The Dark Knight Rises Spoiler Im not going to review the plot since most people are going to see it anyway and its now on Wikipedia in full detail. This movie, as predicted, was much closer in line with Batman Begins than The Dark Knight in many regards including theme, tone, and story line. The action scenes were fantastic and the dialogue was very well done. The battles between Bane and Batman, especially the first one, were brutal. I had doubts about Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, but she played the part much better than expected and Marion Cotillard and Tom Hardy were excellent as Talia Al'Ghul and Bane. The final few scenes tied the trilogy together very nicely and it ended the way a Batman finale should. Although it was enjoyable, it was nowhere near as good as The Dark Knight. The scenes jumped from one to another very quickly as if Nolan was trying to cram as much dialogue in as he possibly could, while ignoring decent character development. The final battle ended way too abruptly the back story with Bane and Talia should have been better explored. They made a huge point of making Bane out to be a near indestructible force only to have him pointlessly blown away in seconds by Catwoman. Also, having Jonathan Crane (the Scarecrow, but not in costume) in the movie was bizarre and ham-fisted. As for the story, it was somewhat confusing -- so what was Banes actual plan? To give Gotham back to the people or blow it up with a nuke? It seemed like his motivations changed pretty quickly and with little reason. Plus, the underlying criticism of the Occupy movement (which I loath anyway) was too obvious and unnecessary. All in all, it was decent, but not great like I was expecting. I'm probably going to go for a second viewing at a regular theater because the IMAX in Providence was enormous and it was a little difficult to absorb everything. Its has its flaws, but its a good enough ending to the series and absolutely worth a theater viewing. 6.5/10
The Dark Knight Rises > The Dark Knight Yeah, I said it. Spoiler The Dark Knight was largely driven by Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker, but the plot itself was very "second movie in a trilogy." TDK had better moments, but overall? TDKR wins. It explores Bruce Wayne's struggle with Batman, and Batman's struggle with redemption. How can you be a symbol of hope when you have no hope left? How can you defend your city if you are just waiting to die? The Joker toyed with Batman, but he never truly got to him. It isn't until TDKR that we see Batman stare defeat in the face and really tremble, that we see him rekindle his hope in his city and in himself. Bane can (and does) break Batman. The Joker is Batman's twin, the reflection of his own inner chaos, but Bane is the face of his destruction and that makes the movie fucking incredible. Someone is bigger and badder than Batman, and it's only his indomitable will and love for Gotham that saves him, and saves the city. A redeemed Batman. The promise of Nightwing. Catwoman. Add to that the fact that Bane is the sexiest paragon of dominance I have ever seen, and I conclude in a very biased manner that this is the best thing in the entire world and everyone can eat shit if they think differently. I will also add that I think it would be obscenely stupid to compare the performances of Hardy and Ledger given the vast differences of the types of villains they are. I was initially nervous that Hardy's voice was too ridiculous, but by the twentieth minute, I gave up that nervousness for extreme attraction and cede that the man is a fucking genius for expressing more with his eyes than most actors can with their entire bodies. I would write more but I am having trouble sorting out my feelings of immense love for Batman right now.
The Dark Night Rises: Light Spoilers: Like Prometheus, this films was a hell of a fun time to watch. Like that film it suffers from throwing everything and the sink at you while the movie races at you at break neck speeds. I think after a second watching a whole lot of the stuff that doesn't add up will be blindingly apparent. Basically could be said to have the same short fallings that Inception had since much of the expository stuff is thrown at you like a semi truck driver throwing a big gulp on your car as he blows by you doing 110. Where as the story and general theme of The Dark Knight were kind of helped by the pacing, this one kind of hindered it. Too many story lines thrown in with shallow depth. This will be a Empire/Return situation as time passes. I enjoyed the fact that it didn't get too preachy or handle the OWS stuff like a whole lot of Hollywood directors would. I didn't care all too much for Catwoman though. Her whole personal mission seemed kind of pointless given the bigger events going on. I guess they tied it up with the end scene but ehhhhh... I feel a lot of the the shit that doesn't add up in the film is probably all 100% hardcore comic backstory. I must have missed the line that explained where and what in the fuck that jail was he was stuck at for half the film. Spoiler My friend said it as soon as we got to the parking lot and I agree. Bane died like a fucking punk. Seriously, worst, waste, of a badass fucking villain,ever... 6.5
I have to agree with Roxanne. Here's why: Spoiler As someone who's always liked Begins over TDK, I thought Rises addressed all of the things that the second one didn't. What I really loved about this one and Begins is that there is so much more at stake. In Begins and TDKR, ALL of Gotham is at risk. First by Scarecrow's toxin that will cause everyone to murder each other, then by a nuclear device that could destroy the entire city. In TDK, Batman is just trying to protect Gotham's city officials in order to make it so that he would be unnecessary, and in the end, all that was at risk was a couple of ferry's and some hostage doctors. As awesome as the Joker is, he's never really any threat to Batman. They just cancel each other out. Bane is a hulking beast who can kill Batman almost at will, yet they gave him more humanity than I think even the comics ever have. The fact that they wrapped the whole thing up with the League of Shadows was a great choice and really makes the whole trilogy seem more cohesive. Also, it might seem trivial, but I love that they brought back Scarecrow for a bit. If there's one thing I hate about superhero movies is that they casually toss aside previous villains, never to be heard from again (of course the Joker is the exception because of Heath Ledger dying). But it was cool to see him again, still doing his crazy thing. And goddamn if I didn't choke up every time Michael Caine said anything.
