely a slower pace.  Even with that though, it didn't feel as long watching it as with The Dark Knight.  This may be because I was at a marathon and by the third movie I was simply numb to time. 

Spoiler:
I had to facepalm at the fusion bomb thing though.  HARD.  I guess it wouldn't register to the average viewer, but the movie's description of fusion tech was so grossly wrong it was physically painful.  Fusion bombs have existed for decades.  You don't make them from fusion reactors, and a fusion reactor core/bomb/whatever certainly doesn't decay and explode on its own.

Also when they showed that mark on the fusion lady's skin (don't remember her name) was pretty much a dead giveaway.  Even knowing nothing about batman beyond the two previous movies in this series and what little I glean from Big Bang Theory, I immediately thought she was going to turn out to be the bad guy (girl).

I don't recall seeing Christopher Judge at all.  Or anyone wearing an eyepatch.  Where was he?  The only black guy I specifically recollect was the dude who plays Vaughn in Burn Notice.

Final thought, I wonder what the participators of occupy wall street thought as they watched the Bane takeover and witch hunt of rich people.  :lol:
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Dark Hunter on July 21, 2012, 09:40:32 pm
Spoiler:
Final thought, I wonder what the participators of occupy wall street thought as they watched the Bane takeover and witch hunt of rich people.  :lol:

Spoiler:
Interestingly enough, I'd heard that Nolan was going to use actual real-life footage of that movement as part of the movie, but decided against it in the end.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: SypheDMar on July 22, 2012, 12:03:36 am
Spoiler:
I don't recall seeing Christopher Judge at all.  Or anyone wearing an eyepatch.  Where was he?  The only black guy I specifically recollect was the dude who plays Vaughn in Burn Notice.
Spoiler:
He's the one that shot that one cop at when he was climbing out of the sewers and was about to execute Blake before Batman saves him. I notice these things. :<
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Klaustrophobia on July 22, 2012, 12:43:47 am
Spoiler:
i guess i just didn't recognize him without the gold thing on his forehead
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: SypheDMar on July 22, 2012, 01:04:18 am
Spoiler:
i guess i just didn't recognize him without the gold thing on his forehead
Spoiler:
The gold Bat symbol? I feel ya. :p
I have to rewatch this movie again. One of my friends just did and she said that she understood it better (she never had any backstory of Batman until after I explained it after we watched it together.) I gotta get new friends who haven't seen it!
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Fury on July 22, 2012, 02:47:26 am
Wait, Teal'C is in the movie too? Damn, I gotta see this movie.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Mefustae on July 22, 2012, 04:01:38 am
Wait, Teal'C is in the movie too? Damn, I gotta see this movie.

Seeing it in about 3 hours. If I don't see that magnificent shol'va, I'm coming back here and ramming a staff weapon where the sun don't shine.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Topgun on July 22, 2012, 09:20:33 am
Spoiler:
How the **** did bruce sneak back into gotham so fast?
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: NGTM-1R on July 22, 2012, 09:32:57 am
Spoiler:
How the **** did bruce sneak back into gotham so fast?

He's the goddamn Bat, man.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Mefustae on July 22, 2012, 10:09:19 am
Just watched it, and I can confirm...

Spoiler:
Chris Judge was not wearing an eyepatch. Good to see that he was still utterly boss, that grenade down the manhole was cold.

Honestly, damn epic. Bane-sized facepalm over the fusion gadget, but anytime it was mentioned I just mentally swapped out the name for 'explodey mcguffin' and soldiered on. Anyway, that was wholly made up for by the cavalcade of references, cameos, and nods. Big-time for me was Bane breaking Batman's back over his knee. Knightfall was always one of my favorite storylines, and it was damn good to see a nice reference to that.

Also, just a side-note: with all this talk of Chris Judge, nobody's pointed out that the President is played by William Devane, the very same actor who portrayed President Henry Hayes in Stargate SG-1. Could this be evidence that the Batman universe has a Stargate program? **** yes it could.

Edit: Just a thought, but that prison pit. It's a pit that breathed new life into several characters, including Batman. It's presence is intertwined with Ra's al Ghul and his daughter. Lazarus pit, perhaps?

