*jawdrop*

[kickaha]

Just got back from The Dark Knight (so I'm a little behind on my theatre experiences).

Wow. Just wow. I don't own a lot of movies, but I will that one. It was just beautifully crafted, from beginning to end. I love the fact that it felt more like a crime drama than a 'superhero movie'. The opening sequence had this wonderful 70's French Connection feel, the action sequences were incredibly well done without being "ZOMG! ACTION SCENE!", and jesus, could you get a more intelligently, straightforward and solidly done "If they make you react against your principles out of fear, THE TERRORISTS WIN!" message? (ginkgo correctly pointed out afterwards that there's no way in hell this movie could have used NYC as a backdrop - it would go against everything this region is currently embroiled in as a cultural fabric.)

Chicago was a pretty darned decent stand in for Gotham, to be honest. The use of the El and split covered highways was just beautiful, and I can't think of a decent analogue in the NYC area that would have given that same dark, gritty, and infrastructure-in-trouble feel. (To be sure, NYC has *more* than it's fair share of failing infrastructure, they just like to slap paint over it to make it not so obvious to tourists. Just don't step on metal storm grates in the road or sidewalk if you can help it. Google 'stray voltage deaths'.)

Bale was really good, Eckhart was really *really* good, but if Ledger doesn't get at *least* a fucking Oscar nomination, then the Academy truly has lost its head up its ass for good. Caine and Freeman make a beautiful set of older mentors (could we get one scene with the two of them playing off of one another please?), and sadly, while I normally love Maggie, I just couldn't really get into her character. She wasn't *bad*, by any means, and fulfilled her role adequately, but in the panorama of the rest of the film, she kind of melted into the background. Oldman nailed it again as Gordon, however - he just played it beautifully straight.

Actually, that's pretty much how I felt about the whole film - they treated the source material as something serious, not campy or 'oh, just comics'. They took the psychological damages out of the four color print process and played with them explicitly, without being saccharine or heavy-handed. They managed to work in a number of relevant (to any time period, really) social issues, and dear god, was that *character development* I saw? Really, this was Dent's story - the Joker was the catalyst of chaos, the Batman was the questionable ethics of power and order, but Dent was the pivot point between the two. Without him, this would have been a beautiful cat-and-mouse, but it wouldn't have had nearly so much emotional punch.

Damn. Just... damn. Love it.

Comments

My *one* complaint...

[flinx.livejournal.com]

is that if they'd cut the movie at the end of the MCU explosions bit, worked out some sort of nice tie-up to get the Joker imprisoned (on charges of murder of an ADA), they could have made an ENTIRE OTHER MOVIE out of Two-Face. They'd set Dent up perfectly for the fall, and could have left him teetering there on the very edge... only to snap early in the next movie.

Alas, they crammed it in to an already beautifully full script, and sacrificed what could have been another wonderful movie, focusing entirely on Two-Face and his representation of Gotham's self-image and ego, with him wavering back and forth, as Two-Face was wont. With Wayne and Dent playing off of each other over Rachel's death, the tension between those two would have been a phenomenal hook, given Bale and Eckhart's acting abilities.

But hell, that's really my only complaint.

Re: My *one* complaint...

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

I have a funny feeling we'll see more of that in the director's cut - RHI Nolan delivered a *4 hour* film to the studio, and said "these portions are to be left untouched, do what you want with the rest", and expected a 2hr film... and the studio left more in than expected. The 4hr version will be the full story, is my wager, and yeah, there's two films worth there.

OTOH, it really wrapped the themes of this film beautifully... Batman and the Joker as two opposing forces of order and chaos, and the question hanging in the air "How far will order exert control to stamp out chaos?" You can see it in the ethics questions surrounding the surveillance, and you can see it in the tension between individuality and groupthink of the ferries conundrum.

And Dent is at the crux, a force for order, but who gets pulled into the chaos, and... merges the two. He has an ordered way of introducing randomness. He becomes a singular battlefield for the larger struggle, and I don't think that it would have had quite the individual impact it did without his character to flesh out this particular arc. It would have been a great story about humanity, but it would have lacked the tie to being human.

[icebluenothing.livejournal.com]

Stray Voltage Deaths would be an *awesome* name for a band.

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

..also gimmick.

AP: Mr. Ohm, seven of your fans were randomly electrocuted during your last performance. What do you have to say about that?

OHM: You saw the name of our band. What did you expect?

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see you're offering resistance.

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

Only to current events.