The Dark Knight Rises I saw it today at noon, and the theater was only about a quarter full, if that. Spoiler The Good The opening sequence was awesome. The movie had by far the best action scenes of Nolan's three Batman films. As far as story goes, it was a big improvement over The Dark Knight. I thought that the speech that celebrated Harvey Dent's life at the beginning was pretty stupid, but luckily there weren't any more speeches like that. Bane was a fun villain to watch in the sense that he did have that physical edge over Batman. Anne Hathaway was good in her role as Catwoman. I also really liked Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character, despite the fact that I did not originally like his casting. He has come a long way since Angels in the Outfield. The movie did not feel like it was 2 hours and 45 minutes long, and probably could have been longer. The ending was good. The Bad I have two big gripes with the movie. The first is that it essentially did not feel like a Batman movie, with Bruce Wayne being imprisoned for the better part of it. I don't have a problem with the idea of Bane kicking his ass and taking him prisoner in and of itself, but when it lasts for as long as it did in TDKR it ultimately takes away from why I went to see the movie: to see Batman in action. I just was not entertained by seeing him imprisoned, working on his inner demons, and struggling to escape for that long. There were only two fight scenes between Bane and Batman, and I felt like they should have had more confrontations. I had a problem with seeing only Batman, the Joker, or Harvey Dent for long stretches in The Dark Knight, but not as much Batman was an even bigger problem here. My second big complaint was the lack of humor in the film. I knew that it was going to be dark, but damn. Even Nolan's interpretation of the Joker brought some humor to the table in The Dark Knight; TDKR felt almost devoid of any. Catwoman had a few funny lines, but that was about it, and I felt that her character was underutilized as it was. This movie ended up belonging to Bane and the Gotham police force, and I don't feel as though those characters can carry that kind of load. It has been said that this movie was more like Batman Begins than The Dark Knight, but I have to disagree with that. The dark tone of the film and the (more successful) emphasis on action and suspense made me feel like it was more similar to The Dark Knight, except that it had a plot that went somewhere. I have to agree that the back-story of Bane and Talia al Ghul should have been explored more. As I mentioned above, Catwoman's character was underutilized, and some background information on her would have been good. I also agree that Catwoman blowing away Bane as easily as she did was anticlimatic. I am also in agreement about being a little confused by Bane's ultimate goal. TDKR beats TDK in terms of story and action scenes, but the plot was still a little thin. Overall it was a good, not great film, but was a satisfactory end to a solid comic book movie trilogy. 71/100 To recap: Batman Begins: I gave a 76/100. It remains my favorite comic book movie of all time. The Dark Knight: I gave a 68/100. This should have been the best film in the trilogy, and there were some elements that I liked better than TDKR, but the lack of an actual plot in favor of the series of mini-climaxes sinks it.
