Film: The Dark Knight

[ego_loss]

Just saw it...

Let me start off saying that Christian Bale is a terrible actor. He's OK as Batman, I guess, but how hard is it to talk in a raspy voice. As Bruce Wayne, however, he sucks.

Two scenes made up my mind about this. First is when him and Natasha are eating dinner with Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes. The second was when he does his speeach at the Dent fundraiser. The dialog was written to spoken by someone who is being a dickhead but said with such elegant charm that the insultee just doesn't quite catch it.

I don't think you quite understand the Bruce Wayne character. Bruce Wayne, in the Nolan movies, is playing the caricature that he thinks he should be playing. It's one of the basic fundamentals of the Batman mythos. Mouthy playboy by day, tough vigilante by night. Bruce Wayne isn't trying to be charmingly condescending, he is trying to be an outright dickhead. This was played up a lot more in Batman Begins... which is slightly unfortunate given the "duality" theme of Dark Knight.

 

[vegan]

Let me start off saying that Christian Bale is a terrible actor

he just barely had ti act as himself in this movie
how can you judge the acting of someone whose face is covered by a mask, who doesn't have much to say, and says it with a weird voice

i thought that in batman begins he was on the contrary the strong point of the movie
and the fact that so much time was spent on him rather than on batman made the movie so good

i quite liked the dark night, but i regret that the movie was essentially about the joker, and not much about bruce wayne

have you seen "el mecanista"?
could change your opinion about bale

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has picked up the enormous anti-Christian alagory going on in this movie

if it was so enormous, i suppose that more people would have noticed it
it might be true, but to me, it might as well just be a coincidence
if you look for parallels somewhere, you eventually find some

NSFW:

Judas kills Jesus on purpose but only because it is necesary to do so in order to fulfill the scriptures

so john the baptist or judas?

NSFW:

when dent died, he was not like the christ anymore, so there's no logcal comparison with judas

Rachel Dawes is Mary Magdelin. She is the Christ-figure's weak spot. She represents the Christ-figures' earthly desires, and his distraction from fulfilling the prophesies of ridding Gotham of crime.

Obviously, the Joker is the devil.

so, in every movie, is the hero a symbol of the christ, the (ex) girlfriend a metaphore of mary magdalene and the bad guy an image of the devil?

 

[EA-1475]

so, in every movie, is the hero a symbol of the christ, the (ex) girlfriend a metaphore of mary magdalene and the bad guy an image of the devil?

I'm not the kind of guy that goes around loking for biblical metaphors everywhere. In fact, I've always felt that the Christian symbolism in Chronicals of Narnia went over my head.
But this movie laid it on pretty thick. About 30 minutes in when Bruce Wayne is talking about "the people have been waiting for a hero. they think it's me but it's really him" I started thinking, "Hey, I've heard this story before."
And it all played to type after that. I think that...

NSFW:

the joker burning the big stack of money

... was what sealed it for me.

But yeah, it could be that a cigar is really just a cigar.

 

[socko]

^you sound far too inebriated to know what's going on. frustrated? if you wanna just watch explosions and fx go see a michael bay "film" or perhaps a toothpaste commercial.

OK, I forced myself to sit down and watch it all the way through this time while staying completely sober. I still did'nt like it very much, although I thought it was better than the Batmans that were made in the 1980s.
Turn my head a second and I've missed something and am completley lost. I kept haveing to reply scenes. They kept throwing in gadgets without explaining them. It was hard to follow. It seemed like some of the action scenes were just randomly thrown in there and dindn't really fit in with the movie. Batman Begins, on the other hand, was very easy to follow. The plot and action flowed much more smoothly, and I really enjoyed that one.

 

[L2R]

thanks, socko. that was a far better critique than your first.

Turn my head a second and I've missed something and am completley lost. I kept haveing to reply scenes.

Yeah, it's a pretty heavy film. This is why this movie wouldn't fit well with intoxicants (except for perhaps psychedelics).

They kept throwing in gadgets without explaining them. It was hard to follow.

The radar thing threw me a bit too.

