[Folken]

Kind of like TAS...where he is struggling with himself mentally from the start. Going to therapy, etc. etc.

Spoiler

We do get a slight glimpse of it...but like I said that left me unconvinced by it all when he tries to "kill" that Arkham inmate before the press conference

[Vengeance]

Ok I have yet to see it on the Imax...Sold out months in advance. But I saw it in a regular theater and left feeling that I hadn't seen a movie of that caliber since the departed. Even that might be a stretch.

Spoiler

I thought that Arron played Harvey right on the money. The amount of strain that he was under emotionally before him and Rachel were kidnapped was increadible.

After the movie was over I realized that I had not moved the entire time. My body was stuck in the same position that it was in at the beginning of the film. That and I thought that my bladder would explode....

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Man this movie is soooooooooooooooo great!!!
Heath Ledger was a fantastic Joker. I he doesn't win the Oscar I will be really surprised(and angry).
Two-Face was also incredible. THe first time I saw his marred vsage I jumped from my seat!

[tiam]

Havnt seen it so cant judge but i will say this and probably be neg repped for it.

If he wasnt dead and was still that crap actor from a knights tale and 10 things i hate about you would he deserve an oscar? Will he simply get this due to him being a good-die-young actor

[Illuyankas]

If he was as bad in this movie as he was in those, then I for one wouldn't have liked the film nearly as much. As it is, I don't know if an Oscar is warranted, but it's most certainly the best performance he ever did, and was awesome throughout the whole thing.

[Folken]

Well watch and then judge and then make that comment if you still feel that way.

I haven't seen any of Heath's other movies so I would like to think I have a clean view of Heath with no prior experiences to draw from and to me his acting in this movie was the best I have seen in years. He should be nominated for this role for sure as for the win well I can't judge any other actors as I haven't seen that many movies this year but his performance is worth at least a nomination.

[Vengeance]

tiam;359209 said:

Havnt seen it so cant judge but i will say this and probably be neg repped for it.

If he wasnt dead and was still that crap actor from a knights tale and 10 things i hate about you would he deserve an oscar? Will he simply get this due to him being a good-die-young actor

I think that he stopped being that actor after the Gay Cowboy movie...

I had a special attachment to jack as the Joker. That was the first film that I earned money to go and see. As such I felt as you do when I first heard that he was going to be the joker. I am a Batman comic fan and have been waiting for someone to understand that the Joker wasn't a funny person. He was a crazy nut job. Heath understood that and played it perfectly..

[Folken]

Exactly.

There were a few reviews, bad ones, and most of them complained about Harvey and his coin where they compared it to the No Country for Old Men and the coin that is used in there and how this coin made no sense because it was heads on both side of the coin. You're just sitting there reading and going "that is kind of the POINT!" Every bad review that I read about this movie showed that the person writing the review had no idea what or who batman is no idea about the villains no idea about the psychology of Batman and his villains. I have now seen the movie 4 times and every time I am left stunned in the end esp Joker's final speech it gives a perfect description of the Batman Joker relationship.

[Illuyankas]

Those reviewers are idiots. You have to link their reviews.

[HalfTere]

Reading the Malazan series after watching the Dark Knight, I considered how all the ascendants are consumnate "schemers" of the sort the Joker describes.

And the movie was great. Greatest ever? Nah, but perfect execution on almost every level. It didn't feel rushed or crammed together - they pulled off two climaxes successfully. The only thing it lacked, for me, was a "wow, I didn't know the medium of cinema could convey expression" moment, like the revelation in "Usual Suspects", climbing from the sewer pipe in "Shawshank Redemption" or the door closing in "the Godfather".

[Folken]

Illuyankas;359232 said:

Those reviewers are idiots. You have to link their reviews.

You can go to www.rottentomatoes.com go to their dark knight page and sort the reviews by ROTTEN. You'll get a list of about 12 of them and keep a punching bag next to you because you might feel the need to punch something after reading some of those reviews.

Spoiler

There was one review that I read but I'm not sure if it was rotten or fresh on there but I know one of the points in the review made me want to smack the guy. Remember the scene where Harvey is in the streets with the arkham inmate and he flips the coin twice. I swear it was as if the reviewer wasn't watching the movie Harvey goes "Heads you get to keep your head tails ...something" The reviewer takes this to mean that they didn't stick true to Two-Face because he flipped the coin twice as he didnt get his desired result the first time around. The coin has only heads Harvey was just trying to scare the inmate into talking and it worked! These people should watch the movie form an opinion re-watch the movie and then re form an opinion or they could just pay attention through out the movie the first time around

[Aptorian]

LONGFILM IS LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!!!

