Author Topic: Just watched "The Dark Knight" (no spoilers)  (Read 3122 times)

VincentGAU8

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Re: Just watched "The Dark Knight" (no spoilers)
« Reply #30 on: July 21, 2008, 11:04:08 pm »
Oh man.. All this positive feedback has made me want to watch this film even more..
But movie ticket prices in my country has gone really high, probably can't afford it right now.. :(

radicalblues

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Re: Just watched "The Dark Knight" (no spoilers)
« Reply #31 on: July 22, 2008, 03:42:48 pm »
An interesting sidenote:  This past weekend I witnessed several young children being taken out of the movie by their parents, screaming hysterically.  It took one little boy ten minutes outside to calm down before his parents left. 

Kids are such wimps nowadays, I'd have insanely enjoyed the Joker if I was 10. Maybe I'm just baised because I even enjoyed horror movies like "IT" when I was 10... oh well.

Yep, the Joker character was inconsistent. According to him, he didn't plan things, just wanted chaos. Let's see: he stole the ganster's money in order to make them fight each other, orchestrating chaos to cover all Gotham City, being jailed on purpose, and also the big scenario of the two ships and disguising the innocent as clowns and his minions and doctors, making Harvey evil in order to break the city's moral spirit, and so on... oh well, I guess it can be justified, the biggest building demolitions take weeks to plan... it also shows that the Joker was actually on his mind, but chose to see everything in a sick, ugly way.

He was an AWESOME villain, he held captive, and under terror and chaos the whole freaking city. I was actually sad when the people at the ships decided not to blow themselves up, cause it showed the end of the Joker's power. Over the city. It was also kinda cheesy and hollywood-deep, and where was Two-Face in this scenario to interact with the city's moral? Oh yeah, flipping his coin and kidnapping an innocent family... kinda less than he could had been. He would had been great in the ships scenario.

I loved how Two-Face was played, but after so many deus-ex-machinas, he just seemed like one more of the Joker's tools, and died way too fast.
« Last Edit: July 22, 2008, 03:46:26 pm by radicalblues »

placidchap

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Re: Just watched "The Dark Knight" (no spoilers)
« Reply #32 on: July 22, 2008, 04:11:37 pm »
An interesting sidenote:  This past weekend I witnessed several young children being taken out of the movie by their parents, screaming hysterically.  It took one little boy ten minutes outside to calm down before his parents left. 

Kids are such wimps nowadays, I'd have insanely enjoyed the Joker if I was 10. Maybe I'm just biased because I even enjoyed horror movies like "IT" when I was 10... oh well.

Kids shouldn't see this kind of movie nowadays.  You must be one disturbed person if you would enjoy the disappearing pencil trick at the age of 10.

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: Just watched "The Dark Knight" (no spoilers)
« Reply #33 on: July 22, 2008, 05:45:08 pm »
Quote
Yep, the Joker character was inconsistent. According to him, he didn't plan things, just wanted chaos. Let's see: he stole the ganster's money in order to make them fight each other, orchestrating chaos to cover all Gotham City, being jailed on purpose, and also the big scenario of the two ships and disguising the innocent as clowns and his minions and doctors, making Harvey evil in order to break the city's moral spirit, and so on... oh well, I guess it can be justified, the biggest building demolitions take weeks to plan... it also shows that the Joker was actually on his mind, but chose to see everything in a sick, ugly way.

But didn't you guys catch on?  The Joker was a compulsive liar.  He consistently lied in order to see his own ambitions come through, even as far as to be inconsistent himself.  I think that wasn't poor writing, it was intentional (I mean, we got hints of it as he lied about how he got his scars, for instance).

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Re: Just watched "The Dark Knight" (no spoilers)
« Reply #34 on: July 22, 2008, 07:36:36 pm »
Kids shouldn't see this kind of movie nowadays.  You must be one disturbed person if you would enjoy the disappearing pencil trick at the age of 10.

I would've loved it at that age, as I loved it at my age. I suppose that makes me disturbed.

But didn't you guys catch on?  The Joker was a compulsive liar.  He consistently lied in order to see his own ambitions come through, even as far as to be inconsistent himself.  I think that wasn't poor writing, it was intentional (I mean, we got hints of it as he lied about how he got his scars, for instance).

I noticed how he was lying, but I just thought he was lying for the heck of it.

Burning Zeppelin

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Re: Just watched "The Dark Knight" (no spoilers)
« Reply #35 on: July 23, 2008, 06:15:22 am »
An interesting sidenote:  This past weekend I witnessed several young children being taken out of the movie by their parents, screaming hysterically.  It took one little boy ten minutes outside to calm down before his parents left. 
Better learn through film than through the news.

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Re: Just watched "The Dark Knight" (no spoilers)
« Reply #36 on: July 26, 2008, 02:33:16 pm »
An interesting sidenote:  This past weekend I witnessed several young children being taken out of the movie by their parents, screaming hysterically.  It took one little boy ten minutes outside to calm down before his parents left. 
Better learn through film than through the news.


Let's put a smile on that face.


Anyway, I found Batman Begins trying to seem much more scary, and it really didn't pull it off well. Yeah, it was frightening, but not in a good way. It was like you just didn't want to be in the theatre, you had better things to do.

