The Dark Knight Rises

[ScottotD]

Just got back from a midnight screening, not sure if I love it as much as Dark Knight but I liked it a lot.

[TheUnabeefer]

I got bored again....

[Russell]

The reviews have been great but slightly more mixed than on The Dark Knight, so I am getting worried that I am building my expectations too high.

[Tripe]

Look, more likely than not, there will be something in the film that doesn't work for you but overall you'll enjoy it, it'll meet what your expectations were.

[D.B. Barnes]

Just got back from a midnight screening, not sure if I love it as much as Dark Knight but I liked it a lot.

Is it true that it turns out his parents were dead the whole time?

[Russell]

Just got back from a midnight screening, not sure if I love it as much as Dark Knight but I liked it a lot.

Is it true that it turns out his parents were dead the whole time?

Uhhh... Spoiler alert?

[D.B. Barnes]

Rush Limbaugh's Bane vs. Bain Conspiracy: Host Says 'Dark Knight Rises' Villain Is Attack on Romney

Rush Limbaugh sees left-wing conspiracy everywhere -- even Gotham City.

Speaking on his syndicated radio show Tuesday, the right-wing host brought up the Batman sequel The Dark Knight Rises (or as he called it, The Dark Knight Lights Up), in particular focusing on its main villain, the Tom Hardy-portrayed hulking madman Bane. With Mitt Romney's time at the investment fund Bain Capital (and the questionable time at which he retired from it) filling non-entertainment news headlines, Limbaugh tied the two together, casting some tough accusations at director Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros.

"Do you think it is accidental that the name of the really vicious, fire-breathing, four-eyed, whatever-it-is villain in this movie is named Bane?" Limbaugh asked his listeners.

Limbaugh did note that the film, the sequel to the 2008 blockbuster The Dark Knight, has been in the works for a long time, with a summer 2012 release date long part of the plan.

"So this evil villain in the new Batman movie is named Bane. And there's discussion out there as to whether or not this was purposeful and whether or not it will influence voters. It's going to have a lot of people," he continued. "The audience is going to be huge. A lot of people are going to see the movie. And it's a lot of brain-dead people -- entertainment, the pop culture crowd -- and they're going to hear Bane in the movie and they're going to associate Bain.

"And the thought is that when they're going to start paying attention to the campaign later in the year," Limbaugh asserted, "and Obama and the Democrats keep talking about Bain, not Bain Capital but Romney and Bain, that these people will start thinking back to the Batman movies, 'Oh yeah, I know who that is!' "

He then read from a Washington Times blog post that made the connection between Romney and Batman, as well.

Presumably, Limbaugh doesn't know the history of Batman and his enemies; Bane was not invented for this film, as he first appeared in 1993 in a storyline called Knightfall. That was a year before Romney made his first bid for elected office, his unsuccessful 1994 run against Ted Kennedy for the U.S. Senate.

There is some populist element in the film, as there is a take on wealth inequality in the story. Presumably, though, there is no politician in the film who founded an investment fund and later came under fire for contradicting his SEC forms.

Hydrocodone is a hell of a drug.

[Tripe]

Chuck Dixon is one hell of a prophet, creating an allegorical political attack character a year or more before Romney began his lethargic and faltering ascent; he must have a sort of Dead Zone thing going on....

[D.B. Barnes]

Grab the fuckin' reins, people.


Ticket Re-Sellers, Scalpers Join 'The Dark Knight Rises' Frenzy



Ticket brokers and scalpers, who normally tend to focus on sports events and concerts, are looking to cash in on the frenzy around Warner Bros.' The Dark Knight Rises.



Imax tickets for the first screenings of the film have been re-sold on such ticket trading web sites as Craigslist and Ebay's StubHub for as much as $100 each, the Wall Street Journal reported.



"Movies like The Dark Knight Rises come along once every few years," a ticket broker called Steve told the Journal. 

He said he works for a company that sells tickets, but declined to share his last name.

He said he has sold about 150 of the 200 tickets he bought and offered for $100. Many of the tickets went for the asking price, but the average sales price was $65, he told the paper. 

The 2008 second Batman movie in the Dark Knight trilogy is still the highest-opening 2D movie in North America, with a take of $158.4 million.



Rotten Tomatoes Kills Dark Knight Rises Comments Because the Fanboys Couldn't Behave

Here is why we cannot have nice things today: Rotten Tomatoes had to turn off user comments — for the first time in its history — because Dark Knight Rises fans went nuts against any critic who'd written a negative review. "The job of policing the comments became more than my staff could handle for that film," explained editor-in-chief Matt Atchity. Also, the fanboys broke rule No. 1 of Internet commenting, which is that you don't start with the personal attacks until after you've seen the movie. Just courtesy.

[D.B. Barnes]

Chuck Dixon is one hell of a prophet, creating an allegorical political attack character a year or more before Romney began his lethargic and faltering ascent; he must have a sort of Dead Zone thing going on....

Not only that, but...

Bane Creator Chuck Dixon: Limbaugh's Batman Conspiracy Theory 'Ridiculous' — I'm a Staunch Conservative

Making an unplanned phone call into the nationally syndicated radio program Schnitt Show yesterday, comic book writer Chuck Dixon, co-creator of the character Bane, refuted claims made by Rush Limbaugh that the homophonic similarities between the Batman villain and Mitt Romney's financial services company Bain suggest a liberal conspiracy to smear the presidential candidate.

"Graham and I are both staunch conservatives, so from our angle there is no liberal agenda," Dixon said, referring to his DC partner Graham Nolan.

"The idea that there's some kind of liberal agenda behind the use of Bane in the new movie is silly," Dixon told ComicBook.com in the aftermath of the Limbaugh segment. "I refuted this within hours of the article in the Washington Examiner suggesting that Bane would be tied to Bain Capital and Mitt Romney appearing. Bane was created by me and Graham Nolan and we are lifelong conservatives and as far from left-wing mouthpieces as you are likely to find in comics."

[Tripe]

And see Limbaugh would be all over some lawsuit demanding that the word "Manager" be banned due to being sexist....

They didn't even have to look up the history of the character, the definition of the word "Bane" should have been enough. But that there would be book learnin'.

[Russell]

Sure I can understand how The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises may arguably be an allegory for the war on terror, but can anybody rightly latch onto specific details out of a film and assign them to real people?

[Space version 2.0]

I got bored again....

I prefer The Dark Knight Ranger. You might remember their hit song, Sister Christian Bale.

[D.B. Barnes]

[MrTorso]

Just got done with Batman Begins at the marathon!  I haven't watched this in a long time..  Got my iPod all cued up for The Dark Knight coming up next!