THE DARK KNIGHT RISES July 20, 2012

[Steve Lilley]

Well, according to that first trailer, they've been through an undetermined amount of time with total peace. So I guess on the one hand, it isn't like it's happening every day to the point where you go "How does ANYONE still live there?" But if we're being realistic, after the *second* siege of the city I lived in I'd probably move out to the suburbs somewhere, at least.

[LpF]

These trailers have made me a little disenthused for the movie. The whole "Gotham is totally under siege" thing seems just like the end of the last one. And the 1st one. At a certain point, it gets silly or at least hard to care about Gotham.

I think it's not just Gotham this time, actually.  The trailers haven't made that explicit, but I think they've been trying to convey the idea that Bane's actions have greater scope than just the one city--more like it's the epicenter.  I could be wrong on that, but some of the Nolan interviews I've read seem to point that way.

Was the entire city under seige in DK? I remember Joker's attacks being more...isolated and focused (on Batman).  The only major exception to that was the ferries (but even that was specifically to prove a point to Batman).

Also: this is comics (or comics-based movie-making, anyway). If you say you're tired of the city/country/world always being under seige, you are basically saying you're tired of superheroes.

[DerickA]

Joker induced panic. No sieges. And the first one had fear gas spread on an island.

[LpF]

Joker induced panic. No sieges. And the first one had fear gas spread on an island.

Not only an island, but the ghetto island.  I bet there were entire areas of Gotham that had no idea anything went on until they read the paper next morning.

[Rev. Danny]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2012/06/21/is-joseph-gordon-levitts-character-in-the-dark-knight-rises-secretly-robin/

I don't know if I necessarily buy that Levitt will become Nightwing, but I do find it hard to believe that Nolan would cast him as a random Gotham cop.

[Steve Lilley]

If the part as a random cop is big enough/good enough, sure he'd cast him. Nolan has a history of trying to cast every role with someone way recognizable. Remember Rutger Hauer as "Corporate Douchebag #1"?

Incidentally, Robert Meyer Burnett says that the movie screened for industry people the other night, and everyone who he knows who has seen it says its aces.

[DerickA]

How come the internet doesn't think he's the Jean Paul Valley proxy?

[Rich]

Arclight is screening The Dark Knight July 19th.

[Rev. Danny]

If the part as a random cop is big enough/good enough, sure he'd cast him. Nolan has a history of trying to cast every role with someone way recognizable. Remember Rutger Hauer as "Corporate Douchebag #1"?

Incidentally, Robert Meyer Burnett says that the movie screened for industry people the other night, and everyone who he knows who has seen it says its aces.

But Rutger Hauer isn't a "Leading Man" name-actor anymore.

Like I said, I'd be surprised if Nolan and Bale would consider this kind of loophole, but I'd also be surprised if Levitt's just a beat cop. Even if he has a significant role as an ally to Batman, similar to Gordon, that would still seem too small, considering he's the lead in two more action movies coming out this year, and Robert Todd Lincoln in Spielberg's biopic.

[Dobbin]

Also: this is comics (or comics-based movie-making, anyway). If you say you're tired of the city/country/world always being under seige, you are basically saying you're tired of superheroes.

Not necessarily. There are more personal stories in the world. Like, I love all the LORD OF THE RINGS movies, but TWO TOWERS and RETURN OF THE KING lose me a little because everything becomes giant pitched battles of massive armies. There's nothing so perfect and wonderful to me as the small group of adventurers, locked in  room and preparing for a battle where they are outnumbered. That one idea in literature, of the party travelling through Moria, is what every Dungeons and Dragons game ever run has been trying to recapture. It is epic, but personal.

When it becomes about armies upon armies, or in the case of the Batman stuff, cities and beyond in turmoil, I detach emotionally.

[LpF]

There are plenty of people on the internet who think that he's Jean Paul Valley, Derick.  Personally, at this point, considering the histories of both JPV and Grayson, I think he could serve the same purpose and be either.  But since he's also a cop it nudges him towards being a Grayson proxy rather than Valley.

Dobbin, I always felt the personal in the Nolan Bat-films.  It's always very much about Bruce, every time.  Sure, it's set against plots with ever-widening scope, but it's always centered on the character.  That's one of the things I like so much about Nolan's work compared to Burton's: to me Batman's mostly kind of a sparring dummy for the eccentric, colorful villains in 89 and Returns, but in Begins and DK he's going through things as a character.

[Steve Lilley]

Even if he has a significant role as an ally to Batman, similar to Gordon, that would still seem too small, considering he's the lead in two more action movies coming out this year, and Robert Todd Lincoln in Spielberg's biopic.

I think that has more to do with accidental timing than anything, though. Gordon-Levitt is just kind of suddenly becoming an action star right now. If anything, his role (if it's just a normal one) is probably about as big as INCEPTION, I would guess.

THE ONLY reason that I just want him to be a regular cop is so that the Internet can be wrong. Other than that I don't care.

[Rev. Danny]

So a couple nights ago I sort-of remembered the first trailer for DKR with Gordon in the hospital bed saying that Batman needed to come back, and wondered if maybe he was talking to JGL, not Bruce Wayne.

But I just now watched it, and the dialog doesn't really fit that theory ("We were in this together, then you left, now this evil has come up")... but, it never actually shows who Gordon is talking to. I dunno, just thought it was interesting.

[Neri]

So a couple nights ago I sort-of remembered the first trailer for DKR with Gordon in the hospital bed saying that Batman needed to come back, and wondered if maybe he was talking to JGL, not Bruce Wayne.

But I just now watched it, and the dialog doesn't really fit that theory ("We were in this together, then you left, now this evil has come up")... but, it never actually shows who Gordon is talking to. I dunno, just thought it was interesting.

I think he was talking to Alfred.  He meant "You were Bruce Wayne's butler, then you weren't, now I guess you are again and bridges are blowing up and bad stuff is happening."

I admit, theories aren't my strong suit.   

[Donnacha]

That first teaser with Gordon in the bed seemed so long ago now, I'd forgotten all about it.