Batman carries on beginning in ... The Dark Knight

I'm sure this has been mentioned, as I haven't read the whole thread, but in discussing critical reaction to this I think it's important to be specific about when someone is putting The Dark Knight into the context of "super-hero" COMIC BOOKS and when it's being put into the context of "super-hero" comic-book MOVIE ADAPTATIONS. Which are not the same thing.

TDK feels more like a good, epic crime procedural (HEAT is the movie it evokes, strongly) than it does like any other comic-hero MOVIE. I'm sure there are plenty of comics -- Batman comics probably — that have the same feel/tone. But none of the super hero movies quite do. If it rises above it's form (and I'm not sure it does -- I like X-Men 2 best of the comic adaptations I've seen), it's the form of the movie-adaptations, not of comic books themselves.

just came back from a midnight screening.

yeah, it ruled. that is all.

i need to rewatch this though. i was forced to sit in the front row, the theater was so packed.

does batman really say punk rock joker?

i don't think so. i don't remember him saying it. but i missed a lot of little things.

does christian bale ever have his shirt off? that is pretty much all i care about.

so fuckin tired of superhero movies, don't care how 'dark' or 'innovative' they are. i just want to see some super-physiques, feel me

he impales the joker and two-face with his cock, but he has his shirt on.

this was the shit

whoever plays the joker next should kill himself before the role cuz he isn't topping ledger

robert downey jr in blackface cameo was A++ too

i just saw this, it was pretty good. all i'll say about it is that it could've been about 1/3rd shorter and less complicated. heath ledger and gary oldman rule. christian bale's "batman voice" is terrible, though.

does robert downjey jnr really cameo in blackface?

it's 45 minutes too long. it thinks it's a brooding, morailty tale, with all gray and no black or white, which it's not. it's actually got a bit of ayn rand in it, which i found tedious. the acting is all well done, but the characters themselves are much less interesting than in the first one... though to be honest, i don't think any of the roles were especially demanding. and to top it all off, maggie gylenhall looks like the fish man from hellboy. seriously.

i'd like to see a pixar batman more than the self-serious murk this film seems to be promising . . . .

Pixar shouldn't just be making films for the kid market, anyway. Everytime I'm sitting through a Pixar film with my wife and daughter, I think: ''You know what would be great? A Pixar version of Jaws.''

YES

A friend raised a question I'd never thought of ... why don't they call Caine ALFIE the Butler?

"'Ello, sir... Black rubber again t'night? Ow, the birds really go fer that, eh? Fair nuff."

Or Caine as Harry Palmer: "Going out? I was just about to make an omelette. Do us a favour and bring us back some tinned mushrooms. And get the expensive ones this time, cos there really is a difference in the flavour."

...or as Charlie Croker: "You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off! Not flatten a street full of cars and fill an apartment block full of bat droppings."

Or as the old hippie in Children of Men: "Joker, eh? Think you're funny, eh? Come on, pull my finger."

see, none of those are short for "Alfred"

How about the film ending with a real cliffhanger ending, with the Batmobile balancing on the edge of a cliff and Alfred says "Wait a minute, I've got an idea"? Oh never mind...

Saw this in IMAX last night. Really good, though strangely derivative of No Country for Old Men and Saw. Take those three movies and you've got a thesis on the American psyche in this decade, I guess.

I loved the heavy Mies van der Rohe influence on the interiors (which fits with the whole Chicago skyline). Also interesting how careful Nolan was to exclude any easily identifiable landmarks (Sears Tower, Hancock Tower, etc.) and focus on the more anonymous ones.

In IMAX, the Hong Kong section was especially amazing.

This film was shot before anyone but festival audiences saw No Country for Old Men, oui?

i tink i might see this tonight, i am very excited

not to get too OT here but is "saw" actually worth seeing eazy? usually mainstream horror movies come out & every year theres a couple where people are like but this ones DIFFERENT & SPECIAL in some way & every time theyre not (in my experience)

True. No idea if NCfOM the screenplay was circulated much before then, or if it's just (coin)cidence.

I've only seen enough of Saw clips to know it's a manclown taunting people and setting traps for them from afar.

But... The joker IS a 'manclown' and two-face DOES make decisions based on the toss of a coin, these are established characters devised way before 'saw' or 'no country' and as such it's bullshit to suggest they are derivative of the saw bloke and anton chigurrrrrrr.

Great movie by the way, a big step up from batman begins in my opinion.

And the pencil trick was just brilliant!

Reminiscent of Saw??????

y'know Batman villains and their traps, etc.

kinda foolish to say this is derivative of sources that are actually predated by all this stuff in the Batman mythos (coin-flipping, death traps, etc.)

saw and no country for old men = "IT IS DARK AND OSTENSIBLY NIHILISTIC"

yea i didnt make the connection b/w jigsaw=joker & two-face = chigurh, that doesnt really hold water

i always thought chigurh's coin fetish was pretty lol two-face.

And the pencil trick was just brilliant!

-- spaghetti, Friday, July 18, 2008 12:01 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

theatre had big lols at this

And I'm out of this thread until I see it.

"pencil trick" is enough of a harbinger of spoilers for me to know when I should leave.

The coin, the clown, you guys are right. As a moviegoer, and as far as thinking about what fears they're playing on, they made me think of these other movies.

i still can't get over how lame bale's "angry batman" growl was.

i can get over it. but it is kinda lame, like he's gargling gravel.

I had trouble with it for the first half-hour or so, eventually I got over it.

they should've gotten the dude from the animated series to do it

kevin conroy

I came three times. I'm seeing it again today

you did clean up the mess? just saying, i used to me an usher at a movie theater. be considerate.

buttered his popcorn --

no worries, I put garbage bags on my seat and the two adjoining....

through probably should have done that BEFORE I came....

whatever that shit is that they put on the popcorn, it sure as hell ain't butter.

really it is the nastiest shit ever. try heating it up in the morning! after i left that job i couldn't eat popcorn for like a year.

Canola oil if I'm not mistaken.

I don't know if perhaps I've just changed tastes over time, or if they've really tampered with the formula, but I absolutely abhor movie theatre popcorn now. It actually makes me feel sick to have more than a little of it, and I used to ingest it as a kid.

I had trouble with it for the first half-hour or so, eventually I got over it.

-- Simon H

i had the opposite reaction! i thought it was harder to get over at the end of the movie, when there was less cops-and-robbers and more batman in general.

i was just trying to explain this movie to my mom and i think whatever reviewer called it "untouchables with a batman in it" sort of nailed it, or at least the good parts of the movie. i thought the cops-and-robbers stuff was amazing and fantastic. the police funeral, the car chase, the scenes with the captured joker in the major crimes unit. the middle third, i guess. i would've been as happy with a batman-less movie of gary oldman & the MCU vs the joker!

I feel sorry for Mamma Mia. well ,not really because it's rubbish, but I wonder how many people attended the midnight premiere of that movie last night. I didn't see anybody going to see it at the theatre I went to.