FINALLY saw it.

Give it a solid 7/10. Somewhat lacking in coherence, but all in all I enjoyed it very much.

Except for that rasp-off at the end between Dent and Batman.

1/12/2009 11:27:44 AM

http://www.repairmanjack.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9851

Interesting read

1/12/2009 3:54:25 PM

http://volksjizz.ytmnd.com/

1/12/2009 9:13:46 PM

Quote :

"Somewhat lacking in coherence"

This never makes sense to me.

People spend thousands of hours cutting a film together for the SINGULAR PURPOSE of making it coherent.

And people still dont get it.

1/12/2009 9:18:10 PM

Quote :

"People spend thousands of hours cutting a film together for the SINGULAR PURPOSE of making it coherent. "

And they failed.

Or can fail.

My opinion is that they very mildly failed with this film.

1/12/2009 10:31:20 PM

^u suck fat ones

1/12/2009 11:35:45 PM

care to point out a few examples so we can show you what you missed

1/12/2009 11:39:17 PM

looking back I wonder if they gave up on the rachel character before or after katie holmes didn't want to do it, I kind of liked the child hood friend angle between them but she basically had no point in this one

1/12/2009 11:58:07 PM

no point?

no point?

really?

1/13/2009 12:00:07 AM

yeah. being the reason for Harvey Dent's downfall is minimally important at best.

1/13/2009 12:17:18 AM

exactly

and i mean, she fucked the shit up f'real in bruce's world too

so basically she fucked up 1/2 of the guys in the movie by dying

plus her brother totally dumped the joker

1/13/2009 12:25:40 AM

Speculation regarding Oscar
http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/01/12/does-a-golden-globe-win-hurt-heath-ledgers-oscar-chances/

A pretty worthless read on Two-Face's future
http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/01/11/could-two-face-return-for-dark-knight-seqel/

A pretty worthless read on The Joker's future.
http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/01/09/could-the-joker-return-for-the-dark-knight-sequel/

1/13/2009 12:53:33 AM

Quote :

"yeah. being the reason for Harvey Dent's downfall is minimally important at best."

they could have just found any random girl character to be that, it's not like they even had any emotional scenes, and I only saw the movie once but I don't remember her death really adversely affecting bruce's life except for him being kind of pissed in a few scenes

1/13/2009 1:55:26 PM

The fact the Joker even kidnapped her clearly unnerved Batman in the interrogation scene. And he managed to figure out Bats had the hots for her. Bruce would've given up being Batman for her. I can't believe there's any debate on the importance of her character.

1/13/2009 2:34:58 PM

Quote :

"care to point out a few examples so we can show you what you missed"

There's nothing to show. It's a matter of opinion.

.........I'm not talking about plot here, people. Perhaps you misunderstood. Plot was rock solid. As was the action. I was referring to stylistic and cinematic choices that were mildly incoherent on a few occasions. Not enough to make it anything close to being a "bad" movie, though.

1/13/2009 9:19:18 PM

then list some fuckin examples

jeez, i'm so tired of people saying "no, this is opinion, so i can say whatever the fuck i want about it"

its like - if its your "opinion", you should probably be able to list some reasons why you hold said opinion

so again, what are some of these "incoherent" "stylistic and cinematic choices"

1/13/2009 11:33:56 PM

I found the sequence in the building with the "sonar eyes" to be out of place. Extremely heavy on CG, almost cartoonish. Not fitting with the grittier shots in the rest of the movie, which were much earthier. Still cool, though.

I took the main theme of the film to be that people (as a whole) are capable of doing good, and are inherently good. However, this didn't really manifest itself until the boat scene at the end. And when it did, it was about a subtle as a freight train. I think the first film's main theme was about becoming what you fear, and that theme was laced through Begins, and presented more subtlely, to the point that it made the concept of a man in a batsuit seem not just not ridiculous, but actually credible.