Dark Knight, however, was much more (excuse the pun) dark and horrifying, and it pulled it off in a very satisfying and memorable way.

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: Just watched "The Dark Knight" (no spoilers)
« Reply #37 on: July 26, 2008, 04:22:08 pm »
I saw it again last night and was able to detect such subtleties that made it more interesting.  the nolan brothers truly are great writers.


Thought

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Re: Just watched "The Dark Knight" (no spoilers)
« Reply #39 on: July 26, 2008, 11:37:29 pm »
Just saw The Dark Knight today and I did like it, though I think I prefer the plot of Batman Begins more. In TDK it felt like Batman had too much screen time and Bruce had too little. To provide an example: in BB, when the villin shows up at the Wayne party, it is Bruce who takes care of matters and saves the people, while in TDK it is Batman who saves the day. To be fair, how the story was going it couldn't have happened any other way (Ra's al Ghul was after Wayve, the Joker was after Batman), but that is just it; Batman was the main character and I suppose I wanted Bruce to be that.

Having said that, the acting in this movie was largely brilliant. The more I think about Heath Ledger's performance, the more impressed I am. Walking out of the, I was actually sad because while a fine role, I didn't think it was as good as everyone said it was. However, then I began to think about it and I began to realize how wonderful of a job they did on the Joker. I think it was a brilliant move that they didn't give him an origin or a background; that would have actually taken away from him. He is chaos that came out of nothing. And to note, lies about how he got the scars were wonderful. I would have liked a few more moments like when he dropped Rachael or when he dressed up as a nurse (showing the "humorous" side of Joker, as it were), but I can't think of where they'd fit it in.

Aaron Eckhart's performance was on part with Ledgers, it seemed (though I think he also had an easier role). However, I think I would have preferred if they could have left him out of this movie and devoted an entire one to him; we see Two-Face a little too little for how wonderful of a performance it was (though at the same time, I wouldn't have wanted that element to be in a different movie if his "origin" would be changed). I always hated the craptacular court-disfigurement that Two-Face had in the comics; this was much more effective. Basically, it just felt like the screen was too crowded with both Ledger and Eckhart; I wanted to see the movie focus more on both, but there is only so much screen time available.

Maggie Gyllenhaal was... um... moving along.

Nah, just kidding. She did well with her role, but it was the role that was crap. I know the relationship between Rachael and Bruce was built up in Batman Begins, but this is not Batman Begins. That relationship needed to be developed here too. We didn't see anything that helped justify why Bruce was obsessed with her. Rachael and Harvey was better, but still, it looked like they were good friends, not lovers. And unfortunately, Rachael seemed to be in the movie almost entirely to serve as a MacGuffin; I didn't care at all that she was killed (well, probably killed -- this is a comic book movie, after all).

Gary Oldman is the perfect lovable old man. I mean Sirius-ly; he plays a wonderful James Gordan who serves as an emotional foothold in this movie, with the near absence of Bruce Wayne (he did the same in Batman Begins, but he wasn't so alone). He is the common man (who is hardly common), the viture of the average citizen. Now when I think of the character, I will always envission Oldman's portrayal (same with most the other characters in this movie, but hey).

I was very dubious about Michael Cane when I first saw him as Alfred, but he makes the role his own very well. Though Bruce's parents are dead, we still get to see his father, as it were, and unlike in some other takes on batman, Alfred stays his father (rather than being relegated to the butler position once Bruce comes of age). He has such little screen time, but Cane makes splendid use of it.

Lovely, and certainly one I plan to own (and if I can manage it, to see in IMAX; though around here those showings are sold out for another two weeks).

Captain A

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Re: Just watched "The Dark Knight" (no spoilers)
« Reply #40 on: July 31, 2008, 01:33:07 pm »
I saw it again last night and was able to detect such subtleties that made it more interesting.
you mean like joker's past?

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: Just watched "The Dark Knight" (no spoilers)
« Reply #41 on: August 01, 2008, 04:22:43 pm »
Quote
you mean the joker's past

no, just foreshadowing for all the twists that occur in the movie.  because there were A LOT of twists.

nightmare975

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Re: Just watched "The Dark Knight" (no spoilers)
« Reply #42 on: August 02, 2008, 10:08:19 pm »
Honestly, I hated Maggie Gyllenhaal, it looked like she was cast as a super villain, but then decided to make her Rachel instead.

Really she was that ugly.

Plus the sound at my theatre was shot, so every so often, characters voices seemed to sound they were coming out of a megaphone. It was the worst on Alfred, making his dialogue completely incoherent.

And remember people, without Jack as the Joker, we would have never had such an amazing performance from Heath Ledger, plus Heath would still be alive, maybe.

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Re: Just watched "The Dark Knight" (no spoilers)
« Reply #43 on: August 03, 2008, 12:30:11 am »
Saw it again today. Great show, but it's a little hard to concentrate when your best friend and his girlfriend are making out right next to you.

Radical_Dreamer

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Re: Just watched "The Dark Knight" (no spoilers)
« Reply #44 on: August 03, 2008, 05:24:04 am »
Finally caught a screening. I was blown away. Heath Ledger really stole the show; the Joker was creepy as hell. I was happy with all of the casting, really, but yeah...the Joker really stood out as being fantastic.