Domingo, Cine Palácio, Rio de Janeiro. Não consigo de imediato saber se a fila para a compra de ingressos está maior que a fila para entrar na sala e a fila da pipoca não fica muito distante em tamanho também. Bastante gente, vozerio, confusão. Pela primeira vez deixei de assistir a um filme do Batman na estréia. Estrategicamente, abandonei os shopping e deixei pra vir no domingo, que segundo dica de amigos, os cinemas no Centro estão vazios. Meus amigos devem ser muito tagarelas, pois, inteligentemente todo mundo traçou a mesma estratégia, e lá estava eu enfiada no meio de uma bem comportada multidão (ainda assim multidão) e sem o ar condicionado do shopping o que me fez pensar se não havia traçado uma estratégia suicida... But, no stress, o morcego merece!

Não me preparei para ver esse filme, apenas me concentrei para o baque triste que seria ver o Heath Ledger. Não li nenhuma crítica e não perguntei a ninguém. Ao 'Batman Begin', assisti 4 vezes, a este precisarei multiplicar esta quantidade em função de tanta qualidade, porque é um BAT FILME! O filme é sobre o Duas Caras, tem um Coringa que será inigualável (entendo que nunca é tempo demais, no entanto mantenho: inigualável = jamais será igualado.), tem metáfora da vida de como o homem perfeito deixa de sê-lo, tem diálogos muito legais pra um filme de ação. Ação? Não só, mas também. Batman é um filme com bastante ação, muito suspense, algum drama, uma pitada de romance, que desencadeia tudo o que acontece no filme e ainda mostra que para grandes atores não existe participação discreta, leia-se, Michael Caine e Morgan Freeman. Duas horas e trinta e cinco minutos e achei pouco.

Acontecendo quase que totalmente à noite, todas as cenas são bem visíveis, inclua-se aí as de lutas, totalmente superiores às dos outros filmes. Batman se torna mais um personagem no meio de tantas excelentes atuações, mas retoma a sua veia de detetive, mostra toda a sua inteligência e mostra que não é tão dependente da criatividade genial e conhecimento tecnológico do Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman).

Creio que seja a melhor história que já vi em filmes de super-heróis. E aí todo mundo já sabe a resenha sobre Gothan. Na cidade tomada pela corrupção e outros crimes, Batman ganha o reforço do promotor Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), o “Cavaleiro Branco” legítimo representante do povo, que luta sem máscara e sem medo de colocar a “bagaceira” do crime atrás das grades. Com quase toda a máfia na cadeia, os remanescentes em liberdade aceitam uma proposta de um louco corajoso e anarquista que não quer o poder, quer instaurar o caos na cidade, quer levar as pessoas ao seu limite.

Sim, o Coringa de Ledger é o mensageiro do caos, aquele que quer mostrar que todos tem um lado oposto ao lado bom e que, bem manipulado vem à tona e prevalece. É como se ele soubesse a moeda de troca de cada um, ele sabe os valores de cada uma daquelas boas pessoas e faz o que precisa fazer pra ver esses valores ruirem.

Estranhei dessa vez a voz de Bale, acredito que seja porque neste filme, Batman fala muito mais que no anterior, onde só falava frases curtinhas. Mas se em Begins víamos um Batman que sabia se controlar, nesse Cavaleiro das Trevas o bicho pega! O Coringa tira realmente esse Batman do sério. Na cena do interrogatório na delegacia, vemos o nível da loucura desse Coringa que me pareceu um endemoinhado com alguns trejeitos de Jack Sparrow à beira de uma crise manicomial, histriônico, absurdo, assustador e pasmem: engraçado. Nesta cena, o maluco parecia agregar à sua loucura o efeito de qualquer droga que tenha adormecido o seu couro. Tudo para o descontrole do nosso herói! E se numa cena anterior Batman repreende o promotor de que não era certo trucidar um capanga debilóide do Coringa, à frente do palhaço ele se esquece disso e “manda ver” até perceber que ele não assusta o palhaço malvado.

É realmente um grande filme, uma grande história, uma grande direção e como se não bastasse, recheado de grandes interpretações. Umas poucas bobagens passam pela nossa cabeça quando por exemplo, tentamos entender como o Coringa consegue plantar tantas bombas em tantos lugares sem que ninguém veja e como fica no hospital um paciente tão importante, mas essas questões são expulsas da nossa mente mediante o que vemos na tela.

Eu particularmente fiquei com uma sensação de que o meu herói perdeu e perdeu feio. Sossego, amor, amizade e um tanto do juízo. E não é pra menos, afinal, testemunhei como um cidadão do bem, parceiro de luta pela justiça pode transformar-se num vilão depois de perder o que mais significava pra ele, deixando-se naufragar no ódio e na vingança. Senti uma certa mensagem de desesperança, amargura nesse nascimento do Duas Caras. Ver o promotor acima de qualquer suspeita, transformar-se num feio e deformado me pareceu uma metáfora do que acontece quando perdemos o controle e nosso emocional vai para onde não consegue mais voltar. Mas que maquiagem! Só acho que ele falou bem demais, Se o Coringa queria mostrar que a verdadeira face de Harvey Dent não era a que todos viam, consegue. Aliás, neste filme, Coringa consegue quase tudo, só não consegue matar o eterno morcego e é neste filme que se conhece em profundidade a BAT ALMA do morcegão.

Em tempo: Não vi o Heath Ledger, só o Coringa estava lá...

Por: Deusa Urbana. Blog: Deusa Urbana.

Batman - O Cavaleiro das Trevas (The Dark Knight). 2008. EUA. Direção e Roteiro: Christopher Nolan. Elenco: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman, Eric Roberts, Cillian Murphy. Gênero: Ação, Crime, Drama, Suspense. Duração: 152 min.

O ator britânico Christian Bale foi, esta noite, em Barcelona a principal estrela na première espanhola do filme Batman - O Cavaleiro das Trevas, após pagar fiança e ser liberado, depois de ser acusado de ter agredido a mãe e a irmã.

O astro conseguiu chegar a Barcelona depois de ser liberado na terça-feira, onde foi detido sob a acusação de agredir a mãe a irmã na suíte do hotel Dorchester, no domingo.

Na première européia da nova aventura de Batman, Christian Bale esteve acompanhado de alguns dos atores principais do filme, como Aaron Eckhart e Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Leia mais clicando aqui.

Leia mais posts sobre Christian Bale clicando aqui.

The most exciting release is The Dark Knight – WOAH! YEAH! - the new Batman movie. But some films are transcendental experiences that can only be shared softly with one’s lover. The Dark Knight is such a film. It would be an act of betrayal to see it without Andrew. Not only that, it would be disrespectful. Some philistines might suggest that Andrew and I can always see the film again, together. No. That first viewing, watching a film unfold like unwrapping a gift, is special. Watching it again is not the same. The magic is diluted. The sparkle is dimmed.

Yesterday I found out that Andrew is going to see The Dark Knight with David. Talk about an act of betrayal. Now my only concern is seeing it first, so that I can call Andrew and tell him the ending.

I’ve held off going to see Hancock for several weeks now. The trailers were so promising. Will Smith is as funkadelic as ever. But the critics spanked it. Rotten Tomatoes rated it 38%. The last movie to score less than that was A Chicken Ate My Baby.

Of course I have to see Get Smart because I was such a fan of the original TV Show:-

“Once again the forces of niceness and goodness have triumphed over the forces of evil and rottenness!”

