The Week: Most Recent Movies:The Dark Knight Rises

Does The Dark Knight Rises have a political agenda?

The Week — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:50:00 -0400

Incendiary radio host Rush Limbaugh recently embarrassed himself by suggesting that The Dark Knight Rises — the final installment in director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy — is part of a liberal conspiracy to smear GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Limbaugh's proof? The name of the movie's villain, Bane, sounds identical to Romney's former private equity firm, Bain Capital. However, while Limbaugh was roundly mocked (the comic-book character Bane was created in the 1990s), he's not the only one seeing a political agenda in the movie, which is laden with themes of terrorism...

The Dark Knight Rises: An epic letdown?

The Week — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 10:20:00 -0400

In a few short days, Batman fans will finally be able to watch The Dark Knight Rises, the obsessively anticipated final installment of director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. The reviews of the film, which opens Friday, aren't even supposed to be published until Wednesday, but several movie critics have jumped the gun and released their takes on the nearly three-hour movie. Most of the notices are positive, though a few critics are underwhelmed. The AP's Christy Lemire, for example, gave it just two stars, in part because the movie feels like an "epic letdown" from Nolan's first two visionary...

The Dark Knight Rises: Could Batman really survive a leap off a skyscraper?

The Week — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 13:33:00 -0400

In Batman Begins, the first film in director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, which is set to conclude with The Dark Knight Rises (opening July 20), Bruce Wayne amasses an arsenal of weapons and gadgets that includes a nifty cape made of "memory cloth." The cape stiffens into a hang glider when Batman emits an electrical current from his glove, which comes in handy when he descends on his enemies from tall buildings. But could he really survive a leap from a skyscraper? Four students from Britain's University of Leicester used science to answer the question, publishing their results &mdash...

The Dark Knight Rises: The viral video roundup

The Week — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 12:20:00 -0400

If you just can't wait another week for The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan's epic conclusion to the Batman trilogy, to hit theaters, fear not — the internet provides. Fans and professionals alike have been creating video homages using bits of footage from the film to create mini works of art all their own. The mash-ups pair the trailer with everything from Disney classics to other films from Nolan's growing catalog, and they all impress in their own unique ways. Here, seven of the most creative Dark Knight-inspired viral videos:

1. The Dark Knight Rises & The...

Dissecting The Dark Knight Rises' musical score: 8 talking points

The Week — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:49:00 -0400

Eager fans who've been devouring every scrap of The Dark Knight Rises that they can get before the Christopher Nolan flick officially hits theaters July 20 have something else to feast on this week, with the film's entire musical score now available online for free. (Stream the 15-song soundtrack at Empire Online here.) Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer, who's been known to push the envelope as far as blockbuster soundtracks go, has become Nolan's go-to on all three Batman films as well as Inception. What are commentators distilling from the final Batman film's moody, sonically epic score...

The 13-minute Dark Knight Rises featurette: 5 talking points

The Week — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 14:58:00 -0400

With The Dark Knight Rises — Christopher Nolan's final installment in his Batman trilogy — hitting screens in less than two weeks (July 20), Warner Bros. is offering fans a buzzy new 13-minute behind-the-scenes featurette. In addition to previously unseen footage, the segment features interviews with the cast and crew, including Dark Knight veterans Christian Bale (Bruce Wayne/Batman), Michael Caine (Alfred), and Gary Oldman (Commissioner Gordon), as well as newcomers like Anne Hathaway (Selena Kyle/Catwoman), Tom Hardy (Bane), and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (police officer John Blake...

The Dark Knight Rises: Is a midnight screening ticket really worth $150?

The Week — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 10:55:00 -0400

Tickets for midnight screenings of Christopher Nolan's hoopla-generating Batman flick The Dark Knight Rises, which hits theaters July 20, went on sale last week, and unsurprisingly, the coveted passes sold out quickly at many locations. But late-to-the-game fans of the Caped Crusader aren't completely out of luck: A handful of opportunistic scalpers are hocking extra passes on websites like eBay and Craigslist, with the top price hovering around the $150 mark. (Tickets to the "Dark Knight Trilogy" marathon, which will screen all three of Nolan's Batman films successively, are even more expensive...

The Dark Knight Rises' awesomely complex viral marketing campaign

The Week — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:45:00 -0400

A new trailer for the surefire summer blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises was released Monday night — and Batman's superfans worked hard to get it. (Watch the video below.) As part of a buzz-driving marketing campaign for the final installment in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, Warner Brothers announced the trailer on the film's website, telling fans that to see it, they had to help the Gotham City Police Department locate Batman by tracking down hundreds of pieces of graffiti from around the world. For every piece of graffiti that a fan found and tagged on social media, Warner Brothers...

