Dark Knight Rises - True 70mm IMAX Projection

[Marc Wielage]

Damn near a rave review in the Hollywood Reporter:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/rev...-batman-349354

The critic (Todd McCarthy) says:

The real world threats of terrorism, political anarchy and economic instability make deep incursions into the cinematic comic book domain in The Dark Knight Rises. Big-time Hollywood filmmaking at its most massively accomplished, this last installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy makes everything in the rival Marvel universe look thoroughly silly and childish. Entirely enveloping and at times unnerving in a relevant way one would never have imagined, as a cohesive whole this ranks as the best of Nolan's trio, even if it lacks -- how could it not? -- an element as unique as Heath Ledger's immortal turn in The Dark Knight. It's a blockbuster by any standard.

Despite all the advanced technology deployed to make The Dark Knight Rises everything it is, Nolan remains proudly and defiantly old school (as only the most successful directors can get away with being these days) when it comes to his filmmaking aesthetic, an approach indicated in a note at the end of the long final credits:

“This motion picture was shot and finished on film.”

[PatrickFaith]

I just finished watching the movie in CA, lot of security as I got out ... i guess that attack happened in another state at the same time i was in the theater. Movie flowed well I thought, all around very well done.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I just finished watching the movie in CA, lot of security as I got out ... i guess that attack happened in another state at the same time i was in the theater. Movie flowed well I thought, all around very well done.

That attack happened here... Colorado. Aurora, just south of Denver. 59 injured, 12 dead after some wacko walked into the midnight showing and shot it up.

[Sergio Perez]

Incredibly sad how these nut jobs can completely "destroy" the perception of an event that was put together by hundreds of dedicated professionals, artists, technicians,and, more significantly, affect forever the lives of the loved ones of those that where killed. Unfortunately the nut job criminal is getting what he wanted wich is, like that guy in Norway, media exposure and coverage...

[John Bellari]

It may be a tragic case of "Life imitating Art" in this case from latest reports
of this premeditated horrific tragedy caused by a medical student gone off the deep end
watching the last movie about the joker...

I couldn't quite get myself to see any of this Batman trilogy- a little too dark for my taste from reading the reviews
- possibly the same reason why I've never watched The Exorcist or Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

I did enjoy Inception by Nolan and would love to see the 70mm cinematography,
but the content is not my cup of tea and I'll likely not see this one for a long time if ever.

Prayers go out to everyone impacted...

[Jacek Zakowicz]

To me the dark knight (with Heath Ledger) was just boring. And dark. Literally- I struggled to see anything.
After the explosive opening scene it just got slower and slower. Superficial exploitation of the proverbial evil.
Shallow and boring after first 5 min.
I did not last through that movie and probably won't give this one a try at all.
My personal opinion...
Loved the Inception, one of the best I've seen...

[BRANDON JAMESON]

Just came out of a screening and having lived through 9/11 in NYC, the idea of art imitating life yet again,made me sick.

[PatrickFaith]

Well this movie was fairly up beat I thought, compared to the plots of the others.

From a 70mm perspective btw ... I'm not sure what happened. I was in the first row and i noticed 3 different types of grains, and the 3 different types occurred in lows, mid's and high luminescence differently between edits. My gut feel on the grain types are: 1 - 70mm grain run thru 2k DI and the grain was at a higher spatial frequency then 2k (i am guessing it ran through a 2k DI), 2 - special effects which didn't add hardly any grain, 3 - either 35mm grain or 70mm reframed grain (this grain looked nice). From a lens viewpoint I was getting a bit confused too - seemed to change "feels" between a anamorphic look and spherical. Also I normally expect the 35mm grain to be mainly in the mids ... but i noticed the grain in some scenes was sometimes mainly in other light ranges (darks and highlights). So atleast from a grain viewpoint, i'm not sure what the point of watching the movie in a 70mm theater (especially if it came from a 2k di print) would be. I really liked the movie, and I don't think anyone but front row people would notice most of this(also my technical eye isn't the greatest ... so i could be totally wrong).

Another thing which was interesting, was i thought some of the best actor performances was when their was nice grain in the mid's.

[Hrvoje Simic]

Haven't seen the movie yet, but this is the short review I stumbled upon today, translated.
Interesting to see perspectives and impressions differ.

Looks like the author used a rather unconventional approach, in the light of recent events.
Word formulation may differ from English one. Some feelings may be hurt, depending on thickness of the bubble.

Yet another stupifying fairy tale served by the Hollywood

New Batman is a thickheaded fairy tale, and deceased in Aurora bloody reality



All of us who attended yesterday’s press screening of the latest Batman were under the influence of news about the slaughter in Aurora. Silence in the cinema only accentuated this impression.

