Author Topic: The Dark Knight - with spoilers  (Read 2939 times)

Offline BelAir

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The Dark Knight - with spoilers
« on: July 18, 2008, 09:50:15 am »
WARNING: SPOILERS

a few preliminary thoughts/comments...

for me, there was 'the movie' and Heath/The Joker.  Heath was great.  The movie was good. 

I agree with Kim Ledger ("It's a good movie") and Dave Letterman (wishing Heath was back on screen whenever he was away).

Honestly, I was so focused on Heath, I had a hard time paying attention to the movie.  I could have watched him play the Joker all day long.  I loved all of his scenes, his beautiful brown eyes framed by the crazy makeup.  The scene at the end, in the hospital with Dent, was totally mesmerizing, I tried to commit every little movement to memory.  I was surprised by how 'in shape' Heath looked.  He was strong, not scrawny.  He did a fantastic job - what he did with this voice was as impressive as what he did with Ennis' voice I think.

I think the rest of the movie sort of paled in comparison to Heath.  But maybe that's just my obvious Heathen bias.

I didn't really buy the 'Dent as Gotham's white knight' plot line - "YOU are what Gotham needs" - come on.

At the end, there was an awful moment in time where my mind said to me "The Joker's not dead!  We'll get to see him in the next movie."  And I got excited.  And then of course I remembered, "No, actually, we won't."

 :'(

I know one reviewer complained about the last 30 minutes being unnecessary and making the movie be too long - I assume they are referring to the Gordon/Two face plot line after we last see the Joker.  While I did not like the 'preachiness' of Batman's lines at the end, I thought the scenes with Two face at the end were incredibly chilling/frightening, and that Eckhart gave a better performance as Two face than as Dent.

There were some interesting plot points, but mostly all I can think about is Heath.  I wish he had had more screen time, in so many ways, obviously.  He honestly was not on screen as much as I thought he would be.  Every moment that he was, was precious.

Sigh.

I am sad.
"— a thirst for life, for love, and for truth..."

Offline optom3

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Re: The Dark Knight - with spoilers
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2008, 10:31:29 am »
I have read  several reviews now, that pass comment on the fact that Heath's screen time is relatively short, but that he makes the movie.I was quite surprised as from the trailers I got the impression that he would have a fair chunk of screen time.
I wonder if it was a deliberate action to ensure both Heath and Batman fans were hyped up to go and see the film.It could just be me being cynical.
The males in my family are off to see it, but not me.I know that it would probably, scare me and also to see Heath would have me in tears.So I am very grateful to all those who take the trouble to post reviews.

Offline Kay-Nasty

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Re: The Dark Knight - with spoilers
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2008, 03:52:47 am »
I know that it would probably, scare me and also to see Heath would have me in tears

I was also afraid that I would break down in tears, and not even make it into the theater if i went. From the moment i first heard about TDK in July last year all the way to "sometime" in January i was so excited for the movie, and i'm not even a batman fan. Then there were about 3 months of me refusing to see TDK because I just couldn't stand watching anything with Heath in it. But by the time May rolled around, and more Batman hype arose, I decided that I would not be able to live with myself if I didn't approach the movie full on, like I had originally planned, by dressing up as the joker, going to the premiere, and screaming at the screen the very moment i saw my Heathy. (Hell, I'm 17, what can I say  ;D) And i did. Everything just as i had planned. And i loved every moment of it. I was smiling ear to ear the entire time. I cannot believe what a brilliant note Heath ended on. No tears. Just laughs. It was nice. And, unlike other movies of his... I will have no preoblem whatsoever watching TDK many many times. No tears. No tears at all. It's a really really nice change.


"I never had money, and I was very happy without it. When I die, my money's not gonna come with me. My movies will live on - for people to judge what I was as a person."  ~Heath, I swear

Offline oilgun

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Re: The Dark Knight - with spoilers
« Reply #3 on: July 20, 2008, 04:22:14 pm »
WARNING: SPOILERS

a few preliminary thoughts/comments...

for me, there was 'the movie' and Heath/The Joker.  Heath was great.  The movie was good.  

I agree with Kim Ledger ("It's a good movie") and Dave Letterman (wishing Heath was back on screen whenever he was away).

[...]

