The Dark Knight - Grading & Discussion

[N-121973]

Umm, Two Face?

I'm sure some would say the makeup reminded them of the aliens in "mars attacks"

Now that you mention he does look like that. I wasn't looking forward to seeing this movie because of Two Face's appearance. I even posted to that effect on here a couple of weeks ago. To that end I had to work myself up to go and see it. Today you'll be pleased to know, I did it. I have now contributed £6.70 to the quarter of a billion plus $ foreign Box Office Total. I went to the Cinemworld cinema in Cardiff for an afternoon matinee performance and I've got to tell you, it was packed. Funnily enough in the foyer there were three blokes dressed up. Two as Stormtroopers and the third as Darth Vader. Doubtless to publicise the new Star Wars film (by the way I don't mean fans in halloween costumes I means actors or stand-ins in movie-quality outfits). I took the presence of a guy with a black cape as an omen for what was to come.
I was expecting it to be virtually empty for the showing I went to but it wasn't. There were probably only a few seats empty. The volume of the films' sound wasn't ridiculously high as I was fearing which was another plus. Though that may have had something to do with the fact I was sitting in the back row. As for the film, brilliant. I thought Batman in the first half of the film seemed to be limited to cameos here and there but then that appears to be commonplace in superhero films/live action tv shows. But nevertheless it just felt like the comic brought to life especially Gordon's relationship with Batman. And it also at the same time felt like the real world. I thought that Michael Caine stole the show with his one liners. Heath Ledger wasn't too bad either but I'm not sure weather it was Oscar material.
Just one or two little nitpicks.

Spoiler

I couldn't recall seeing the Gotham monorail system in this film and Wayne Enterprises weren't located in Wayne Tower but in some ordinary skyscraper with "WAYNE" written on it. What happened? Also missed Wayne Manor and the Bat Cave.

Well here's hoping they'll get to make another one.

 

[S. Gomez]

I always thought that Temple of Doom itself was the first movie rated PG-13, but Wikipedia proves me wrong (sometimes it can actually be right).

 

[Harvey]

Umm, Two Face?

Two-Face, who spends most of the film with his scarred portions of his skin either turned away from the camera or shrouded in darkness. Nolan is very effective in creating something when he in fact is showing us very little. The pencil trick is another example. The violence is implied, but not seen (or rarely seen).

 

[Samurai8472]

The violence is implied, but not seen (or rarely seen).

like Joker holding a knife to gambols face and the music intensifies and then gambol slumps

 

[Lapis Exilis]

I couldn't recall seeing the Gotham monorail system in this film and Wayne Enterprises weren't located in Wayne Tower but in some ordinary skyscraper with "WAYNE" written on it. What happened? Well here's hoping they'll get to make another one.

Themonorail can be seen in the background of a couple of shots, including the one with the black Wayne building. It is not explained, but one can assume that after the events of Batman Begins, Wayne Enterprises moved its corporate offices out of Wayne Tower, which can also be seen in at least one background shot.

 

[MyCylon]

Finally got to see The Dark Knight at an IMAX theater. I enjoyed it quite a bit but for what it's worth I've honestly got to say that - so far - I prefer Batman Begins.

The Dark Knight certainly lived up to the title. The cost of beating the Joker was incredibly high and the struggle to achieve this was well portrayed throughout. It was also interesting to see what motivated each of the characters. Great performances including that of Ledger really contributed to that IMHO.

However, and I have a few howevers, what the film lacked for me, personally, was some of the calm, introspective and at times almost poetic moments that I enjoyed immensely about Begins. The Dark Knight just seemed to be rushing from fight to fight with no time to really contemplate anything very much. I assume it was part of the idea in that the Joker didn't really GIVE anyone time but kept everyone on their toes at all times. As a viewing experience, however, I found it to be somewhat excessive (add to that very fast cuts in some places).
What I also missed was some of the 'warmth' and (what I'd call) heart and soul that made Begins stand out in my mind. I think core aspects here were Bruce's memories of his father and Alfred's fatherly role as well as the somewhat closer relationship with Rachel.
Don't get me wrong. I understand they can't simply retread this but I really felt there was something missing in this respect in The Dark Knight. Again, maybe this was intended and if so, Nolan was very consequent. But then, maybe a bit too consequent for my liking.
What I also missed (as you can see a lot of this is about what I missed and not so much about what was there) was the ever-present but usually subtle music of the first film. Bruce Wayne / Batman is a very restless character in the first movie, and I thought the music that was steadily pushing ever forward was a great way of conveying this feeling. Here, some of the themes from the first one reappeared but somehow none of what was there struck me as as effective.
Finally, and then I'm done complaining I really, really didn't like Gyllenhall in this at all. I usually like her work but I really didn't like the way she played Rachel. I also felt there was no real chemistry between here and Bale. Although I didn't find her overwhelming in the first film I really missed Katie Holmes here. I never quite bought her as district attorney but I really felt her relationship with Bruce worked. I could imagine those two going back years. But not so with Gyllenhall.

