Just saw the new Batman... and holy crap. (as spoiler free as possible)

[DarkTirade]

I am conflicted. After seeing http://drhorrible.com/trailer.html">Doctor Horrible's Sing-along Blog I totally wanted to become a villain. Now after seeing Batman I'm not so sure anymore.

Seriously though, it was one helluva roller coaster ride. I was kind of worried that maybe people were playing up Heath's acting job just out of respect for him... but they weren't. He was fucking disturbing. And that's coming from somebody who yawns at most movie attempts to disturb the audience. He was incredible. And the rest of the cast wasn't too far behind. Eckhart was great both as Dent and Two-Face. I have yet to see Oldman do anything other than be awesome, and he kept up that streak in this movie. Bale did a good job of balancing the Bruce Wayne/Batman persona. And of course Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine did their usual 'wise older mentor' routine, with a little bit extra thrown in for each character. Maggie Gyllenhaal did a good job of playing a very human Rachel, much better than the last one IMO. Has Eric Roberts ever done a good job at playing anything other than a minor villain? Just wondering. He blended in fairly well, enough so that I wasn't thinking, "Hey, that's Eric Roberts" every time I saw his character. :)

The plot was... convoluted to say the least. It started off running and didn't stop until the end. There were a lot of twists and turns and a lot of moments where they very well COULD have ended it... but they were determined to get it all in there, and they did.

With the success of this movie, you know there's going to be another sequel. So I'm just curious as to which direction they're going to take. The first one was just a little introduction. The second shows him falling into the role of Batman, and facing the challenges that come with it. What's going to be next? It's hard to say, especially since I really can't see anyone replacing Heath as Batman's main nemesis. Up until now my favorate rendition of The Joker in TV/movies had always been Mark Hamill's version from the '90s cartoon series and subsequent spinoffs. Now this one's definitely up there. They're different, the cartoon one is obviously a bit more toony and the live action more than just a bit darker. So it's impossible to really compare the two. But they were both fantastic.

[ghostsofgiants]

1. Maggie Gyllenhaal did a better acting job than Katie Holmes?

I am shocked. SHOCKED! :P

[DarkTirade]

2. Yeah, I never would have seen that coming...

:P

[Ava]

3. call me crazy, but i thought they were two different characters

holmes played a younger rachel.. whereas gyllenhaal played an older and more mature rachel.

i think it isn't really fair to compare the acting roles because of that, but neither did horrible jobs with their roles(though neither blew me away).


personally i'm hoping to see cat woman in the next movie... i do wonder who could pull off playing her though.
chicks kick ass, as cat woman very much proves ;)

[DarkTirade]

4. Yeah, they needed more female characters who are capable of keeping up with Batman

I was a bit surprised that they had Ras Al Ghul in the first movie but not Talia. Wouldn't make sense to put her in now that Ras is dead though. And they pretty much ruled out having Batgirl any time soon, since A) They named Gordon's wife Barbara and haven't named the daughter yet apparently, and B) The character is way too young at the moment anyway.

[Chovexani]

6. Barbara's face has yet to be seen on camera.

I don't think that was unintentional, given the absolutely insane attention to detail and love for the mythos shown in the series so far.

[Fran Kubelik]

9. omg

I love your signature. :rofl:

:yourock:

[DarkTirade]

10. Yeah, the only time you saw the daughter was when she was clinging to the mother.

Still, far too young to become Batgirl for quite some time. Hmm... what other strong women were there in Batman's parter/villain gallery other than Talia, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Batgirl in her various incarnations, and Catwoman? I know there are more but my brain's still reeling from the movie. :P

[Chovexani]

5. I beg to differ.

Katie Holmes stuck out like a sore thumb and dragged the first movie down. She was not up to the material, at all. This phenomenal cast: Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman and...the chick from Dawson's Creek? Seriously? All the $cieno Tom Cruise couch jumping aside, Katie Holmes was an actress on a shitty WB teen show, and it showed in Batman Begins. Painfully. It's to the point where I skip all her scenes on HD-DVD because otherwise I cringe.

If you really think there's no difference, imagine Katie in That Scene in The Dark Knight, with Aaron Eckhart. Maggie Gyllanhaal is just that damned good, and it runs in the family (brother Jake was robbed of a Best Supporting Actor nod for starring opposite Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain). It had nothing to do with the scripting, which was flawless. Katie is just a shitty actress who would likely be slumming on a VH-1 reality show by now were she not Mrs. Crazy Tom Cruise.

[DarkTirade]

8. The only scene where she was convincing for me

was the scene when she smacked Bruce when he showed her the gun he'd been carrying. And that was because her blank expression could have been taken for shock. :P

[ghostsofgiants]

7. I haven't seen The Dark Knight, I just can't stand Katie Holmes and adore Maggie Gyllenhaal, haha.

[DarkTirade]

18. I highly recommend it. :)

I haven't bought a movie ticket in QUITE some time now, but I thought it would be worth it this time. I was expecting it to be good or at least entertaining. And it still managed to blow me away.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

13. I don't like what they did with the character.

I mean, in the first she's the good DA hero who's not afraid to take on the bad guys. In this new one, she just plays second fiddle to Harvey Dent and only serves for the heroic men to fawn over.

[Radio_Lady]

27. (Spoiler alert)

Yes, and then she dies.

My husband objected strenuously to the plot twists and turns. It's like took a DELETED SCENES REEL which they melded together for about the last 30 minutes of the film.

I'm sure I've read that Christopher Nolan is not planning another sequel, but maybe that was someone's guess.

I wish I had taken a Dramamine before I went to the screening. We saw it in Imax.

