beer good
Well-Known Member
10 brief thoughts on The Dark Knight.
1. Heath Ledger really was fantastic. But you all knew that. But his take on the Joker was more than just good acting - insane, but intelligent; not a crime boss, but just someone who genuinely believes in what he's doing.
2. Ditching Katie Holmes for Maggie Gyllenhaal is the acting equivalent of exchanging a Ford Fiesta for a Mustang. Pity they didn't actually give her anything to, y'know, do. Couldn't they have done it the other way around instead?
3. I loved the inclusion of Dent.
4. Much like Burton, Nolan spends the first movie on almost nothing but Wayne/Batman and the second on villains so flashy Batman almost becomes a secondary character at times. And much like Burton, Nolan has more fun with the second one, and it shows.
5. One could make a lot of the repeated mentions of "not giving in to terrorists" and the need for an impopular character whom nobody voted for but everybody needs anyway to fight a lo-fi villain who wants nothing but simply to be evil. But hey, it's just an action movie.
6. I don't think I've ever seen Gary Oldman as restrained as he is in these movies. His Gordon might be the best one ever.
7. Batman Begins never really had time to get in to the whole dark-side-of-the-superhero thing, and I thought it felt more like a prologue than a movie in itself. This is the payoff.
8. Sort of wish they'd had the guts to go for an R rating. It's curiously bloodless for such a supposedly "dark" movie. Of course the whole dark side-light side, Nietzsche thing has been done by every single superhero franchise ever, but between Wayne, Dent and the Joker they do a really good job of it.
9. This suffers even more than Batman Begins from Nolan's approach to make them realistic. At least Burton knew he was making comic book movies and went with it (beautifully, IMO). Nolan almost manages to make his movies semi-realistic, which must have been hard work indeed, but that means he opens himself up to all sorts of "Oh come on, that would never happen in real life" that Burton dodged. Yes, this goes for both what people do (boat!) and how they do it. Then again, I guess that's no different than most bang-bang action movies.
10. Still, the odd glaring plot hole aside, it's consistently entertaining, very well-acted, and manages to keep the pace up for 2 1/2 hours. That takes some doing.
1. Heath Ledger really was fantastic. But you all knew that. But his take on the Joker was more than just good acting - insane, but intelligent; not a crime boss, but just someone who genuinely believes in what he's doing.
The question is what they're going to do about him in the next movie, of course...
2. Ditching Katie Holmes for Maggie Gyllenhaal is the acting equivalent of exchanging a Ford Fiesta for a Mustang. Pity they didn't actually give her anything to, y'know, do. Couldn't they have done it the other way around instead?
3. I loved the inclusion of Dent.
And IMO he did nothing but add to the story - knowing what would happen to him, I grinned like a, well, Joker every time someone told him something like "You're the face/future/symbol of Gotham" etc.
4. Much like Burton, Nolan spends the first movie on almost nothing but Wayne/Batman and the second on villains so flashy Batman almost becomes a secondary character at times. And much like Burton, Nolan has more fun with the second one, and it shows.
5. One could make a lot of the repeated mentions of "not giving in to terrorists" and the need for an impopular character whom nobody voted for but everybody needs anyway to fight a lo-fi villain who wants nothing but simply to be evil. But hey, it's just an action movie.
6. I don't think I've ever seen Gary Oldman as restrained as he is in these movies. His Gordon might be the best one ever.
7. Batman Begins never really had time to get in to the whole dark-side-of-the-superhero thing, and I thought it felt more like a prologue than a movie in itself. This is the payoff.
8. Sort of wish they'd had the guts to go for an R rating. It's curiously bloodless for such a supposedly "dark" movie. Of course the whole dark side-light side, Nietzsche thing has been done by every single superhero franchise ever, but between Wayne, Dent and the Joker they do a really good job of it.
9. This suffers even more than Batman Begins from Nolan's approach to make them realistic. At least Burton knew he was making comic book movies and went with it (beautifully, IMO). Nolan almost manages to make his movies semi-realistic, which must have been hard work indeed, but that means he opens himself up to all sorts of "Oh come on, that would never happen in real life" that Burton dodged. Yes, this goes for both what people do (boat!) and how they do it. Then again, I guess that's no different than most bang-bang action movies.
10. Still, the odd glaring plot hole aside, it's consistently entertaining, very well-acted, and manages to keep the pace up for 2 1/2 hours. That takes some doing.
LOVE it.