Batman carries on beginning in ... The Dark Knight

Yeah, Neal Adams era. Not sure which writer though.

If it was Neal Adams era, I guess it would have been Denny O'Neil. I was thinking it was later -- Englehart.

Internet says that the first usage was by Bill Finger in 1940, but I'm not sure about "wider use."

Talking to my neighbor's 13 year old son today, he told me that Dane Cook is Christopher Nolan's choice to play the Joker in the next movie.

The fact that kids come up with these comic-bizarre casting rumors and spread them like the cold is something from childhood I had forgotten about.

Heath Ledger died from cooties :-(

"Would you like to see how I got these scars? When I was little I kissed a girl."

http://i.imgur.com/nT3b8.jpg

haaaaaa

holy shit

good thing he didnt have his golf clubs handy

oh that is so goddamned funny

that has made my fuckin' night

Hahahahaaaa

Apparently this stunt was done immediately after Nicholson learned of Ledger's death, so the obvious contempt in his face has a rather different meaning than we'd take from it now. And yet...

yeah, that photo was around a day or two after Ledger kicked it

uh that photo is a photoshop job, guys.

more like ~you~ are a photoshop

more like

pssh. next thing you know he'll say santa isn't real.

watched this at someones house recently. apart from ledger, its still really overrated. trying way too hard to be dark and takes itself far too seriously. also way too long (why do people think epic=mark of quality?). easily the most humorless of all the batman films. a good redress to what they did with the franchise before batman and robin etc so i understand the context but its just too far in the opposite direction. gotham still looks quite pedestrain compared to tim burtons gotham too. not sure how this type of indulgent/bloated 'serious' blockbuster (watchman etc) obsessed with being weighty and 'important' (rather than fun) ended up being so feted. trying to think of what the precedents were.

i suppose it being all heavy rather than fun is diff from the blockbuster norm but the heaviness just seems too contrived, its gravely aspirational heaviness.

As I've said before, there are plenty of moments in this that make me lol. And in Watchmen too.

watchmen is pretty camp and entertaining, and it has lots of jokes

did like his new vehicles though.

the batmobile was>>>>

did lol at the trip to hong kong as it reminded me of the adam west series but not sure if that was a good lol or not.

I thought there was lots of good, character-based humour all the way through; plenty of lines from Caine, obviously, but also quite a few from bale. The meeting with Eckhardt & Gyllenhall in the restaurant is great.

apart from ledger, its still really overrated. trying way too hard to be dark and takes itself far too seriously. also way too long

agree with all of that, but there were still some nice lols as nick says. still think watchmen was better (more consistent, funnier, looks better, more successful in what it was trying to do).

top lol was bruce wayne "should i go to the hospital?"

easily the most humorless of all the batman films.

um waht? the ledge was hilarious.

i think that was on the understanding that ledger aside, maybe not

I'm finding this really watchable on HBO in bits and pieces, though Bale's Batman voice (and Oldman's speech at the end) gets worse each time you hear it (starting to wonder if he made it intentionally absurd so they'd let him spend more time with the mask off - which he does). At this point I'd probably say its my favorite Batman film not just named Batman.

The only thing overrated in that film is Ledger!!

xpost - yeah the speech is a bit silly (and also lazy on nolans part - actually that was my other prob with the film, a lot of it seemed too expository). and batmans voice is preposterous but also gets a few lols. (well from me, but not the batman fans i saw it with).

but as far as aspirational heaviness, I'll take it over all the Ra's Al Ghul ("My anger outweighs my guilt") talk of the last movie. Plus slimy Eric Roberts >>>> Tom Wilkinson declaring "you've never tasted desperate!" and Maggie Gyllenhaal >>>>>>>> Katie Holmes.

while i think ledger's performance is what keeps people connected to the movie as it bounces from set piece to set piece and melodramatic discussion to melodramatic discussion, I wonder how it would have been received if he hadn't died. It's engaging enough didn't really think about his passing much when I saw the film - only later did I think about what a shame it is that there's nothing to follow it, but (and i'm trying to find a way to say this without being in poor taste) the effect probably would have been diluted if Ledger was smiling at premieres and around to answer questions like "why is your character so awesome?"

eric roberts is hilarious and i wish he was in every movie, but in no universe is he better than tom wilkinson

he is as a cartoon mobster

Batman voice ...... gets worse each time you hear it

i had this, until someone on ilx just posited that bruce wayne doesn't want his voice to be recognisable in any way. makes it a lot easier to watch just to think that way about it.

you'd think he'd want to be easily understood, though

DOES HE THOUGH????

makes ya think

can't be too hard to build a vocoder into that suit

t-wayne

i think i underrated this movie at the time; on reflection, the set-pieces, at least early on, were simply better done than the cut-to-shred crap you get from most blockbusters. it is too long, though, and the final thing where batters taps into the matrix or whatever sucked.

the people in the boats should have blown themselves up, let's face it.

wow totally did not even recognize Eric Roberts when I saw this

i think i underrated this movie at the time; on reflection, the set-pieces, at least early on, were simply better done than the cut-to-shred crap you get from most blockbusters. it is too long, though, and the final thing where batters taps into the matrix or whatever sucked.

― free the charmless but occasionally brilliant Dom Passantino (history mayne), Tuesday, January 12, 2010 8:43 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i agree with this pretty much. the truck set piece was pretty awesome. the supersonic cell phone reality device and the dumb plot point about the ethical conflict it posed was ridiculous.

also the boat thing.

and it really does go on way too long.

but that IMAX stuff in the theater was like sheeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

Batman Begins is better, it's a smart, slick action film that doesn't park itself in the middle of a convoluted moral maze from which it has no clue how to remove itself.

I'm all for big entertainment dabbling in big ideas, but it should be done in a less ham-fisted and muddled way than in The Dark Knight. This isn't to say I didn't enjoy a lot about the film.

batman begins = great first 1/2, kinda goes downhill once he actually becomes batman. dude learned how to do actions scenes better for TDK.

the truck set piece WAS surprisingly good - i think the problem with most action scenes w/batman is that the suit is so bulky and impractical you end up having to shoot around it

I'd have to watch it again to be sure, but I think the opening heist might well be the best set-piece.