Post reactions, highlights, drawbacks, best/worst moments, or whatever else you feel needs saying.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Reactions to The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)
Post reactions, highlights, drawbacks, best/worst moments, or whatever else you feel needs saying.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Special makeup effects and CGI combined to make Two-Face. It could've been better, but the attempt was exciting to imagine the possibilities.
Well I think we can all safely say that Nolan made a fantastic film and practically everything is done so well with so much care and craft behind it.
The effects were practical without being overbearing and bombastic. The final fight was a bit too erratic compared to the rst of the film, but certainly not enough to spoil it for me.
The acting was beyond top-notch for a film like this. When Bale is among the worst performances (I he still is excellent), you have to realize that this is a fantastic ensemble Nolan has accumulated.
This was an extremely ambitious script that Nolan juggles very well if not perfectly, but in the summer, you don't expect films to handle issues that he tackles with a subtle approach.
I loved this film and think it is definitely among the best o the year.
That said, its not perfect.
My feeling was exactly like Adam from Filmspotting. They should have ended it sooner.
**Spoiler Stuff Ahead**
It should have ended with the Joker escaping jail, Rachel dies, Harvey is scarred as Two Face, and Batman loses. It would have been a fantastic perfect film in the vain of Empire Strikes Back. Evil prevails, and only makes the sequel that much more anticipated. It would have been a near perfect film than I think, but I'm far from disappointed in this one.
Naturally Heaths death would have made that ending a terrible cliffhanger that would have been really hard to overcome. Already the Joker is still alive and he had that great quote saying that he and Batman are destined to tangle with one another over again, so it does leave the Joker's story unfinished in that respect, but not so much that Heath's death would hamper what's too follow too much.
Also Harvey's transformation is just too fast. If it ended where it should, then his transformation would have been given greater detail and necessary time to see that process and make it that much more tragic. Here he has a talk with the Joker and he suddenly embraces the dark side.
**Spoilers End**
Still this was a marvelous film and a even better experience in IMAX. It is films like this that make me realize why I love going to the theater so much. This was a movie event that you just can't have a home. Suck on that American Idol.
Christopher Nolan is making the most entertaining films in Hollywood. He takes risks, finds interesting projects, challenges his audience and in The Dark Knight he re-instills some of Batman Returns’ darker soul to the series.
There are morally questionable decisions, explications on right and wrong, the battle over a man’s soul and flirtations with genres outside of the “comic book” mold (there’s a reason this film drew more comparisons to Heat and The Untouchables than it did to Spider-Man or Superman Returns). It also has some of the best writing of the year. Nolan isn’t simply satisfied making a comic book movie here; he implements a real world atmosphere to the proceedings. He keeps the film grounded, and by doing so the Joker’s actions only seem more amplified, villainous and heinous.
And - as has been touched upon by absolutely everyone who’s written before me - every scene with Ledger’s Joker is astonishing. From the opening scene with his magic trick to some of his instantly quotable lines, such as (but not limited to), “Why so serious?,” “Hello Beautiful!,” “He missed!,” “I love this job!,” “Do you want to know how I got my scars?,” “And… here… we… go!,” and “I kill the bus driver.” It’s a complete revelation, dwarfing the performance of Jack Nicholson, and showing us just how cartoonish and buffoonish Nicholson’s Joker appears in comparison.
How Ledger delivers that spiel about being ‘a dog simply running after a car’ alone deserves to garner him an Oscar nomination. The only fault with the performance was that we’ll never get to see him complete it, as the Joker’s storyline is quite literally left dangling before us. Another huge wave of selfish loss swept over me after watching The Dark Knight as I begun to dread the release of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, not wanting it to be the last performance we’ll ever get to witness from this incredibly gifted actor who was truly coming into his own, standing amongst the best actors of his generation.
But enough has been written on that. Getting back to the film as a whole, the experience is endlessly propulsive. Always moving forward. Always at top speed. The two and a half hours fly by, the quickest running time of a movie I’ve seen all year. I disagree completely with everyone who feels the film should have been shorter. I would have instead opted for a longer one. I might be able to get behind splitting the film into two stories, but if there really is a 3 hour cut of the film, as originally rumored, I need to see it.
That way more time could be given to the Harvey Dent transformation (which I agree, felt rushed) and the “conclusions” to the villains’ storylines that seemed strangely incomplete.
Still, I love how Batman’s story ends. The existential crisis Batman faces throughout. How Nolan teases the entrance of Batman at the beginning. The ferry boat “social experiment.” The Batman imitators. And the overwhelming theme to The Dark Knight, which is really just a test, very appropriate to today’s environment both in the war on terror and the extent to which technology infringes on our individual rights. How far is too far?
It’s a tough, angry, violent film, one with a lot on its mind and a mind that’s willing to turn those ideas over and over in it. But it still builds upon everything Nolan started out with in Batman Begins, allowing the Joker to become the ultimate test of Batman’s refusal to become an executioner… even in the face of an ultimate evil.
How refreshing that this film is on its way to a $500 million gross. Finally, a blockbuster worth getting invested in.
And I never even got around to talking about that cast. From Bale, to Eckhardt, to Freeman, to Oldman, to Caine, everyone brings their A-game. And the recasting of Rachel eliminates the biggest hole from Begins too. I loved it.
Preferably, for everyone who isn't a viral marketer, the next Batman will have a better, relevant, screenplay, a better director and better actors, especially as Batman. The major complaint, obviously, was the terrible, yet overhyped, movie, the atrocious directing, and the terrible, badly-cast, gay actors. If this were imdb there would be more viral marketers here. They're like the cheap hustler telemarketers and telephone technical support of internet media. The next Batman movie needs to be just plain better. Meaning, NO BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Post a Comment