The Dark Knight Rises.... audio level problems

[Michael Pyon]

So I just got back from my 2nd viewing of the Dark Knight Rises, and this was just a regular showing as opposed to my first viewing which was "Extreme Digital Packaging" (I'm assuming it means a bigger screen of some sort but it wasn't IMAX). My first view was fine, the audio levels were fine. However during my second viewing, I noticed that the Score/Soundtrack was so much louder, that it completely drowned out the dialogue as well as the ambient audio. All my friends were bombarding me with questions, since they themselves couldn't hear what the characters were saying. I found it terribly irritating, no offense to Hans Zimmer who did an excellent job of scoring, but it totally ruined the theatrical experience.

This theater was in Northern Virginia and some of my friends on NYC noticed the same thing. I wanna see if anyone else noticed this as well and maybe something could be done about it.

[Tim Whitcomb]

Hmm well the imax sound version I saw(heard) was an 11,

[Sergio Perez]

Same problem in the Hong Kong IFC version I saw: te dialogues were inaudible in certain scenes, specially Bane and Batman . Also a very quick review of the film: it felt like many things were left in the cutting room. Too censored on the violence and it really made some key dramatic moments suffer with it. I think the film, even though it ran for 166 min, needed an extra 30 minutes to develop one of the key moments of the film, which was Bruce Wayne's Rise ( don't want to go beyond this or Im going into spoiler territory :) all in all, a good time at the movies. There where some plot holes/ bad plot developments in this, more than in The Dark Knight, but probably this is not the thread for this .

[Austin Glass]

I saw it in arguably the best theater in my region– The Pacific Science Center IMAX in Seattle (real IMAX, great sound) and didn't notice big problems with it, except for the following:

Bane was more difficult to understand than usual when the score gets loud. I only understood about 80% of his lines. Ironically, if I could see his lips move, I probably could have understood it all.

The scene with Bruce Wayne and Alfred in the hallway/staircase of Wayne Manor was BAD. I'm pretty sure none of it was ADR, and the levels/room ambiance were ALL over the place between cuts. I'd accept it from an indie feature, but not this.

[L. Langer]

I saw it in 70mm IMAX at one of the last 70mm IMAX theaters to be constructed. The sound wasn't great at all but I don't know if that's the theater equipment or the print itself. When I saw Attack Of The Clones in IMAX at DC, the theater was definitely better (despite being older) than the newer one I went to so I'm thinking that there's a big difference in quality between the IMAX theaters as far as what the setup is capable of because I certainly didn't see much in the way of speakers at the one I saw TDKR at. I think I may make the trek into DC to see it again at one of the Smithsonian IMAX theaters.

[Sulekh Suman]

Terrible audio here in LA. Saw it at Paicific Theaters last night. Will never step foot in that theater again but that's besides the point. Background score drowned the dialogues pretty badly.

[Tim Whitcomb]

well I was talking sound effects... they were off the hook. But I think bane was unintelligible many times. (creative choice to modify his voice so severely was certainly questionable)

I thought it was because I'm 48 and don't hear as well as I used too. :)

EDIT: I also felt my not being able to hear him had LITTLE impact on the story... it didn't matter really. lol

[Keegan O'Brien]

I saw the film (twice) in a Digital IMAX theater (Eugene, Oregon), and there were no audio problems. All of the dialogue was crisp and clear and the action was perfectly level in respect to the dialogue. I've heard of numerous "horror" stories about the audio levels. It seems a seriously flawed batch of discs went out.

[AndrewThomas]

This is a common issue in Nolan's films. I really enjoy his work, but it's most watchable if the theater's projectionist knows to pump up the center channel a notch or two.

[Zack Birlew]

Having the greatest sound mix in the world means nothing if the theatre isn't properly calibrated. Some theatres even seem to have a protocol for settings based on genre (ie. Horror movies = ramp up surround channels, Action movies = crank up bass, etc.) and there's the chance that they forget to switch settings between films. The theatre I saw the film in was a Regal and the sound mix was slightly heavy on the bass but everything else was balanced so I didn't have any problems except for one or two instances, one being the Gordon hospital scene which was much louder in the original trailer.