The Dark Knight Ascends

[DonkeyKonga]

TDA1.jpg

• ArtisDead
• May 19, 2023

The DonkeyKonga Masterpiece
Art by ArtisDead

Soooooo I'm looking for inspiration people. I noticed there is a lack of TDKR edits and I'm starting to realise why:

The movie isnt fun.

I'm looking for ideas to cut. Storylines to swap around to get a better narrative? Changes to character motivation?
Remove talia al ghul altogether and have the child be Bane himself?

Come on! Hit me! (with ideas)

What's done so far:

- Remove the HarveyDent storyline (Bane now just frees prisoners to create chaos and calls the prison itself a symbol of oppression. Which it kinda is in the usa let's be fair)
- Mess around with the timers at the end of the movie to suggest Batman has 9 minutes to get away with the bomb instead if 1. (this helps you not get annoyed by chit chat)
- Remove the doctor punching Bruce wayne in his broken back (not sure about this change tbh. Part of me loves how rediculous the OG scene is)
- Made Bane the child who escaped and not talia. Completely reworked her reveal
- Remove Robin at the end
- Moves bruce wayne escaping the Pit to earlier in the film to make it clear he could in fact make it to Gotham in time.
- Remove Gordon's letter being read by Bane.

Things I still want to do:
- See if I can get Lucius Fox freed without Bruce Wayne revealing himself. Considering Bane says 'impossible' when he sees the big burning bat symbol even though Miranda SAW BRUCE IN THE FLESH is just silly. (I might be wrong but I believe that scene happens first)

 

[addiesin]

Soooooo I'm looking for inspiration people. I noticed there is a lack of TDKR edits and I'm starting to realise why:

The movie isnt fun.

I'm looking for ideas to cut. Storylines to swap around to get a better narrative? Changes to character motivation?
Remove talia al ghul altogether and have the child be Bane himself?

Come on! Hit me! (with ideas)

Remove Talia for sure.

I can't believe what they did with these characters. Rhas died in the first film of the trilogy, then Talia appears in the third, along with the League of Shadows reappearing. She happens to be in the only film where Batman gets so injured a real person would never recover... And turns out there's no Lazarus Pit or "Rhas is alive" reveal? It's just Bane instead? There's a guy who figures out Batman's identity who takes over the cape and cowl and cave, but it's not while Batman's injured? Then just to make sure you understand this is a serious real world version of a superhero, there's an Adam West bomb at the end Batman has to carry away.

It has good ingredients but the dish was undercooked.


Anyway, I would also remove the idea that Bruce has been gone for 8 years, in universe he's been Batman for a total of a few weeks then quits, that seems crazy to me. Removing this gives you footage of his comeback training and the knee device and whatnot, that all can be repurposed to after he gets his back fixed and gets back to Gotham, to show that he wasn't healed magically, there's still a lot wrong with him even after fixing his spine.

If you wanted to, you could possibly use Pattinson in suit from The Batman as John Blake as the "Azazel" Batman while Bruce is gone. However there would be no climax or resolution to that so maybe not.

 

[DonkeyKonga]

Remove Talia for sure.

I can't believe what they did with these characters. Rhas died in the first film of the trilogy, then Talia appears in the third, along with the League of Shadows reappearing. She happens to be in the only film where Batman gets so injured a real person would never recover... And turns out there's no Lazarus Pit or "Rhas is alive" reveal? It's just Bane instead? There's a guy who figures out Batman's identity who takes over the cape and cowl and cave, but it's not while Batman's injured? Then just to make sure you understand this is a serious real world version of a superhero, there's an Adam West bomb at the end Batman has to carry away.

It has good ingredients but the dish was undercooked.


Anyway, I would also remove the idea that Bruce has been gone for 8 years, in universe he's been Batman for a total of a few weeks then quits, that seems crazy to me. Removing this gives you footage of his comeback training and the knee device and whatnot, that all can be repurposed to after he gets his back fixed and gets back to Gotham, to show that he wasn't healed magically, there's still a lot wrong with him even after fixing his spine.

