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So I went and saw "Dark Knight" in IMAX tonight, finally catching up with the rest of the civilized world.
...did I miss a memo or walk into a different Batman movie or something? As pretty as some of the swooping-over-the-city scenes were, I find distinctly underwhelmed. Perhaps the constant angst and attempts at making broad statements about humanity and the nature of power managed to trick the general public into thinking this was a good movie because for some reason the non-fanperson community likes that sort of thing, because all I managed to see was a plothole-filled emofest. I mean, they spent more time focusing on the Joker's sadistic shenanigans than they did Batman, probably because Batman's raspy-voiced self is just that boring.
Just blech. Shiny enough during the few times we even see Batman kicking ass and taking names, but otherwise mediocre.
...did I miss a memo or walk into a different Batman movie or something? As pretty as some of the swooping-over-the-city scenes were, I find distinctly underwhelmed. Perhaps the constant angst and attempts at making broad statements about humanity and the nature of power managed to trick the general public into thinking this was a good movie because for some reason the non-fanperson community likes that sort of thing, because all I managed to see was a plothole-filled emofest. I mean, they spent more time focusing on the Joker's sadistic shenanigans than they did Batman, probably because Batman's raspy-voiced self is just that boring.
Just blech. Shiny enough during the few times we even see Batman kicking ass and taking names, but otherwise mediocre.
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Date: 2008-07-27 05:38 am (UTC)...They made Batman an emofest!? I mean, sure, Batman can be pretty angsty but emo? It just...doesn't compute. *hwaps directors and writers with a newspaper* bad!
Now I really wanna see this. Get my own opinions and whatnot. ^_^ *rubs hands together gleefully*
Will stop taking up space now <_< *waves!*
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Date: 2008-07-27 05:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-27 06:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-27 02:08 pm (UTC)I'm holding myself away from the graphic novel until it gets here, but everything I've head says it's awesome and I've liked every other Moore-comic-turned-movie so far.
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Date: 2008-07-27 04:36 pm (UTC)I'm extremely pleased the movie is keeping the same setting--a Cold War backdrop. I grew up during that time remember how everyone thought any moment, the nuclear apocalypse was coming.
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Date: 2008-07-27 04:42 pm (UTC)It did look rather...well, a bit past steampunk, but Dick Tracy punk.
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Date: 2008-07-27 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2008-07-27 07:14 am (UTC)It's true that the focus was not on Batman: it was on Harvey and Gotham City itself. Harvey is as much the Dark Knight as Bruce is, because in trying to be Gotham's White Knight he drew the attention of forces (namely the Joker) that he was incapable of handling and so contributed to his own ruin. That could, perhaps, have been made a little more clear, as doing so would might also have improved Rachel's role. But overall I'd say these flaws are minor at best, and don't interfere overly much in an otherwise excellent movie.
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Date: 2008-07-27 02:07 pm (UTC)Plotholes in that the Joker's influence seemed to be everywhere at once, pulling every string and planting every bomb with a puppetmaster skill that would make Vetinari have to go lie down for a bit. At some point it just got to be too much to be believed. Plus that...bit at the end which didn't have to go nearly as self-sacrificing as it did.
Plus, one of the major strengths of Batman is his intelligence and deductive skills, and the movie focused mostly on his kickassery and gadgets. Just didn't sit right with me.
I mean, it's possible that it just wasn't to my taste, which tends to run towards happyish endings and fading to black at a sunrise instead of a dark alley.
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Date: 2008-07-27 10:27 pm (UTC)I'd say the reason they didn't go as much into Batman's deductive skills is because, like I said, Batman's not the main character of this film. Perhaps that was a mistake on somebody's part, though I thought it in many ways made for a very interesting film, especially after the Spideremo debacle. Batman does show some deduction, but it's offscreen, such as when he figured out Dent's plan to show the Joker off track by claiming to be Batman. Unfortunately, a lot of what we do see consists of the Joker running rings around Batman -- which makes some level of sense, considering this is their first encounter in this continuity. Even if Batman had been the main character, I doubt he'd have been able to see through the Joker's gambit with Harvey and Rachel.
Emotionally, I'll admit the ending was pretty unsatisfying. (I refuse to believe Harvey's really dead!) But thematically, it was the logical conclusion of the film. Gotham isn't ready for a White Knight: Batman tried to legitimize himself, and Harvey tried to become a symbol of Gotham's future, and look what they dragged out of the darkness. It's only by being part of the darkness that Batman can do his job. And do I sound pretentious talking like this or what? XD;
tl;dr I thought it was an awesome movie, but YMMV. Dark Knight improved on a lot of the things wrong with Batman Begins, so the third movie will probably do the same. Meanwhile, there's always Ironman!
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Date: 2008-07-27 11:44 pm (UTC)The way I hear it, Two-Face was supposed to live and then break Joker out in the next movie, but sans Heath Ledger we can't exactly have a Joker.
In terms of theme...well, it's possible it was just too thematic for my tastes. I don't like a movie that gets so tied up in its own metaphors and symbolism that it sacrifices interesting plot.
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Date: 2008-07-27 08:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-28 05:39 pm (UTC)I honestly really liked it, but I did come away with the feeling that I had just watched a film in which Batman was a side character. Which didn't really bother me all that much, because OMG JOKER.
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Date: 2008-07-28 05:51 pm (UTC)This felt like the Joker's movie. And while that's nice, it's still...not a Batman movie.