Dark Knight Rises Spoiler I’ll have to agree with those who were disappointed by the film. It wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t blown away. Bruce was already a broken man at the beginning of the movie due to the Joker incident, so suiting up after 8 years to be broken again and rise once more seemed unnecessary. Retiring from the cause and entrusting everything to Robin (who severely lacks the training Bruce went through) was also a strange departure from the obsessive Batman I am familiar with. As for Bane, he started off as such a strong villain and the Sean Connery voice was good, but I felt let down when he boiled down to being Talia’s muscle. Bane is supposed to be a physical beast with an intellect similar to Batman’s and I thought Nolan dropped the ball here by making him Talia’s work horse. Talia should have been the villain for the second movie. If she thinks Batman killed her father, and knows his identity, why wait over 8 years to strike? As far as I’m concerned, The Dark Knight wins this battle. Joker had a mind of his own and set out to prove that even people with strict moral codes could fall and abandon these in frustrating and desperate times. Bane, on the other hand, is carrying out the plan of his girlfriend.....which was devised by her dead father....the same guy who loathed and excommunicated him......huh? When the bomb went off I thought Nolan was giving the middle finger to anyone who wanted to try and make a forth movie. I’ll agree with Bread Mustache that Alfred’s scene at the grave afterwards was heartbreaking. 7/10
Dark Night Rises Spoiler The first two hours of the movie were fucking retarded. It was paced too fast. nothing really made sense. The action was subpar. You couldn't understand anything Bane had to say. Batman wasn't in it. etc. Some of the plot doesn't make sense. Where in the fuck was the prison? How in the fuck did batman get home from the prison while broke? How did he get back into Gotham? Why was Banes moth fucked up? How did he get so strong? Why dont people just shoot these fucks? Muscles don't stop bullets to the throat. I was thinking I was going to leave the the theater giving this a 4. The last 30-40 minutes were awesome. Once the plot actually developed this movie was fucking sweet. ANd I believe there will be a 4th movie. How could there not be? It set it straight up for it. I leave giving it a 6.
Dark Knight Rises Spoiler I was also put off by the Rocky 3 esque "lost the eye of the tiger, was defeated by a bigger bruiser of an opponent, does some training and beats him handily in the rematch" Bane plot resolution. The Miranda betrayal completely neutered Bane's awesomeness as an opponent and ruined an otherwise intellectually and physically impressive villain. Bah. On the other hand, I enjoyed the dancing around eggshells for the Robin subplot, the nods to the comics (Bane breaking Batman over his knee, the Adam West like piano tune to open the Batcave), and when Michael Caine sees Bruce in Florence at the end and nods at him knowingly, I felt like he was looking directly at ME the way he stared through the camera. Lastly, if I was a resident of Gotham, I would be out of there like Vladimir. Enough of this living in the ire of international terrorist networks bullshit. Did anyone else find it distracting that they used NYC as the proxy for Gotham this time around? I got used to them using Chicago. Plus I was completely distracted by them using Heinz Field and the Steelers colors for the football game. Completely pulled me out of the scene.
The Dark Knight Rises Yes, you can shoot plot holes in this all day, but I enjoyed this movie. All 2 hours and 44 minutes of it. This movie did what the second Tim Burton Batman movie did: reflect all the aspects of the Batman/Bruce Wayne psyche via the supporting characters. I'll add myself to the group that says it doesn't top TDK as a movie, but is a better (pure) Batman story than the second film, mostly because no other character was as compelling to watch as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Spoiler No seriously, a fucking spoiler. If you read the rest of this, it will ruin the movie. As an aside, watching Anne Hathaway throw her leg over that bike and arching her back into it was the sexiest thing I remember seeing, and I don't even like the bikes. Pure, lithe, powerful sex. God damn. Tom Hardy's voice was ludicrous, and the Talia twist at the end was pretty unnecessary, in my humble opinion, and it added a tremendous plot hole: she fucked the guy who murdered her father? Both deaths were horrible and the bomb plot went back to the Adam West days of Batman, but I hate that the damned thing went off and the final twist at the end was predictable. Still, the tension was perfectly managed. Since there will be another one, inevitably, because Warner Brothers has stockholders who like money, let's hope they try and make The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller's take on Batman. Spoiler Which, is kind of what this movie was: Batman returning from hiatus, to confront a new threat. I would hope the next go round is a 300/Watchmen/Sin City style production that stays much closer to the source material, but ...well, this was probably as close as I'll ever see and it was good enough.
