The Dark Knight
Friday, July 25, 2008 at 08:16amSo last night we saw The Dark Knight. It was very good. It was. But it didn’t blow me away. I don’t know why. It felt a bit long to me…that’s a long time for so much darkness. Ledger’s Joker was remarkable and really added some bizarre notes of levity to an otherwise very heavy flick. At the risk of comparing apples and oranges, if I had to pick one superhero movie this summer, I’m picking Iron Man.
Thoughts? SPOILERS shall ABOUND in the comments.
freakgirl on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 8:33 am
La la la la la, spoilers coming up, la la la la la la la….
1) I liked seeing Scarecrow in the beginning (although we weren’t sure what he was up to). It was a nice callback to comics where superheroes fight supervillians over and over and over.
2) The scene of Heath Ledger in the nurse’s uniform (name: Matilda!) walking away from the hospital as it explodes was AWESOME.
3) The dog stuff was unnecessary.
4) I was surprised they killed off Two Face already.
Dave on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 8:37 am
…………………………………………
I don’t think they killed off Two Face.
1) The coin came up “heads” (non-scarred side)
2) Batman survived, and the Gangster (I can’t believe Eric Roberts didn’t ruin a movie for me) survived a similar fall
3) There was no casket at the memorial.
I’m thinking they quietly shipped him off to Arkham, and let everyone believe Harvey Dent died a hero. Until the next film.
freakgirl on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 8:48 am
La la la la la, spoilers coming up, la la la la la la la….
Heh, I thought something similar after I posted the comment. Duh. So then Batman will be able to come out of disgrace and save the city from Two Face.
chuck on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 9:05 am
I was blown away — one of the best movies of the year. A lot of other folks have said it was too long, but I didn’t think so. It did get old gripping the arm on my seat for 2 1/2 hours, but it was worth it!
Chips O'Toole on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 9:22 am
I think it did kinda feel like two movies, but you can’t disconnect them, because the whole “nature of man” thing that is revealed in two face is the central theme with the joker.
I loved Ledger’s performance, and loved how the Joker came from nothing (he wasn’t formerly Jack Napier or aything), just some severaly crazed guy who was enjoying causing problems.
And the use of daylight - when there was a total dread and fear of the outside, even in the daylight, made it so much more bleak; forget about going out at night, but the daylight will be dangerous, too.
And if you’re a fan of the short lived but wonderful Tick live action show, the major in Dark Knight was played by… Batmanuel!
sandra on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 9:48 am
I loved it, I really did, and that surprised me. I didn’t notice the length and thought the writing, acting and cinematography was fab. I really disliked the previous one, but appreciate it now because it got a lot of stuff out of the way (batman’s background info, training, his relationship with money and Rachel, etc) and let this one just get to the action. My love for Christian Bale goes back many many years and although I highly appreciate his acting skills there was one scene during the fundraiser after Joker crashes the party and Bruce is walking down the hall and breaks a gun over his knee and I turned to Jay and mouthed OMG cuz he looked so damn cool.
Anyhow, the only thing I didn’t like was the whole criminal boat vs. civilian boat thing. I loved the fact that the Joker had a different story each time as to how he got his scars (though all were about the need to smile) and yes, Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker was a lovely balance of lunacy and sadness.
heather on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 10:11 am
Heath Ledger was amazing and overall, I liked the film. I also felt it was a bit long and I kinda felt like maybe there was a bit too much going on at once for what it was. It just got a little convoluted for me. But I was also nursing a headache from drinking a bunch of sangria at the start of the film (I saw it at a theater that serves food & drinks) and we didn’t get to the theater 2 hours ahead of time so we were a bit close to the screen for my liking (despite getting there AN HOUR beforehand).
I’m glad they killed off the Rachel character though. I love Maggie G and I didn’t hate her in the role, but I just didn’t care for that character too much.
chuck on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 10:26 am
I do agree that it was confusing at times, but that’s Chrisotpher Nolan for you. Every movie he’s made has been somewhat challenging to follow for me. I think it took me three viewings of Memento before I truly got everything. I like that though - he’s the anti-Oliver Stone and I bet his flatware drawer is spoon-free.
freakgirl on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 10:26 am
By the way, two years ago today on this blog we were having this discussion:
http://freakgirl.com/blog/heat.....-role/1050
GeekBoy on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 10:52 am
I liked it … but didn’t love it. I go into more detail on my blog, but overall: I loved Heath’s performance and think Batman has never looked better, but thought the movie was unnecessarily long, and think that as written, the Rachel character is an absolute snore-fest that sucks energy out of the story.
