• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

The Dark Knight Rises |OT2| The Legend... Continues

Status
Not open for further replies.
MCNox.gif


edit: eidan, hahaha.

Great minds.
 
Inception? Oh yes. Oh yes. Top 25.

Once you get past those who love to hate things that become popular you will see.

In 20 years it will be looked at as a classic genre defining renaissance of movies. There will be classes taught in university's that study the way Nolan changed the game.

I am quoting this for historical reference.
 
Even worse on rewatch. :(

And man does this thing fucking draaaag.

After this shit I hope Nolan seriously mixes up his next movie. No more of these mass crowd pleasing handjobs. I want the man to get dangerous again.

it definitely isn't that great... Fuck life for taking Heath...joker in this would have been ammmazing.. it seems like he didn't have enough time to really film it right is some shots or something.. Did he work with the people from inception or TDK...that film just had more balls. It was basically only perfect for one reason though. I've seen this twice and really have no desire to watch it again. Tom was really good but Bane is just a shitty villain.
 
it's #14 on IMDB's top 250 films
xB55i.gif

...

Inception? Oh yes. Oh yes. Top 25.

Once you get past those who love to hate things that become popular you will see.

In 20 years it will be looked at as a classic genre defining renaissance of movies.

Why would you assume someone just hates anything because it became popular? Sure it happens, but with very immature individuals. Hating something because of that seems so dumb. I hate something that I think is crap or maybe that people see as a masterpiece when it's just crap. I could never see inception as top 25 films of all time material though.

Also, you must be joking :P


lol
 
Inception was a mass crowd pleasing hand-job?

Self appointed experts acting like their words are facts are beyond annoying. Its almost to the point these threads are unbearable because the minute you point out something you like you are hit with the same few people whose sole mission in these threads is to remind me you that you are wrong and the movie sucked. We get it you didn't like it. Get over yourselves.

Inception was very much a risk by him and the studio. Just because you didn't like it doesn't make it safe. Begins was also a risk considering where Batman was at the time, who Nolan was at the time, and even the villains he chose to relaunch Batman. Heath Ledger for the Joker or choosing Bane as the primary villain in this one.

And big superhero movies are always going to be the safest things he does, but even then if you can't see he took risks with the way he told the story and avoided things fans were clamoring for than I don't know what to tell you.

I think you misunderstand me. I'm not saying mass crowd-pleasing handjobs are inherently a bad thing. Three quarters of Spielberg's filmography is made up of crowd-pleasing handjobs where he'll talk about them saying 'I'm always thinking about the audience.' But then there will be the movies like Schindler's List or Empire of the Sun or Munich where he's making the film purely for the story's sake. His motivation is that 'this is a story that I want to tell' as opposed to 'they will eat this shit up.'

That is how I feel about movies like Inception and TDKR. But especially TDKR. It doesn't feel like a story Nolan wanted to badly tell, so much as a case of 'they're gonna love this.' The telltale signs for me lie in Nolan's characters. In both Inception and TDKR there are characters that feel calculated, instead of motivated. Blake and Selina Kyle are prime examples of this, as well as every other paper thin character in Inception that isn't Cobb - but is instead there to provide some sort of running commentary or relief via humor. None of these characters feel like they are there because they have a story worth telling, but because they can payoff certain moments for the audience.

Now compare this with Nolan's films like The Prestige or Memento. Every character has their own, clear motivations that feel organic. Those feel like films he made where the story and characters were paramount and he was making the film for the sake of the story and not for the sake of the audience. And they're brilliant.

So when I say I wish Nolan to stop with his mass crowd pleasing handjobs, I'm not saying they're bad movies for trying to appeal to a mass audience. I'm saying that I feel Nolan's best work comes when he's at the service of the story and not the audience - which is the biggest problem with TDKR. He's just so much better than that. My one hope is that as his reputation expands, he doesn't feel a need to one-up himself by going bigger and bigger with these blockbusters.
 
sculi have you seen doom house and if so what do you think of it?

some reviews:
Doom House is a chilling polemic on the governing mindset of post-9/11 America. In their film debut, Kyanka and Bowen masterfully weave coherent socio-political commentary with well-crafted horror in much the same way that Jacobs and Young mixed controversial political issues with comedy in their tragically short-lived and misunderstood television program Dinosaurs.

