For quite some time now, The Dark Knight Rises has been scratching on everyone's cerebellums. With the financial and pop culture success of The Dark Knight (as well as Batman Begins) Its no wonder why the vast majority of life on this planet wants to see Nolan's final episode.
But now to some of you newbies you're probably asking, 'well...why the hate? The previous two movies were very enjoyable and forever engraved in the CBM hall of fame and the third one is shaping up to follow in their footsteps so why is there hate?'
Well, that can be answered pretty easily. If you think that this movie is getting wailed on negatively, then well...you might just wanna open your eyes passed the user comments on CBM.com. Almost all of the big time websites out there have TDKR listed in their top 3 most anticipated movies of 2012. And for good reason-they know Nolan can deliver. But one thing you'll see near the bottom of their top 10 lists or not on their lists at all (example TIME) is Marvel's highly anticipated epic, the Avengers.
Now, over the passed several months, I've witnessed the evolution of movie buzz between these two movies. Last summer, everyone's top choice for 2012 was none other than the Avengers! Not surprising really, since Captain and Thor dominated last year's CBM's. But then December came around, and the TDKR prologue came out, and The second trailer came out. And Both, stole the Avenger's fire. (and not to mention the Hobbit's trailer stole it too)
The hate on this movie is generated mostly by Marvel fans, who are absolutely hell bent on trying to find reasons to why this movie will fail. But so far all of the arguments I've seen from them (on this site) have been pointless. Many have tried that whole, 'Oh Nolan's batman isn't realistic! Just look at this pointless evidence I've found from TDK that shows minor mistakes that All movies tend to have!' Marvel die hards want something to be wrong with this movie. They want it to slip up so people can start talking about the Avengers once more. But they just can't find a good reason to sway others completely.
The whole thing about Bale's raspy voice really wasn't questioned or hated on during the early released weeks of TDK back in 08. It got all of those parodies weeks, hell, months after the movie came out and since then you have people complain about it. Truth is, Bale's voice is fine, its how a vigilante would want his voice-unrecognizable to the people around him. You can hear him just fine, its just the parodies that have changed some people's minds. And to me, that proves it when I see comments on this site that say, 'Oh well I watched TDK just yesterday and I realize that Bale's voice could've needed a little work.' Sorry bud, but you wouldn't have been sayin' that 2-3 years ago. The TDK parodies themselves have become a big part of pop culture. Even though it is pretty funny to see them make fun of Bale's voice, it can tend to be a bit repetitive (as well as inaccurate, but that's how parodies work).
I guess you could say it started in 08, Iron Man came out, and planted the flag-it was indeed a great and memorable motion picture and countless people were talking about how it'll be hard to beat it. But then, Nolan came out with TDK, and it took that flag that Iron Man planted, broke it in half, burned it, and planted an even bigger one. That summer, TDK stole Iron Man's spotlight as far as money, reviews, and remembrance. Look at it this way, people will remember 2008 (as far as movies go) for TDK, not Iron Man. And I guess...you could make an argument out of 2010. Now, in that summer, Iron Man 2 was released. And through the trailers and TV spots, it looked like this Iron Man sequel was going to upstage the original. Unfortunately it wasn't the case. While it made almost the same amount of cash, it didn't recieve the same kind of praise from audiences and critics. Pundits said that Iron Man 2 was misguided, boring (agreed) and just one big trailer to set you up for another Avengers movie. People were let down from Iron Man 2, but then Nolan came out with the unforgettable Inception. Now I know, Inception is not a CBM, but hear me out. Inception did the same thing what TDK did to Iron Man two years before-toppled a Marvel blockbuster. And that pissed off Marvel fans even more and this site has become a big place to bash Nolan. It just all comes back down to DC vs Marvel, which has been a raging war between comicbook nerds for decades.
While die-hard Marvel fans spring up the hate, there are some DC fans that you'll hear complaining too. And these are the extremely die-hard, narrow minded comic book nerds that want all CBM's to be exactly like the comic. With TDKR, these fanboys argue that Bane does not look like bane. True, I'll give them that. But here is why he doesn't look like bane...
Remember this guy?
Yeah that was pretty close to the comics-the large size, Venom, the macho mask. But that movie was complete shit,and whenever people think of bane, they think of Joel Schumacher's abomination. Nolan is simply reinventing the 'masked man'. He doesnt want the man with the macho mask because itll get people to remember the days where the batsuit had nipples. Hardy's bane is certainly a menacing figure. His presence on the screen is frightening and bone chilling and its looking good for this movie to know that it has a clear sense of a good villain. Something the general audience hasn't seen in the Avengers. And if you see or hear hate about Hardy's Bane, well once again you need to look passed CBM.com. (Big time websites are loving this new design) Not only Marvel fanboys are complaining, but DC fanboys too (even though few DC fanboys). They want that cheesy, bulky, macho man from the comics. Seriously...did you actually think you were going to get that in Nolan's Bat-trilogy? Look passed CBM.com newbies. You'll see A LOT of praise and anticipation on Hardy's Bane. Now, in high octane situations in the prologue, Bane was a little hard to understand. But then again, I've only watched the shitty boot-leg version so I haven't heard the clear crisp audio. And that's where a lot of hate comes from-most people who hate on Bane's voice saw the shitty quality of the prologue and made their arguments from there. Where as those who saw it in IMAX, have had little to no complaints. In the second trailer, Bane's voice is more basy and creepier which means one thing-they've tweaked it a bit, made it more clearer. It sounds better (not to mention more menacing) than the guy who voiced him in the animated series or bigfoot with a mask version in '97
And then we have the people who say, 'well why aren't they showing more Batman in the prologue or more Batman in the trailers?!' Here's why--the General Audience knows who Batman is. They don't really know who Bane is. Nolan is showing more Bane because he wants to get this non-mainstream Batman villain to be more familiar to the general public. And that, is a smart marketing move. And to counteract pundits of TDK-there was a lot of Batman in TDK. More than the Joker, but it was just Heath Ledger's outstanding performance that overshadowed the rest of the movie. And if you newcommers who want a good laugh, find and read comments from some of the users on this site that say, 'Heath Ledger's Joker was far from oscar worthy. Jack Nicholson's joker deserved the gold'. Yeah, I'd like to see you go up there and give the kind of performance Ledger did.
Now, you will see comments from people who say that Nolan's batman is as realistic as it gets. Some will refer to those as NOLANITES (an unoriginal name that's intended to insult them but really doesn't). That is not a true statement. Nolan's Batman is not as realistic as it gets...you kidding me? But they are the MOST REALISTIC AND MOST RELATABLE CBMs around. Batman is the most popular (if not tied with Superman) superhero in the world. Why? because he's very relatable. Its just a guy in a suit beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands.
So in conclusion for the new users on CBM.com, don't listen to the hate because it makes up a very small portion of the buzz from Nolan's batman trilogy. Its not all of the users, Its probably 45% of them though. I can't tell you if some of these people are just trolling or just really trying to prove that the TDKR will fail, but it shows you that Nolan has made his mark in Hollywood. Is he the greatest of all time? No, he's not, but he is the best directer currently shooting movies. He didn't intend on making Batman completely realistic. He wanted to throw in realistic and relateable values that the other Batmans didn't have. He revived and reinvented a superhero...and hate or not, Fans should be pleased.