The Dark Knight - Grading & Discussion

[suarezguy]

I ran across a review before I went to see the movie, which said, "No character, no matter how well established in Batman's history, is safe." Hell, I thought they were going to kill Alfred. When I read that, plus many reviews that mentioned the death of a "major character" (I figured everyone already knew Rachel was going to be Joker fodder so I kind of discounted her death), I was pretty ready to be fooled.

Good ol' hype. My negative reaction to Ledger, the tone & the overall film is somewhat in response to how awesome, different, dark Newsweek and Time claimed they were. In addition to seeming derivative, Ledger seemed too young, punkish. For "having no agenda", he was initially too closely affiliated with the mob, and he was too bad all the time, rarely amusing, and so not too interesting (I did like his second explanation for the scars).

We get a great character study on what it means to be a hero

It seemed too simple to me, Bats losing heart easily & not explaining himself well, not seeming to have a lot of inner conflict about the violence, certainly not about his methods.

 

[Harvey]

The burning fire truck blocked off their acsess to the street so they had to divert to a underground tunnel below their street, right? Why didn't they just simply drive on the other side of the avenue? The street had been cleared, they're police so they can do that so why did they go down into the tunnel?! Further, if the streets were supposed to be clear why was their traffic in the lower/tunnel street?

Don't have an answer to the first question, but as for the second: The lower streets weren't part of the planned route and thus likely weren't expected to need to be cleared. It would've required additional manpower that they may not have had available at that time to clear alternate routes as well.

The plan was to catch the Joker, so it makes sense that they would have had to play into his hand a little bit. Still...

 

[Agent Richard07]

Ledger seemed too young, punkish.

I thought so too in the early stages of the movie's production, but let it slide as time went on.

As for Batman and Harvey's fall, it seemed like enough to kill a man who landed on his back, but not enough to injure someone who was prepared and could brace himself for a landing. It wasn't that far to the ground anyway was it?

 

[Lapis Exilis]

Ledger seemed too young, punkish.

I thought so too in the early stages of the movie's production, but let it slide as time went on.

As for Batman and Harvey's fall, it seemed like enough to kill a man who landed on his back, but not enough to injure someone who was prepared and could brace himself for a landing. It wasn't that far to the ground anyway was it?

It looked liek a two story fall, but it must be remembered that Harvey was suffering from major burns over a huge part of his body. Even though he didn't act as if he was in pain, the amount of damage shown would have to have severely compromised anyone's system. On top of that, he says he has no intention of getting out of there alive. Major injuries + no will to live...

 

[S. Gomez]

Major injuries + no will to live...

My desperate need for being recognized as a truly great comedian is trying to discover a funny continuation of this line. Unfortunately, I'll have to settle for a dorky post like this.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I don't remember seeing any breathing, and I made it a point to look for it. It's quite possible that the fall could have killed Dent and not Batman. Dent fell on his back, and the impact very well could have severed his spine. Batman also had Dent's body to cushion his fall a bit. I think that Dent is most likely dead, but it is still ambiguous enough that they could bring him back in the next one and nobody would raise an eyebrow.

 

[Phantassm]

Loved it-great film. My friend and I saw it yesterday and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute off it!

 

[nx1701g]

Ledger seemed too young, punkish.

I thought so too in the early stages of the movie's production, but let it slide as time went on.

As for Batman and Harvey's fall, it seemed like enough to kill a man who landed on his back, but not enough to injure someone who was prepared and could brace himself for a landing. It wasn't that far to the ground anyway was it?

It looked liek a two story fall, but it must be remembered that Harvey was suffering from major burns over a huge part of his body. Even though he didn't act as if he was in pain, the amount of damage shown would have to have severely compromised anyone's system. On top of that, he says he has no intention of getting out of there alive. Major injuries + no will to live...

I thought it was three but your point remains valid. Harvey just had no will left to live after Rachel's death and what had happened to him.

 

[Jack Bauer]

I could have swore that you see Two Face's body breathing after the fall. Even his mouth moving slightly. On the scared side which was CGI. So unless I was seeing things it was intentional!!! Aaron Eckhart would not have been able to completely still his body. But the movements of his CGI mouth were a choice... Of course I am still not sure...

I looked very carefully to see if Dent was breathing and he wasn't. His chest didn't even move.

 

[SalvorHardin]

TDk is definately one of the best comics based films made so far. It's even a very good action-drama film overall.

A few things that didn't work for me...
Bale's Batman voice is awful.The worst thing about the movie actually.
And the whole sonar vision at the end didn't quite work I believe.

Now, Ledger's Joker was outstanding.Far better than I was expecting and I was expecting a lot.
Bale did a great job as Bruce Wayne as did the rest of the cast with their roles.Can't say I found anyone lacking.

I can't wait to see what Mr Nolan has in store for us for the next Batman.He sure went and set the bar really high for himself.

