The Dark Knight

[Stefen]

haha. the guy from the New Yorker hated it because it was filmed in Chicago.

[brockly]

thanks to ledger, this movie is filled with enough amazing moments to be labeled great. im really tired so im going to keep this short.

batman begins was the best thing that's ever happened to the franchise. it was exactly the direction that was needed to save the series from schumacher's abortions. the dark knight strays even further from superficial superhero bullshit, taking on a style more comparable to mann or greengrass than anything the series or nolan have delivered in the past. it's a gritty, compelling crime drama. having said that the film does deliver everything the title promises in relation to the batman legacy - it's a dark and relentless narrative on phsychological infirmity.

ledger is phenomenal. his performance is unnerving and brilliantly encompasses the danger and mental instability of the joker that until this point had only been captured on the page. spoiler the shot of the joker tenuously walking away from the hospital [dressed in a nurse's uniform] whilst detonating its destruction may be the most iconic moment any comic book villian has ever been blessed with on the screen.

the last 30 minutes or so are a little jaded, particularly spoiler harvey dent's transformation, which, while merited, i could have done without. regardless, there's a lot to love here. returns is still my favourite batman movie in terms of visual scope but this one is easily the best on an adept level. i might write more tomorrow, i really need to sleep now.

[tpfkabi]

i haven't been caught up in the recent superhero movie mumbojumbo, but this has me pumped.
people are really defensive of this film - look at the bad rotten tomato reviews and see how many comments there are...
i'll contribute something (for once) so i can read everyone's reactions as they come in:

(stolen from imdb)
First Movie Reviews: The Dark Knight
15 July 2008 10:38 AM, PDT


The London Daily Mirror claimed today (Tuesday) that it was publishing the first major newspaper review of the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight. It's a rave. Critic David Edwards remarks that Heath Ledger is "a dead cert" to win the Oscar for his portrayal of The Joker. Edwards says that the late actor "is the brilliant heart of a superhero movie that's like nothing you've ever seen before. ... the finest superhero movie in years." In the U.S., Time Inc.'s Entertainment Weekly is out with a review by Owen Gleiberman that also extols Ledger's performance. "In this, the last performance he completed before his death, Ledger had a maniacal gusto inspired enough to suggest that he might have lived to be as audacious an actor as Marlon Brando, and maybe as great," he writes. Likewise Richard Corliss in Time magazine calls Ledger's performance "magnificent." His Joker, says Corliss, "is simply one of the most twisted and mesmerizing creeps in movie history." In his review for the Associated Press, Christy Lemire writes that The Dark Knight is "an epic that will leave you staggering from the theater, stunned by its scope and complexity." And Peter Travers concludes in Rolling Stone: "The haunting and visionary Dark Knight soars on the wings of untamed imagination."

[Sleepless]

I think I've probably mentioned before that I could care less for Batman Begins. For whatever the reason, it didn't work for me. Even after reading the screenplay last week, it improved my appreciation for what was attempted, but ultimately I was less than impressed.

Just over an hour ago I got out of The Dark Knight. Holy shit. I want to put serious money down right now that this is going to take Best Picture. It really is quite a staggering film. It's not a comic book movie, it's a sprawling crime drama covering both mafia and cops, that just happens to feature Batman. This is the Godfather Part II of comic book movies. It transcends the genre. Even though I wasn't keen on BB, this film takes and expands the best elements from the first film - I'm talking the saturation of corruption and crime in Gotham.

Of course there's some negative bits, but very few for me. One thing I didn't like was Maggie Gyllenhaal's first scene. Apart from that she was perfectly fine. spoiler I liked the whole transformation of Dent into Harvey Two-Face, but I did think the whole thing with the Gordon family was terribly anti-climatic after everything that had gone before. And I did feel it went on a tad too long, but in this case I really don't feel that's much of a complaint at all. You can't have too much of a good thing, right?

But of course, as all the hype has already determined, this movie belongs to Heath Ledger. I'll be honest, I'm a big fan of the guy. He blew me away in Brokeback Mountain, and if I'm being truthful, is the main reason I gave this film a chance. spoil His entry - aside from the bank robbery we've already all seen - is perhaps one of the most poignant in recent memory. And the whole sequence in the nurses outfit where he explodes the hospital? I think Brockly said it best. I'm not into all the nuances of acting, I only know what I like. But they hype about his performance is completely justified. Ledger does not exist in this film. He becomes The Joker. It is a spectacular performance. He was already a magnificent actor, and would surely have gotten even greater. He will be greatly missed by film lovers everywhere.

I've been reading this thread avidly for a long time. As I said, I didn't have high hopes for this film; I wasn't keen on the first one. Well I fucked up. This is a great movie. Y'all gonna love it, and I look forward to talking with everybody in more depth over the weekend.




My much longer, more spoilerific, morning-after thoughts on the film:
http://web.mac.com/davidtharwood/Site/Blog/Entries/2008/7/17_The_Dark_Knight.html

[last days of gerry the elephant]

I'm in the theatre now about to watch this beast. I shall report back tomorrow morning. Goodnight.

[tpfkabi]

i think i'll try and see a matinee tomorrow.

is there anything i need to remember from Batman Begins?
it's been a while since i've seen it and that was once.

[Xx]

...

[Kal]

This was truly amazing. I loved every second of it.

Two things that bothered me is that the expectations were so-so-so high for this, you don't even know what you are expecting anymore. It would have been easy to be disappointed, but I'm not at all. This rocked.

Also, I could not get enough of Heath Ledger. Not only because he was unbelievably amazing as The Joker in every scene, but also because we know he ain't coming back for the next one. I could have watched 2 hours of him talking on screen and still be hooked.

[cinemanarchist]

I'm too tired to comment right now but I will say that in Dallas we had it on 12 sold out screens in one multiplex! They only had three prints running through all 12 projectors so I can't even imagine how crazy things were in the booth. I'll report back with thoughts after some sleep.

[modage]

loved it.  lived up to my astronomical expectations.  wow.  more later.

[tpfkabi]

Meet the Batmen:

http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1591018&vid=258201

[Kal]

I was just remembering the MINOR-SPOILER 'pencil trick' and started laughing. So good...

I just heard unofficially that the movie made over $18 million in late night screenings. WOW.

[last days of gerry the elephant]

The pencil thing was gold. I enjoyed it but it was such a bad idea to see it over night... Staying up was tough and waking up wasn't any easier. I did the same thing for Begins... when will I learn. I can't even say anything constructive about it at this point. I'll have to see it again at the Imax first when I'm more attentive.

[MacGuffin]

Ledger was electric! My God, it's a shame he will not be able to revisit this role. The movie lived up to my hype. If a film like The Fugitive can be nominated for Best Film for being more than an 'action' film, then this should too. There's a long sequence closer to the end that had me riddled with goosepimples from excitement and ended with me sheding a tear. I could not have been any more immersed in something as I was at that point in a film. I was in awe of the pure craft of the filmmaking and performances.

[squints]

Ledger for Best Supporting/ or Best Actor? Yes definitely.
Best Sceenplay? Maybe. Probably. This is damned good writing.
Best Picture? I don't think so.

I loved it. Spoilertown: Is there anyway they cold make a third? Does Two-Face die at the end of this? I was a bit confused.