RTE1 used to show Get Smart on Saturday mornings. Mind you, there wasn’t anything else on telly on Saturday mornings, apart from Sesame Street. Of course, Sesame Street was always engaging, especially Count Dracula: 'Vun! A! A! A!' But I watched Get Smart even though I didn't have a crush on Don Adams.

I might have to go and check out Mamma Mia. Initially I was extremely put off – I might even go so far as to say REPELLED – by the poster featuring Meryl Streep in a pair of dungarees. I’m as big a fan of Meryl as anyone – although she never quite made my Top 10 Lesbian List – but the woman is getting on a bit for dungarees. Hell, I’m getting on a bit for dungarees, and I’m half the woman’s age. Probably.

I’ve heard the film is good. Some are even saying it’s better than good. So I might have to check it out in the interests of the prevailing of truth over lies and deceit.

And, of course, in the interests of personal gratification

SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN THE DARK KNIGHT!

This is pretty much my analysis of certain parts of the film, and other thoughts as I watched it for the second time:

Opening Scene: The Bank Heist

I love the opening of The Dark Knight. No opening credits, a bat sign coming out of blue flames and BOOM we are in the film. The opening bank heist scene is the best opening that I could have hoped for. It is the perfectly twisted plan to expect from The Joker. He hires everyone and tells them each to kill the other guy so that the shares are bigger, but nobody knows that the other guy was also told to kill a guy. Out of confusion and a perfectly crafted plan, The Joker is revealed to actually be involved in the heist and is the last man standing.

The Parking Garage Scene

This scene is where the problems start, and overall it is a weak scene. The Scarecrow and some mobsters are meeting over a problem with the Scarecrow's drugs. A copycat Batman steps in and starts shooting people. Not a bad start to the scene. In comes the awesome tank-of-a-Batmobile under remote control. Again, pretty awesome start. So where's the Bat? He appears in the garage out of the darkness, as usual, and BENDS A GUN BARREL WITH ONE HAND!? I'm no scientist or physicist or geinocologist but I think we can all agree that it takes more than human strength to bend a barrel of a gun in the way it happened in this film. Not only that, but, if Batman actually had super strength, that thug would not be able to hold that gun as Batman bent the barrel. It would just get lifted out of his hands. How did the makers of this film let that one go? I understand expirimenting, but there had to be a point where someone was like, "Wait a minute, that's fuckin cheesy."

I did really enjoy the next part when Batman jumped on the side of the van and tried to cut his way in. He failed badly and got slammed into one of the garage's support pillars, and just to be attacked by a couple of dogs. There was no better or funnier way than to show how he is still not so perfect and very human. But he kicks those pooches asses and jumps off the ledge to land on top of the van that the Scarecrow is escaping in. So then Batman ties him and the copycat Batman up and drives off. THAT'S IT?!

Here's what I was hoping for: In the movie Face/Off there is a scene in the start of the movie that looks like the ending action sequence in most action films. It just takes the action, emotion, and intensity to the max right off the bat(ha ha). So I was hoping that if they were going to finish off the Scarecrow in the beginning of this movie, make it huge. Have a crazy fight with the Scarecrows poison shit spraying everywhere and give Batman a HUGE run for his money from the start. The dog bites and the slam into the pillar were a good touch on that front, but imagine him high on that Scarecrow angeldust with two dogs on his ass.

Overall, it was a weak ending for Scarecrow and a weak introduction for Batman.

Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes

Don't worry, it gets positive here.

The first time seeing this film I totally forgot to watch Maggie Gyllenhaal's performance, and the difference between her and Holmes. I made sure to pay attention this time, and she blew me away. The chemistry she had with Harvey Dent and Bruce Wayne was fantastic and worked so well. She brought a whole new dimension to the character that was not brought out at all from Katie Holmes's performance. I especially noticed how awesome she was during the interrogation scene with Lau and her last scene in the warehouse rigged with explosives. Great casting choice.

Heath Ledger as The Joker

I won't get into detail here because the performance speaks for itself. Some of the best parts in the film and the best parts with the Joker are when he is talking. Ledger as The Joker is one of the best performances I have ever seen(TAKE NOTE: I only said the best performance, I PERSONALLY, have seen.) Definitely one of my favorite performances ever. Up there with Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood. The real tragedy is that Heath Ledger is not around to receive the praise in person.

Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman

The first time watching all my attention was on the Joker, but this time I made sure to pay closer attention to Bale and his, no doubt, perfect performance. The performance of Bale as Bruce Wayne is great, because it is actually Christian Bale acting as Bruce Wayne acting as an irresponsible playboy enjoying daddy's trust fund. The true character of Bruce Wayne is actually Batman. Just like Superman's costume is Clark Kent, Batman's costume is "Bruce Wayne The Playboy".

Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two-Face

There is no other word that comes to mind other than perfect. Watching him from the start of the film, being fresh into the DA position, through his path to madness, becoming (a short-lived) Two-Face, was nothing short of phenomenal and moving. That brings me to my next point:

The Death of Two-Face

As awesome as Eckhart was as Two-Face, I would have liked to see less of him in this film and more of him in another Batman film. If they had left him where he was in that hospital bed, incredibly pissed off and vengeful after having talked to the Joker, then that would have freed up a lot of time. That extra time could have been used to compliment my idea of a bigger demise to the Scarecrow and bigger entrance for Batman in the beginning of the movie. Don't get me wrong, everytime Two-Face was on screen was still amazing, but he was so underused. The whole scene with Two-Face and Gordon's family should not have happened. Even after all that happened to Harvey Dent, I think it would have taken a lot more time to drive him crazy enough to want to kill a child. Enough time would be, say, the first two acts of a third Batman movie?

Film Conclusion

After Two-Face is dead on the ground, Batman and Commissioner Gordon exchange some grand speeches. My understanding is that Batman and Gordon have realized that Gotham needs a hero, obviously, but Batman can not be the hero they need...yet. Batman says he will take the blame for the men that Two-Face killed. He has to break his only rule of not killing people, and that makes him The Dark Knight. The savior of Gotham City who has to KILL the bad guys because it's the only way. Now sticking to that philosophy. All they had to do was have Batman kill the joker. That was a great scene when the Joker and Batman fought it out for the last time. One of my favorite parts in the whole film was Joker falling off of the building. It was just very intense for the short amount of time it happens. And then him talking while hanging upside down was equally intense and a great performance by Ledger. The details of what should have happened next could be up to the film-makers, but ultimately there should have been some last bit of scuffling between the two and then the Joker falls and does NOT get saved. And my opinion on having the Joker die in the end is in NO WAY influenced by the death of Heath Ledger. I think it was in the film maker's intention to leave the ending with the Joker the way it was before the death of Ledger.

Side Note: I absolutely loved that they saved showing the title, "The Dark Knight", until the very end of the movie when he truly becomes The Dark Knight.

The Film Kicks Ass

There is no doubt that this is the craziest, darkest, and most awesome comic book movie to hit the screens since Batman Begins. Most of this article seems like a downer on the film, but I am mearly PURPOSELY pointing out the bad parts. I couldn't write an article on ALL the great parts of this movie because it would be way to long, not to say this one isn't.

As much as I would like to have seen more Joker in a third movie, I would have been plenty happy with the Joker meeting his death at the hands of THE DARK KNIGHT!