I agree with your assessment completely.  I thought Heath was indeed brilliant but I was a bit disappointed with the movie overall.  I think it's because I had basically seen all the action sequences already in teaser trailers and what-not.  I really should avoid a movie's hype before seeing it.  I guess I wanted less action and more character development moments.  I love how Nolan brought a certain realism to the Batman universe, the characters seem more real and not just comic book characters and  I wanted to know more about them.

Offline Ellemeno

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Re: The Dark Knight - with spoilers
« Reply #4 on: July 20, 2008, 07:44:41 pm »
Yeah, not a lot of character development.  :)

Offline SFEnnisSF

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Re: The Dark Knight - with spoilers
« Reply #5 on: August 03, 2008, 10:13:43 pm »
Ok I'm just back from seeing TDK.

First of all it was way too violent and the subject matter way too unsettling for a PG13 rating.  I'm not opposed to violence in movies, but let's just call a spade a spade here.  Alot of this reminded me of the poor victums of 9/11, and what the terrorists caused.  I mean, that's what The Joker was, essentially a terrorist.  And society is supposed to think he's funny and this is all funny?  Eh.  All these families taking their 9-10 year olds to see this?? (PG13 magically means families welcome these days.  The whole rating system's a joke anyway.)  ::)

I found the serious parts too serious, and the "comic book parts" too lame.  The whole Aaron Eckhart character was un-believeable, un-necessary, and lame and silly.  The showdown holding the kids hostage at the end was way over-done and was too much.  I didn't mind the violence (but let's call it R ok) and I loved the psychology of The Joker's character, and the darkeness.  But stuff like the massive wall of screens with the cell phone emissions, and the computers bursting into flames when Morgan Freemen types his resignation in and all other sorts of comic book stuff like that brought the whole intensity of the movie down.

Didn't work for me.  Only 2 of 4 stars from me.

Offline delalluvia

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Re: The Dark Knight - with spoilers
« Reply #6 on: September 07, 2008, 02:35:50 pm »
FINALLY saw this.

Yes, Heath is unbelievable.  He completely melts into his character.  You see the Joker, not Heath.  He's a blank, a cipher, you have no idea who he is or where he is from or what his motivations are.  Frighteningly, it is suggested that he has none.  He's an ID personified and he is portrayed as a terrorist, wanting nothing more than to spread terror.

I also agree the rating was too low for the movie.  The movie was dark, the violence extremely disturbing.

I'm not sure why they insisted on keeping the Dent character plotline.  They killed him at the end but left the Joker alive, yet Aaron Eckhart is still with us and Heath is not.

The explosive danger was fairly unbelievable.  It's supposed to invoke 9-11 I guess, but if you think about the reality - how many drums of oil were needed?  And NO ONE saw them loading up every single floor of a hospital?  NO ONE saw them loading them onto a couple of ferries?  Ludicrous - as are people falling 30 or so stories and living.  And both Dent and Batman fall 3 stories, but Dent is dead and Batman lives?  Why is that?  His suit can protect him from bullets and such, believeably, but not such severe carwrecks and incredible falls.  Yes, the wall of monitors sparking and crackling when Freeman's character signed off was lame.  I was expecting a countdown of some sort and the screens displaying the destruction of the information, not literal destruction.  Batman shuts down his entire operation, destroys all his records, he's going to turn himself in.  Yet he can get it all back up in minutes.  The fact that a firetruck can be on fire in the middle of the city and blocking a road, and an entire police station is blown up and neither is reported, nor draws a crowd is also way out there. 

Plus, how did Batman know where Dent and Gordon were at the end?   

Yeah, some parts are very comic-booky, but if you ignore those, it's very enjoyable.

Offline BelAir

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Re: The Dark Knight - with spoilers
« Reply #7 on: January 23, 2009, 07:19:40 pm »
I FINALLY watched my DVD copy, so finally saw the movie for a second time.  I was prompted to go back and read some of the initial comments from myself and others when the movie was first released.  I remember loving Heath's performance, but being less impressed with the movie overall.  This second time through, I still thought Heath was amazing, but I also liked the movie better overall.  I also found it less scary - I figure this relates to size of the screen on which I was viewing the movie.

Anyone else have changing opinions over time?
"— a thirst for life, for love, and for truth..."