If you wanted to, you could possibly use Pattinson in suit from The Batman as John Blake as the "Azazel" Batman while Bruce is gone. However there would be no climax or resolution to that so maybe not.

That recovery idea is very good. I will use that! Talia will be removed as far as possible at the risk of being called a sexist lol.

 

[addiesin]

That recovery idea is very good. I will use that! Talia will be removed as far as possible at the risk of being called a sexist lol.

Her pre reveal character Miranda Tate is fine and doesn't come along with the expectations Talia comes with (whether it's her suggesting Bruce use Lazarus goop or something to do with Damien) so you could keep some of the actress but not necessary. I don't think there's anything sexist about removing it for going nowhere. If you removed Catwoman instead, I'd be confused.

 

[DonkeyKonga]

Her pre reveal character Miranda Tate is fine and doesn't come along with the expectations Talia comes with (whether it's her suggesting Bruce use Lazarus goop or something to do with Damien) so you could keep some if the actress but not necessary. I don't think there's anything sexist about removing it for going nowhere. If you removed Catwoman instead, I'd be confused.

That's what I meant. Talia removed, but Tate kept. Any suggestion for the police force not going underground like idiots?

 

[Dwight Fry]

This is my least watched entry in the Dark Knight trilogy so I would have to rewatch for specific ideas, but I'll give a general piece of advice that's valid for most things Nolan: his cardinal sin as a filmmaker is telling instead of showing, so minimize the expository dialogue as much as you can. We don't need everything verbally explained, we can arrive to our own conclusions or just go without needing to know how exactly the materials of the Batsuit work and such.

 

[addiesin]

That's what I meant. Talia removed, but Tate kept. Any suggestion for the police force not going underground like idiots?

The first suggestion I have for that is if you can't remove it, reinforce it. Make it so they're forced to instead of deciding to. If I recall correctly, the cops blow up the bridges to keep the villains from leaving Gotham, this should be reversed so the villains do it to keep innocents and cops from escaping. Without the cops explaining that they're doing it, and knowing Bane uses explosives, the audience would assume the villains did it, no further explanation necessary.

The second idea is a bit more extreme. Remove any time passage or dialogue about time during that segment, and have the Gotham "no man's land" content simply take place over one day. I get that it's tied to Bruce healing but honestly I might also recommend removing the Pit prison entirely.

 

[DonkeyKonga]

So... Things I will try to cut:
The whole: I know you're batman, I CAN SEE IT IN YOUR EYES scene is rediculous. I don't know if it's needed, but I will try.

Things I don't think I can fix:
- Removing the Pit entirely. I hate the broken back magic punch, but there simply isn't footage of Batman recovering from massive backinjury.
- Cops running into gangsters armed with AK47's and they decide to not shoot these cops lol.
- Still thinking about Bane himself. I want him to be more of a terrorist causing mayhem, rather than him portraying himself as 'the good guy'. I also have to find a solution to 'one of the peoples has the detonator' which is also extremely stupid.

 

[DonkeyKonga]

I've started working on this.

Few things I have done so far:
Remove the conversation with the orphan about the work in the sewers.

-Remove Bane's backstory in the Pit. He is now just a guy who made it out.

-Removed the guy who sacrifices himself at the opening since you can see him later in the film lmfao.

-Removed Rahs al Guls child talk when bruce has a nightmare.

-Changed the dialogue with the Rookie cop. He now says 'Commisioner Gordon has been shot. He was rabbling about an underground army.. A masked man called Wayne.. then he talks about the orphanage and wearing a mask and ends with: He needs you. He needs the Batman.' And removed all his fawning over billionaire wayne. Also no: I knew who you were the moment I saw you nonsense

What I like about this change is that it suggests that Gordon is actually a great detective, but he decides to keep wayne's identity a secret and only accidentally reveals Batmans identity to the rookie cop after being shot and whatnot,

 

[DonkeyKonga]

More work done. Removed the lines about a gothamite being the trigger man, and instead one of the henchman being an anonymous triggerman. Basically making Bane a dictator. Also removing his whole harvey dent gordon lies thing he read out loud. Always seemed a bit far fetched that everyone would just believe this piece of paper to be Gordon's writing.
Changing Bane's lines is extremely easy because of his mouth lol.