]]> http://tomhousemanhatesmovies.wordpress.com/?p=57 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:21:44 +0000 Tom Houseman http://tomhousemanhatesmovies.wordpress.com/?p=57 I have been told that writing that Heath Ledger is lucky that he died before he ever had to sit through his last movie is too “offensive,” so I won’t. Suffice to say that had Ledger lived long enough to watch the 152 minutes of torture that is his last film, it’s likely we would be mourning his death anyway, because it’s practically impossible to sit through The Dark Knight without choking to death on your own tongue. If I had a superpower, it would be the ability to punch Christopher Nolan in the face until he realized that Batman is the most ridiculous superhero ever, and trying to take him seriously is the equivalent of making a holocaust film starring the teletubbies. Nolan apparently just figured out this really cool trick where you spin the camera in circles really fast and decided to use it in every scene, giving me yet another reason to feel like I was going to throw up while watching The Dark Knight.

Watching Christian Bale stumble around like an idiot for two and a half hours, half of the time the world’s foremost asshole and the other half inexplicably with a sore throat, helped me realize that there has never been a superhero that I have wanted to disembowel as much as him. I’m not sure how exactly Heath Ledger died, but it might have been from a helium overdose. He sounds like Tweety Bird, rambles incoherently, and is as intimidating a figure as Barney. Aaron Eckhart can shout as much as he wants, but it doesn’t change the fact that he has the emotional range of a toaster strudel. And unless you pay close attention, you might not have noticed that Maggie Gyllenhaal was even in this movie. Actually, Maggie Gyllenhaal might not have noticed either. As the anti-climactic action scenes piled up, I felt tempted to take up the Joker’s suggestion to chew on razor blades, just as a distraction from the excrement on screen. But as blissful as the temporary relief would be, feeling the scars on the insides of my cheeks for the rest of my life would serve as a reminder of the two and a half hours I wasted on this terrible movie.

Rating: 10/10

When confounded by the mayhem that The Joker unleashes on Gotham City, and the growing knowledge within himself that the people of his city are as prone to criminal urges as any super villain, Bruce Wayne builds a surveillance system that lets him keep an eye on everyone. This happens towards the end of the film. The idea that heroes with very powerful moral convictions about justice and freedom could lose faith in those very ideals is one of the big underlying themes of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. This film, more than any other graphic-novel adaption uses the true potential of the medium which thrives on polarized archetypes - the good guy and the bad guy, the superhero and the supervillain. By using these archetypes to discuss the meaning of justice, vengeance, and very human flaws, The Dark Knight breaks from it's genre trappings as a superhero movie and becomes an almost Shakespearean epic that works on every level.

I use the word 'almost', because the movie is not without it's share of problems. There are subplots that don't quite fit into the narrative, there are elements that are a bit too forced, and a large number of dialogues are expository in nature. But these flaws can be easily overlooked because of the searing performances by a brilliant cast, a deft script, and the assured direction by one of the best filmmakers in business today.

After the watershed reboot of the Batman franchise with Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan tackles a problem that a superhero can pose to the society - escalation. With criminals being pushed into a tight spot by Batman, the city's mobsters turns to a "better class of criminal". And that criminal is The Joker, played chillingly by the late Heath Ledger. He has no backstory, and he has no motive. He is, in his own words, "an agent of chaos." He is the anti-thesis to everything that Batman, with his rigid adherence to a moral code, tries to be.

Gotham city has three heroes that the Joker targets. Batman - the vigilante who takes law into his own hands because he does not believe the justice department or the law enforcement is capable of eradicating crime. District Attorney Harvey Dent - the "White Knight" who fights to bring justice using the law. And Lt. James Gordon - a policeman who fights the criminals on the street along with the corruption that exists in his police force. What these three men have in common is the desire to bring order to the city. And what Joker tries to do is break that order and break the three men. He breaks them by targeting their loved ones and the ideals they stand by. He tries to show that when pushed to the limit, the innocent will make the same decisions that a criminal would. And throughout the movie, Joker creates numerous situations where he tries to and sometimes proves this hypothesis.

When Bruce Wayne faces a villain of Joker's caliber, he sees what Batman would have to become to stop him. He realizes the Batman isn't enough to inspire people anymore, and that in the new DA, Gotham finally has the true hero that it needs. Harvey Dent's story arc is the backbone of the movie. It's his rise and fall that underscores the film's grand theme, which is defined in Dent's own words - "that you either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." And true to those ominous words, seeing the futility of his struggle to bring justice using the law alone, Dent becomes Two Face - a man who kills based on the outcomes of the toss of a coin. What pushes him over the edge of sanity is the realization that everything is merely a result of chance.

Heath Ledger's interpretation of the Joker is the greatest performance in a movie so far, this year. His eyes are filled with malice and he walks with his head bent a little forward, like an animal on the hunt. He licks his lips, swallows his saliva and always has an eagerness for a kill. It's an amazing transformation for an actor known for his melancholic performances. Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent gives the DA's story poignancy and tragic gravitas. Gary Oldman plays Lt. Gordon as a hardened policeman with rigid convictions. Michael Caine is delightful as Alfred. He plays the servile butler with an ironic glint in his eyes, knowing that he is more than that, that he is a father figure and a mentor to Bruce Wayne. Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox adds credibility to a minor role.

Surrounded by loud performances, Christian Bale is easy to overlook. As in all his previous films, Bale is a very generous actor. He enhances the performances of his peers. It's his understated performance as the angst ridden Bruce Wayne and the vigilante Batman that holds the movie together.

Christopher Nolan arranges the movie around easily discernible cores. There is the love triangle between Dent, Wayne and Rachel Dawes - played with fiery presence by Maggie Gyllenhaal. There is the ideological battle between Dent, Gordon and Batman on fighting crime. And then there is the conflict within Wayne about his chosen path as Batman. The Joker is the instigator, commentator and often the catalyst for all these conflicts. The result is an action packed philosophical journey into darkness, out of which only a few of the major characters come out and that too damaged and transformed.

The Dark Knight is being sold as the best summer-action-blockbuster-superhero movie ever. That is not enough of a description for this film. What is being overlooked by the marketing gurus and the media reviews is how much more than that this film is. This is a groundbreaking film - audacious in it's ambitions to discuss grand themes using well established characters, and inventive in it's execution of these ambitions.

[Link to IMDB profile]

The other night, Aidan and I had time to kill in Vermont South. So we went the (really) long way to Tegans and along the way, Aidan showed me all these streets in Glen Waverly from the King Arthur legend. It was the coolest thing ever. We were driving down King Arthur Dr itself and coming off it were streets including Knights Dr, Lancelot Crescent and Excalibur Ave! And running parallel was Guinevere Parade, then there was Legend Ave, Gauntlet Ave and Camelot Dr. I was so amazed I would have been a danger on the road - except I was going about 20km/h to soak it all in (and to annoy Aidan hehe).

Then! We went to Knox to see the Dark Knight. Except we were idiots and thought we'd have no trouble getting tickets to the biggest movie all year on its first Saturday night. We lined up at 8pm for the 9:30pm VMAX session, it was already sold out. And it was red like that too, just to rub it in. And even the 10:45pm was yellow (filling). By the time we got to the front of the line it was front row only to seat the four of us together. So we spend the next 2 hours in the Coffee Club killing time :) When other Tim arrived we had a good Gossip Girl gossip, much to the chagrin of Aidan and Tegan. But they had fun mocking us anyhow.

The movie was really good. And really long! It didn't end up starting until ten past 11pm and so finshed at about 1:30am. Really really good though. Only dissappointment is having to admit that Katie Holmes played Rachel tons better than Maggie Gyllenhaal. Which sucks because Katie Holmes is a brainwashed weirdo and Maggie is cool. Oh well.

