The Dark Knight
Posted by Petra · 5 Comments
The hype has been building for weeks now and I too was caught up in the frenzy. Everywhere you turn there are ads and slogans - trailers and interviews - all promising great things for The Dark Night. Opening night? Yeh, we were there.
Let's just say I was a little disappointed....
The opening weekend gross was $155M and I am wondering if it will maintain the acclaim its received thus far. I can't imagine I was the only one let down; the only one expecting more substance from the characters other than The Joker. The only one expecting more action, a tougher Batman; not some soft spoken woos who can't kill a bad guy. And is it just me, or did the way he disguised his voice while wearing the suit bother anyone else?? It was like nails on a chalkboard, only worse. I don't remember this annoyance from the first movie. Perhaps its been too long between films, or perhaps it wasn't as annoying the first go 'round. Or perhaps the first movies plot was fast enough and Batman was tough enough, that I overlooked it.
The Dark Knight "Pros"
Heath Ledger. I am not quite sure if it was his portrayal of the Joker, or if it was merely the development of the character of the Joker - either way, the Joker made the movie. Heath Ledger, made the movie by delivering a phenomenal job of a menacing and fantastic Joker. Without him, without the Joker, the movie would have been the biggest waste of 2 1/2 hours spent in a theater so far this year.
Two-Face's burns. Make-up did exceptionally well in showing a half burned face with exposed eyeball, teeth, and jaw bone. Take it from someone who watches graphic movies on a daily basis - It looked very convincing.
Christian Bale. So far he is my favorite of the Batman portrayer's. The most convincing. Although after this movie, he is teetering on losing that honor.
The action scenes, and any scene involving The Joker. Two of my favorites are 1. The Joker does a magic trick by making a pencil "disappear" into a guys head, and 2. Batman breaks some bad guys legs. The crunch sound was classic!
The Dark Knight "Cons"
Batman seems to take a back seat to the other characters. There really wasn't any development of his part, except to show his arrogance. I was not impressed. And don't get me started again on his Batman voice! Arrgghh!
Too many smaller plots making up the "bigger picture." It was easy to get lost in all the attempts to develop the many involved characters, yet none (aside from the Joker) stood out from the crowd.
Maggie Gyllenhaal. Though she really did do an awesome job of playing Rachel this time around, (Katie must have been busy making babies with weird hubby Tom) I found it annoying that she seemed to always be smiling! I'm sure it's just her mannerisms or quirkiness, but I found it to be rather distracting.
Periods of "lull." With a movie of this magnitude, this much hype, I would have expected 2 1/2 hours of a non-stop roller coaster ride. I would have at least expected more meat by way of substance. I got neither.
Conclusion
I would like to clarify that I did not not like this movie. I was just expecting more. And the result of not getting it is someone who would have rather waited for the DVD.
How 'bout you? Have you seen it?
i definitely think it could have been better. It was good, but there was a lot of gaping plot holes that no one seems to want to hear about. Any other film, people would have hated this one.
Jorge – I couldn’t agree more. It was almost like the writers just skimmed the various story lines because they were trying to fit so much into the 2 1/2 hours. They ended up sacrificing substance and causing more questions than answers.
I would have liked it better if it were a little shorter. They could have waited for two face to be “born” at the end, and cut some of that out to use an another movie. And about the 2nd time the joker was caught I started having to potty so bad I just wanted it to be over.
Heath Ledgers joker was AWESOME.
I LOVE Maggie Gyllenhaal, I don’t care what the haters say. I loved her in stranger than fiction as the tattooed baker chic! Def… another reason for me to go see this!
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i don’t agree with you……..this was a much better movie than what i expected….
Yea, it wasn’t always a roller coaster ride……but it kept me excited …..through out the movie……which was very similar to a roller coaster……cause its not always about….being high in a story……..some where you have to keep it steady too…
well i liked almost everything about movie and have too watch it atleast few more times to get what wasn’t good enough in the movie…..
and also i agree with your thought of Batman taking a back seat………one wouldn’t expect that in a Batman movie………..but i thing Nolan did a good job while distributing the screen space cause there where more character in this one who needed importance.
Aaron eckhart is a great actor and felt it when i saw his my first Aaron movie “thank you for smoking” and wanted to see him in this one.
I’m not a Christan bale fan…….but yea, a heath ledger fan for sure…….i hate to say it but heath ledger death have done good to this movie………..
Maggie is also one of the actress i like……………
conclusion for me…….a excellent movie with a great performance by the cast…..even the character with lesser footage like……wayne’s butler……alfred
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