Chuck, I loved Memento, and fully get why that movie had to be challenging — it was kind of the point. But I don’t really see the need for it here. I didn’t get to the end thinking the film was more profound for having been challenging. Maybe others did. I thought the overall message was fairly simple, but told in a convoluted way … then repeated over and over again. Certain scenes could have been cut entirely, and other scenes consolidated, and I would have enjoyed it more.
Jason on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 11:03 am
I found it a bit long, but can’t believe how much they managed to cram into one movie. They finally got the Joker right this time. He was so insane without the slightest bit of camp. Put Jack Nicholson in a pink fringed nurse uniform and it would have been funny ha-ha, not funny and psychotically creepy. I am bummed that we’ll never get to see this version of the Joker in a film version of The Killing Joke.
My big hope for the next sequel is that the way it ended left it open to jump ahead 20 years for The Dark Knight Returns. If they really want to do it right, they should bring Frank Miller in to adapt the screenplay. And as much as I enjoy Bale’s Batman, they’ll need somebody older and more grizzled. And we’d only ever have to see Robin in flashbacks.
And how about that Watchmen trailer? That’s a movie I’ve only wanted to see made for about 20 years. They better not fuck it up!
GeekBoy on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 11:24 am
Jason, you reminded me of something …
Did anybody else find it odd that we never saw the face of Commissioner Gordon’s daughter? We saw his son several times, but when the Joker had them hostage, the daughter had her face in her arms and never looked up once. Of course, the only reason I paid attention to this is because in the comics, his daughter Barbara becomes Batgirl and then later Oracle. So I was looking for some kind of setup. But instead here, Gordon’s wife is named Barbara and (according to IMDB) the daughter is named Hannah. And we very conspicuously never see her face.
Jason, the reason you made me think of this is because I wondered if there might be a long-term plan to do a “Future Batman” movie, in which an adult Batgirl played a role. So they didn’t want to give her a face for now.
Michael on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 12:33 pm
I loved this movie, and I’ll second my boy Chuck in feeling it’s one of the best of the year . Right after I saw it, I felt it was the best comic book movie I’d ever seen (though I’ll grant you that Ironman was more FUN). It was dark, as some are saying, but not unrelentingly so. There were plenty of funny moments, some of which I felt I was sharing with the hot piece of chunk at the end of my row. Of course, I’m a sucker for the theme of GOOD VS EVIL being a fallacy of binary thinking. Like Dexter said, “Am I good? Am I evil? I don’t know the answer to that. Does anybody?”
And was it really that convoluted?
Plus, I just love Nolan’s movies.
And Christian Bale has a great Batman mouth.
Also, I’m taken aback that I didn’t much think about “Heath Ledger” during this movie. That’s amazing to me.
GeekBoy on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Speaking of Batman’s mouth … am I the only one who thinks Christian Bale’s teeth look weird? Like he has caps on all his teeth or something, and he’s not used to them. I noticed it few times.
chuck on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 12:50 pm
I agree, Michael. It wasn’t super-convoluted to me - just slightly in parts. And I also concur about Ledger, I didn’t even think I was watching an actor.
pam on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I liked it but I wasn’t blown away by it. My husband really loved it though. I was surprised to see the whole “two-face” storyline pop up but I was disappointed at how it played out. I thought for sure they were just introducing the character for a next movie.
Ledger was great though. I actually forgot he was even acting and just saw The Joker. Bale’s Mat-man voice was a bit annoying. It was as if he was trying to speek without moving his jaw and I kept obsessing over watching his mouth.
Jason on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 2:21 pm
GB - I didn’t take note while watching that they never showed Gordon’s daughter’s face, though now that you bring it up, I do remember that all we saw of her was a little bit of red hair. And I did notice that the first time they showed his family she wasn’t even there. I wonder if they ever plan on a story involving Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, though if I had to guess, I would think that they won’t introduce her or Robin to this franchise.
Pam - I’m with you on the whole Two-Face thing. I thought it was a bit much to cram in and would be good sequel fodder, though we did never see a body so he very well may pop up again. His makeup was a lot better than Tommy Lee Jones! I also found the Batman growl to be very distracting.
GeekBoy on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 2:31 pm
I can’t speak for Robin, because I really don’t know how you can make the whole “sidekick” thing not ridiculous in the universe that Nolan has established. Especially since Bruce Wayne is relatively young in this incarnation. But if you fast-forward to the future — which considering the daughter’s age is the only way you can do it — I could see a viable Batgirl story told in this universe. Particularly if her father (and maybe brother?) ends up getting killed by a bad guy at some point down the line.
And I’m going to guess that turning Eckhart into Two-Face went a bit beyond makeup and into the CGI realm. Although you were probably just using a figure of speech there.