On Friday night we (Connie, Myself and Rohan) are going to film an IV with the Galvatrons after their soundcheck for the 'Back to the Top' gig at the Prince Bandroom. Kirsty's going to edit it and Pablo's going to make me some graphics and it will look siiiiick on 1700 next Wednesday. Tune in!

Today at work we each got a gift that said on it "With Thanks, Voice Solutions, Sensis" and inside was a pen. A pen. Which also said "Voice Solutions, Sensis." .. A pen. We don't even use pens at work! Regardless, now I feel a valued and important part of the business, now that I have my own pen. It might even make me reconsider my plans to quit at the end of the year .. or NOT! Gotcha.

Today at work, Ian reminded me of a time I was listening in on him at work and somebody said "Baptist Community Church" and he was like ".. Buster's Community Church?!" - I couldn't stop laughing all day. Well yesterday he spent like a whole minute searching for "Used Dusters" with no luck, only upon explaining to the customer that "used dusters" is probably a bit specific for a Yellow Pages heading, he realised they'd said "Youth Justice."

AND I realised that in Gotye's song 'Thanks For Your Time' he calls Sensis! 1223. Except he took out the bit at the start saying "Telstra" (he kept Directory Assistance) and "Your call may be monitored and recorded for quality purposes."  Check it out here from 2:20. ME AND AIDAN ARE GOING TO SEE GOTYE IN AMSTERDAM!

I'm going to watch my Gruen Transfer podcast now, goodnight.

I'm a lazy, procrastinating guy -- working full-time has only excerbated that fact. So you'll have to excuse me for taking so long to get around to my viewing of The Dark Knight in IMAX three nights ago. I know you were waiting to see the movie until you read my thoughts. You weren't one of the 25 million people to see it this weekend. Definitely not.

But I'm not going to review the movie in-depth at all. You've either seen the movie, or heard about it from all your friends. What would be the point of another person saying how unbelievably awesome Heath Ledger was? Although, I would like to say that IMAX was just a bit too much. Maybe it was our seats, maybe it was the specific theater -- I just know it was a somewhat painful experience. One that I waited in line for over an hour for. I probably deserved it, since I'm apparently an uncaring asshole, but that doesn't make it suck any less. By the end of the movie, I was totally exhausted, sweating, and had a backache. I was seeing a movie, not banging a girl up against a wall.

The night basically went downhill after my friends and I witnessed a total bitch refusing to give up her seat right in front of us. A seat which her and her boyfriend had all but stolen from some teenage girls. The most pathetic part of the story is that the boyfriend picked up the girls' sweaters and moved them off the seats, but when legions of IMAX employees came to argue, it was only the girlfriend that spoke up and took down nemesis after nemesis. As my friend Chris said, if real-life were an RPG, she would've been a level 30 by the end of the debacle -- which is probably why the Arrow Security dudes wanted no piece of her. They walked in one entrance, talked for a second to some IMAX people, looked up and realized she was an unstoppable foe, and then walked right out again. And then the defeated IMAX legion announced the movie would start, 10 minutes after schedule showtime. Not only had she delayed the start of the movie -- leading to two trailers getting skipped -- but she won.

At least we got to make fun of her the entire time, with her no doubt hearing us laughing and joking. Much of the theater at one point was cheering to "kick her out." Unfortunately, her "dad is a cop." What a fucking bitch. Even Batman would've had no shot. Her dad would've been the guy to arrest him today, after he beat up his mom and sister. (He really didn't though, Christian Bale > all)

Getting back to the actual movie, when that first frame of the movie projected on the dome, the theater shit its collective pants. I know I wasn't ready for it to take up MORE THAN my entire field of view, stretching to almost directly above me. It was insane, and I had to slouch in my seat as a result. By the end of the bank heist scene, I knew it was way too much. The tipping point was when my brain couldn't even process the Joker's face as an actual human face because it was so goddamn huge.

Let me just sum up the movie and my IMAX experience in a few examples of good, bad, and ugly.

Good: The city shots looking absolutely INCREDIBLE in IMAX.
Bad: Almost every action scene being indecipherable.
Ugly: The 35 mm parts of the film compared to the scenes shot in IMAX.

Good: The lines for Joker and Harvey Dent.
Bad: Alfred's jokes
Ugly: Anything that comes out of one of the generic cops' mouths.

Good: Heath Ledger's Joker performance
Bad: Christian Bale's Batman voice
Ugly: Maggie Gyllenhaal's face

Good: The massive chase scene.
Bad: The sort-of-nightvision scene giving me seizures.
Ugly: I've got nothing else to put here.

So yeah, I'm out of bad things to say. I could get more specific, but I think that would be more suitable to a spoiler-laden review/discussion. I had an extra example to put in there, but since one of the my friends didn't realize a certain plot point until it actually happened, I'd feel bad alluding to it here. I mean, if those are the only big complaints I can come up with -- half of them having to do with IMAX -- I obviously think it's a great movie.

GO SEE THE DARK KNIGHT

Director: Christopher Nolan

Writer(s): Jonathan Nolan (screenplay), Christopher Nolan (screenplay)(story), David S. Goyer (story), Bob Kane (characters)

Release Date: July 18, 2008

Genre: Action | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot: Batman raises the stakes in his war on crime. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the city streets. The partnership proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a rising criminal mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham as The Joker. (credit to imdb.com user)

Awards: 2 wins and 2 nominations (at this moment)

Cast: Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman

MPAA:Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and some menace.

Box Office: $158,411,483

The only thing that comes into my head when I think of this movie is... WOW. It was amazing. The minute I heard that 1) The Joker was in it, 2) Two-Face was in it and 3) Heath Ledger was playing The Joker I was sold. I adore Heath Ledger. He is an awesome actor and puts his soul into his roles.

Now, I don't particularly like comic book series or Batman for that matter. And I definitely don't really like Christian Bale as Batman, but I went for it. And I wasn't disappointed.

The movie was filmed STUPENDOUSLY! The action was mind blowing! It never let up, but it was never over the top just action. Of course, they had the classic twist of romance that comics and superhero scenarios always have. And it was refreshing. It gave the movie a splash of humanity with companionship to all things THE JOKER.

I was slightly disappointed when I heard that Katie Holmes rejected coming back as Rachel Dawes because of so called "scheduling issues". I'm not fond of her and I adore Maggie Gyllenhaal. I just felt that Katie Holmes portrayed Rachel Dawes more distinctively than Maggie Gyllenhaal did. But Maggie did a wonderful job playing Rachel Dawes.

Our precious Heath Ledger, God Rest His Soul. He was MAGNIFICIENT. There are no words I can find that can describe his historic role as The Joker. But I will find them! He was The Joker. Not only as a actor playing the role. He lived, breathed and understood The Joker inside and out. He conquered every one of The Joker's characteristics. To keep it short, he went over and beyond everyone's expectations. Everyone kept comparing his role with Jack Nicholson's Joker. It is by far not even the same! But, Heath Ledger was far better in my eyes. But they should not be compared either way.

I liked the movie. Of course, there was humor and action. There were some "iffy" parts to say the least. I hated how they just threw Two-Face in there. It was sloppy and wasn't exactly needed. The ending was very very very "what?" It just left you there. When you were expecting some closure, it was left WIDE OPEN for every one to rampage and invade.