Batman! Spoiler I'm actually a bit surprised tat the amount of tepidity on this board towards this movie - maybe it helped that I saw it at a fancy theater with recliners and had 2 whiskey cokes and a beer during, but my first thought coming out was "that was better than the Dark Knight and Bane was a better villain than the Joker." I actually liked that Batman spent half the movie stuck in the prison in Georgia or wherever it was - I really enjoyed seeing Gotham go to shit while he was all broken. And according to the people I saw it with, I was the only person in the whole theater with a huge shit-eating grin on my face when Bane delivered the backbreaker. I didn't think Nolan would actually include that particular nod to comic fans, and was happy that he did. Maybe it's because I went into this movie really expecting Bruce Wayne to get killed, but I wouldn't have walked out angry if he HAD been killed in that first Bane fight and Gordon-Levitt had picked up the slack. I guess a lot of peoples' complaints are about the lack of Batman for much of the film, but to my point of view it was a great movie with a cast full of stars who nailed it regardless - it was just a bonus that Batman showed up to kick ass. I was definitely disappointed when he was there in Florence at the end - I took "he fixed the autopilot six months ago" as meaning "he chose to die with the bomb" and was fine with that ending. I don't know that the suggestion was necessarily that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is gonna become Robin - Nolan stated explicitly that Robin would never be in his films - I think that line was in there more as a kind of easter egg or something. If anything I see him turning into Nightwing, but it doesn't matter because Nolan is done with the series and the next Batman (pretty sure it's casting already) won't have actors returning and is guaranteed to be an abortion compared to this masterful trilogy. Unless it's JGL as Nightwing, which would at least have potential I think. As far as complaints, I have no idea how he got back from that prison, and I don't care. He's the fucking Batman people, relax. I also thought the last-minute romance with Catwoman was a bit silly, but again - don't care. Certainly not silly enough to make me say "whoa that was so dumb it knocks a point off my rating!" And maybe it diminishes Bane's badassness A BIT that he was Talia's muscle the whole time, but who the fuck even saw the Talia thing coming? I had her pegged as a bit off from the start, but I guess it's just been too long since I read Batman comics to catch the "Ra's al Ghul did not have a son that was Bane but he does have a daughter who was a Bruce Wayne love interest and is also fucking crazy." I liked that twist. Fuck the haters. In conclusion - after first, alcohol-assisted viewing, I think I liked it better than The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger put on a better performance, but I liked Bane as a villain better. Cast was solid enough all-around to carry the film when Bruce was recuperating in the prison (interestingly, wikipedia tells me that the things that Ra's uses to resurrect are called Lazarus Pits - Nolan surely made Batman's "resurrection" place a pit on purpose, right?) Anne Hathaway was a better Catwoman than Halle Berry by a measure of at least 500 nerdrections. It was cool all around. Nobody can ever be a cool Robin so let's just pretend that was a joke. This Cracked article was written 9 months ago, in case anyone doesn't read that site religiously. Just sayin' Also, Christopher Nolan is done with Batman for good so don't worry about the "fourth" because it won't exist. But there is every reason to believe WB is already working on the reboot. They ARE trying to make Justice League movie, with Batman and the new Zack Snyder-directed Superman reboot (just saw a preview for that today)... But Bale and Nolan will not be involved.
Nolan has been very vocal about this being the end of his version. There will not be a Nightwing Version of Batman, though I can sure see that actor in that part. Spoiler Anne Hathaway was MUCH better as Catwoman than I could have ever imagined. Not Heath Ledger as Joker good, but as close as a normal person could come. I'm seriously pissed at myself for not seeing the Talia Al'Ghoul connection before it was revealed. For fuck sake, anyone that has a glancing acquaintance with Batman knows that Ras al'Ghoul has a daughter named Talia, who has a sexual relationship with Bruce. I'm Almost ashamed to admit, I didn't see it coming. Bane died like a bitch. He deserved better. He deserved a full on Batman fight, not a random blast from the Batcycle. I've heard many people speculating on whether Nolan will do a fourth one, I fucking wish we could see Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Nightwing, but I don't think it's going to happen God Damn, he'd be so good... 8.5/10 Still enjoy TDK more purely because of Ledger's performance as the Joker
Just watched Arena... I can only assume that Samuel L. Jackson has some kind of very serious crack habbit that he has to fund or something. I have no idea why he even agreed to read the script for this steaming pile of turds, let alone star in it. People who downloaded it deserve a refund. An actal train wreck that I wish I'd looked away from. 0.025/100
I'm on my phone so I'm not going to write a lot, but to awwwsnap: I was estatic he included the backbreaking scene as well. that whole sequence was just amazing. Put me in the boat with saying TDKR was better than TDK, and Bane being a better Villain than The Joker. Talia was an awesome surprise, as was the line "they asked if I saw an giant crocodiles"