The portrayal of some of the mob characters was a bit over the top. They seemed like they'd fit better in Burton's world. I think the boss from Begins was more like a Gotham mafioso would be like. Of course, the intent very well could have been to make the Joker look even more evil via juxtaposition.

Bruce Wayne was leaning against a wall during Dent's press conference. I think Bruce Wayne should be a media magnet and focal point wherever he goes. I don't think I saw a single microphone pointed at him.

Most deaths in the film were implied and off screen. Except of course, for Maggie G's character, which makes sense because she was a significant character. The only other example I noticed was the guy with the explosives in him - pretty graphic. Why would equal gravity be assigned to the death of the damsel and the death of a henchman? For the coolness of the explosion effect?

Batman's brawling was really kinda slow at times (even after he gets his modified suit because the first one was too heavy), and his whole body was often on screen. Everything Batman does should be mysterious and unexpected, even to the viewer - believe it or not, I would have liked a small bit of shaky-cam thrown into the melee scenes. Anyone fighting Batman should be confused and unable to catch a breath.

There. As I said, very mild stuff. Great flick.

1/15/2009 7:56:27 PM

Well at least there are reasons, and they're your reasons so no arguing that. gg, much better than simply saying "it sucked" and then walking off.

I would have thought that having so much as one reporter even glance twice at Bruce Wayne immediately before the news story of the century - the Batman reveal - would have broken more continuity. In fact, if I were their boss and they hovered around Wayne in that situation I'd fire the reporter/cameraman on the spot, even if I worked for access Hollywood.

Most deaths happen off screen to keep the PG-13 rating - so they can make more money by avoiding the cut in potential viewers with an R rating. Of course they showed the guy's scars from where they put the bomb in him. Otherwise the audience would be left wondering why the guy randomly blew up, then people would complain about the continuity of that. It was just a setup to clue the audience in to what was going on. They certainly didn't give it screen time to equate his death with the chick's death.

I hate the shaky cam. I like to see the action, in fact when I see the shaky cam the only thing I think is "Well, the fight choreographer must have sucked."

Yeah, again it's your opinion and you are very much entitled to it - just sharing mine

[Edited on January 15, 2009 at 9:56 PM. Reason : -]

1/15/2009 9:53:43 PM

Quote :

"I found the sequence in the building with the "sonar eyes" to be out of place. Extremely heavy on CG, almost cartoonish. Not fitting with the grittier shots in the rest of the movie, which were much earthier. Still cool, though."

oh MOST DEF
some of the sonar stuff was done really well
but com'on, he was able to get the details of the joker's grease paint off a cell phone sonar detector?

Quote :

"They seemed like they'd fit better in Burton's world. I think the boss from Begins was more like a Gotham mafioso would be like"

i bet nolan was drunk when he cast eric roberts lol
but i think that will set up nicely for a third film where you see the further degradation of the gotham mafia
i mean, you have the devolution from a character like wilkinson, who was a bit cartoonish himself, to roberts and the pastiche of black/russian stereotypes (i kept waiting for a stereotypical irish guy to walk out, oh shit we're going to get an irish penguin lol) to who knows what next

Quote :

"Most deaths in the film were implied and off screen."

i think that was more for the ratings board than for artistic design, and i don't actually remember how the fat man explosion went, i thought camera was on joker when it happened, but i'm by no means an expert

Quote :

"Anyone fighting Batman should be confused and unable to catch a breath."

a tremendous point right there
hopefully when nolan is done and we get "stuck" with a director with more of an action background, we'll see another side of batman

of course, to bite a bit of frosh killer's rhetoric - when the fuck do we get to see batman get to be a detective?

10+ years on the job batman NEVER would have gone to the address joker gave him, he would have gone to the other one, knowing not to trust the anarchist... oh well

thank you for sharing
i really am tired of dark knight haters who just throw out a vague utterance and have nothing to fill it out with
thanks for humoring me lol

1/15/2009 10:11:23 PM

while we're throwing out things that didn't seem all that feasible... how about fingerprints off a shattered bullet by comparing to another shattered bullet?

