Review Detail

When I first watched this movie in the theater, I loved it. Each time after the initial view became worse and worse. I started to think "why did I ever like this movie?" The story is such a mess. I think that since it is so well acted and shot, you initially miss some of the major issues with it on first watch. It is clear Christopher Nolan was overthinking the entire story and tried to create this comic book/drama/social commentary and it just didn't work.

I hadn't watched the movie in years and came across this edit. Thank you to Donkey for making it a movie I can actually enjoy again and also making it a worthy ending to the perfect setup of Batman Begins and Dark Knight.

First thing - removing the "guilt" that Gordon feels over hiding the facts about Dent is essential. The Dent Act put thousands of criminals in jail - why would you feel any guilt over that? And then Blake calling him out on it just always bothered me. Sure the guy became Two Face, but he still did some good.

Making Bane the child in the Pit sold this for me. I am fine with Miranda being Ra's Alghul's daughter, but the fact that she was the child in the pit just never worked for me. Bane was scary and crazy and that was his prison - he always should've been the one who escaped.

Making the timeline longer until the bomb goes off also works and makes it more believable Bruce could recover and make it back to Gotham in time.

Not showing Bruce at the end is definitely how the original movie should've ended. Seeing Alfred's smile, but not seeing what he is looking at is so much more satisfying in my opinion. Plus it removes him being there with Selena which I always thought was stupid.

This is a great edit and technically very well done and thought out. I took a nitpicky point off of the audio quality because (and while I love the intent and outcome) I feel the way Blake says Gordon was "babbling about Batman being Wayne" sounds a little weird. I did rewind it a couple times to try and catch what he was actually saying. Visually it is SOOOOO creative because he uses the shot of Blake saying "Bane" and replaces it with "Wayne" but the way he says Wayne stands out as not being part of the original dialogue. I feel this is something AI can probably eventually fix to make perfect.

Thank you Donkey for making a finale of the Dark Knight Trilogy that is worthy to what came before. It was a fun watch and highly recommended!