BAMAN BAMAN BAMAN BAMAN BAMAN BAMAN… (sorry this was late!)
Matt and Asia love movies and games, and watch/play most of them together. They figured they would post both of their opinions for movies side-by-side to provide both a male and a female perspective. These reviews won’t ever have numbered scores at the end, or a series of stars. We would prefer you just read the article and decide for yourself! NOTE: Spoilers are contained in [Spoiler:TEXT] brackets.
What I Really Liked
She said: Obviously, Batman. I mean, c’mon. Who doesn’t? Am I right? Also, Morgan Freeman. Enough said. Seriously though, all of the actors in this film were absolutely phenomenal! I always love seeing Joseph Gordon-Levitt (although I will always remember him as Tommy from 3rd Rock From The Sun). [SPOILER: (Kinda) I totally called him being Robin once I saw him, and I think he is perfectly cast for Nightwing in what looks like another series of movies.] I thought Tom Hardy was an excellent Bane and I liked that he sounded like Deckard Cain From Diablo. Ra’s Al Ghul has always been one of my favorites since the beginning of the series. Also, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman… Basically the actors are really what made this film as great as it was (and everyone else who worked on it, of course). And I loved the last 10 minutes or so of the movie with all it’s little twists.
He said: Alfred. I can never get me enough Michael Caine, and scenes with him were by far some of the most emotional the movie had to offer. I also really liked Joseph Gordon-Levitt, even though he felt kind of rushed into his role as a new main character in the movie. Of course, Morgan Freeman is awesome is almost any movie he’s in, and this was no exception. As for the movie itself, the stakes were much higher, the action was much easier to follow (no more Michael Bay syndrome), and the ending wrapped things up well, with a well-foreshadowed ending teaser and great little twist. 
What I Sorta Liked
She said: Anne Hathaway made a much better Catwoman than originally expected and I thought she did a really great job. Although I would have picked maybe Natalie Portman to play the roll. I think she looks more the part with her cat-like eyes. I didn’t really like the catwoman outfit. I thought it could have been a lot better.
He said: Anne Hathaway was better than I expected, but still didn’t do it for me as Catwoman. Maybe it’s the giant cow-eyes or long brown hair, but her sultry sassiness felt forced throughout the movie. Also while Bane was certainly a good character, he was simply too far from the original vision of Bane for my taste. [SPOILER: There was no venom whatsoever, and his crazy strength and the purpose of his mouthpiece is never fully explained. I found this annoying, as I was hoping the trailers were only going to show the "regular guy" Bane and then there would be some awesome reveal of the "venomed" Bane later on.] He certainly played a brutally insane villain, but he was far more average than I was expecting.
The pacing in TDKR was all over the place, jumping between scenes that felt far too rushed and others that felt far too drug out. It wasn’t a huge deal, but considering this movie had a more complicated plot than the previous two combined, with more characters, I felt like some consistency would have done it some good. Still, it didn’t necessarily not work.
What I Didn’t Like
She said: Why does Batman’s voice get harder to understand in every movie? I mean, Batman Begins was at the perfect point where he sounded like a badass but you could still understand what he was saying. In The Dark Knight, it just got progressively worse as the movie went on. The Dark Knight Rises was just stupid. It sounded like He and Bane were speaking dubstep. There was so much I didn’t get in that movie simply because I couldn’t understand what was being said. I also don’t like that they didn’t really explain Bane at all. He was just there. [Spoiler: They didn't explain the mask, there was no venom, no one even asked why he was so strong. There were a couple moments in the movie where it looked like he just touched people and they were in agonizing pain. Apparently he was squeezing them or something? Hmm.] I feel like his character could have been developed a lot better but I do understand that there was a lot to pack into almost two and a half hours.
He said: Batman’s voice. WTF. Since we went to a marathon viewing of all three movies at our local theater, we were able to watch Bale’s voice acting get more and more raspy and muddled with each film. It was even MORE overblown in The Dark Knight Rises, to the point where it was comical/distracting. There were multiple points where I audibly laughed in the theater during the third film due to his voice. I remember one particular line where Batman tells someone to “pick it up”, but it sounded more like “PEEEYUUUUU!” *sigh* Looks like Nolan and the gang weren’t privy to the countless amount of jokes revolving around Bale’s exaggerated voice after the second film was released.
Speaking of voices, I couldn’t get over Bane’s Sean Connery-meets-Darth Vader voice throughout the film. On top of that, almost all of his lines felt like they were coming out of a commentary track, rather than taking place in the same scene as the rest of the actors. This is probably due to the fact that Bane’s lines were reportedly all re-recorded and dubbed over the film before release, but that’s no excuse to not bother adjusting volume or adding reverb and other effects to make it seem like the voice is taking place in the film and not over it. Much like Batman’s exaggerated voice, every line from Bane had boosted low-ends that contrasted far too much compared to “normal” characters in the movie.
Final Thoughts
She said: I would say that I would have to see it again, at least once if not twice, to fully understand everything that was happening since there was a lot to take in. I’m a person who needs to watch something multiple times because I don’t remember everything the first time through.
He said: TDKR is an awesome movie with some really cool scenes, but it might not be the incredible finale everyone is hoping for. While the first two films offered up multiple scenes that incited cheering in our theater, the final movie didn’t really have the same number of “oh snap!” moments as it’s predecessors. I would have liked to see someone better casted as Catwoman (who is never actually called that in the movie) and a Bane that’s a little closer to the original character (aka, less human). But lets be honest, most of my negatives are fairly nit-picky. It’s not the best movie in the series, but I think it certainly beats out the first one, and is almost in-arguably the best action movie this summer. It makes The Avengers look like a children’s Saturday morning cartoon in comparison. I’m going to miss Nolan’s work on Batman. He really knows how to make superhero movies for adults.