Long story short; that was rather epic. I think we should all thank our various deities and kiss our holy idols for the gracious gift that this wasn't in 3D.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: LordMelvin on July 22, 2012, 10:21:48 am
Spoiler:
How the **** did bruce sneak back into gotham so fast?
Spoiler:
we don't know how long he took to get out of the black hole of Calcutta. It's quite possible that he spent three months there, then another month infiltrating back into Gotham.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: SypheDMar on July 22, 2012, 10:53:41 am
Just watched it, and I can confirm...

Spoiler:
Edit: Just a thought, but that prison pit. It's a pit that breathed new life into several characters, including Batman. It's presence is intertwined with Ra's al Ghul and his daughter. Lazarus pit, perhaps?
Oh snap! You're right! I didn't think of it that way.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Snail on July 22, 2012, 11:14:55 am
My only complaint:

Spoiler:
Bane died hilariously
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Scourge of Ages on July 22, 2012, 07:27:00 pm
My only complaint:

Spoiler:
Bane died hilariously

Spoiler:
He's just stunned. Yes, why not.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Polpolion on July 23, 2012, 11:01:30 pm
Spoiler:
I am going to dub the part of the movie where they're looking at a bat helicopter at the end, noting how an autopilot was added, and change the author from "Bruce Wayne" to "Linus Torvalds".
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: StarSlayer on July 25, 2012, 01:58:31 pm
Enjoyed it quite a bit. 
Spoiler:
Course, the charge of the cops was a little hilarious.  A force armed with military hardware should have made mincemeat out of that tightly packed mob.  I think humanity figured out headlong charges into automatic weapons fire was bad idea in WWI.  I could have bought it if the Bat gunship launched some FFARs or smoke grenades to suppress Bane's troops, but they should have been massacred the way it actually played out.
Other then the above it was great in my opinion.  I want the gunship.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Polpolion on July 25, 2012, 04:07:49 pm
Enjoyed it quite a bit. 
Spoiler:
Course, the charge of the cops was a little hilarious.  A force armed with military hardware should have made mincemeat out of that tightly packed mob.  I think humanity figured out headlong charges into automatic weapons fire was bad idea in WWI.  I could have bought it if the Bat gunship launched some FFARs or smoke grenades to suppress Bane's troops, but they should have been massacred the way it actually played out.

Spoiler:
I was under the impression that the brunt of the police's enemy in that situation were random people that decided to stick around Bane's men. As such they wouldn't exactly be trained soldiers, and even with such a tightly packed oncoming mob you're not going to be hitting much with a rifle if you just start spraying while standing and stuff.

1) They weren't firing from a dug in position: AFAIK the frontmost portion of Bane's men were in the same situation the Cops were: just packed in a street maybe 20 people across. Only the first few ranks and the people elevated on the stairs actually had LOS on the mob. Also I think they did launch some sort of gas canisters at one point, and surely the armored vehicles batman disabled provided some cover, too.

2) They had been cut off from fighting supplies for several months. Enough food and water may have been brought in, but I doubt FEMA hands out much ammunition.

3) Once the police reach the line in appreciable numbers, the automatic weapons become at best a bludgeon and at worst something that will gun down your own men just as much as the enemy's.

All this said, I don't remember hearing any numbers about how many people the police faced, but we do know the police had ~3,000 troops. Yeah, I agree that the opening scene of them starting to charge was a bit silly when you see like two cops get shot before they reach the line but IMHO it by no means should've been a simple romp in favor of the bad guys.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: StarSlayer on July 25, 2012, 05:07:12 pm
stuff
moar stuff

Spoiler:
They were facing a bunch of folks with assault rifles, most with MOLLE esq rigs.  Two bozos similarly equipped tied down most of the LAPD in North Hollywood in 97.   In addition to the cannon fodder would have been Bane's crack mercs who certainly knew there business. 

The cops mostly had sidearms and had lived in the sewers for the past six months.  They are tightly packed in a shooting gallery, precision fire wasn't going to be particularly important in that case. 