It seemed like some of the action scenes were just randomly thrown in there and dindn't really fit in with the movie. Batman Begins, on the other hand, was very easy to follow. The plot and action flowed much more smoothly, and I really enjoyed that one.

It wasn't random by any shot. There was much calculation involved in the making of this film. It's just pretty complex and didn't resort to easy to swallow plot devlopment and cliche. Sure, it makes it harder to follow, but that doesn't make it void of reason.
But then I generally prefer the more challenging films.

 

[socko]

In that case, this is probably someting that would be better to see in a theater where it's not so easy to become distracted.

 

[Benefit]

To state the obvious, Heath Ledger made the film. He is great.

I still like the Tim Burton Batmobile better than the oversized Tumbler used in this one.

I generally don't look for much deep meaning in an action film like this. I prefer to get my social commentary from Edwin Happlesburg and KCET.

Batman's character arc where he struggles with his Batmaness is clichéd and predictable. You KNOW what's going to happen. If you don't know what's going to happen, maybe you've never seen a superhero movie before? Being a hero is hard. Boo hoo. Maybe it's so hard that Batman will leave Gotham, hang up his cape and end a billion dollar movie franchise. That seems reasonable.

The ending left something to be desired. The radar vision was distracting.

NSFW:

The stand-off at the end with Two Face is also predictable and therefore rather empty. You know a little kid isn't going to get shot in the head in a PG-13 movie.

I liked it a lot. But it's hardly the best film ever. Maybe not even the best sequel ever (Thunderpants 2 is a seriously underrated classic). I would venture a guess that a lot of people who are quick to call this film one of their top movies of all time haven't seen some of the world's truly great films. That, or they just aren't an elitist movie obsessed dork like me.

 

[felix]

^ the latter

I don't think you quite understand the Bruce Wayne character. Bruce Wayne, in the Nolan movies, is playing the caricature that he thinks he should be playing. It's one of the basic fundamentals of the Batman mythos. Mouthy playboy by day, tough vigilante by night.

i think christian bale has been the best batman so far. (apart from adam west, obviously!)

the scene in the restaurant...

NSFW:

... where harvey dent says they probably 'won't be allowed' to move the tables, and bruce says 'no, i'm sure they'll be ok with it... i own the place', and then made a gesture to some minion in the background asking them to do it, was absolutely hilarious. and the rest of the audience gave a huge laugh as well.

 

[axl blaze]

I don't think you quite understand the Bruce Wayne character. Bruce Wayne, in the Nolan movies, is playing the caricature that he thinks he should be playing. It's one of the basic fundamentals of the Batman mythos. Mouthy playboy by day, tough vigilante by night. Bruce Wayne isn't trying to be charmingly condescending, he is trying to be an outright dickhead. This was played up a lot more in Batman Begins... which is slightly unfortunate given the "duality" theme of Dark Knight.

THANK YOU. again, you need your text to be repeated for effect.

one of the most moving images in comics history, for me, is in the pages of Matt Wagner's Trinity. you all should check it out, it is the recanting of Batman and Superman's first meeting with Wonder Woman.

the most memorable image in comics for me is Bruce Wayne chilling in his limo and the dorky Clark Kent bumbles over to his automobile to say some words with him. the dichotomy between these two characters is shocking, Bruce with his sly dark playboy image and Kent with his lame untouchable Americana permeating from his goofy suit.

 

[indelibleface]

Great film. It was almost overshadowed by the Watchmen trailer beforehand though.

Ahh...Watchmen. *cums*



But anyway! This is definitely my favorite of the Batman movie catalogue, right next to the first Tim Burton Batman film. I still think Michael Keaton makes a better, more appealing Batman, but Christian Bale is a close second (I'm sure many would disagree with me). Keaton's a better Batman, but these two new Batman films are the best.