From the very outset it becomes obvious to the viewer that this is not going to be a standard blood & guts slasher-style horror film, no, this film bucks the stereotypes so inherent in the present-day horror genre.

These men respect their audience. These men display a willingness to provide their audience with more than merely scenes of crowd-pleasing, money-making gore. Like Vincent Price and Roger Corman before them, Kyanka and Bowen are unafraid to create a thinking-man's horror film, a film that is not only unabashedly low-budget, but a film that revels in its lack of capital and in fact is able to rise above its monetary restraints.

In spite of what many would have you believe, it is clear that there is no truly evil character in this film, there is no malice, there is only desperation. Within the constraints of a low budget and perhaps as a result of those limitations, Kyanka and Bowen craft characters with depth, with believable motivations, depicting both sides of the conflict as victims of circumstance all the while avoiding the uncomfortable territory of moral equivalence. Not since John Hughes' 1986 classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off have I found myself rooting for the villain as much as I did for Linux's opponent in Doom House.

In an era where the average moviegoer craves answers, Doom House dares to ask questions. In the war between East and West, between religion and secular society, between tradition and progress, is there such a thing as right and wrong? How should a person deal with loss, by suffering the painful familiar or by beginning life anew? Do the victims of history have a right to seek compensation from the innocents of another generation? What does it truly mean to be doomed? Unable to reach a wide audience due to the limitations of its budget, unseen and in fact unheard of by the majority of potential viewers, Doom House is nonetheless a classic piece of intelligent, finely-crafted cinema.

Doom House is not to be missed!
his movie, produced literally with less than what you could buy a new TV set with, is a hallmark of the brilliant independent film-making presented here by the actors/directors, Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka and Kevin "Fragmaster" Bowen. In the hands of anyone else, this seemingly confusing script would have been a disaster - but Kyanka and Bowen pull all the right moves, and produce a film that should sit on any true movie lover's DVD shelf, be them a serious movie collector or merely a casual fan of the medium.

The movie opens with Reginald P. Linux (played masterfully by Kyanka) in a monologue about his sad past as he drives to what he hopes will be a new life. He speaks of the death of his wife, and the intense depression that followed. And so he began the search for the house of his dreams, but in Reginald's own words, "Be careful what you dream for, because you just might get it."

He then drives up and decides to enter the newfound house of his dreams, hauling his luggage and some wrapped-up carpet with him. Despite his enthusiasm with the house - and his amazement to see that it's already decorated - he immediately notices something is unusual about his homestead. Darting across the room of the kitchen, he spots something most unusual... a strange figurine. The figurine stares menacingly at him, to his puzzlement... of course, he sets this aside out of the sheer joy of moving in to his new house. But he nonetheless can feel a chill of fear in the air.

Later in the day, he notices that the doll has moved - without any clue as to how or why. Now sensing that something is seriously wrong, he takes the doll and throws it out. Happy that he's taken care of that problem, he then goes back to his daily business.

Back in his house, Reginald begins reading "Fear", an ironic foreshadowing of the plot that is about to unfold. Amidst this, the doll appears again, out of nowhere. Reginald now senses that something is not just seriously wrong, but terribly wrong, and does what's necessary to dispose of the doll once and for all: Putting it in the garbage disposal. ("You're garbage. So I'm gonna treat you like garbage. In the disposal.") What follows is a bone-chilling scene of gruesome horror, largely due to the incredibly use of sound, and Kyanka's hard-as-nails performance. The look in his eyes tells you that he knows the feeling killing a doll gives him. He growls with satisfaction as the doll is torn apart. It pierces right through your TV screen.

Later, as it comes time to "hit the old bedstack", as Kyanka's classic line goes, Reginald goes to sleep - T-shirt and shorts and all. When he wakes up, he is confronted once again with the menacing doll. Now on the verge of insanity, Kyanka delivers what is probably the best scene in the movie with his cries of, "Leave my happy house!" and "Why?!" He scrambles to run from the terror, only to be confronted by it once more. He cannot hide. He cannot escape. He then receives a phone call which inspired more terror in me than the infamous "seven days" phone call from The Ring. Now scared beyond belief, he calls his only hope: The police.