More DKR: The Yammering: Spoiler What's weird is that when Batman Begins ended with an obvious opening for a sequel, and Christopher Nolan said he had no real plans for a follow up: The whole deal with the Joker card was really just a coda to drum up a feeling of excitement at the close of the film (Batman: Year One actually ends on a similar note). I have to say that I pretty much believe that (there was no guarantee of success at the time), and that the whole ending of Dark Knight Rises is supposed to be the same thing. After all that grim business, it's simply meant to pay off the audience for its patience, much like the continued endings of Shawshank Redemption. It paid off my hopes that Bruce wasn't dead, in a similar manner to Dark Knight Returns (I think it's absurd to say "Nolan should remake that next," since this film clearly takes it's cues from that comic, along with Knightfall and No Man's Land). Nolan said in a recent interview (one of the few now, I don't think he's given any since the massacre), that he feels relieved not knowing what he'll do next. I look forward to his next movie, though I do kinda hope he doesn't take a second stab at his Howard Hughs thing, no matter how intersting it could have been, he spent the goodness of it on the Batman franchise, especially this last one. The Stupid: Spoiler One thing I find amusing: One one of his talk show appearances, Morgan Freeman both confessed to not really remembering a "last moment" of working on the film, or at least saying he moved on long before the film came out. In the next breath he stated that back in 2004 Nolan told him he had all these stories planned out all along. I'm %100 that he was bullshitting, and, since I've known someone who had a failing memory but otherwise sharp mind, I'm having fun trying to decide if he couldn't rememeber, or just didnt't give a shit. The dude is getting pretty old, and I'm pretty sure the Imax quality footage shows just how thin his hair, how wrinkly his skin, and how dotted his face truly is; no faking it this time, he's near death... And the rating: Without the benefit of another viewing. I'd say about 7.5-8, or there abouts. The highest I'd award is <10. Spoiler The length of the film is no concern of mine. And from my point of view, the plot (defined to me as the series of events) is pretty well defined. But the individual scenes can get pretty loose and slippery. Each scene has it's place within the plot, be too many of the important scenes get a little lost in the epic scope of the film. I couldn't give less of a shit that 'Batman' wasn't in a whole lot of it, but a whole lot of it felt like too many tangents. While I don't think there was any great flaws to the plot, it was so grandiose that the pacing suffered for it. I fucking loved that Cillian Murphy was brought back in a bigger way than Dark Knight, but the kangaroo court scenes just bounced the whole thing into Lewis Carrol territory. And as much as I want to see Ben Mendelsohn succeed in the US (seriously, check out Animal Kingdom), his character just ground things down until he was disposed of. Bane was a great villian I thought, except for the fact that he is only ever a villian. I thought the Che Guevara aspect could have been exploited a lot more, but alas, that's not the direction they chose to take. As much as I refuse to read anything political into this film (OWS and the Arab Spring occured during production, not after), I thought they could have made him a little bit more "reasonable," that is to say, less of an obvious prick, because the trailers allude to a real idealogical conflict, but I guess they felt that they'd taken Batman's nuts off enough already, without having to go to that place... In terms of relating to the comics, this film really adopts their scope, it reminds me of the first time I read "A Death In The Family." I remember thinking "but Joker can't talk to the Ayatollah!" But it does take on the scope of No Man's Land, only adding a less concieted reason, and highlighitng Knightfall. It really absorbs the negative properties of Dark Knight Returns, without focussing on the exciting aspects until the very end (like I spoke about before). It's very much a remix, trying to produce something new. I think in a scattershot way... As for saying that Dark Knight is a better film; for me it is in kind of a Empire-Jedi way: That one is way tighter, but it doesn't wrap any shit up, and worse, leaves it in a bad place. This film does employ an ending to the trilogy that I found satisfying, which is pretty difficult...
Additional DKR thoughts To the Bane fans out there, I think he had potential to be a better villain than Joker, but a couple of things didn’t sit well with me. Spoiler In addition to having Talia do the thinking, Bane’s depiction was also weakened because he learned of Batman’s identity from the League instead of deducing it himself. The guy from TDK who discovered Batman’s identity and tried to blackmail Bruce is a loose end that could have been tied up if Bane located him, for example. It would have also been awesome if he infiltrated the bat cave. Bane was also excommunicated by Ra’s which pegs him as something inferior, when he should have been right up there with Batman as a prime contender to lead the League of Shadows. I would have preferred if Bane had a personal vendetta against Batman and wanted to defeat him to demonstrate his dominance, superiority, or worthiness to lead the League. Instead, that lust for Batman’s blood came from Talia. To Bane, Batman was just another opponent and that indifference keeps him out of Joker territory in my book. The Talia twist really wasn’t necessary, she could have been in the second movie using things like the boat hostages or Dent’s corruption as a means to show Bruce that the people of Gotham are unworthy of him and need to be cleansed. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the Joker, but if Nolan wanted a cohesive trilogy, there should have been ties to the League in the second movie. Part of the reason why I was disappointed with TDKR is because the ties to Batman Begins felt half hearted and tacked on. (Over 8 years before attempting to avenge your father?! Come on.) Again, I’m not saying this was a bad movie. I just had high hopes and saw potential for so much more.