I definitely want to check out The Dark Knight again, no doubt about it. While it's great to see a movie at the IMAX (my first time btw.) it can also be somewhat overwhelming, the movie can literally overpower you on a certain level (at least that's the way I felt). And The Dark Knight certainly has enough action, fast cuts and noise to make that happen.
So I really look forward to seeing it on the small screen and maybe catching some details that didn't really come acroos for me here.

As a rating, I'll go with Above Average for now. There's a lot of interesting material, it's well made, well acted, and certainly entertaining. However, again, I'd definitely rate Batman Begins higher though I have to note that I've seen that one more often so the comparison isn't quite fair. But then we learned in The Dark Knight that life isn't fair, didn't we .

 

[Skywalker]

I always thought that Temple of Doom itself was the first movie rated PG-13, but Wikipedia proves me wrong (sometimes it can actually be right).

Yeah, I'd thought ToD was the first PG-13 movie, too, but I guess I was wrong. Oops.

 

[grabmygoblin]

almost, ToD pretty much was the final straw that created the PG-13 rating. even Spielberg looked at it and said "this isn't for 7-year-olds" and then advocated for the PG-13 rating added to the system.

 

[Samurai8472]

some nice pictures
http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/4713/dk08cb0007ca0.jpg

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/5031/dk08hl0007ph2.jpg

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/5821/dk0013za7.jpg

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/3446/dk0014bt6.jpg

http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/3744/dk0015vb7.jpg

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/2560/dk0016ek0.jpg

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/5980/dk0017zc1.jpg

http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/8794/dk0018lk3.jpg

http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/2075/dk0025cm3.jpg

http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/380/dk08cb0008tp2.jpg

This one is good for captions
http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/2492/dk0031gz1.jpg

"haha, that crazy Robert Downey Jr"

 

[TrekNut87]

Finally got to see it last night and I gotta' say....It blew me away!!! Oh god, by far the best film I've seen this year. There wasn't one moment during the movie, where I found myself saying 'Geez, when will this be over?'. I was absolutely hooked from start to finish. Giving an A+ for a movie is a rarity for me, but this film certainly deserves it. A very enthusiastic 'A+' from me!

 

[Trekker4747]

http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/2492/dk0031gz1.jpg

"Man. It's getting tougher and tougher to find a good parking space in Chicago."

 

[Aragorn]

The whole thing about the ratings system -- aside from being completely arbitrary and catering toward big studio pictures with big names behind them (the brain scene in Hannibal would've given some small indy movie an NC-17) -- is that a lot more gets allowed for lower ratings as the years go by. Just look at the Young Guns movies -- Young Guns was R in 1988, Young Guns II was PG-13 in 1990. Pretty much the same content in both movies.

 

[David cgc]

I couldn't recall seeing the Gotham monorail system in this film and Wayne Enterprises weren't located in Wayne Tower but in some ordinary skyscraper with "WAYNE" written on it. What happened? Well here's hoping they'll get to make another one.

The monorail can be seen in the background of a couple of shots, including the one with the black Wayne building. It is not explained, but one can assume that after the events of Batman Begins, Wayne Enterprises moved its corporate offices out of Wayne Tower, which can also be seen in at least one background shot.

I just assumed they were rebuilding and renovating Wayne Tower after a train crashed into its foundation and exploded, and an attempt to poison the city revealed that having it as the single point of vulnerability for Gotham's water and transit systems was pretty stupid. That probably put a bug up Code Compliance's ass. Wayne Enterprises strikes as the sort of company that would end up with more than one building in a single city (thanks to an absurd number of bank mergers, there are about a half dozen skyscrapers with "Bank of America" on the side in Miami, for instance), so they probably just packed up everybody's offices and moved over to the next-tallest building in the city they owned.

 

[N-121973]

I'm not sure how accurate the infor on the following link is but if it is I know which version I'm going to buy. http://www.joblo.com/excl-the-tdk-dvds

 

[The Nth Doctor]

If that's true (and I think it's a bit early to believe DVD information now), I hope the DVD version opens up with the poses of The Joker and Harvey from the same poster as Batman.

 

[cultcross]

If that's true (and I think it's a bit early to believe DVD information now),

Thing is these days, DVDs seem to be out mere weeks after the cinema release ends, the days of long waits seem to be well and truly over.

 

[Messianni]

That Steelbook DVD version is looking pretty slick!

 

[Lapis Exilis]

But what's going to be on the disks?? Extended cut?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

If that's true (and I think it's a bit early to believe DVD information now),

Thing is these days, DVDs seem to be out mere weeks after the cinema release ends, the days of long waits seem to be well and truly over.

Well, I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. Perhaps that's true for movies that didn't do to well, but movies like Iron Man and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull are only just getting their DVD releases next month and they both began back in May (on opposite ends). Hell, I don't think we heard any DVD information for either until last month with the San Diego Comic-Con.

 

[Harvey]

But what's going to be on the disks?? Extended cut?

Please no. The movie was a little fat in places as it was. No need for further scenes. I would be happy to have another Nolan commentary (his are usually quite interesting, although I confess I haven't heard the track on Batman Begins, if there is indeed one).