You might enjoy reading Kimberly Gadette's review: (She's one of my galpals when hubby doesn't want to and can't go.)

http://www.livepdx.com/Articles/Portland-Movies/?launch_pg=ArticlePage_Movie&launch_sel=1011596&title=Screen+Savor+Movie+Review%3A+The+Dark+Knight

Warm regards,

Radio Lady in Oregon

[crimsonblue]

28. meh...

catwoman is the worst of the female villains in the DC universe.. plus, Halle Berry butchered the movie. Plus, they already said that neither the Penguin nor Catwoman will be a villain in future films.

[Bill McBlueState]

22. oh yeah, me too

Not being that heavily into Batman, I went mainly to see Maggie. :loveya:

I have to say I'm pleased with the new casting.

[JTG of the PRB]

11. My thought on the next movie is this (spoilers lie within)...

I'm not convinced that Harvey Dent/Two-Face is dead. He could just have been unconscious. It's possible he's dead, but I'm not convinced. Also, we don't know that Rachel IS dead for sure. We never saw her die, we never saw them recover her body... It's possible the Joker had her at a third location surrounded by the barrels, and he only blew up the second location, leaving Rachel alive. I don't think they'll go that way, though, since they won't have the Joker in the next movie (if Christopher Nolan has any sense at all, that is).

[DarkTirade]

12. Yeah, (continuing the same spoiler from previous comment)

we never saw Rachel or Dent's bodies. I did notice that at the end.

Which could mean that Two-Face coming back could take the heat off Batman in the next movie.

[JTG of the PRB]

15. (Still spoilers ahead)...

I mean, we did see Two-Face laying on the ground motionless, but the fall didn't kill Batman, and Batman had been through a bit more from his fight with the Joker. I'm just not convinced that Harvey Dent is dead. I suppose we'll have to wait another three years to find out for sure...

[Orrex]

29. SPOILERS

Do you really think that neither Batman nor Gordon would check for a pulse?

Batman had been through a bit more from his fight with the Joker.

What?!?!?!? Harvey had suffered fourth degree burns to his head and had escaped from a hospital just hours before. Not to mention the emotional trauma he'd been through.

Batman is (we may assume) in phenomenal physical condition and suffered a fall much smaller than the one he'd taken with Rachel earlier in the film.


If Dent or Rachel is alive, it will be a more egregiously bad choice than killing Hicks and Newt.

[DS1]

24. Oh god, don't turn this into LOST

:puke:

They'd better be both gone.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. Errr... (spoiler cont.)

I think the whole ending was predicated on the idea that Dent is dead, and that the actor's leaving the franchise, along with Glyllenhaal, and Morgan Freeman. Which is why they all exit. And that the Joker would be around for the sequel, which is why they captured him.

Which is all very ironic.

[JTG of the PRB]

16. I agree that that's the way it looks, HOWEVER... (still spoilers)

I'm not entirely convinced Dent is dead. The fall didn't look like it was enough to kill him, unless he landed on his head, which is, of course, possible. Same story with Rachel - they didn't find a body in the course of the movie, so it's possible she's alive.

As for Lucius Fox, did he say that his resignation was in effect if the cell phone tracker was still in use after they caught the Joker? I need to see the movie again, but I gathered that he was going to resign if Batman decided to keep the machine operational. However, when he entered his name into the screen, the system shut down and got all explodey and it looked pretty broken. I could be wrong though...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

21. Uh, he fell three or four stories, certainly enough to kill him.

And that whole thing got to me, batman spends the movie leaping off buildings, flying around, then he falls down, all the characters say "oh no! Batman fell down and got hurt!" so they rush down, dramatic tension, oh, no, he's OK, just limping a little.

I'm pretty sure they did show Dent's body, and the whole point of the plot was that both Dent and Rachel were dead. So if they did bring back either in a sequel, that would be "ret-conning" (I think that's what they call it), which is perfectly common in comic books, but rather cheap writing, IMO.

[DarkTirade]

17. I'm not sure if Freeman's character was leaving... (more spoilers)

he said he'd leave if that uber-spy system was still in place, and Batman responded by telling him how to destroy it. And he did destroy it at the end. So he could very well stay.

I did find it interesting that Freeman's character is basically in on it, but never officially. He never actually says, "I am Batman." They both know that he knows, it just seems to be a kind of game between the two of them.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

19. I don't think so.

Freeman said he'd do it the one time, AND tender his resignation.

That whole bit with his destroying the super batcomputer, that was his dramatic exit from the franchise.

[DarkTirade]

20. He said, "As long as this thing stays, I go."

and that's when Batman tells him that his name is the password to destroy it.

[Orrex]

30. That's the right answer

The destruction also comes during Batman's voiceover, when he says the part about rewarding someone's faith. Not those exact words, but point remains.

Having Fox resign after that moment would be an odd choice and arguably inconsistent with the plot.

[DS1]

23. btw, spoilers

was that really scarecrow "Cillian Murphy" who said "That's not my diagnosis" in the first ten minutes? I know he's in it, and I didn't see him anywhere else, so was he scared straight?

[DarkTirade]

25. Yeah, he just showed up as some low-level drug dealer...

probably A) just to give the villain from the last movie a cameo and B) to show how desperate the criminals are to get ahold of anything they can sell.

[Orrex]

31. SPOILER

I think it was so that we don't spend the film saying "where's the Scarecrow during all of this?"

[Orrex]

26. Eric Roberts

He was quite good in http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081316/">Paul's Case. And if you can find three other people who remember seeing that film, then I bet that at least one of them was involved in the production itself.