Ice Age 4: My kids gave it 10/10. I give it 2/10. Pointless, mindless, thoughtless. Exactly what you expect out of anything with a "4" after it. There was NO point to this movie, other than to get parents to shell out cash for another Ice Age movie. Well played, Hollywood, well played.
The Dark Knight Rises I am shocked at how many people think this was better than TDK. Both me and the person I was with thought this was a huge step back and easily the weakest of the three Nolan batman films. Spoiler For starters I realize moping around in self pity is part of most superhero story lines, but it being such a central focus of the plot in this one really bogged the movie down. Alfred seemed to be on the verge of tears in almost every scene he was in, and he quickly went from being one of my favorite characters to me detesting him every time he showed up. Anne Hathaway did well with what she had, but there just wasn't anything about her character that I found interesting. They didn't flesh her out (or Bane really for that matter) at all. Also, I had trouble accepting Batman being so eager trust her right after she practically fed him to Bane. Yeah, I can suspend my disbelief, but there comes a point where decisions simply make no sense and justifications become painfully forced. Bane could have been an awesome villain, but they didn't quite pull it off. First, there's the problem of him losing some of his stature when he just becomes a henchman for Talia. More importantly, everything he said while holding the city hostage made virtually no sense. What was all his babbling about giving Gotham back to the people? He's trying to destroy the city, right? Early in the movie they talk about how this is a golden age for Gotham (or something to that effect) so how is that tagline supposed to have any appeal? And how does he really give Gotham back to the people by taking it hostage and releasing a bunch of prisoners? I know this made sense to some people, but it felt so sloppy to me. Not to mention, the idea that this goes on for five months and the government's only attempt at stopping it was sending in three special forces agents was, well, really stupid. I'll give it a five out of ten. Some good action, but mixed with poor plot development and cringe worthy dialogue. I suppose my main problem was with how they developed (or more accurately didn't develop) the new characters. This is the first Nolan movie I didn't enjoy. Looks like I'm the exception here though so I guess it just wasn't for me.
Jesus Christ, people. Look, you can have a different opinion about this movie than I have (I thought it was good), have different reasons for your opinion or use the same arguments to come to different conclusions but damn, you need to take a look at what you're critisising. Spoiler Bane is trying to do something else than what he said at the stadium? Why, that might be considered villainous. It can't be that he's obviously dishing out some bullshit story to give the people a minor shred of hope in a horrible situation, while still planning to bomb the hell out of them in the end (which he explicitly stated to Bruce while he was in the prison-pit). No sir, that would just be sloppy. Come on, that's the same as saying to Joker was inconsistent because he tried to blow up those boats anyway. Why don't the stormtroopers just aim their guns? Why does Tyler Durden look like Brad Pitt and not like Ed Norton? Why didn't Bruce Willis tried to enter ladies' locker rooms while he was dead and able? Why doesn't Andy Dufresne take a cleaner escape route? Why doesn't Frodo just use the ring and destroy his enemies? Why doesn't James Bond have AIDS yet? Why doesn't the old guy in UP just deal with his shit like a normal person? Why do you keep asking stupid questions? Spoiler A lot of those questions have been answered, by the way; How did Bane get so strong? Maybe because he had to fight some assholes every day in that shithole? Why was Bane's mouth fucked up? ...Are you even trying to pay attention? Nolan showed him getting mauled by a mob, followed by a shot of him bandaged up. Do you need to have everything spelled out for you? 'Where was the pit, how did Bruce get home'. Would it really matter to you to know where it was? If it was in Kazackstan instead of, I don't know, Luxemburg, would that answer have been satisfying to you? And what if they showed you exactly how Bruce found a perfectly logically and reasonable way to get home, would you appreciate that instead of thinking 'well, those 30 minutes were boring and could have been spend better'?
The pit was in China. I'm pretty sure they said that at some point, and the Great Wall was right there when Bruce escaped. It's no sweat off my back of you didn't enjoy the movie as much as I did, but it does seem like the guys in here who didn't like it were just nitpicking for things not to like.