Enter Kevin "Fragmaster" Bowen, delivering quite possibly the best performance of his career. He then tells Reginald that he's found evidence. "Evidence of... a doom house!" Reginald could only respond with disbelief. The officer advises Reginald to leave at once, then clumsily stumbles out - himself shaken with terror from the mere experience of being in the house.

Unwilling to take the officer's advice, Reginald continues to stay in his new doom house. Late in the night, the police officer once again knocks at Reginald's door, telling him to move out at once, again. Reginald, again struck with endless disbelief, stays in his newfound home, going off to play on what would appear to be an old video game system. However, in the middle of his enjoyment of the game, he is confronted with a horrible sight - the doll appears right on his TV screen.

Reginald then hears another strange knock at the door, only to have the same police officer enter. It became clear that the officer has an agenda, with his freudian slips - "You still haven't moved out of this murder house - doom house." (a brilliant use of foreshadowing on Bowen's part)

In the next scene, the cop's agenda becomes 100% clear - he is the one orchestrating the doom house. ("I'm inside his basement. And inside his MIND.") Following this horrible revelation, he is revealed to be an agent of Al Qaeda, trying to protect a terrorist burial ground. Reginald decides to take matters into his own hands, uttering a classic line in the process. ("Take this doll head, you towel head.")

I won't spoil how the story ends, for it's the most chilling and memorable part of this epic. I will say that it completely changed how I viewed the film - and it will do the same for you.

Interesting fact: the title of the movie is initially misspelled in the opening scene, spelled as "Doom Hose" instead, as a clever way of playing with your mind. It's immediately corrected, just in time to get you thinking about how silly a doom hose would be. The movie has no shortage of brilliant psychological elements just like this one.

All in all, a horror classic for the ages. Any true movie fan should see this, it's definitely Kyanka and Fragmaster's finest effort.

its a pretty intense art house film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeBjr8Bm_wA
 
it definitely isn't that great... Fuck life for taking Heath...joker in this would have been ammmazing.. it seems like he didn't have enough time to really film it right is some shots or something.. Did he work with the people from inception or TDK...that film just had more balls. It was basically only perfect for one reason though. I've seen this twice and really have no desire to watch it again. Tom was really good but Bane is just a shitty villain.

Some scenes, like the final chase scene and cop charge, literally seem like they had no planning behind them, other than "we'll film this, chain it together in editing, and it'll look awesome." The idea behind the scenes are good, but some of them needed days to film in a manner that ebbs/flows/builds, not the one or two they spared.

I think you misunderstand me. I'm not saying mass crowd-pleasing handjobs are inherently a bad thing. Three quarters of Spielberg's filmography is made up of crowd-pleasing handjobs where he'll talk about them saying 'I'm always thinking about the audience.' But then there will be the movies like Schindler's List or Empire of the Sun or Munich where he's making the film purely for the story's sake. His motivation is that 'this is a story that I want to tell' as opposed to 'they will eat this shit up.'

That is how I feel about movies like Inception and TDKR. But especially TDKR. It doesn't feel like a story Nolan wanted to badly tell, so much as a case of 'they're gonna love this.' The telltale signs for me lie in Nolan's characters. In both Inception and TDKR there are characters that feel calculated, instead of motivated. Blake and Selina Kyle are prime examples of this, as well as every other paper thin character in Inception that isn't Cobb - but is instead there to provide some sort of running commentary or relief via humor. None of these characters feel like they are there because they have a story worth telling, but because they can payoff certain moments for the audience.

Now compare this with Nolan's films like The Prestige or Memento. Every character has their own, clear motivations that feel organic. Those feel like films he made where the story and characters were paramount and he was making the film for the sake of the story and not for the sake of the audience. And they're brilliant.

So when I say I wish Nolan to stop with his mass crowd pleasing handjobs, I'm not saying they're bad movies for trying to appeal to a mass audience. I'm saying that I feel Nolan's best work comes when he's at the service of the story and not the audience - which is the biggest problem with TDKR. He's just so much better than that. My one hope is that as his reputation expands, he doesn't feel a need to one-up himself by going bigger and bigger with these blockbusters.

