[Severian]

Originally Posted by Murmer99

I've already shared my thoughts on the movies thread, but definitely want to give credit once again to Tom Hardy for his surprisingly great performance. He's brilliant in nearly everything he's in, actually. His performance in Bronson is still very underrated I think, and though it isn't my kind of movie, he's impressive in "Warrior" too.

I don't remember The Dark Knight Returns that well, should I try to find a copy soon? Honestly, I've always felt reluctant to check anything out with Superman involved, as it's always disappointing to me. I'll still give it a try.. as well as the next film I guess, whenever that comes out.

And I think you and Noisefield probably enjoyed it more than I did. That's cool, I still thought the films had some flaws, but ultimately the final two in the trilogy were very fun to watch. The storytelling has never been better, that's one advantage I think Nolan's world has when comparing to others. The advantage Burton has, at least with his first attempt, is that you don't really have to trim any footage out at all.. and it feels just right. There are moments in Nolan's films that don't feel all that necessary. But the theme that involved Bruce thinking that Gotham no longer needed Batman anymore, and watching him return without acknowledging what he was going up against was a pretty nice breath of fresh air. He gets trapped in Bane's underground lair and they have their first face to face encounter, and there is no music in that scene at all. It's nothing but natural sounds. The intensity went up another level in this one, and I am interested to see where this will go next, if it even will spawn another film. The ending left something open but it isn't obvious what direction it will go in.

Also, I found the ending to be a bit difficult to understand. I guess I now realize that Bruce is still alive, but it did a little flashback to an earlier scene, when Alfred was imagining Bruce with a woman, leading a life without having to worry about Batman ever again. Then the guy turns around and it isn't really Bruce.. does that mean that final scene was just Alfred imagining Bruce still alive? and his reaction implied (to me, anyways) that he knew it all along. Maybe I'm looking into it too much?

Concering the ending, I had the same thought. It was not a flashback to another scene; rather, I believe, it was Alfred heading out fir his annual vacation once again. But was the vision of Bruce a hallucination? A fantasy? Probably not, because of you remember, they did include something at the end about Bruce having the plane altered under Lucius's name, allowing it to eject, or something (didn't quote catch that part) nut I believe Bruce survived, though it would not at all be unlike Nolan to include an ending of questionable "reality"