Not Spidey III levels of bad, but not great either.

[seiberwing]

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.

Comments

[seikk.livejournal.com]

*headtilt* wow. That's the first time I've heard anything negative about it...well...besides the whole 'it's sick and twisted and mis-rated!' Thing they have going on...

...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!*

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Well, more like everyone bar the Joker was emo. Batman himself was...blank. Really, there was nothing there. He had a few tense moments but otherwise it was raspy voice and lurking and having girlfriend troubles like every other bloody superhero seems to have these days bar Hellboy (you see that, moviemakers? THAT IS HOW YOU DO A LOVE INTEREST.) The only reason I cared about him was that I wanted the Joker to go down and obviously only Batman could do it because he's Batman.

[dogbite12.livejournal.com]

Now that it's cooled down and I can go out again, I really want to see this in IMAX.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhh yesyesyes.

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.

[dogbite12.livejournal.com]

I believe you should read it; the movie can't possibly include everything.

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.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

I plan on reading it afterwards, same as I did for V for Vendetta and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic that I had to put down midway through because it was creeping me the fuck out.

It did look rather...well, a bit past steampunk, but Dick Tracy punk.

[dogbite12.livejournal.com]

Alan Moore is nuttier than a fruitcake, as my dad used to say but Watchmen is his best work, IMO

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Thin line between genius and insanity and all that.

[dogbite12.livejournal.com]

He hasn't lost it completely but he's on his way.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Wonder how many comic writers do that, on average. And if you can count Furman and Miller's...unique depictions of women.

[dogbite12.livejournal.com]

I am at the point where I'm going to bring that up to them, especially after SDCC.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

I desire a full report.

[dogbite12.livejournal.com]

Of course. XD

[silver-drake.livejournal.com]

Plotholes? Seriously? I thought The Dark Knight had some of the best writing I've seen in the last couple of years. Everything was tied together; the plot was both complex and comprehensible, and the ending was satisfying in a heartbreaking way. I felt like the themes of power and corruption was well-handled, and the only overdone part that comes to mind was the sequence with the boats, which was rather clumsy and superfluous. I'd have liked to either see more with Two Face or see the Joker take a more direct hand in corrupting people, which is what he does best in this film.

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.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Like I said, I feel like I walked into the wrong movie.

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.

[silver-drake.livejournal.com]

Okay, fair points all. Personally I was relieved to see the Joker portrayed as such an evil mastermind; there's a reason he's Batman's archnemesis, and it's not because of his nice smile.

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!

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

The Joker was perfect, it was just...everything else that bugged me. They try to take the fallible hero approach and go too far, coming back around the other end to a city that is actually made worse by the presence of Batman and a villain that Batman barely manages to even measure up to and defeat, let alone outshine. And even that involves pulling in a sonar McGuffin at the end and making a statement about invasion of privacy instead of having some simple deductive Batmanning.

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.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Seconded. OK but not brilliant.

[chibikaijuu.livejournal.com]

Wait, you were expecting a movie about Batman? Silly girl.

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.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

You have a point, technically the word 'Batman' wasn't even in the title.

This felt like the Joker's movie. And while that's nice, it's still...not a Batman movie.