I agree with a good portion of this. Inception was the turning point for me too with Nolan, where things started feeling contrived rather than natural in terms of character motivation.

What is the exact opposite scenario? That when someone says they don't like it they are attacked? I rarely see that. There have been drive by posts where people simply state they didn't like it, hated it, or didn't think it lived up to the other two. I don't see those posts getting attacked. Its the ones like bangladesh or others who just stick around to tell everyone how wrong they are that annoy me.

So you'd rather have people just drive-by, state their opinion, and never expound on their reasoning? Fuck that. I've been a card-carrying member of Movie/Nolan/BatGAF since the original TDKR hype thread. Even if this movie disappointed me, that doesn't change the fact that I like interacting with the community (or at least did). And even if I criticize aspects of this film, it's really no reason to lump people like Sculli, SecretRiddle, and me (maybe Solo?) with the likes of bangladesh. It's sort of obnoxious how dismissive some of you guys can be to people who have sat through the hype with the rest of you, just because we have different opinions on a fucking film.

Tons of movies that GAF loves that I hate or didn't like. I don't even bother sitting around in those threads just to remind people. Whatever. Maybe people enjoy it. I don't get it. If I don't like something why would I constant visit that thread to remind people I don't like it?

I hope to God I never find you in a SW prequel-bashing thread then (13 years and going strong).
 
You guys wish he would go back to Momento budget movies. That's not going to happen. I'm sorry. He has carte blanche at WB, and probably any studio right now. You think after Batman trilogy, and Inception, hes going to be on IFC anytime soon? C'mon guys.
 
You guys wish he would go back to Momento budget movies. That's not going to happen. I'm sorry. He has carte blanche at WB, and probably any studio right now. You think after Batman trilogy, and Inception, hes going to be on IFC anytime soon? C'mon guys.

I don't expect him to go back to Momento budget movies. But if this is going to be the state of affairs, I would like him to take his story-telling sensibilities from them and apply it to his TDKR budget movies. Something's been lost along the way, in his ever-expanding scope and I think this movie illustrated (to me) that his reach exceeds his grasp in an "epic" scale film.

"the likes of bangladesh" :lol

Please don't be exemplifying the exact type of behavior I was trying to call some of you out on. Come on.
 
I don't expect him to go back to Momento budget movies. But if this is going to be the state of affairs, I would like him to take his story-telling sensibilities from them and apply it to his TDKR budget movies. Something's been lost along the way, in his ever-expanding scope and I think this movie illustrated (to me) that his reach exceeds his grasp in an "epic" scale film.



Please don't be exemplifying the exact type of behavior I was trying to call some of you out on. Come on.

I guess the masses just don't agree with you, as he has more clout now than he did 10 years ago.( Because his movies perform) You think he is regressing, I think he is progressing.

But its cool. Opinions are welcomed, and I am not saying I am right in any of this, its simply how I feel. To me he is a top 10 director, and his movies have been excellent all of them.
 
You guys wish he would go back to Momento budget movies.

That is not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying I want him to go back to serving the story first. The Prestige didn't exactly have a tiny budget, but everything in that film was in the service of the story.

Also, Botman Bogins, Prostege, Incoption etc etc
 
I guess the masses just don't agree with you, as he has more clout now than he did 10 years ago.( Because his movies perform) You think he is regressing, I think he is progressing.

Why are you getting the masses involved in this, though? Some of that clout is because he got involved with a mass-audience-appealing comic book movie; pulling that off of course would give him more power than pulling off a small art film.

An appeal to the majority isn't going to convince me that he's become a better director. Otherwise we'd be arguing that Michael Bay is at the height of powers.
 
I guess the masses just don't agree with you, as he has more clout now than he did 10 years ago.( Because his movies perform) You think he is regressing, I think he is progressing.

But its cool. Opinions are welcomed, and I am not saying I am right in any of this, its simply how I feel. To me he is a top 10 director, and his movies have been excellent all of them.

I think its fair to say Nolan is bigger now than MJ was during his prime. His movies are huge, i can't see him going back to his inferior films now that hes only just starting to hit his stride.
 