FWIW, i really liked the movie and let's face it i didn't go in expecting everything to be completely reasonable and realistic, but i hadn't seen anybody mention this at least on this page

[Edited on January 15, 2009 at 10:32 PM. Reason : ]

1/15/2009 10:31:36 PM

I WILL say that the hospital explosion scene resulted in calls from my neighbors...who live four houses down. Their good china shook a little.

THAT was fun. And it was awesome that that was really Ledger in front of a real explosion.

Quote :

"i really am tired of dark knight haters who just throw out a vague utterance and have nothing to fill it out with"

Remember I'm not a hater. I really liked the movie.

[Edited on January 15, 2009 at 10:53 PM. Reason : ]

1/15/2009 10:37:36 PM

whyd that fucker have to die

i personally think they're gonna have to recast it

got to do it

the mythos is incomplete without a joker

1/15/2009 10:52:12 PM

i find myself agreeing with pretty much all your points... but 7/10? come on.

1/15/2009 11:18:59 PM

http://thedarksocks.ytmnd.com/ (refresh)

On a serious note, heres my rant on the movie.

It started out good, set up some nice scenes to get your interested, but continued non stop on an awkward footing. It didn't set up the story properly. It's like they resumed filming immeadiately after the first movie and wanted to get the terrific action saga down, but instead of a blockbuster they got a holey mess. Whether you like it or not, movies have to have a moderate amount of backstory. These are the breaks in the movie where you get information on the characters, be it through flashback or personal discussion. It really would have helped this movie heaps and tons if they tried to draw a storyline plot that involved the joker being somehow involved in bruce's past. Be it personally, or through bruce enterprize's actions. Anything to make the movie matter more, instead of being a meaningless explode-a-thon where the most interesting character was none other than the antagonist.

[Edited on January 16, 2009 at 1:46 AM. Reason : I blame the writing, not the filming]

1/16/2009 1:41:41 AM

Quote :

"It really would have helped this movie heaps and tons if they tried to draw a storyline plot that involved the joker being somehow involved in bruce's past."

you have smoked yourself retarded

the best thing the movie did was let the joker just be

JUST

BE

no crammed in backstory
no exposition
and sure as shit no fucking wayne-tech connection or something

so if that was trollbait, consider me "owned"
but if not, what the fuck

1/16/2009 1:45:27 AM

Letting the joker just 'be' as you put it only allowed him the spotlight of the movie. It basically made him almost the anti-hero. All interest in batman was lost, as was his coolness. Maybe i'm reading into this too much, but I find your opinion flawed and raise you a stiff brow.

1/16/2009 1:49:03 AM

Quote :

"Letting the joker just 'be' as you put it only allowed him the spotlight of the movie. It basically made him almost the anti-hero."

As interesting, intriguing, mysterious and fun as the Joker was, I doubt many people were actually rooting for him to win

Quote :

"All interest in batman was lost, as was his coolness."

That was kind of the point--to show that Batman is human, that there's more pieces to Gotham than Batman, and that he's perceived to not being likable all of the time

1/16/2009 1:58:46 AM

yeah what are you talking about.

for once a movie didn't manufacture a previous relationship with a villain, and it worked wonders.

1/16/2009 2:01:50 AM

Quote :

"MOAR DEAD COPS"

1/16/2009 2:02:07 AM

Quote :

"As interesting, intriguing, mysterious and fun as the Joker was, I doubt many people were actually rooting for him to win"

That may be true, but the bat did little to gain him favor. To me Batman's supposed to be supremely intelligent, a Dick Tracy with a cool car. Instead of going the rounds with the joker in this movie he trailed him, always one step behind it seems. Thats not very batmanesque.

As for Frank Millers renegade Batman version, lets just say I'd rather it stay in the comics. I'm not ready to see the dark night driving a tank battling superman anytime soon.

