So I got to watch The Dark Knight Rises a few times over the weekend. Like any Christopher Nolan movie, it’s very visually impressive but there’s just so much shit in the movie that befuddles the hell out of me watching it. There were a ton of points, even more than usual, that really give you a thump on the ear as you’re watching the movie. I’ve listed a few as I’ve been watching it that just really get to me.
Overall, The movie is definitely worth watching a few times because let’s face it, it’s a movie about a billionaire superhero and evil villains, so I give it some creative license. There’s tons of spoilers but if you’re going to read about the plotholes, you know what’s coming. TLDR; Great visual effects and definitely entertaining but more holes than swiss cheese.
Opening Airplane Scene
So the CIA is told to pick up one person along with a high-value scientist target. They pick up three masked men, and just roll with it? There’s no checking of the people to confirm that they have the target? It’s not like they’d be giving up their secret local by verifying their prisoners identity on a plane. They’re up in the sky on a plane, it’s not like the prisoners would be able to deduce where in the world they are by looking out a window into some clouds. Also, blowing the wings and back end off a plane and letting them fall to earth at least 50 miles from where the plan crashes would be a big red flag. I’m pretty sure most planes nowadays have a black box recorder that would prob show the plane having at least 10 catastrophic failures then hung up side down for minutes before the actual descent.
The body that they do sneak in and fill with some of the Russian scientists blood , After all the testing and forensics that the FAA does to that plane, wouldn’t fool anyone. A body with half a pint of blood in it wouldn’t give too much info on the identity of the departed since they would probably have to go off of dental impressions since the bodies and their fluids would be pretty toasted after the fire that would eventually be burning after the crash. This scene got me the most. There are 5 “soldiers” by my count on the plane with these 3 guys and they all have weapons, you would think they would have been trained enough to hit a large target from within 10 ft, but not only do they miss when they do shoot at him, but they were actually cowering in the corner for a good minute at first. One well placed shot would have killed Bane and ended the movie without anyone else getting hurt, or at least pop one in his knee as soon as you heard weird noises on the outside of the plane.
Guns on Batpod
Just a small thing that annoys me everytime I see it. I love the thought they put into it except for the front end. Now these wheels rotate off of the frame but everytime the batpod takes a corner, it skids as the wheels rotate around, but it also has to be bashing the shit out of the mounted guns. After 2 tight turn slides like that, they would be so mangled, one would shoot right into the air and the other would shoot into the pavement about a foot in front and to the left.
Cops
What can I say about the police in Gotham? They send everybody that they have into the sewers like that would have an effect. Instead of just putting 10 guys at each exit and smoking the sewers out with teargas, they decide to call everyone in the department, even the guys who had the weekend off and tell them to what? Go to the sewers and find Bane? Does Gotham not have national guard post? No respectable police department would send in everyone they have into a scenario like that. Then they have been down there for months living off of water and gruel and they all emerge well fed, clean shaven, clean clothed and full of enough energy to pull a stampede. Which again, you would think the police would have some basic training before graduating to the force. Maybe a full out rush of unarmed weakend men would prob be a bit disadvantageous against a bunch of crazed people with AKs. That scene would have ended in 30 seconds as 5 of the henchmen just held their triggers and sprayed them down in droves.
Special Ops / Delivery Guys
So it’s been months and the best plan after brainstorming was to send in 3 Seals undercover as delivery men? Why weren’t all the boxes they were carrying loaded up with weapons? Did they try and send anyone else besides them in or did they gamble that the captain and his 2 no-names were going to clean everything up?
Bat Weapons
He has a bionic leg, explosives, a flying Bat with miniguns, those sharp things on his forearms and untold other contraptions and he only uses his arm-claws to cut Bane’s mask once? He couldn’t have used those sharp Bat-ninja stars against Bane like at anytime? If one dropped a henchmen in seconds, 3 of those should have put Bane out for at least an hour. He could have jumped to the top of city hall, tossed a few of those into Bane’s neck and then, just use his little pulley hook to retrieve Bane from the rioting below and he still wouldn’t have “killed ” anyone. Win Win situation there.
Prison Scene
This seemed like it was just tacked on. You’d think if you were a super villain with no qualms about killing multiple people, after breaking “The Batman” you would actually finish him off instead of lugging him to wherever the hell this prison “well” is and then lowering him in there gently just so you can get a wise crack off. People have escaped from Alcatraz and all sorts of other prisons, but this “prison” with open doors and an easy exit plus all kinds of rope for climbing is too much? If that was a real prison, people would be in and out of there in a day. There wouldn’t be enough time to even brew up prison wine before you just threw a rope around that ledge and climbed out. And if this prison is such a terrible hell hole, why wasn’t there even one guard posted outside?