A

I feel that The Joker made this movie what it was. Sure the scenes were awesome (especially the opening scene), but sometimes a small tiny corner of that awesomeness is covered by horribleness and to our peering eyes... its pretty big.

lol

I still liked this movie

MYV382

En primer lugar por Heath Ledger, al cual se lo ve en el primer film despuès de su prematura muerte ocurrida en enero de 2008 y al cual es dedicado el film (es dedicado tambièn al técnico de efectos  especiales, Conway Wickliffe)

La unica nota negra es el actor Christian Bale, que encarna a Batman:fue detenido hoy por presunta agresión a dos miembros de su familia, informó la agencia británica PA.

Les dejo el link de la nota  en el diario La Nacion a la coprotagonista, la talentosa actriz  Maggie Gyllenhaal

Honestly, where do I even begin? First of all, the protagonist of our story, Batman, is this brooding, lonely hero(?), but director Christopher Noland did not even bother to tell the audience why. No details of his origin can be found in this film, eschewing the standards of all previous Batman movies since Tim Burton launched the franchise. Not one mention of his dead parents. No flashback of young Bruce Wayne watching his parents get shot. Not one scene with star Christian Bale looking directly into the camera and saying, "And that's when I decided to become Batman." I felt a little lost without these crucial scenes that I'm used to seeing.

Noland decided that his lovelorn Wayne could either sit around in his fabulous penthouse apartment and be sad about his childhood sweetheart, Rachel Dawes (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal), dating the new District Attorney, or he could go out and be the gravelly-voiced Batman and solve crimes. As Wayne, Bale has playful interaction with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Aaron Eckhart while they wear fabulous outfits and eat expensive dinners. The scenes were barely saved only by the talent and charm of the actors, but what is this, a romantic comedy?

One thought about Gyllenhaal. Is anyone else missing Katie Holmes, here? Where does the indie star get off completely changing the character to be this tall, pasty red-head? She could have at least tried to use some of the standards set by Holmes from the last movie. I guess when you're an indie actor, you can make choices that defy convention and buck the standards and everyone should just be happy she's bringing her indie cred to a big blockbuster film.

Of course, no one can talk about Batman without mentioning his nemesis, the Joker, played beautifully by Aussie sensation, Heath Ledger. I think we should have seen more of the Joker, but Noland really dropped the ball here for more reasons than just that. We got three different versions of where the scars on his face come from! I know films do rewrites to scripts as the filming goes on, but holey shamoley, the continuity is way off. These glaring errors may not have been so bad if it was written like he was intentionally lying, but it's clear that Noland went way overbudget and they couldn't afford to do reshoots. Did they really think we wouldn't notice? Plus, I was interested to learn more about Joker's powers and where they came from. The Joker obviously has the power to teleport, because he shows up exactly where he needs to be absolutely out of nowhere in ten different freaking scenes. Noland notoriously used practical effects where CG effects would have been completely fine (the truck flip scene, Gyllenhaal sliding down a building, etc). I guess a glowing ball of energy teleporting around town would have taken us out of the reality of it? If you say so, Noland.

Another word about casting. Heath Ledger really brought the darkness to the Joker, making him everything Jack Nicholson showed us the Joker should be from Tim Burton's Batman. But he really pushed the envelope to give us the scariest nihilist to ever wreak havoc on the silver screen. He also had some of the funniest lines in the movie, even once referencing other projects in Ledger's career, like when he played the little boy in Jerry MacGuire 15 years ago. I suppose I can give him a pass for not winking to the camera and really knocking the line, "You complete me," out of the park, but only because the rest of his performance salvages this nightmare of a film. I really look forward to see what Ledger will do with the Joker in the rumored next film of the trilogy, Batman Begins 3: Trial of the Riddler.

Speaking of characters, just what happened to the 'character' of Gotham City? Apparently in one year (of movie time), the city dismantled its elevated train system, tore down the Wayne building in the middle of town, sank the Narrows neighborhood into the ocean, and put street cleaners on duty twenty four hours a day. Oh, and everyone lives and works in tall glass skyscrapers. I can understand modernizing Gotham (see Joel Shumacher's brilliantly designed neon-kaleidoscopian Gotham from Batman & Robin, for example), but Gotham has never looked so bright and clean! It's like I was visiting Chicago. Oh that's right, I was. I've lived in Chicago for awhile now, and I truly don't know how non-Chicago residents felt about this 'new' Gotham, but for someone who recognized every exterior shot it was quite distracting. I was definitely taken out of the movie during every scene. What's also interesting is that all the citizens of Gotham can fit onto one ferry boat, while all the prisoners of Gotham fit on another. They have just as many criminals locked up as they have citizens! Strike two for trying to be "realistic," Noland.

I swore I would keep this review under 350 words, and I've already gone waay over that. I haven't even mentioned Two-Face (Eckhart), Jim Gordon (played by Gary Oldman), and Lucious Fox (Morgan Freeman), but I'll be brief. They all sucked.

I hope Christopher Noland can make some improvements with this mess he's got himself into. I barely tolerated Batman Begins, but BB2:TDN is clearly way off the mark of what a good Batman movie should be. The third installment of the series should be interesting, to say the least. But I swear if Gotham City 'resembles' Los Angeles next time, I don't care if they get Malkovich to play the Riddler, I'm walking the hell out of there.

(tratto da Nuovo Oggi di mercoledì 23 luglio 2008) - 'Il cavaliere oscuro' continua la storia dove si era interrotta al termine di 'Batman Begins'. Christopher Nolan torna alla regia e con lui torna anche Christian Bale nei panni dell'uomo pipistrello/Bruce Wayne. Un cast di successo, come quello del primo episodio non poteva che essere confermato, e così ci troviamo davanti nuovamente Michael Caine (il maggiordomo Alfred), Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox), Gary Oldman (commissario Gordon). Soltanto Katie Holmes, che interpretava Rachel Daves, si è vista sostituita da Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Mancano i 'malvagi' di turno all'elenco, e allora ecco arrivare Aaron Eckhart a dare un volto, anzi due, ad Harvey Dent/Due Facce e un strepitoso Heath Ledger in quelli del Joker.
'Batman Begins' si conclude con Gordon che mostra a Batman la carta da gioco raffigurante il Joker ed inevitabilmente il villain di turno è proprio quello che ci aveva regalato Jack Nicholson nel primo Batman, diretto da Tim Burton.
Sul personaggio interpretato da Heath Ledger si regge l'intero impianto della pellicola. Chiaramente non mancano gli effetti speciali, ottimi a cominciare da quelli dei voli tra i tetti di Gotham City e da quelli degli inseguimenti con il Bat-pod (la nuova spettacolare moto di Bruce Wayne). Ma ciò che fa la differenza e che rende questo film non buono ma ottimo, non coinvolgente ma spettacolare, è la sceneggiatura, lo script invidiabile, l'impianto filosofico che fa da sfondo all'intera vicenda.
L'eterna lotta tra il bene ed il male viene approfondita sviscerando la teoria del caos, visto come moto perpetuo, senza un'apparente inizio ne scopo. Allo stesso modo il Joker di Ledger sembra non avere un passato, racconta la sua storia in mille modi differenti, prendendosi gioco del malcapitato di turno, e non ha un motivo per fare ciò che fa, lo fa e basta, perchè è nella sua natura.
Batman è un giustiziere della notte, senza alcun potere da supereroe, tranne i suoi soldi per costruire sempre migliori attrezzature per la lotta, che può ferirsi e morire, ma che è pronto a passare ingiustamente per un criminale pur di assicurare una speranza di pace alla sua città.
Harvey Dent è quella speranza. In realtà è una falsa speranza, perchè dietro alla sua apparente giustizia incorruttibile, si nascondono ombre inquietanti pronte a prendere il controllo della sua razionalità. Perchè di nessuno ci si può fidare in un mondo contaminato dal male.
Il Joker semplicemente vuole bruciare quel mondo, vuole bruciare tutto, per il solo gusto di farlo, andando contro i buoni ma anche contri i malvagi, che restano a bocca aperta vedendolo dare fuoco ad una montagna di soldi.
Piccola apparizione anche dello Spaventapasseri, il dottor Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy), tra i protagonisti di 'Batman Begins'.
Le ambientazioni buie e cupe rendono appieno le atmosfere del fumetto creato da Bob Kane. Gotham City non vede la luce così come non la vedono i suoi abitanti, così come è triste l'animo tormentato di Bruce Wayne, così come avanza la distruzione causata dal pazzo e pericolosissimo Joker.
'Il cavaliere oscuro' è forse il più riuscito dei film di genere, qualche pecca forse nella durata eccessiva (ma quando una cosa è bella è anche giusto godersela appieno), e nei tagli in fase di montaggio. In generale stiamo parlando di un 'quasi' capolavoro che senza dubbio rimarrà impresso nella memoria del grande pubblico.
L'intepretazione di Heath Ledger, morto poco dopo la fine delle riprese nella sua stanza d'albergo per un'overdose da farmaci antidepressivi, è assolutamente da Premio Oscar.

