The Dark Knight (no spoilers please)

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Well, lemme put it this way: he makes a great Joker. 'Nuff said, watch the movie.

I say the movie was well-scripted, acted, and produced, but for some reason, after I left the theater, I felt emotionally drained and depressed for the first time in over a month.

Probably because it was darker than Lindt Chocolate.

Yeah, that's the problem I had with Batman Begins and it's the same director. It was all dark mood, gloom and no plot to speak of. I also don't think Christian Bale is the right person.

From the pix I would say Heath was inspired by Marlon Brando's makeup for "The Island of Dr Moreau'. Now that was a great performance!




I like the Adam West tv series, loved it actually, it was witty and sardonic - so most of the movies disappoint me.

I think I liked the first better than this one. Not to say it was decent but I'm not sure it really survived all the hype.

On another note though, Christian Bale's Batman voice drove me up a wall. Was kinda hoping that with the way they were playing the movie and playing Joker out as well that they would have done a lot more on hammering in the casualties - like with the bank, shot everyone, maybe had that canister that would have enlarged in his mouth and ripped his jaw off (ie. what I thought he was doing with the cable in the door)....Keith Ledger never even put a smile on anyone . Not that I'm a big blood and gore type, just that when its an epic battle of good and evil - playing the violence of the bad guy too lightly seems to steal some of the emotional thunder and the movies that really push the emotional edges (Training Day, Running Scared, either of the Rob Zombie movies, No Country) - movies like that I actually remember; which is part of what I really liked about Batman Begins, they played on the malice and atmosphere the way they should have in this one.

Then again I know it's based on a comic book, just a shame when they have to put that many constraints on an idea and water the action and feel of it down that much.

Man, my hopes were ridiculously high and it managed to surpass them. I really don't know how it did it. I seriously was thinking, "There's no way this can be that good. It's gonna have tons of hyperbole." But goddamn, it was INTENSE.

Was it flawed? Yes, definitely. The action was choppy, the look of Two-Face didn't work for me (I hope that's not a spoiler to anyone), Batman's costume was rubbish, and the first third, while decent, seems totally lame when compared to the rest of the movie. But it worked so well from a storytelling standpoint and from an emotional standpoint that I didn't care about those things. I didn't care that the action was choppy, didn't care that the camerawork was too shaky during the action. This really was a bleak, intense film that affected me far more than I'd expected. Heath Ledger's Joker was absolutely brilliant, just freaky as all hell.

techstep, I do agree that the Joker's violence could have been pushed a little further, but I think they took it as far as they would realistically go. That magic trick, for instance. Or just the sheer psychological cruelty of much of it. If they'd made it all bloody and gory then it would have gotten an R rating and, while an R-rated Batman movie might be awesome, it's not something that Warner Bros would release. They'd chop it up and make it get a PG-13. "Running Scared" was one seriously intense film because of its violence, though--even when there wasn't any violence going on, the constant threat of it made the whole thing nightmarish as hell, because you'd always be dreading the next messed up moment, knowing that the film had the balls to break all taboos. I can imagine how scary "The Dark Knight" would have been had it had that level of violence--and I think that might be too much if they did. It'd be a hard film to watch. As it is, it's a film that I'll be able to watch again, while "Running Scared" is something I probably won't see again. But it's a fair point.

Well, that's comforting, lol. Actually for some reason a lot of times dark films really make me happy. I think I'm just twisted. Anyways, I'm very excited to see this movie, it looks amazing, and even though I usually prefer Marvel I do love me some Batman! I really hope the film lives up to its hype for me. ^_^

btw I do agree Running Scared was disturbing as hell, and it's hard for me to get disturbed by a movie, but after the scene where she finds the kid in the closet I seriously had to stop watching the movie because I felt really sick. Kudos to the actors and director of that film for making it so freaking disturbing.

I thought this movie's intensity was just under the threshold of what I could handle. Also, remember Alfred Hitchcock, who said that sometimes it's what you don't see is even more intense - lots of modern filmmakers could learn from this instead of using CGI to constantly show off .



Usually action films help pick me up. But I think this is one of the best dystopic films in years.

