Sunday, July 20, 2008

1083 - The Dark Knight


The hype machine for this film was absolutely incredible. Over the whole thing is the air of melancholy with Heath's death, but it almost works for it, which I'm sure the Warner Bros brass are happy with. And just as a warning THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS POST. READ AHEAD AT YOUR OWN FREEWILL!!!
I like Nolan's world for Batman. I think it's great and real and gritty, and I do worry that you can only take it so far before you run out of villains that you can realistically bring into this world. Was Heath great? He sure was. But no better than Aaron Eckhardt, who I'm sure won't get the praise that Ledger does, and understandably so. The most ironic part is that the character that survives won't be available for the sequel unless they recast, in which case, all the best luck to the fanboy hates to whatever unlucky soles steps into those big feet. There's this beautiful moment at the end of this film where Joker pontificates on why neither he or Batman can or will kill the other. He blames Batman's moral code for the reason he can't kill the Joker, and the Joker simply just tells him that he's too much fun, and that "We'll probably do this for forever." A sad sad moment that pulls you back to reality.
There was a great improvement in this film on dialogue and some wonderfully surprising story beats. Love that they killed the damsel in distress, but honestly, I never had a problem with the Katie Holmes casting, and I'll admit that the moment would have been that much more emotional if it was a character I'd seen over two films. The re-casting kills it a bit, and no fault to Maggie - I love her dearly, perhaps she's just a better actress than they needed.
Was it fun? Yeah! Did it give me everything I wanted. Sure! Perhaps more. It was a long film, feeling probably longer than it did. Can't complain that there wasn't enough Joker, just a bit sad that his counter-part can't make it around for the next installment.
Great ending, can't wait to see where they take it.

No comments:

Post a Comment