“Le cose peggiorano sempre prima di poter migliorare"

The Dark Knight really needs no introduction. Fans of Batman and Gotham City have been revelling in the viral campaign and climbing over one another for e-glimpses of Heath Ledger as the Joker and other parts of the Bat-universe for months now, so it’s not overly surprising that the release of the film on July 18 was huge. Add to that a slew of early reviews that claimed how great the movie was and you’ve got a hell of a summer blockbuster. The Dark Knight currently ranks as #1 on IMBD.com with 69,135 votes. That ranks it higher than The Godfather, The Shawshank Redemption and, well, everything else!

So Christopher Nolan’s sequel to the excellent Batman Begins really begs the question: is it being grossly and profoundly overrated? The answer is, sadly, yes. It is likely true that a perfect storm is occurring at the moment and that the rating for The Dark Knight will fall over time as people have a chance to see it again and let the hype drain out of the pool. It is also true that the tragic death of Heath Ledger is impacting how people feel about the film, as it is true that the “average moviegoer” has really not weighed in with his or her thoughts as of yet.

I’ve been following the hype for The Dark Knight ever since the introduction of the first viral sites and the first creepy glimpses of Ledger as Batman’s nemesis the Joker. I’ve watched clips of production in Chicago, seen trailers and TV spots until I felt I had the whole movie figured out, and perused countless message boards ripe with fanboys (and the odd fangirl) spouting off about all things Batman. The conversation went from having little trust in Ledger as the Joker to having immense trust in him for the project.

The Dark Knight opens with a beautifully-shot and choreographed bank robbery sequence in which the Joker and some cronies take over a mob bank. At the conclusion of the robbery, we start to see what Gotham City has become since we last experienced it. There are multiple Batman impersonators who are acting as vigilantes and crime has disappeared into daytime meetings and shady dealings. The real Batman (Christian Bale) has done his job well, but the city needs a hero who can really start putting the scum of the city away.

Enter Gotham’s white knight, D.A. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). He begins to work with Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) to put away the criminal element and they rely on Batman to help with some loose ends. This leads Batman on a trip to Hong Kong to fetch a criminal in one of the film’s most interesting sequences. Meanwhile back at Gotham, the Joker is beginning to rattle the cages of the mob and introduce his brand of pandemonium to the streets. He proposes to kill Batman and help the mob take back the night.

The Joker’s brand of chaos is introduced to Gotham in the form of moral choices. The entire centerpiece of the film is dependent on moral choices, as Batman and other major characters are continually being asked who to save and who to let die or decay. Batman is taken to his moral limits more than once, but refuses to break his “one rule.” The Joker means to push him to the edge, however, and this leads to some interesting exchanges and to a diabolical makeover of a main character and the demise of another.

The moral and ethical choices really formulate the framework of The Dark Knight. As the film draws to its conclusion, the “choice” dogma really comes into play with regularity. Characters are given chances to change the path they find themselves on and this “philosophical ground” is somewhat new for superhero films. But at the end of the day, it’s nothing new for film and it begins to fall flat as it runs downhill.

The action sequences in The Dark Knight are good, but some are rather confusing to watch. There is a car chase/Batpod/truck sequence that utilizes a range of vehicular work and explosions. Nolan’s direction of the sequence is very impressive. Sadly, the direction falters in many of the fight sequences and they seem to lack the impact that they should have. The finale with Joker and Batman on a rooftop lacks the epic feel such an altercation should have and, instead, resorts to a simple speech-giving session that seems all too recognizable.

Ledger is the shining light here and his portrayal of the Joker is astonishing. I couldn’t help compare the situation to that of Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote, though. Ledger stole the show, without question, but the rest of the film was on somewhat fragile ground. Without Ledger’s Joker, The Dark Knight would have barely received a passing grade and would be just another superhero movie. With him, it becomes very good indeed.

The other actors do fine, but none really reach up to the high bar that Ledger set. Bale is more entertaining as Bruce Wayne than as the crusty and growling Batman (how could he not have a sore throat after uttering one sentence in his “Bat-voice?”) and Eckhart does the job competently as Harvey Dent. Maggie Gyllenhaal is a major step in the right direction as the love interest, Rachel, and Morgan Freeman is solid as Lucious Fox. Michael Caine is always reliable as Alfred and his “words of wisdom” are very good.

Overall, The Dark Knight winds up being fairly underwhelming. It is a little too drawn-out and Nolan struggles with wrapping up his most serious plot arc, wasting the Dent storyline in a standard “thug” ending that may or may not open doors to a follow-up. The Joker is the charm here, but the rest of the cast fails to rise to Ledger’s incredible performance. As such, The Dark Knight remains a very good film and a comic book movie classic, but it is more than a few bars short of excellence and is certainly being enormously overvalued.

8/10

Trailer:

I really only have a passing interest in this story.  I just thought making up a headline about Batman being arrested would be fun.  Seems Christian Bale was arrested in London for allegedly assaulting his mother and sister.  Really?  Wow, so much for the tough Batman persona.  In his defense, Catwoman always kicked his ass so maybe he was just trying to sharpen his skills when it comes to fighting powerful women.  Here's a quote from thisislondon.co.uk:

Bale, 34, is alleged to have lashed out at his  mother Jenny, 61, and sister Sharon, 40, in his suite at Park Lane's Dorchester Hotel on Sunday.