 

[Pro Populo]

I haven't seen this mentioned in the thread yet, so here's something I'm not sure if anyone else picked up on:

In Begins, it's never explicitly stated, but it seems fairly evident that Lucius Fox has a pretty good idea that Bruce is Batman. In TDK, it's downright obvious that he knows. But when Batman visits Lucius in the big sonar room with all the video monitors in it, he still uses his goofy growly Batman voice, as if he still had to disguise himself from Lucius.

Now, the movie is great and I love it, don't get me wrong. But that's just kinda weird.

 

[John Picard]

Caught it last night with my 13-year old and I give it a grade of "EXCELLENT". This movie captured the true persona of the Joker and Heath Ledger pulled it off well. The "disappearing pencil" really made the audience laugh and gasp.

 

[SalvorHardin]

I haven't seen this mentioned in the thread yet, so here's something I'm not sure if anyone else picked up on:

In Begins, it's never explicitly stated, but it seems fairly evident that Lucius Fox has a pretty good idea that Bruce is Batman. In TDK, it's downright obvious that he knows. But when Batman visits Lucius in the big sonar room with all the video monitors in it, he still uses his goofy growly Batman voice, as if he still had to disguise himself from Lucius.

Now, the movie is great and I love it, don't get me wrong. But that's just kinda weird.

Maybe there's some device attached to the Batsuit that changes his voice that is activated at all times.

 

[Neroon]

I think it's the mask, covering his nasal passages so Batman has to breathe solely through his mouth. It just seemed more common for Batman to have his mouth open, as if he had trouble breathing through the nosepiece. This costume is designed a little differently from Begins, but then I didn't maek it a point to notice such things when it was on FX last week.

 

[John Picard]

I haven't seen this mentioned in the thread yet, so here's something I'm not sure if anyone else picked up on:

In Begins, it's never explicitly stated, but it seems fairly evident that Lucius Fox has a pretty good idea that Bruce is Batman. In TDK, it's downright obvious that he knows. But when Batman visits Lucius in the big sonar room with all the video monitors in it, he still uses his goofy growly Batman voice, as if he still had to disguise himself from Lucius.

Now, the movie is great and I love it, don't get me wrong. But that's just kinda weird.

Maybe there's some device attached to the Batsuit that changes his voice that is activated at all times.

I figured that as well considering the suit is rigged so no one else can detach the head piece.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

I haven't seen this mentioned in the thread yet, so here's something I'm not sure if anyone else picked up on:

In Begins, it's never explicitly stated, but it seems fairly evident that Lucius Fox has a pretty good idea that Bruce is Batman. In TDK, it's downright obvious that he knows. But when Batman visits Lucius in the big sonar room with all the video monitors in it, he still uses his goofy growly Batman voice, as if he still had to disguise himself from Lucius.

Now, the movie is great and I love it, don't get me wrong. But that's just kinda weird.

I dont like the growl, I mean i get it he's disguising his voice, but it sounds bad. I wonder if maybe he has something inside of his cowl pressing against his neck to "produce" that sound (since Nolan likes to have realistic explanations for every little thing)

 

[Trekker4747]

It looked liek a two story fall, but it must be remembered that Harvey was suffering from major burns over a huge part of his body.

"Huge part of his body" or just the left side of his face.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I haven't seen this mentioned in the thread yet, so here's something I'm not sure if anyone else picked up on:

In Begins, it's never explicitly stated, but it seems fairly evident that Lucius Fox has a pretty good idea that Bruce is Batman. In TDK, it's downright obvious that he knows. But when Batman visits Lucius in the big sonar room with all the video monitors in it, he still uses his goofy growly Batman voice, as if he still had to disguise himself from Lucius.

Now, the movie is great and I love it, don't get me wrong. But that's just kinda weird.

Maybe there's some device attached to the Batsuit that changes his voice that is activated at all times.

I just figured that he was so accustomed to using the growl voice as Batman that he didn't even think about dropping down to his normal voice.

 

[Agent Richard07]

There's something else that's been bugging me that I didn't mention... Lucious said he'd threaten to quit if Bruce kept the sonar room. He said it was too much power for one person to have. Seriously? I don't get that attitude. Having an advantage like that is a good thing, and neither he nor Bruce are bad guys. Too much power is only bad when someone else has it and might use it against you. If you're the one who has it, you keep it. Now if he said he was afraid it would fall into the wrong hands, then I could almost accept that.

 

[SalvorHardin]

I haven't seen this mentioned in the thread yet, so here's something I'm not sure if anyone else picked up on:

In Begins, it's never explicitly stated, but it seems fairly evident that Lucius Fox has a pretty good idea that Bruce is Batman. In TDK, it's downright obvious that he knows. But when Batman visits Lucius in the big sonar room with all the video monitors in it, he still uses his goofy growly Batman voice, as if he still had to disguise himself from Lucius.

Now, the movie is great and I love it, don't get me wrong. But that's just kinda weird.

Maybe there's some device attached to the Batsuit that changes his voice that is activated at all times.

I just figured that he was so accustomed to using the growl voice as Batman that he didn't even think about dropping down to his normal voice.

I can see that working as well.