I’m sure that chanting would get old too after the first 100 people tried and failed. After he does finally make it up and out, where the hell is he? He has no food, money, ID or proper clothes and yet he makes it back to Gotham all on his own. Most people can’t make it home after work if their car breaks down, but apparently this prison was 2 miles away from downtown Gotham.
Healing
A major back injury like the one Batman gets requires a bit more than an old man suspending your upper body in a noose and punching your vertebrae back in place. So major spinal trauma and he’s back to doing push ups in 2 months. His knee, which we were shown has no cartilage just stops hurting after 6 weeks in the prison, but it took 8 years before and he still wasn’t healed after the Joker. Then he gets stabbed right in the gut, and within minutes he’s back up like nothing happened. Apparently, being super rich also makes your body heal like Wolverine.
Speech at City Hall
So how many times has some wack job been speaking in public and you stopped and listened to every word he said that reacted fanatically to it? Apparently, all it takes in Gotham to cause widespread panic and anarchy is to read a letter from the police commissioner. No one even thinks of the validity of it. Just some random masked terrorist saying shit on the steps of city hall and this entire town goes full throttle in believing it.
Speech at Field
The visual effects on this scene are amazing. The graphics, sound and layouts are truely awesome. But look at the seats in the stadium, the whole field blows up and people just sit there like that shit happens every other weekend. Try this, go out anywhere in public and throw a pack of lit firecrackers. That place will erupt into chaos and a stampede of people as everyone ducks, covers or runs. Then to sit there and listen as this crazed man goes thru his speech without anyone trying to sneak off.
Catwoman
She really seemed like a waste of film in this movie. There is so much more they could have one with her character but instead she was eye-candy for 3 or 4 scenes and that was about it. Her friend / Girlfriend also was underutilized. If you’re going to put her in as well, why not give her more of a backstory. She shows up once to give a thumbprint, there’s a scene with some sexual tension and then that’s it, she’s never heard from again.
Bane’s Death
This was a real let down. After all the fighting and back and forth between Bane and Batman, for him to be taken out with one shot from the batpod’s guns was way too quick to die. Even he goofy broad that was Raz’s daughter had a small dialogue before she died in a car accident. After 2 and a half hours of getting into the Bane character, he’s taken out in a second, then Batman gets up from a mortal wound and proceeds to run around like nothing happened. It kinda felt like they had spent all the time on the buildup and the ending was just a quick flash in the pan.
The Timer on the Core
The biggest plot point was the bomb. When he took it from the reactor, the doctor said it would blow up in months. So why does it have a timer with minutes and seconds. How did they know it was gonna to fully destabilize at that exact time. It’s kinda like having a bomb in the bomb…… inception style.
Ending
The ending was alright, but how would you examine a piece of metal that was just the epicenter of a nuclear warhead? There’s no way you would be able to pull any kinds of computer data after an EMP that big. There would be nothing but dust left after the bomb explodes initially and even then the EMP and the fall then the seawater flooding the wreackage would pretty much ruin any plug and play usb hookups that were on it. So in case they were checking one of the other Bat-copters, if there was more than one, why the hell didn’t Bane or the evil broad use it against Batman since they already had access to all his other toys?
I did like the little nod to the Paris dream at the end, as that was a nice closer. What got me with that wsa Alfred only said he went to a bistro near the lake on Fridays. Never said what time he went or what Fridays he would be there, which means that Batman, had to convince Catwoman that they have to have brunch there every Friday for who knows how long until he did finally catch Alfred.
The Actual Plot
So after you take down the stock market, throw the city into chaos and get rid of all the business people. What do you plan to accomplish? if the bomb wasnt going to go off, the best you did was ruin one town. The stock market collapse would have been detrimental for the first month, after that it would have been back to business as usual. No one made any money actually and nothing was really accomplished. There was no real lesson learned, or unheard ideaology / goal or voice that finally was spoken to the masses. Just oversized terrorist, let’s go crazy and let’s see what happens.
Maybe Gotham would work on an actual response team or maybe bringing in a faction of the national guard / army. By the end of the year, without Bane and his henchmen to run the place. it would have been nothing but a ghetto. Once someone took contorl of beinging in food and providing all the luxuries that people want, everything would have fallen back into place like before. The other option is … Boom. No city, no people, no nothing. which makes for the shittiest plan ever. The real problem with Gotham is that apprantly all the citizens are on suicide paths because every criminal just wants to instill fear in the town, or cause chaos. Where’s the one supervillian that actually has a worthwhile plan to maybe rob the city of all it’s money and then leave! Take the money and get the hell out of Gotham!