Lashing out is a crime in London?  Wow!  Do the London police ever watch the British Parliament on TV?  All those people do is lash out at each other.  They should all be arrested.

i overheard two straight guys talking about their preferrence for katie holmes over maggie gyllenhaal as rachel dawes. sorry, but that's just such a typical straight guy thing to say. and i was trying hard not to show how annoyed i was with that stupid conclusion.

sure, katie holmes has become a "style icon". yes, let's put the style icon between quotation marks because i really think her current style, as cute as it may seem, is contrived. she obviously didn't dress herself like that

i mean, katie katie katie katie, you can never fool us. HELLO, you are joey potter! for the record, i hated joey potter. katie holmes and joey potter represent the BEIGE GIRL. the girl who likes to call herself a guy's name just to sound cute. the girl who likes to flutter her puppy dog eyes and twist her little mouth to get a guy's affection. the girl who would be sweet and comforting whenever the guy needed a shoulder to cry on. *rolls eyes* and now katie is all "WOO!!! i'm all about hermes, gucci, fancy haircuts, baby suri and tom cruise". PUUHHHH-LEEEEZ. i don't buy it!

so obviously, this whole maggie vs katie thing is pretty personal to me. because any sane, smart and strong working woman(and gay) would really see the brilliance behind picking maggie over katie. maggie is intelligent and quirky and talented and doesn't need a god-damn stylist to make minute decisions about what to wear. and if you say maggie doesn't have style, ooh my dear, you are SO WRONG. she's been wearing chanel couture WAAAAAAYY before tom cruise came into katie's life.

beat that, joey potter.

I rolled the dice and Googled "boner" hoping to find a photo just like this, one that can convey my thoughts on The Dark Knight visually better than any words I can type. I like to gamble, what can I say. Anyway, yes, OMG. What a fantastic, fantastic movie. If the Oscars actually went to the best movie of the year, there's no way this one couldn't possibly receive a nomination.

Much like the Kansas City Royals in all of September every year for the past 10 years, I'm going to play the role of spoiler after the jump. However, right after the jump, I'm going to tell you an awesome story about seeing the movie in a theater that was predominantly black that lacks spoilers.

I arrived at my seat about 20 minutes before showtime, and it turned out to be a good move even though the movie started at 1:30 on a Monday. The placed filled up pretty quickly, and I'd say it was filled with about 95 percent black people. And let me tell you. These people didn't disappoint.

From the start of the previews till the end of the movie, it was out of control. Right off the bat, these three black kids in front of me started laughing at a preview of some Ben Stiller movie that looks about as funny as testicular cancer. I thought nothing of it, as I felt the movie deserved mocking. But it got worse.

The crap movie we're talking about is a war movie and involves guns. So the kids started getting up and pretending as though they had guns while making that gun sound. During the next preview, they started throwing popcorn at the screen, which made no sense because popcorn isn't very dense and isn't going to hit anything except -- that's right -- the black people in front of them.

Now there's seven or eight black people yelling, but sort of softly, at each other. It was as if they were trying to be courteous, but it didn't work, as it escalated into a debate as to whose mother has had sex more times with strange men in their lives. It was very lively. Both made convincing points. But a theater employee put an end to it.

Here's my favorite part. About 40 minutes into the movie, a black woman across the aisle along the right side of the theater gets on her phone and starts describing the action -- loudly. That lasted about 10 minutes.

About 20 minutes after that, I started hearing rap music coming from the front-left side of the theater. But it was intermittent. My guess is someone sneaked in a radio and was just being a d-bag.

And of course, there was a whole bunch of "Oh shits" and "god damns" and "holy shits" from the people behind me. One older black woman kept screaming, "Get the clown!" during any scene involving The Joker. Finally five black kids started running up and down the aisles and across the rows with a basketball.

Oh, yeah, by the by. None of that really happened. As a matter of fact, none of that has ever happened in this theater ever. I grew up in Harrison, N.J., and saw half my movies in Jersey City and half in Kearny. So I spent half my time in a "black movie theater" that you always hear comedians talk about, and never ever ever ever ever ever ever has anything like what I described happened. Ever. Never ever. And I saw Independence Day there.

I believe stereotypes come from a real place, but in this case, I don't know. I think maybe it happened one time somewhere and it got blown out of proportion by an idiot. On this day, my fellow moviegoers were blacktastic.

Anyway, holy effing ess, this movie was great. I should disclose that I only go see about two or three movies a year, because movies in general blow and I'd rather do something that's more entertaining than go see a mediocre movie starring Will Ferrell. Like set my balls on fire. Or see how many times I take a baseball bat to the head before I lose consciousness. You know. Fun things.

The last movie I saw in the theaters was Hot Fuzz. Awesome movie. So I like to think that I'm able to discern what's going to be great and what's going to suck. I was on the money here. Consider this paragraph The Spoiler Border, where once you step across it, you get spoiled. Or something.

How awesome was it when Maggie Gyllenhaal died? Man, I laughed my balls off. Or how about that scene where Aaron Eckhart calls her beautiful twice in like six seconds? I was expecting riveting action for my $8, not the laugh-out-loud comedy event of the summer. And just know I'm giving this movie one boner up despite the fact I had to watch Maggie Gyllenhaal and her giant nostrils, dead eyes and droopy face on a huge screen for a major portion of this movie.

I always thought life's greatest tragedy was an overweight Asian girl because, well, you're an Asian girl, so you're automatically hot if you're just thin. Letting yourself go when you're an Asian girl is beyond tragic. Like Holocaust or child dying tragic. But I now need to add a second great tragedy in life, and it's that Heath Ledger won't be able to play The Joker in the sequel.

Again, if Oscars were actually given to the best actor in a given year, and not just the best actor in a drama about an Irish flower picker whose love with an African woman in 1940s Cambodia was as forbidden as it was passionate, then Heath Ledger would win this year. Easily. Same thing with Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers. Why does no one ever give any praise to performances in action movies or comedies?

"Watch me make this pencil disappear." That was tremendous. He combined haunted and twisted with flawless comedic timing better than anyone ever. A lot of times in movies like this you might find yourself rooting for the bad guy, or sympathizing with him. However, Ledger makes you laugh at him while hoping he dies a horrible death at the hands of an Olsen twin. For example, that is.

I do wonder what comic book people think. You know. Real nerds, not weekend warrior nerds like myself who just go to the movies in their Batman underwear and utility belts. I mean, The Joker is Jack Napier in one movie, then he's completely unknown to the cops in this movie. Personally, I don't care. I like this story line better myself.

The only bone I'd pick with the movie is one part of the story. Apparently The Joker is some sort of former oil magnate, who has the ability to purchase and relocate thousands of oil drums without any detection by the authorities. He somehow manages to find a way to fill two warehouses and two ferries with barrels of oil. If I had to the guess the identity of The Joker in this movie, I'd say he was a secret descendant of Daniel Plainview.

Another strange nuance of the film was Batman's inability to effectively fight dogs.

Did I mention Maggie Gyllenhaal gets blown up in a really comedic fashion? Because it's awesome.

Besides that, it's still a boneriffic movie. Great story, great acting, a solid Bridge and Tunnel joke at one point, great action, things blow up (besides Maggie) in cool ways, great characters and a pretty neat ending that sets up the next movie. Really, you're not going to go wrong with this movie if you're into this sort of thing, but I probably liked it more than most because watching the film was just like watching my life story. Except for the part where I make Maggie Gyllenhaal jealous by dating hot girls. I didn't relate to that at all.

I was expecting the film to blow me away--like Forrest Gump did or, maybe even that slightly unexpected appreciation I felt with Brokeback Mountain--but, it did not.  The "wow" factor was missing.  The film is great and it deserves the credits and accolades being thrown its way.  Much more for the actors (I am using the term actors for it is that--an actor's movie--except for Rachel Dawes [played by Maggie Gyllenhaal], the absence of female characters in the film is quite noticeable) who gave life to it.  But, it lacks that certain element that will make it jaw-dropping good.  Maybe because there's too many elements in the film battling out to be the "wow" that audience are carelessly pulled from one spectrum to another.  Yet, alas, in this aspect, Heath Ledger threw all cautions in the wind and went wild-beautiful with his portrayal of The Joker.  True, there's too many loopholes in the characterization of The Joker.  Or, it might also spring from the fact that The Joker has no scruples whatsoever.  He has no history, no past, and he knows it; he embraces it like the devil himself.  Out of all the Batman films ever done, The Dark Knight focuses on the eternal fight between good and evil, between what is right and wrong, and between what Gothman wants and what it needs.