Oh, trust me - I'm probably the only person I know who actually liked Blaire Witch or had any respect for The Village. That seems to be the biggest problem filmmakers run into with that one though, the audiences tend to flay it for all these things it lacked when really it was never intended to have them.

Oh, and by the way; here's a special treat for anyone who has seen the movie already or wants to watch it and retrospectively spot for vocal samples:

Watch The World Burn (Mutations Label)

Its actually a free download still, I'm a bit surprised. Never heard of these guys up to this point either but pretty well handled IMO. What's funny also, I first heard this...geez....back in March I think.

I just watched this movie!

Holy f-ing hell, it was awesome!

Heath Ledger's Joker will go down in movie history
as one of the best movie villans of all time!

Just got back from TDN. Wow. Christian Bale still doesn't feel like a real Batman to me, and I know it's been mentioned in the comics, but that weak attempt to diguise his Bruce Wayne voice while wearing the cape and cowl is just irritating as hell it was like he was TRYING to destroy my willful suspension of disbelief. On the plus side, it maintained a great pace for it's two-and-a-half hour length - not once did I find myself wishing I could hit PAUSE and take a break for awhile. As for the violence, it went just as far as could be gone and still let families bring their children (though this story and Batman Begins were both far too dark for kids); and personally I don't need to revel in gore to get the emotional impact of something horrible happening just out of camera range. I for one was happy not to actually see the magic trick in close-up. It still made me jump, just knowing...

All of that said...the hype can't prepare you. If you've been thinking they're just pumping the s**t outta this film so audiences will give in to morbid curiosity to see a dead man talking - they're not. It should have been called:

Heath Ledger IS The Joker

(also starring Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Micahel Caine and a bunch of other people)

Talk about stealing the show, OMG!

Dammit! If he had lived, they could have spun that character off into his own movie franchise! Ledger's Joker makes characters like Freddie Krueger look like Saturday morning cartoons. Only Hannibal Lecter could rival this anarchist lunatic as a character straight out of hellish nightmare. Even if you hate movies based on comic books, don't pass up a chance to see this performance. It's just a pity they'll have to mount the Oscar on his grave.

Just don't ever mention Heath Ledger's name around Jack Nicholson, unless you wanna be bitch-slapped.

Where I live all the shows are sold out - how did you guys get to see it so fast?
So while I wait to see it, I have two questions:
1. Is it worth seeing if it's so depressing?
2. WHY does Heath's make-up look like that? Is there an actual explanation, other than to tell us he's a freak?

official reason given by Chris Nolan was that the Joker's supposed to totally not care about his appearance. taking time applying the make-up he implies that he cares how he looks for other people, which he clearly doesn't.

I knew, just knew, it was gonna be dark as death. It was, but I was NOT prepared for it. Everyone in the theatre was gasping at how *much* it was. It was very tasteful, and left a ton to the imagination...thank god.

Now, about all the gadgets...I WANT the batmobile. It's on my X-mas wish list. I'd also like the whole "pick you up out of tight spots" device. The one where the plane grabbed him. I could think of all sorts of uses for that one. Like getting out of bad dates.

Christian Bale is the best Batman I have ever seen. And I hope there's more (a ton more) to come. That was one movie worth the $9.50 tix.

Now, off to go see the first one. (<---my only excuse is I don't watch most t.v. and hardly ever rent movies. But now, I have to see it).

People are exaggerating that. Yes, its dead serious, it ends on a bittersweet note, and it gets intense but the movie isn't THAT dark. Everywhere I go, people seem to make it out like its darkest movie ever made and lately thats been getting on my nerves since I didn't find it that dark even when it was at its most chilling and intense.

With that said, while I don't find it to be the masterpiece that everybody is making out to be, I found it to be a really good movie. It was well written, the pacing was spot on, and it was probably the first movie in a long time to put me on the edge of my seat thinking "Ooohh, I hope Batman can do this."

And then there was Heath Ledger's performance. I was a bit taken back with all the hype surrounding his performance since it seemed like everyone was praising him simply because of his death. After watching this, I can say that he has earned every last bit of praise he has received. He played it low key instead of being a cackling mad man, which made him all the more creepy but even at his most sickening, his darkly comic lines make him compelling to watch.

"ha ha he he ha ha he ha."