 

[2oclockbeanfiend.2]

3/5

The first hour was terrible. Batman (and Bruce Wayne) was terrible throughout. Heath Ledger, despite my HUGE skepticism (based on my assumption this movie wasn't going to live up to the hype his death created), made this movie. Although he's starred in such epic movies like "A Knight's Tale" and "Brokeback Mountain" (epic sarcasm), I was surprised his portrayal of The Joker was so fucking immaculate. Christian Bale sucked in this movie. And the way he masks his voice as Batman is a fucking joke. Seriously, who decided that sounded good? That man/woman should have his/her ears removed. They do not deserve to hear sound. On the other hand, Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard clearly have been blessed with the ears of God. Epic score.

Overall. Dope movie. I'm just wondering why it took so long for me to realize just how fucking stupid Batman looks. And some of the camera work in this movie made him look even dumber.

Definitely recommended though.

Edit (more needed to be said): Heath Ledger stole this movie. Without him (or someone playing The Joker as well as he did) this movie would have been complete shit. He portrayed The Joker to perfection. Legitimate psychopath. He killed every second of every scene he was in. And believe me, I HATE admitting this, because of all the hype built up because of his death.

Almost everything The Joker did in this movie could have actually happened. Almost nothing Batman did could have actually happened. The Joker looks like a real psycho. Batman looks stupid and make-believe.

Ledger went hard, 100%. The rest of the film fell short. But you know I'm downloading that bitch right now! :D

NSFW:

 

[EA-1475]

I don't think you quite understand the Bruce Wayne character. Bruce Wayne, in the Nolan movies, is playing the caricature that he thinks he should be playing. It's one of the basic fundamentals of the Batman mythos. Mouthy playboy by day, tough vigilante by night. Bruce Wayne isn't trying to be charmingly condescending, he is trying to be an outright dickhead. This was played up a lot more in Batman Begins... which is slightly unfortunate given the "duality" theme of Dark Knight.

Maybe. However, go to this film and start at 14:40 and watch the lunch scene. This is how I thought it should have been played out. Just my opinion though.

 

[L2R]

i don't share the gripe everyone seems to have with batman's voice. sure when he first spoke it took me off guard by it's unnatural sound, but then it's a given that he is using some sort of voice disguising tech.

i bet if he wasn't using that voice, most audiences would complain about why no one ever realises that batman is wayne.

 

[ego_loss]

i don't share the gripe everyone seems to have with batman's voice. sure when he first spoke it took me off guard by it's unnatural sound, but then it's a given that he is using some sort of voice disguising tech.

Actually, there was no digital modification of his voice. It was all him.

 

[L2R]

yeah but his voice was ridiculous. where in the film does it suggest that he was putting it on manually?

 

[ego_loss]

no where in the film is it suggested... but Bale has said in numerous interviews that he had a difficult time "finding" the voice in the first movie, but it has become like a second nature to him now.

 

[ladyinthesky]

i dont care what people say....his voice turned me on

 

[Rogue Robot]

he's been turning me on for 15 years.

 

[MynameisnotDeja]

I finally saw this, and it was pretty good, I definitely liked it MUCH better than the shitty first one. The joker made the movie, but I always loved Harvey Dent a lot too so that was also good (almost enjoyed him as much as the joker actually).

I thought it was too long but at least it wasn't boring. I still think it could have been cut down a little for time. Juuuuust a little. But definitely didn't have any really slow parts and I was pleased about that.

I don't like Christian Bale as Batman very much but everyone else was good, and thank God for the lack of Katie Holmes in this movie. *Thanks God*

I'm sorry but the "Batman raspy voice" nearly ruined this movie for me. Not good. Not good at all. Why oh why couldn't he just have used his normal voice? I hate it SOOOOO much, that was my one major complaint. Right from the start I was like.. "What the hell?" Maybe he could have done a deeper voice or something but that voice was just balls and distracted me from what was going on a lot.

Overall I gave it 4 stars. Good movie. Lots of good previews too. The Day The Earth Stood Still! AGG! I want!

 

[Naptown Wicked]

My only problem with it (besides being unnecessarily too long) was that the Joker should have had more quotable one liners. That's what made Nicholson's Joker so great.

Add some great one liners to Ledgers Joker and he would have been perfect. He didn't say anything memorable. Which is totally unlike Joker, even in the comic books.

"This town needs an enema!"