 

[DonkeyKonga]

So... I've done quite a bit of work on this edit and started to work on the Final Fight/ending and I don't see a way to not have Talia in the edit at all. I will keep Bane as the one who climbed out of the Pit, but I'm thinking maybe making her simply his henchman/accomplice instead of the actual leader.
The problem is the fight/trigger. Since without Talia there is no triggerman, the ending has a problem.

But I'm open for suggestions!

 

[DonkeyKonga]

Some more work done: Removed all shots where you see the child's face and removed the child's jump because it's said Bane was attacked and mutilated in the pit. We cannot show the child's face for this reason.
Also blatantly stole an idea from another fanedit of this movie to cut to black when Bruce jumps to show the POV of the blind man.

 

[DonkeyKonga]

Fixed a pretty big plothole and moved Bruce's escape from the pit to before they talk about how long it takes for the nuke to go off. This means it's impossible to know how long Bruce exactly has to get to Gotham when it comes to the passage of time.

 

[DonkeyKonga]

I need your thoughts: Is skipping the back breaking like this a good idea? That way Bruce's recovery seems less magical, but it also means taking away an iconic comic-book moment.

 

[futon88]

I need your thoughts: Is skipping the back breaking like this a good idea? That way Bruce's recovery seems less magical, but it also means taking away an iconic comic-book moment.

I think it's cool, but also gives the impression of something way worse. Like he's totally dead now. Bane just broke his neck. On, and now he's peeling off his FACE-- AAAH. Oh. Just his mask.

 

[DonkeyKonga]

I think it's cool, but also gives the impression of something way worse. Like he's totally dead now. Bane just broke his neck. On, and now he's peeling off his FACE-- AAAH. Oh. Just his mask.

Yeah the sound effects may need a *slight* downtuning. Also not sure if it works to still leave batman in the pit in this case. Then again it would portray how far superior bane feels towards batman.

 

[futon88]

I've never had a problem with the back break. But then I grew up with Professional Wrestling, and those guys always spring back after catastrophic damage.

 

[DonkeyKonga]

I've never had a problem with the back break. But then I grew up with Professional Wrestling, and those guys always spring back after catastrophic damage.

Yeah it's not the back breaking that's the issue, it's the batman magic recovery in 5 months that gives me pause. I might just leave it as is. It's minor compared to other issues honestly and it's still a superhero movie.

 

[DonkeyKonga]

Kept the iconic Bane move.

So what I ended up doing is removing the protruding vertebrea comment the 'doctor' makes, and now he just hangs him from the rope and tells him to stay put because of his back issues and he just hopes for the best. The reason I did this is because punching it would 100% cause only more damage and leave poor old Bruce paralyzed from the waist down.

 

[That One Guy]

Yeah it's not the back breaking that's the issue, it's the batman magic recovery in 5 months that gives me pause. I might just leave it as is. It's minor compared to other issues honestly and it's still a superhero movie.

Agreed that it's the execution of the back-break more than the concept - we get told that time passes in-universe, but we don't really see that meaningfully. In the comics Azrael stepped in while Wayne was out of action and that provided a contrast to Batman and his methods, but that's probably too much to fit in a single film.

I do think that if you're removing the whole "retirement" angle at the start of the film and repurposing the recovery scenes from there, the beating and back-break should be less of a problem - partly because we don't have two "Wayne has to physical recover enough to resume the Batman mantle" sequences in a single film, and partly because the post-i jury recovery will feel more meaningful if more scenes dwell on it.

I haven't watched the film since I saw it at the cinema but from memory the back-break recovery was little more than a "time passed, he was still broken until one day he wasn't" type montage - it felt like even Nolan wasn't interested in this part of the story but just needed the plot point to be there.