The Dark Knight Rises' PG-13 rating: 4 talking points

The Week — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:15:00 -0400

Every little detail about this summer's maniacally anticipated Batman sequel, The Dark Knight Rises, seems to inspire astounding levels of analysis. That was the case when the teaser poster was released, the film trailer premiered, the first six minutes of the film was screened, and now, when the film's PG-13 rating was announced. Although many movie junkies suspected that the final installment of Christopher Nolan's trilogy would be branded R, the MPAA decided that the film will be rated PG-13 for its "intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality, and...

The 'incredibly impressive' Dark Knight Rises trailer: 5 talking points

The Week — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:23:00 -0500

It's been an embarrassment of riches for fans eager for the summer 2012 release of The Dark Knight Rises. Earlier this month, a teaser poster for the film, the final installment in director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, was released. Then the film's first six minutes began screening before IMAX showings of Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol. Now, the film's official trailer has hit the web (watch it below), offering glimpses of Anne Hathaway's Catwoman in action, echoes of Occupy Wall Street in Gotham City, and hints of the massive destruction that new villain Bane (played by...

The first six minutes of Dark Knight Rises: 4 talking points

The Week — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:03:00 -0500

The Dark Knight Rises publicity machine has hit full throttle, and the film doesn't even reach theaters until July 2012. A newly released poster for the final installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy generated impressive buzz earlier this week. And now Warner Brothers has screened the first six minutes of The Dark Knight Rises for critics in New York, the same prologue that will play before IMAX showings of Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol beginning this Friday. Critics were forbidden to divulge specific plot points, but that hasn't stopped them from giddily teasing some of the...

Anne Hathaway's full Catwoman costume: 5 talking points

The Week — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:10:00 -0400

When the first official photo of Anne Hathaway in costume as Catwoman in Christopher Nolan's upcoming Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, was released in August, fans and critics were almost universally disappointed. The outfit — most of which was obscured by a giant motorcycle — hardly looked like Catwoman at all, with Hathaway merely wearing a slinky black leather body suit and goggles. When word of the lukewarm reception reached Hathaway, she told MTV News, "If you don't like the photo, you only see about a tenth of what that suit can do." Well, now the full costume has been...

The Dark Knight Rises: Anne Hathaway's 'slinky' Catwoman suit

The Week — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:35:00 -0400

The image: "Hello, kitty." Sneak peeks of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, the director's follow-up to the 2008 Batman film The Dark Knight, have been slowly leaking from the film's closely shrouded set. Following an ambiguous teaser poster and underwhelming trailer earlier this summer, the first photo of Anne Hathaway in action as Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, has been released. (See below.) While the picture is frustratingly dominated by what appears to be Batman's motorbike, it's possible to glimpse a portion of her "slinky" leather bodysuit, accessorized with a pair of high-tech goggles...

The 'underwhelming' Dark Knight Rises trailer

The Week — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:59:00 -0400

The video: The Dark Knight Rises may still be a year away, but fans and critics have been given yet another preview of Christopher Nolan's eagerly anticipated Batman sequel. A teaser for the movie debuted before the midnight screenings of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 last week, but for those who valued their sleep too much to brave the late-night shows, Warner Brothers officially released the clip online Tuesday. (Watch the video below.) Disappointingly, the trailer doesn't reveal much. It begins with recycled footage from 2008's The Dark Knight, intercut with a hospitalized, wheezing...

Analyzing the mysterious Dark Knight Rises poster: 6 takeaways

The Week — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:12:00 -0400

When is a poster not just a poster? When it's the fan-unhinging first promotional image for The Dark Knight Rises, the highly anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed The Dark Knight. The newly released poster shows the iconic bat symbol outlined by rubble falling from disintegrating skyscrapers — with no glimpse of Batman or his foils. (See the image at right and below.) The commentariat is already hard at work, obsessing over every square-inch of the poster for clues to the much-guarded follow up to Christopher Nolan's 2008 hit. What conclusions have they drawn? Here, six theories...

Anne Hathaway: Sexy enough to play Catwoman?

The Week — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:56:00 -0500

Director Christopher Nolan has announced that Anne Hathaway, the toothsome star of The Devil Wears Prada and Rachel Getting Married will play Selina Kyle — a.k.a Catwoman — in The Dark Knight Rises, the latest instalment in the Batman series. The actress will follow in the adroit, flirty footsteps of former Catwomen Halle Berry, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Eartha Kitt, but some commentators aren't convinced that she's sufficiently "predatory" to fill the iconic catsuit:

Hathaway is no femme fatale: Am I the only one who has trouble thinking of this "wide-eyed, sweet-faced girl" as a "fetishy...