The Dark Knight
Jul. 25th, 2008 06:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bofoddityFresh home from The Dark Knight. Spoilers ahead.
- "The next movie will have a stronger female character." That or something along those lines is what Nolan said after the first movie. Yet Rachel gets reduced to a tool for good (yes, I'm saying Katie Holmes Rachel was less of a tool), the sole visible female cop turned out to be a traitor, a female judge got blown up and the final showdown with Harvey made it perfectly clear that only family member that matters in Gordon's family is his son. And his daughter's face was never even seen. FAIL.
- I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be spending most of the movie wanting to strangle the main character, but I did. Since when has Batman become the badly-written Peter Parker whine fest guy? I don't know, I just didn't feel for him in the same way I felt for him in Batman Begins.
- Speaking of Batman Begins, while it wasn't the perfect movie, it had concrete themes and dealt with them, while in this movie I got the feeling that they had ideas but didn't get a good sense of those ideas. Yet, the movie could have also used a subtler touch with. The last conversation between Gordon and Batman and how THE IMAGE OF HARVEY MUST BE KEPT PURE and BATMAN IS THE GENUINE HERO BUT NOW HE HAS TO RUN points were delivered made me cringe.
- "LOL, look at how Joker put those black gangsters in line!" And all those other POC who kept dying.
There were a couple of other things, but I don't remember them right now. So to the good parts.
- I'm sure everybody and their cousin has sung enough praises Heath Ledger's performance already, but I just have to add yet another OH MY GOD HE'S AMAZING. The fact the character of Joker was ruthless and smart helped, of course, and I loved how his story about the origin of his scars never stayed the same.
- I was sceptical of Aaron Eckhart as Harvey first, but he was perfect. And the story of Harvey was perfect. I have to mix some non-squee here since I thought they overplayed the "Harvey is the face of hope!" thing (especially in the end of the movie) since I wouldn't have minded seeing more ambiguous Harvey (not that he didn't have ambiguous moments, they just didn't seem to matter for real), and there was the Rachel-issue, but the bottom line is, he worked for me. I liked how they did his face too, although I've seen some complaints that it doesn't look creepy enough.
- Nothing specific to say, but I just wanted to give some extra love for Jim Gordon. Just incredible, him, In fact, like in the first movie, the cast was overall excellent (except for Christian Bale who I found underwhelming), and had a couple of cameos I personally found amusing. Hi, Prison Break's Mahone! Hi, Angel's Holtz!
Overall, non-spoilery opinion about the movie: A competent sequel, but lacks the punch to really make it great.
- "The next movie will have a stronger female character." That or something along those lines is what Nolan said after the first movie. Yet Rachel gets reduced to a tool for good (yes, I'm saying Katie Holmes Rachel was less of a tool), the sole visible female cop turned out to be a traitor, a female judge got blown up and the final showdown with Harvey made it perfectly clear that only family member that matters in Gordon's family is his son. And his daughter's face was never even seen. FAIL.
- I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be spending most of the movie wanting to strangle the main character, but I did. Since when has Batman become the badly-written Peter Parker whine fest guy? I don't know, I just didn't feel for him in the same way I felt for him in Batman Begins.
- Speaking of Batman Begins, while it wasn't the perfect movie, it had concrete themes and dealt with them, while in this movie I got the feeling that they had ideas but didn't get a good sense of those ideas. Yet, the movie could have also used a subtler touch with. The last conversation between Gordon and Batman and how THE IMAGE OF HARVEY MUST BE KEPT PURE and BATMAN IS THE GENUINE HERO BUT NOW HE HAS TO RUN points were delivered made me cringe.
- "LOL, look at how Joker put those black gangsters in line!" And all those other POC who kept dying.
There were a couple of other things, but I don't remember them right now. So to the good parts.
- I'm sure everybody and their cousin has sung enough praises Heath Ledger's performance already, but I just have to add yet another OH MY GOD HE'S AMAZING. The fact the character of Joker was ruthless and smart helped, of course, and I loved how his story about the origin of his scars never stayed the same.
- I was sceptical of Aaron Eckhart as Harvey first, but he was perfect. And the story of Harvey was perfect. I have to mix some non-squee here since I thought they overplayed the "Harvey is the face of hope!" thing (especially in the end of the movie) since I wouldn't have minded seeing more ambiguous Harvey (not that he didn't have ambiguous moments, they just didn't seem to matter for real), and there was the Rachel-issue, but the bottom line is, he worked for me. I liked how they did his face too, although I've seen some complaints that it doesn't look creepy enough.
- Nothing specific to say, but I just wanted to give some extra love for Jim Gordon. Just incredible, him, In fact, like in the first movie, the cast was overall excellent (except for Christian Bale who I found underwhelming), and had a couple of cameos I personally found amusing. Hi, Prison Break's Mahone! Hi, Angel's Holtz!
Overall, non-spoilery opinion about the movie: A competent sequel, but lacks the punch to really make it great.
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-25 05:16 pm (UTC)other than that i didn't mind it, i don't remember much of the first film. i simply liked how the joker wasn't as corny as he was as jack nicholsen.(sp?)
i wonder if it's the writing that made Bale underwhelming, or what? because he's fantastic in american psycho...or i'm just used to the trash that comes out of hollywood and my standards have fallen off a cliff.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-25 07:49 pm (UTC)I'd put the blame on writing for Bale's underwhelmingness since he's been great in every other thing of his I've seen (including Batman Begins), and they seemed to sidestep him in this one. Maybe they had too much work with fitting Two-Face and Joker in the same movie.