Mindless act of a madman
Of course, it would be immoral to exploit human deaths in american movie theatre for moralizing about the bad influence of violence filled mass entertainment for new generations. Neither the director Christopher Nolan, nor the lead role Christian Bale are guilty for the mindless act of an armed lunatic, just like the whole hollywood production machinery. I’ve been convincing myself to this notion in the beggining of the movie, but by the end I’ve trusted in their innocence less and less.

After exiting the theatre I’ve found out the name of the killer: James Holmes. Mental health, pshychological profile, motives…etc, all this will be the topic no.1 for the next few days. But, the fact remains that James Holmes obviously thought that it is needed, justified and cool to walk in the movie premiere with a “Kalashnikov”, shotgun, two guns, and a gas mask, throw in a smoke bomb and open fire on a theatre audience. In a movie in which the world, just like in reality, bodes some upcoming social cataclysm, main villan says for himself: “I’m the necessary evil”.

James Holmes came to execute justice that is astoundingly in accordance with the logic of all the villans from all Batman movies: citizens of Gotham, metafore-city for the whole civilization built upon corrupted and insatiable greed of the rich, are worthless cowards which diserve to be humiliated and destroyed. Yes, the rich are immoral and corrupt, but all of us, citizens turned into consuming zombies without the spirit or will, are their accomplices. Precisely this type of villan which walked into the movie theatre in Aurora. Batman, of course, did not show up.

The murderer mocked our hero more horribly and grotesquely than Joker and all the Batman’s opponents, mocking the hero whose main concern from the beginning until the end of the movie is to avoid killing someone by accident, hence using only his fists. Shooting from cannons of his latest flying toy doesn’t count as kiling people, just like in the case of american projectiles and aviation anywhere in the world.

Manipulated anarchy
Analizing any potential artistic value of any Batman movie is completely sensless. However, first half hour of this latest Nolan’s work almost deceives the viewer with some expectations, with a lot of impressive Michael Caine and Gary Oldman, and the script is, just like the directing, clear, concentrated, and strong in a classical way.

Sadly, this beginning is followed by two hours in which all the sense, if you are that dumb to search for one in these types of movies, goes to hell, all the way to the ending with twists from five-cent soap operas. But, in the entertainment category, as far as I’m concerned, the scene of fragile Ann Hathaway in a tight black leather costume on a powerful engine of Batman’s motorcycle…is worth millions of dollars.

But, on an idea level, if together with your cellphone you don’t turn off your brain, the movie is a plain piece of junk, which, for the entertainment purpose, toys with too serious issues, like the revolution of the poor against the rich, scaring the very perfidious viewer mass with scenes of manipulated anarchy, which in the end can still be solved only by blue calvary of New York’s, pardon, Gotham’s policemen. All this is just a stupid fairy tale, and James Holmes and his victims in Aurora, are sadly, very real.

[Keegan O'Brien]

Well this movie was fairly up beat I thought, compared to the plots of the others.

From a 70mm perspective btw ... I'm not sure what happened. I was in the first row and i noticed 3 different types of grains, and the 3 different types occurred in lows, mid's and high luminescence differently between edits. My gut feel on the grain types are: 1 - 70mm grain run thru 2k DI and the grain was at a higher spatial frequency then 2k (i am guessing it ran through a 2k DI), 2 - special effects which didn't add hardly any grain, 3 - either 35mm grain or 70mm reframed grain (this grain looked nice). From a lens viewpoint I was getting a bit confused too - seemed to change "feels" between a anamorphic look and spherical. Also I normally expect the 35mm grain to be mainly in the mids ... but i noticed the grain in some scenes was sometimes mainly in other light ranges (darks and highlights). So atleast from a grain viewpoint, i'm not sure what the point of watching the movie in a 70mm theater (especially if it came from a 2k di print) would be. I really liked the movie, and I don't think anyone but front row people would notice most of this(also my technical eye isn't the greatest ... so i could be totally wrong).

Another thing which was interesting, was i thought some of the best actor performances was when their was nice grain in the mid's.

Something must of been up with your print, or you were just sitting too close to the screen. Nolan and Wally don't use DI's on their films (this is a fairly well known fact), and for distribution all of their 35mm footage (all of which is anamorphic, no exceptions) they scan at 4K. I don't know exactly what they scan the IMAX footage at for distribution, but rumor is it's upwards of 12K. Nolan and Wally wouldn't touch a 2K file with a meter stick. The mere phrase "2K" repels them.