The Dark Knight Rises

Thanks to omy.sg and Domino's Pizza, I not only got to catch The Dark Knight Rises for free but also got posters, collectible The Dark Knight Rises glass cups and free Domino pizzas (in the form of vouchers)!!! =D

I remember seeing Domino's in Korea and it was then endorsed by Kim Soo Hyun.

Apparently, now it's not =( but anyway, I didn't get to try Domino's in Korea either as we were only eating the pizza selling within campus and any other pizza that school events ordered (which wasn't Domino's for some reason). Now I'll get to try it in Singapore...soon haha then I'll have to right to comment about its taste. Although there is no direct comparison, if Domino's in Korea is close to the national standard of pizzas over there, Domino's Singapore has quite a lot of expectations to live up to. The healthy pizzas there are seriously HEALTHY. No joke. Like your fingers won't even get oily after eating and I would describe the crust as more chewy than dry. This in comparison to the "healthy" choices we have here, ha, no competition at all. And they have fillings like sweet potato that surprising goes pretty well with the toppings and I don't really feel sick of it even after eating several slices.



Wakao look at that dough falling...drools...but since Domino's didn't even start from Korea, let's put this aside haha. From perusing through the webbie of Domino's here, I think they set high expectations for themselves too, service wise at least, with 30 minute delivery and 15 minute takeaway guarantees. I remember always hearing on the other side of the phone that at least 45 minutes or sometimes an hour (peak hour) is needed for delivery when I placed orders, but I've not ordered pizza since I left for Korea so eh, not sure if the situation has turned for the better, but still kudos to Domino's for this kinda guarantee. Damn, I am getting hungry @.@

Ok done with food for now!!! Until I taste it for myself.

Collection of tix and goodie bags at GV Vivocity

Pictures of what was in the goodie bag

stickers, why no joseph gordon-levitt?! =(

the limited edition glass that Domino's Pizza was giving away with purchase of certain items

3 posters in total for one goodie bag. still no joseph gordon-levitt =(

On to the movie! =D so awesome~ was supposed to go watch with friends after I caught The Dark Knight on channel 5 and the new one came out in cinemas but then due to some schedule issues, the plan fell through. So great that I managed to get this chance to watch, although it only officially started screening around 9.20pm+ and ended at around 12 midnight, causing the audience to all rush out to catch the last buses of the day. The timing was a bit awkward...heng we got onto the last bus, if not would have to have taken a taxi and cost a bomb to get to my house O.o I found it weird that we were asked to register from 7.30pm onwards but we could only enter the theatre at around 9pm (although it was stated on the event invite that we could at 8.30pm). Oh wells, I think there must be some admin stuff going on. And I expected a mini pizza reception instead of receiving vouchers so it was O.o when they started distributing the food vouchers to us while waiting in the cinema.

There was a short speech by the marketing manager of Domino's where she mentioned that this is most successful movie collaboration (with The Dark Knight Rises) out of those that Domino's has done so far. They were giving away special limited edition glasses (which we were given for this movie event) with purchase of The Dark Knight Rises meal or The Rising Add-on Bonus, but the promotion just ended today (5 August). Hopefully they will do collabs for Catching Fire and Mockingjay *fangirls*

Then the movie finally started! YAYS *some spoilers*

I remember a while back hearing some random guy talk about the movie on the mrt. He commented that The Dark Knight was better and that the latest installment doesn't make sense. I agree with the first part, I disagree with the second. I liked how the second movie in this trilogy revolved around the theme of having a good and evil side to everyone and about trying to suppress that evil/bad side of yours. I especially liked the part where two boats of civilians and criminals were set up against each other by The Joker. It goes to show the darker side in humans where even though we have not erred before, we might not think twice to do something if it's to save our own asses. Selfish - that's what we truly are. It's just a matter of having more self-control to keep your nature in check, or the world is doomed. I totally loved how the movie managed to point this out very beautifully - making me start to support the Joker and want the good people to blow up the other ship first just to prove the point XD yes i nearly went as psycho as the Joker himself. For this movie, the true cowardly and selfish nature of humans are again shown. The rest of the nation leaves Gotham city to their own devices when threatened by a nuclear bomb going off should there be outside intervention.

I pity Tom Hardy who acts as Bane. It's gonna be hard for people to judge him for his acting skills as most of the time he has this oxygen mask covering his nose and mouth, and he has to rely on his eyes only to portray any emotion (erm not much emotion to be shown with this character either). Basically, it isn't a role that's gonna allow him to shine + he's wearing that uncomfortable mask and very uncomfortable long coat + he has Heath Ledger's Joker as his villain predecessor who was scary yet beautiful in his acting.

The major twist in this movie is quite awesome. I guessed that Miranda was nothing good but as the movie went on and she didn't do anything evil, I gave her benefit of the doubt. Totally didn't recognise the first sign of her being a villain - the truck marked by Gordon and his team as the one transporting the nuclear core was actually a decoy; Miranda helped measure the radioactivity or something for that particular truck and identified it as high readings of radioactivity and thus the correct truck. I just thought that Bane found out what they were doing and changed trucks =-=
While Bruce was stuck in the well-like prison that Ra's al Ghul, then later his wife and child, used to be held, it was constantly mentioned by the characters inside that the child of Ra's al Ghul was the only one who has managed to escape from there before. After a sighting of Ra's al Ghul's apparition, Bruce in his physically and mentally broken state deduced that Bane is that child and started bucking up and recovering so that he could go back to save his city. Flashbacks also showed a child that we are assumed was male with his/her very short hair that's close to bald. Turns out that child is a female and Miranda Tate at that.

The ending of the movie does a nice summing up - showing that carrying away the nuclear core and having it explode above water didn't kill Batman/Bruce (he managed to run a patch installing auto-pilot on The Bat), how Bruce is now living a new life (with Selina Kyle/Catwoman) as Alfred once mentioned he hoped he would have and John Blake revealing his registered legal name to be Robin and then making his way to the Batcave (though I'm still unsure how he got the coordinates, I think I blinked somewhere for too long or sth haha).

The action and CGI was good, storyline was okok. I liked the score!!! Builds up the tension very well. I liked Anne Hathaway's acting! I think it's also because her character is in a dilemma and thus have more emotions to perform. Robin/John Blake was a bit boring and I still don't like Commissioner Gordon's continuous lies/coverups. I vote for Gotham to know who Batman was, for this movie, I don't get the point in not revealing since he is thought to be dead anyway and most prob not coming back. The "anyone can be Batman" hope and crap thing that Bruce stood by doesn't make sense to me =-= Do the kids that saw The Bat blowing up together with the nuclear core believe Batman survived it?

I want a new trilogy or something!! With Robin officially inside too, as a sidekick or as a lead I don't care. I want Joseph Gordon-Levitt to reprise his role, that's it.