Dark Knight Ascends, The

I usually don't like watching edits of movies I plan to edit in the future, but I made an exception for this one because I saw how much passion and effort went into it in the ITW thread.
I have to say I enjoyed this edit a hell of a lot more than I enjoyed the original. I haven't seen DKR in a long time, but I'm fairly confident every change made here was for the better.
I did feel that the pacing and even the dialogue in a few places was too fast for me, but that's an issue inherited from the theatrical cut.
All of the dialogue editing was exceptional. There was one line that stuck out to me. When Blake reveals that Gordon told him who batman was the word "Wayne" doesn't match very well with the rest of the sentence in terms of the tone of his voice, although the lip synching is excellent. It might have only stuck out to me because I was aware of that particular line edit going in, but it did strike me as a bit of an obvious edit.
Other than that line, I have no complaints, and I would recommend this to anyone who likes the Dark Knight Trilogy.

This is a great edit that serves to streamline a previously slightly slow movie. Additionally, by amending Bane and Talia's backstory this edit removes what I found to be a rather unnecessary complication in an already full movie. (Though that said, this does push Talia's part in the film down, sort of brushing by her as a character in the end.) An excellent edit, when I rewatch the trilogy, I'll be going to this one!

Some smart re-ordering yields a more straight-ahead story.

UPDATE: The editor has made several adjustments to the audio, and fixed a critical video issue, so I have raised my score on both categories.

I think there are some clever cuts here, but for me the narrative suffers, so I'll begin there.

NARRATIVE

Having Miranda just be Ra's Al Ghul's daughter works, but I think it makes her rather one-dimensional (or maybe 1.5?). Her character takes on significantly more depth as the child that leaves the pit, and she also elevates Bane's character through that revelation as well. As someone who just does a face-heel-turn in the third act, we lose an interesting layer. There's a really touching line near the end where she tells Bane, "good bye my dear friend" as Bane tears up. As her protector it's an amazing moment (in my opinion), but here it feels unearned.

The second narrative challenge I have comes at the very end with the restoration of the bat signal juxtaposed with Alfred seeing Bruce in Paris. This is a critical moment as it signals to Alfred (and us) that Bruce Wayne has hung up the cowl and retired as The Batman, but the restored bat signal that Gordon finds betrays that. It works in the original because the signal is now for Robin, but there's no Robin in this cut. I was left feeling like The Batman is back, but maybe just on vacation.

I was also a little challenged by the narrative switch at 40:25, from the stock exchange back to Bruce. There's a lot of tension in that scene, but we lose some of it by cutting away. It stops feeling like a "realtime" moment.


VISUAL EDITING

Nearly pristine except for an odd frame hitch at 1:36:17 (shot of Selina in prison).

At 28:05 there's a cut that might benefit from an interstitial shot as we zoom closer on Alfred and Bruce.

1:42:35 - I really love the new clip placement for this! It works great.

The black-out at 1:50:37 is really interesting, but I can't help but wonder if it would have worked better against the shot of Bruce leaping instead of the shot of the doctor.

1:59:07 - I think the joke removal works, but Bruce's eye roll betrays it slightly.


AUDIO EDITING

I noticed a few little things here and there.

29:34 - The word "rising" feels a bit too loud compared to the rest of Gordon's words.

1:34:25 - There's a "foom" sound on the cut. I think it might be carry-over from the van doors closing in the previous scene (original movie).

1:35:27 - The music cuts out and it makes the ambient noises sound a little strange.

1:35:45 - There's a hard cut on the audio here; a bit of a pop.

1:36:14 - Bane's line doesn't quite make sense: "...where a thousand men have languished held up to you...". In the original, Bane is talking about Dent being held up as the shining example (lots of words been "languished" and "held up"). I can't tell if you're trying to repurpose it to refer to all of the prisoners, but if so, the picture of Dent (and Bane ripping it) doesn't quite work in my opinion.

------

Overall, this is still a movie I really enjoy, and that's true of your version as well. I want to thank you for keeping the shot at 18:16. For me, this is my favourite part in the entire movie and I'm happy you kept it even if we don't hear the conversation between Blake and Mark. The timing and sound on that is perfect.

This was a very good edit. Made the movie very better. A lot of hard work was put into this masterpiece

I think this is an excellent edit of an otherwise 'okay' movie. I never loved the third Nolan Batman movie, and this edit goes a long way to fix most of the issues I had with it. The extended time until the bomb goes off helps give more time for Bruce to recover in the Pit is one. While I don't mind that Talia was the one to escape the Pit instead of Bane, I do like that it gives something back to highlight Bane's toughness, while Talia exacting revenge for her father's death and completing his works is enough for her. I really didn't like the "Robin" name drop at the end (that was just silly), BUT I did like that he inherits the Bat-Cave, so it's a shame that's gone. Also while I do like that Bruce survives in this edit, I don't think the scene in the tropics is needed, just keep in the autopilot dialogue and maybe cut out Alfred crying. But that's a matter of personal taste.

Overall it's a really great edit. The other edit I enjoy is Wakeupkeo's TDKR: The Consequences Edit, but I didn't like the added screen text for that one, and I am a sucker for a positive ending, and would rather have Bruce's death be ambiguous rather than final.