Michael on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Not to toot my own horn (because I already did that right after lunch), but did anyone think of me when Anthony Michael Hall popped up as television reporter, Mike Engle? No? Fine.
Maggie on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I didn’t even notice that! AMH was a tv reporter?
I loved it. Unfortunately, there were quite a few distractions when I saw the movie (jerks next to us at the drive-in kept turning their lights on and it rained a bit so we fussed with umbrellas, and our car rear speakers seem to have deteriorated a bit) so I really would like to see it again to be able to make serious comments.
As has already been mentioned, I was surprised by how quickly Two-Face’s story played out, but then again I didn’t notice his coin coming up uncharred, nor that there was no body for the funeral. I assumed him to be really dead. But I loved how he got his name, forcing Gordon to speak it in the hospital, coined (pardon the pun) back in his days as in IA.
Rachel Dawes…blah blah blah. Who cares. I know there wasn’t time to give her much of a character, but couldn’t they have given her some personality? I couldn’t have done without her in either movie.
As for Bale’s teeth…I think he did have some kind of caps on his teeth when he was Batman, but I didn’t notice them when he was being Bruce. I’m sure they’re just make-up. He’s got such identifiable and specific teeth, with those fangs, that I can’t imagine he’d ever change them permanently! At least I hope he wouldn’t. But I’d need to see the movie again to be sure.
Chips, we noticed Bat Manuel right away! Particularly since he’s been popping up everywhere ever since Lost.
GeekBoy on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 3:27 pm
After a quick search, I ran into this quote from Bale himself quite a few times: “I’m English. Our dentistry is not world famous. But I made sure I got moldings of my old teeth beforehand because I miss them.”
After a bit more digging, it turns out he had most or all of his teeth fully capped for “American Psycho,” which is probably why they look wrong for his mouth … to me at least. Particularly when the Batman mask covers most of his face.
Anyway, mystery solved.
freakgirl on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Michael, I’m sorry, I didn’t think of you when I saw AMH. I thought about Farmer Ted.
I didn’t notice the Mike Engle thing, I was so tickled to see AMH. How cool, though!!
Maggie on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 4:08 pm
I like that comment about moldings of his old teeth. So I guess I really don’t know what his old teeth actually look like! In any case, I have never found his teeth to be weird, like that time Ben Affleck (sorry, Deb) got himself some GIANT CHOPPERS and I fainted. Also with bizarre caps for a while was Matthew Perry.
Aw, Farmer Ted!
freakgirl on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 5:02 pm
omg, remember when Affleck got those choppers? They made him do it for Armageddon. I remember once my long-lost friend Bry referred to Ben’s old teeth as “baby teeth,” and now I can’t watch Chasing Amy without laughing at him.
Jason on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 5:16 pm
GB - you mean they can’t show missing skin around a burned out eye socket with just makeup? Yes, definitely a figure of speech there.
I agree that in this version of Gotham, the brainy daughter of the police commissioner would be a more plausible sidekick than an orphaned circus boy. And this Batman would be far more realistically reluctant to take on a sidekick than Kilmer or Clooney’s versions ever were.
eileen on Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 3:12 pm
FG, I’m in total agreement. I liked The Dark Night and thought it was really good, but I didn’t love it. As for Iron Man, I came out of the theater feeling blown away, and couldn’t wait to see it again.
bob on Sunday, July 27, 2008 at 5:36 am
I thought it was a bit on the longish side. I didn’t expect it to live up to the hype (it just opened here this weekend), but it held up fine and Heath was pretty much amazing.
It’s interesting if Christian got totally capped … as his teeth are still kind of crooked/crowded. Maybe he didn’t want to have ‘perfect’ teeth? I noticed them more when he was Batman as opposed to Bruce … like he had nothing to “act” with except his mouth so he over-compensated, hence we saw more of the Bat Choppers (as opposed to the Bat Copter). Was his voice his or computer-enhanced in post-production? I reckon the latter (and it really annoyed me).
I had the impression Two Face lived on, despite Harvey’s funeral.
But Heath … really brilliant, and totally living up to the hype.
freakgirl on Sunday, July 27, 2008 at 8:29 am
Heh, the “Bat Choppers.” I love it.
Maggie on Sunday, July 27, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I confess I searched out some photos and clips of Christian Bale over the years and most of the time, his caps keep somewhat true to his original teeth (in that he’s always got the fangs, and they’re not usually overly straight except for American Psycho). I watched a scene from Little Women and I can’t believe I’d forgotten what he looked like then! I kind of have a thing about teeth (since I’m getting a crown) and a thing about CB.