Never mind that after living in a sewer for six months they arguably should be in no condition to mount a heroic charge
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Polpolion on July 25, 2012, 05:29:26 pm
Spoiler:
Considering that, for all their strategists knew, a nuke would vaporize everyone if they just sat around they were probably a little more willing to suffer casualties than the LAPD back in '97, which is probably what the big hold up was. And precision fire doesn't have much to do with it. If you spray your weapon it's easy for your shots to ride high and go over everyone, which I'm guess is what all of the untrained men would've done. Anyway, none of that changes that only portions of them could shoot at the cops at the same time without FF and I'm pretty sure that everyone would've been pretty low on ammunition to begin with. And I think I will never mind the fact the cops are in fighting condition after close to six months of being stuck in the sewers since batman himself manages to overcome far more crippling injuries, which no one seems to mind. :p
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Scotty on July 25, 2012, 05:32:58 pm
Like that
Spoiler:
herneated vertebrae
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Ravenholme on July 25, 2012, 06:58:36 pm
It amuses me that people are getting het up over the technical improbability of -that- plot device in a comic book movie. Comic book physics are inherently unrealistic, just roll with it people.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: StarSlayer on July 25, 2012, 09:13:23 pm
Spoiler:
And I think I will never mind the fact the cops are in fighting condition after close to six months of being stuck in the sewers since batman himself manages to overcome far more crippling injuries, which no one seems to mind. :p

He's
Quote from: Blackwolf
****ing Batman.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: redsniper on July 26, 2012, 08:30:39 am
Spoiler:
Traction does wonders apparently. :p
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on July 28, 2012, 04:18:23 pm
Batman begins is still my favourite

My only complaint:

Spoiler:
Bane died hilariously

That's why so and so is the hilight of that movie.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: watsisname on July 29, 2012, 07:09:41 am
Thanks all for the good use of spoiler tags. 

Gonna finally go and see this tonight I hope.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: MR_T3D on July 29, 2012, 02:27:58 pm
Catwoman just made the movie fun to me, I was pleasantly surprised.

Spoiler:
Also, I could have sworn he fixed the autopilot before the flight off into the sunset

but the issue I had with it was
Spoiler:
as far as gotham is concerned, the stock exchange was attack at the exact moment a billionaire supposedly invested all his money and loses it in a day, no investigations were held or attempt to determine what those guys were doing
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Scotty on July 29, 2012, 03:20:37 pm
Spoiler:
Also, I could have sworn he fixed the autopilot before the flight off into the sunset

Spoiler:
He did.  When they're disassembling it in the lab afterward, the guys checking it out note that he fixed the auto-pilot six months earlier.  That's why Alfred sees him in a restaurant in France at the end of the movie.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Fury on July 31, 2012, 03:18:02 pm
Okay, saw the movie yesterday.

Anne Hathaway as the Catwoman? There is only one thing I can say about that.
Spoiler:
Dat ass!
When she drove the bike, I would've loved to grab those buttocks.

Spoiler:
I have mixed feelings about the movie itself. I can't really find the words to describe why I am slightly disappointed with the movie, in parts it felt somewhat dragged and disconnected. Villain cameos were pretty nice touch, it's all too bad we didn't have Joker cameo for obvious reasons.

The way Bruce Wayne got screwed over didn't feel real. But the ending suggests he's done with living as both Bruce Wayne and Batman, as they are both officially dead and started a life of his own with Kyle.

Wonder if Bane got killed or whether he was knocked unconscious. But track record of Nolan's villains would suggest he's dead. Isn't Scarecrow the only surviving villain to date?

So, at the end we got our Robin. Too bad they left it as a mystery whether Blake dons Batman's suit or has his own. Even bigger mystery is how the heck he's going to play a vigilante without Wayne's money and resources since Wayne enterprises is gone. Even if Fox helps him, what can one man without any money do.

The movie wrapped up Bruce's story it seems, but it left way too many questions about future of Blake. Perhaps those will be answered in another movie if we're lucky, but I very much doubt it.

Oh yeah, saw Superman teaser before the movie started. This movie's coming next year and directed by Nolan as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jKWJZsjm5U
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: mjn.mixael on July 31, 2012, 04:58:16 pm
Man of Steel isn't directed by Nolan, it's directed by Zack Snyder. Though Nolan is producing and hand a heavy hand in the story.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Mika on July 31, 2012, 05:37:39 pm
Saw the movie today

Felt a little bit of regret over a portion of the spent money. This was a 10 euro ticket, and I saw a movie worth of 6. Still though, that's far less of an absolute rip-off compared to other stuff I have seen (but percentage wise it's a different story...)