Why are you getting the masses involved in this, though? Some of that clout is because he got involved with a mass-audience-appealing comic book movie; pulling that off of course would give him more power than pulling off a small art film.

An appeal to the majority isn't going to convince me that he's become a better director. Otherwise we'd be arguing that Michael Bay is at the height of powers.

Michael Bay might be the biggest hack in Hollywood.
While he pulled in money for TF, I think we can all tell the difference between TF and Batman.
At least I hope. I feel like some of you just want to hate on a man that brought Batman back from the dead.

Please don't forget the state of the franchise before he took it on. You are just bitter for some strange reason. Because TDKR was not as good as TDK?

Inception I guess a lot of you hated. To me It was as important a film as The Matrix was, and the zero gravity scenes were simply stunning. Its influence has yet to be felt in its entirety.

The future holds what ever he wants it to.
 
I just seriously wish some people would just chill out regarding Nolans Batman. OK he doesn't have great skills for shooting and editing a classic such as Aliens, Kill List, Psycho, Deliverance(in serious need of a reboot), the most recent Universal Soldier and bits of QoS.
 
I feel like some of you just want to hate on a man that brought Batman back


Inception I guess a lot of you hated. It was as important a film as The Matrix was.
The future hold what ever he wants it to.


Why would we want to hate on the man that brought Batman back? Most of us here loved BB and TDK - which is why we're part of this Batfan community.

As for your second comment?

hestonomegalaughqeahp.gif
 
MiI feel like some of you just want to hate on a man that brought Batman back from the dead.

Please don't forget the state of the franchise before he took it on. You are just bitter for some strange reason. Because TDKR was not as good as TDK?

I don't want to hate the man at all. He made three of my favorite films (BB, TDK, Prestige). That doesn't mean that I can't feel like he's lost his way and the better part of his sensibilities. And I'd like him to realize it before he releases a truly crappy film.

As for why I'm bitter, it's not a mystery or "strange": I thought the film was disappointing, but it's also the way some members of this forum turned on its own just because they had different opinions on the movie. And I can't help but feel like everytime it gets personal, veering towards attacks/dismissals of posters instead of the film, it initially comes from people who liked this movie and just want others to shut up.

Inception I guess a lot of you hated. To me It was as important a film as The Matrix was, and the zero gravity scenes were simply stunning. Its influence has yet to be felt in its entirety.

I liked it. But it too disappointed me and was a harbinger of my problems with TDKR: too much plot for something that was ultimately pretty, but empty. There's so much exposition in the first half of the film that there is no room for character interaction or growth. One character exists solely to get exposition directed at her. If you spend that amount of time setting up something so intricate, it better be worth it or have something amazing to say. I'm not really sure it did, not at the expense of many potentially more interesting things.

DiCaprio and Cotillard save it for me.
 
Inception I guess a lot of you hated. To me It was as important a film as The Matrix was, and the zero gravity scenes were simply stunning. Its influence has yet to be felt in its entirety.

The future holds what ever he wants it to.

Is it possible it's influence has yet to be felt because it had none or very little? It's cool you like the movie. It's great being passionate about what you like, but don't you think you're giving it more credit than it deserves?
 
S
So you'd rather have people just drive-by, state their opinion, and never expound on their reasoning? Fuck that. I've been a card-carrying member of Movie/Nolan/BatGAF since the original TDKR hype thread. Even if this movie disappointed me, that doesn't change the fact that I like interacting with the community (or at least did). And even if I criticize aspects of this film, it's really no reason to lump people like Sculli, SecretRiddle, and me (maybe Solo?) with the likes of bangladesh. It's sort of obnoxious how dismissive some of you guys can be to people who have sat through the hype with the rest of you, just because we have different opinions on a fucking film.

I liked TDKR. A great deal more than you, Sculli or Secret, I believe. But its not without (many) faults.

For me the most telling thing might be that, despite loving it, I never felt compelled to see it a second time in theatres. Whereas I saw BB an TDK each 4 or more times. Next week on Blu will be my first time seeing TDKR since opening day.
 
i love BB and TDK

got them on bluray and watch them over and they never become dull

but i think nolan owes me and others a dinner because generally u wine and dine a person before you FUCK THEM
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom