Holy Fork In The Road, Batman!
Although I was never a fan of the Batman movies released during my childhood, The Dark Knight had a certain appeal to me; at least, enough that I was willing to endure lines of highly excited teenagers to see a midnight showing. After years of gradually shelling off the mid-twentieth century sentiment that comic books are for children, Dark Knight returns to Batman’s original premise of a psychologically dark, somewhat uncertain hero.
I’m pretty sure we all know the premise of Batman. If you don’t, I welcome you back from your 70-year coma, and since you’re using the internet now I’ll advise you to stay away from 4chan. The story of Dark Knight, however, has little in common with the 80s Dark Knight Returns mini-series.
Instead, we get treated to a rendition of the Joker, portrayed by the late Heath Ledger, who is closer to his pre-comics code character than the cackling idiot we’ve seen in earlier films. Ledger does a fantastic job at playing his role, always coming across as intensely precise, in control, and almost stoic. The rest of the casting is nothing to scoff about, either. While nobody is as notable as Joker, they all play their parts well.
When WB wasn’t using their massive budget on hiring good actors, it was going towards the set design and paying off the fantastic people they got to film, direct, and edit. Despite being a movie based off comic books, the action sequences came across as being very smart. Instead of being big explosion spectacles for frat boys to cheer at while crushing beer cans against their heads, the car chases and combat sequences were dramatic without ever becoming boring.
Unfortunately, with everything that was done well about Dark Knight, they forgot one important aspect of making a great movie - the script. The first hour and forty-five minutes followed Joker’s sadistic plans and Batman’s conquest to stop him as well as his own personal drama. The interaction between the two, and the fallout that results, remained tense and intriguing. But after that, the film changes gears a little, the previous characterization gets thrown out the window, and everything that might have been suspenseful previously becomes formulaic and predictable. Joker begins waxing philosophic about nonsense but never says anything that will resonate with you. Most of the characters seem like they could have had interesting motivations written in, but instead they remain one-dimensional; everyone is the way they are just because. The writers wanted to talk about vigilante justice and doubtfulness, but they never say anything beyond “durr, it’s bad.” Even the final lines are kind of head scratchingly out of nowhere.
Is Dark Knight worth seeing? Sure, if only for everything but the final hour of the movie, which I suppose you can ignore. The rest is a great example of how you can make a good film based on comics that sticks to its roots and isn’t as immature as some seem to think comics are. I just wish it had stuck to that all the way through.
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Outside of the usual entertainment media, the consensus from the general public is that this movie is a plotless, terribly acted rip-off waste of money and 3 hours of your viewing life, so that tells me I should keep hold of my cash and wait for something else better to come along. No contest.
I would be highly interested in meeting this public, considering everything I’ve heard outside of the professional critics ranges from “It’s a good movie” to “It’s the best movie [i]ever[/i]“.
I hate to sound like a dick, and I don’t often say this, but I’d really like to read some links to back up this consensus. And if your source is “My friends who saw it say this, and they’ve heard other people say it too”, well…that just ain’t the “general public”.
“The story of Dark Knight, however, has little in common with the 80s Dark Knight Returns mini-series. ”
That’s because aside from using “the dark knight” in the title, it was never actually meant to have anything in common with that series. The Dark Knight is actually based on the Nineties Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale series “The Long Halloween.” That’s a classic series and well worth a read. :-)
Yeah, listening to the people who came out of the theatre with me, I definitely did not get the impression that very many of them considered it to be a bad movie. Most of them seemed quite happy, a few of them applauded at the end, and over half the people there stuck through the credits to see if there’d be a bit more. I’m mostly in consensus with cybersix though. It started strong, the acting and cinematography was excellent, but the script dropped the ball at the end. It was a good movie, definitely a 7 out of 10 (On my scale, where a 5 out of 10 means it was ‘enjoyable enough’, and it takes a lot to break 7. Probably a 9 the way most people rate things) Really, the only people I think who will have a major dislike of the movie are the people who watched too many cartoon Batman shows and are offended because the Joker wasn’t a hilariously bumbling buffoon.
So, posthumous Oscar for Ledger: yes or no?
Also, did you see the Watchmen trailer? It’s looking pretty sweet.
That’s a tough call Del. Ledger did a good job, no doubt about it, the only issue being the script wasn’t up to the task. That was not exactly his fault though. Honestly, probably yes, since there really havn’t been a lot of very strong acting performances this year. The sheer contrast between the ‘why so serious?’ scene and the scene as he’s leaving the hospital shows the ability to play both the silly side and the sadistic maniac side of the character, which is a lot less one-dimensional than most acting performances.
Mike: Ah, I’m not familiar with the series enough to have made that connection. Although I can’t be the only person who thinks Dark Knight Returns would make a bitching film adaptation, can I? :p
Del: I wouldn’t disagree with some posthumous respect. Like Tarin said, he did a really good job taking a character who I felt was written one-dimensionally and making him a real person. It’ll be hard to say until we get out of the summer blockbuster season and into where stuff like There Will Be Blood comes out.
The Watchmen trailer does look pretty bitchin’. I’m also not familiar with the comics, but I’ll probably go see it. Have you seen the Terminator: Salvation trailer? If not, I envy you. If any of you go to see Dark Knight, cover your eyes after the first preview unless you want a seizure.