At around half way through I was looking at my watch and wandering when they were going to start wrapping up the film and it just keeps going and going and going. That's about all the criticism I can dig up for this film.

While it feels extremely long, it's also extremely good. At no time was I bored or uninterested. All the characters were great. The action sequences were awesome.

What I found most interesting was the fact that Batman doesn't actually have a big role in the film. He's there in the background and sort of keeps the rest of the film together, but it's just as much about the Joker, Dent, Gordon, the Mafia, etc.

I really appreciate that the director lets all the elements of the film shine and doesn't just let Batman over shadow the rest.

Go see this film now.

[Folken]

Batman Begins was maybe 8mins shorter...TDK is really not THAT long

@Apt: Like many of us have said its not a Batman movie, it's a crime drama that just happens to be set in a world with Batman, Joker, Two-Face, etc. hence why everyone shares an equal amount of screen time

[Vengeance]

A large part of the problem is that for so many people there only experience with Batman and the world of Gotham is through the TV or Movies. They don't understand that before Harvey became two face he only used the coin as a joke prop not as a crutch. After he became two face the coin was his crutch. It was look at how fickle fate is. When harvey dent was still the district attorney he didn't believe in fate and luck. After he was burned and had listened to his love die. His belief system was shattered along with his mind.

I thought that the movie portrayed that wonderfully.

[Folken]

Exactly for example the court room scene at the start of the movie where he flips the coin to see who will take the case and Rachel goes "you'll put something like this down to luck" and Harvey replies "I make my own luck"

Some people just don't understand Batman...also after having watched it a few more times I take back what I said about the initial stages of Harvey's transformation. It was done well and I has no complaints about it.

[polishgenius]

Awesome film. Head and shoulders above the rest of the superhero movie genre, although I'd have to see it again to decide if that includes the Matrix, which effectively is one.
Ledger's Joker was perfect. A quote from Terry Pratchett sums him up for me "In a world of circles, he moves in straight lines" - except obviously in this case in an evil way. He just tears through the film, every time he shows up someone's convictions come tumbling down. The whole question of his-Joker-or-Nicholson's isn't even close.

I did think Two-face's transformation was a bit quick, but that was one of the restrictions of the format - they didn't have time for him to go insane over a period of time.

It also makes the ending of Begins even weaker for me. The whole thing of

Spoiler

Batman versus chaos and chance in this film makes the part where he leaves Ras' death to chance even more out of keeping for the character.
Also I liked how Joker created Two-Face for a "better class of criminal", and I can see them feeding this back into any sequels as a way to bring in more villains, even if they don't recast the Joker himself.

One other tiny thing that I agree with Mark Kermode about was the ship setpiece wasn't really necessary, and it wasn't for me as tense as it should have been. It's not something that's really obvious while watching, but the hostage situation takes the slack for most of the tension-building. I know they needed something to show that the Joker wasn't going to corrupt everyone that easily, but it was slightly flabby, and the fact that the crim was going to throw the detonator away was just obvious.
A tiny flaw set against the overall film though, it's easily the best film I've seen this year.

I also didn't think it was too long. Perfect length.

[Folken]

@Polish - Yes I think that was my problem with Harvey's transformation the early stages were done too fast. They really should have gone down the TAS path and done a "big bad harv" type thing but I suppose that would have just made the movie longer. But can't really complain they did the best they could with time considerations.

[Sir Bob]

Trouble;355536 said:

I bet everyones going to come in and post about how awesome and perfect it is, and then I'll feel like a dick for seeing faults in it.

nope im with you on this one, yes it was a good moive and yes i enjoyed it but please it was not that good!! felt it was to long and apart from h.l performance was nothing that took my breath away.

also someone said up untill this moive iron man was thier number one moive of the year, that kinda says it all, iron man pah!

[Yellow]

I thought it was immense. Heath Ledger was far and away the star of the movie, and that's fine, because he put in a perfect performance. There was honestly nothing about his performance that I would change or that I wish hadn't been in there (which unfortunately cannot be said for the BatVoice). I remember when the first trailer came out, I said that his rendition of the Joker would piss all over Nicholson's, and I was right.

I wish it had been longer. I didn't want it to end at all.

[Lost Marine]

I drove an hour to see it and it was good, would I drive an hour to see it again? No.

But it'll go in the collection when it comes out on DVD.