Ok when I said backstory, yes a connection of some sort would have helped. It's not necessary but it would have helped. Some detective work from bats would have added some grace to the movie. He knew nothing about the joker except that he was out to "see the world burn." I just like my hero/villian conflicts to have more continuity. Hell, the joker and batman of Burton's movie felt more real because the conflict between them was more ingrained in their actions because of their past. The dark knight didn't explore anything except the whole you're good and i'm evil notion, so lets fight.

[Edited on January 16, 2009 at 2:15 AM. Reason : .]

1/16/2009 2:12:32 AM

Quote :

"Instead of going the rounds with the joker in this movie he trailed him, always one step behind it seems. Thats not very batmanesque."

There's this guy called The Riddler, and this is what always happens when he challenges batman... batman gets strung along step-by-step until either riddler confronts him directly (and loses) or batman finds a way to jump a step or two ahead and force a confrontation.

Trailing the villain is plenty batmanesque.


Though I do agree that batman's role as a detective and intelligent problem-solver wasn't exercised enough in the movie.

[Edited on January 16, 2009 at 2:15 AM. Reason : .]

1/16/2009 2:14:43 AM

Yeah exactly, its those traps that Batman uses to get a one up everynow and then. By rounds I mean Batman needs to piss off his villian every once in a while to maintain a status quo of coolness..

His actions just weren't sufficient in this movie. When he did do stuff it was very underwhelming. For instance the big wheel bike, the xray cell phone glasses, the miraculous tower fall onto a car.

[Edited on January 16, 2009 at 2:20 AM. Reason : .]

1/16/2009 2:17:58 AM

Quote :

"I WILL say that the hospital explosion scene resulted in calls from my neighbors...who live four houses down. Their good china shook a little. THAT was fun. And it was awesome that that was really Ledger in front of a real explosion."

Damn dude, what the hell is your sound system running?

But yes, that was a really nice scene. They did a nice job with all the explosions in the movie which is getting to be rare nowadays.

1/16/2009 11:11:09 AM

Heath got the Oscar nom

today's also the anniversary of his death, which is an odd coincidence

[Edited on January 22, 2009 at 10:23 AM. Reason : .]

1/22/2009 10:23:31 AM

this was a better movie than both Slumdog and Benjamin Button. where is the best picture nomination?

1/22/2009 2:29:09 PM

1/27/2009 3:42:36 PM

Quote :

"this was a better movie than both Slumdog and Benjamin Button. where is the best picture nomination?"

negative.

1/27/2009 4:10:29 PM

The Dark Knight is playing at the IMAX again for a few more weeks.

2/5/2009 1:59:43 PM

What happened when the Joker killed the black mob boss, didn't look like the gun had a silencer but you hear no gunshot
Also you see no bullet exit wound

[Edited on February 5, 2009 at 2:30 PM. Reason : Cue JFKs autopsy photo]

2/5/2009 2:29:25 PM

almost positive he didnt even have a gun in that scene

he cut his throat im pretty positive

2/5/2009 2:42:42 PM

black mob boss.......

are you talking about the guy who played tyson? pretty sure that was with a knife

2/5/2009 2:43:58 PM

yea it was a knife good call

2/5/2009 2:56:34 PM

and it was a knife in the mouth, only looked like it should have cut his cheek open

did he pull it out and cut his throat?

2/5/2009 3:31:12 PM

you're supposed to assume getting cut in the cheek is enough to kill you

2/5/2009 3:49:57 PM

^.

2/5/2009 3:51:53 PM

In the scene where Joker is strung up by Batman, why do they rotate the camera view 180 degrees so that he looks like he is still falling?

2/6/2009 12:45:04 AM

because you touch yourself at night

and they rotate it because the only thing worse than watching a guy give a speech upside down is a guy giving a speech in the bale-bat growl voice

2/6/2009 12:52:53 AM

it's called art

2/6/2009 7:28:46 AM

does anyone know if it still sells out at the imax showings? we're going for valentine's and i don't know if we need to order tickets ahead of time...

2/11/2009 8:23:12 AM

it's called art

2/11/2009 8:37:06 AM