Something was missing from this movie that was there in the sequels prequels, perhaps the pacing was somehow wrong? Bruce Wayne didn't seem believable for some reason, and honestly, I think that in this case less action would have improved it. I also think some amount of subtlety was missed compared to the earlier movies, possibly due to the frequent location switches and focus being on the lives of several people, maybe a couple too many. That leads to movie feeling like a blur, I simply don't remember a lot of scenes of this movie. Unfortunately, at that point your mind is actually starting to pick loopholes - during the movie.

Action sequences were a bit cringe-worthy already, and my suspension of belief was completely broken in the beginning at the SWAT team storming into an aircraft - mid-air. And that was only the beginning of several cases. So if you are going to do something ridiculous, make it rule-of-cool awesome, don't leave it at half-way! Also, this might be a good place to talk about female villains, as I haven't seen many movies with good female villains. I don't know why that is so, but mostly they simply are not any where close to believable.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Fury on August 01, 2012, 10:03:05 am
Oh, my bad then.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Killer Whale on August 02, 2012, 05:10:13 am
My opinion
Where The Dark Knight was a beautifully crafted masterpiece of awesomesauce, The Dark Knight Rises was merely epic. It's a good movie, but relative to the previous it lacks a bit.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on August 04, 2012, 11:13:59 pm
Action sequences were a bit cringe-worthy already, and my suspension of belief was completely broken in the beginning at the SWAT team storming into an aircraft - mid-air. And that was only the beginning of several cases. So if you are going to do something ridiculous, make it rule-of-cool awesome, don't leave it at half-way! Also, this might be a good place to talk about female villains, as I haven't seen many movies with good female villains. I don't know why that is so, but mostly they simply are not any where close to believable.

Death Race 1+2 have some good female villians.

Or if you want the queen of female villians, watch . . Ran (by Akira Kurosawa). Love that woman . . Mieko Harada I think?
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Klaustrophobia on August 05, 2012, 12:11:32 am
there's a death race 2??? o.0
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on August 06, 2012, 08:18:47 pm
there's a death race 2??? o.0

Yup. It was direct-to-DVD only though. Prequel of the theatrical movie, doesn't have Jason Statham, but has some other guy who's decent, along with Sean Bean. It's a bit slow at start but has some good payoff at the end.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Fury on August 07, 2012, 03:11:54 am
along with Sean Bean
Lemme guess. Glorius death by sword?
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on August 07, 2012, 05:56:48 am
along with Sean Bean
Lemme guess. Glorius death by sword?

Hmmn, not gonna spoil anything :)
'sides Death Race is about cars not swords. Cars with big guns on 'em :D
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Sarafan on August 07, 2012, 11:12:32 am
I have a question about the movie, what was the point of Bane imposing martial law on Gotham? Couldnt understand that.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Klaustrophobia on August 07, 2012, 11:24:58 am
I have a question about the movie, what was the point of Bane imposing martial law on Gotham? Couldnt understand that.

i'd say it was less marshal law than anarchy disguised as a "by the people" kind of thing.  i imagine it as the occupy wall street people armed with high powered weapons. 

anyway, bane said the point was to punish bruce by making him watch the city go to ****, thinking they were saving it, before he blew it up anyway.  slow, agonizing death.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Luis Dias on August 11, 2012, 05:57:48 pm
Perhaps I'm not the first to point this out, but they really missed the biggest opportunity to steal one of the best endings of an animated movie ever created.

Remember how Monsters Inc finishes with the Blue big fur guy opening the door and have his smile glow to the camera before fade to black?

Now imagine Alfred going to the café, very depressed. He sits in the chair and places the paper in the table. The camera slowly zooms in on him. He looks ahead and his eyes go slightly wide, starts smiling. Fade to black.

But no, Dark Knight Rises had to tell you everything twice visually and then one more time in the spoken lines.
Title: Re: The Dark Knight Rises and soars!
Post by: Scourge of Ages on August 11, 2012, 06:06:02 pm
Now imagine Alfred going to the café, very depressed. He sits in the chair and places the paper in the table. The camera slowly zooms in on him. He looks ahead and his eyes go slightly wide, starts smiling. Fade to black.

But no, Dark Knight Rises had to tell you everything twice visually and then one more time in the spoken lines.

I agree with this. What's odd is that you'd think it'd be a natural way to do it for Nolan, looking at the ending of Inception.

Of course, then you couldn't get the actual ending with the fade to black in the batcave with that guy, which has a similar effect.