In The Dark Knight, our infamous Cape Crusader was faced with the burning need to evaluate the circumstances that led him to who he truly is--the black-clad champion or the multibillionaire playboy?  Batman is still the same old hero we knew from the comics and even from the very first Batman film--he still has the same rule and yes, he still has his trusty friends Lucius Fox and the ever-reliable Alfred.  He stil loves the same woman--Rachel Dawes--and he still has, unintentionally, broken her heart because of what he is.  But, in this new installment, Batman faces the hero that his city, Gotham, needs--the new DA, Harvey Dent, who also happens to be Rachel Dawes' new flame.  With Gothan under the ruthless attack of The Joker and his new breed of mutants, Dent, Lt. Gordon, and Batman worked "hand in batcape" to save the city from the insatiable attacks of the knife-weilding villain.

The Dark Knight is darker--literally and figuratively--than any of its predecessors.  It dived into the very core of human behavior and dared to ask questions about morality and immortality.  What Gotham wants does not necessarily means it is what it needs.  Dent is the new face; and Batman knows it.  More so, he needs it to be.  The Joker, with his twisted mindset, is as tyrannical as the stories he made up to bewitch his victims.  He refuses to acknowledge that good can triumph over evil and instead, pushes the limit with just about everyone in the film.  In this sense, he is more like the psychopatic killer in the movie series, Saw.

There is no doubt in my mind that The Dark Knight will change the course of the Batman series; perhaps, even forever.  To top this off, you need one heck of an actor to surpass that of Ledger's brilliant acting.  And though this is supposed to be a Batman film, it became The Joker's for the simple reason that he dominates the screen like no other villain had before.  Sure, Christian Bale was an effective Batman.  Perhaps, he was the most effective out of all of them (Michael Keaton, George Clooney, etc) but, the buzz surrounding Ledger's acting even before the film's trailer was shown and certainly even before the actor died showed that in retrospect, it was Ledger's portrayal of The Joker that gave the film its much-needed edge over all the comic-film adaptations ever made.

The Dark Knight will not "wow!" you per se but, it will leave you wanting, no, craving for more.  And that's what great about it. A film's primary purpose is to entertain rather than to leave the audience squirming on their seats, expecting for some award-giving body to shower the film with gold trophies.  I have always said it (and will always believe it too):  it is no use for a film to be an Oscar winner or nominated, for that matter, a film only needs to be believed by the people to be great and that's it.  No amount of Oscar trophies can compete with the general opinion of the public.  And The Dark Knight sure as hell hit the public like storm.

On a side note: Maggie Gyllenhaal has striking green eyes.  Beautiful.

On a completely random separate note: I was at the supermarket today and was again people-watching by default (sort of a trance-like state I fall into while waiting in line).  Several checkout lines to the right I noticed a woman and her daughter (?) heading out the door with their cart full of grocery bags.  The woman looked somewhere in her late 30's to early 40's and the girl a teenager, most likely.  The girl caught my attention initially with her cropped brown hair, side-swept to the right, covering her eye in near emo-fashion along with a nice use of off-white Sperry Top-Sider shoes paired with some skinny jeans .  Her mom (what appeared to be her mom) was an interesting case in study.  She wore dark, nearly black, skinny jeans that disappeared into tall orange-red Chuck Taylor shoes with white laces.  She topped off her ensemble with a brown/black cotton blazer of sorts and her hair was pulled back into a casual ponytail.  It was probably the first time I had seen someone of her age wearing (or attempting to wear) the very fitted,  conspicuous look skinny jeans provide.  I'll give her props for trying the look although I think some people just pull off the whole skinny jeans look better than others.  If it makes you spill out of your jeans or doesn't do much to nicely accentuate your figure, perhaps a different style of denim might be a reasonable consideration.  Just my humble opinion.

I have seen countless Batman movies and series and have come to accept that they all will never be synchronized. Each feature film will always be different from the other even though each storyline has been based from the comic book series. Heck, I bet even the comic book series will never be perfectly synchronized. Stories will always differ from one another depending on the writer, the publisher, the producer, etchetera. But even though, they will still have a connection. And no matter how different the storylines are, the Batman franchise will always be big blockbusters due to its established foundation of fans of all ages. So even though the latest Batman flick doesn't have the word "Batman" on its title (i.e., "Batman + verb, adjective, adverb, noun, article, whatever," such as past flicks like "Batman Begins," "Batman Forever," "Batman Returns," "Batman and Robin"), or even though some parts of its story have been manipulated to be different from its predecessors, it still went on to break the box office record for the highest first week opening (SF Gate).

In the current installment, Bruce Wayne aka Batman (Christian Bale) looms over the idea of finally giving up his "dark knight" escapades to live in his own ideal life with Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllehaal). He has also found his replacement in Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), someone he considers as Gotham City's real hero, as well as an adversary for Rachel's heart in marriage. But as the demented and utterly twisted Joker (Heath Ledger) play his plans, Wayne must done the bat suit to stop the Joker from winning and to preserve Gotham City's hope.

After watching the flick, I decided to cancel my future trips to Gotham City (if ever there is a Gotham City somewhere). Actually, it wasn't the flick--it was The Joker... or should I say, Ledger's portrayal of the The Joker--that scared me. He did a great job of playing the dark knight's arch-nemesis that I agree with critics that he deserves an Oscar, either a nomination or a win. There was a part where The Joker was dressed in a female nurses' uniform, wearing a wig, with his back to the screen. He turns around and immediately shoots the police officer who tried to talk to the supposed nurse. After that part, I was left silent; not knowing if I should laugh at a clown in a nurse's uniform or be scared at the sheer twisted and frightening antics of said clown in a nurse's uniform. I was so scared of the Joker, I was afraid of sleeping for fear of having a nightmare. Ledger has really gotten me freaked out! The modern-day Joker has been born and I'm thankful he's not real. He is actually the manic form of Jigsaw, the villain of the Saw movie series. *shudder* Aside from the Joker's maniacal laughter, I was also edged out by the thrilling effects and stunts, mostly in car chases between hero and foe. Another element was the eerie music that supplemented the surprise shots. But in general, I would say that the Joker brought out most of the goosebumps, and that Ledger stole the show.

Joker's dominance as the main opposite star throughout the film made Two-Face's (aka Harvey Dent) presence less terrifying. As opposed to Batman Forever, he did not seem like a villain at all. He looked more like a victim of Joker's psychotherapy--being under the Joker's wings, rather than having his own demented mind. Also, I didn't expect (spoiler coming) Dawes to die. And the ending plot where Batman takes responsibility for all the people who died, thus making him a criminal. I guess that was done to give us pointers to the next sequel.

The Dark Knight aimed for superhero fun. In turn, it became a superhero flick for adults. Parents can let kids watch it; if they want their kid to develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Or they could take tips on how to create a maniacal Anti-Social Personality Disorder criminal. ;)

Points to ponder:

>Joker to Batman: "...You complete me." What trait of Batman completes the Joker?

>What inspired Ledger in his portrayal of The Joker? Didn't his portrayal trigger a neurosis?