THE DARK KNIGHT

title: THE DARK KNIGHT
year: 2008
cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine
rating: *
My reviews usually insert a brief description of the plot, but since there's about a thousand plots I'll start with the man of the hour, the late Heath Ledger who, as said in interviews, was inspired by Malcom McDowell's performance in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, but seems more like Rip Taylor channeling Paul Lynde imitating Johnny Depp impersonating a demented circus clown. Now a violently gay joker I don't mind, but he should at least have a backstory or purpose. Then again this entire film - set in a Gotham City that looks like Manhattan - has no purpose at all. Christian Bale delivers his lines like a porn star Hal 9000; and Mayor Harvey "Two-Face" Dent goes from friendly, highly-energetic politician to sinister villain for no other reason than getting blown up and deformed - REASON being another thing this film lacks... although there's tons of expensive flash to keep rabid "graphic novel" fans wide-eyed, mouths gaping for more. But for someone who likes a coherent storyline no matter what the genre, it's two-and-a-half hours of PURE TORTURE.
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousDecember 12, 2009 at 12:30 PM

    The only thing that annoyed me about this movie was Christian Bale growling his lines out of a mouth full of gravel when he was in the bat-suit.

    Let me tell you why I loved this movie. Batman has always been my favorite DC comic book hero. In the 90's he was my favorite 'mainstream' comic book hero even though I went off the reservation and only was buying alternative comics, independents, and rare stuff, I still loved my Batman.

    Tim Burton make a joke of Batman. Even the Batman movie with the original television cast was better than any of the non-Christopher Nolan Batman flicks. With each new movie after that and each new 'Batman' (Kilmer and Clooney) I wanted to strangle strangle someone. It's shocking to look back on those movies now and think that Michael Keaton ended up being the best of those three as Batman.

    Then came along Batman Begins. Now granted Liam Neeson was pretty much The Suck. Seriously though didn't Liam Neeson say after he was in Episode 1 that he was retiring from acting? I really wish he would have kept that promise.

    So from the perspective of a huge fan of the Dark Knight comic books, er Batman comic books, Christopher Nolan pulled the Batman movies out of the flames and set them on a better track. BATMAN BEGINS was finally the Batman movie I was hoping for.

    For me I don't care who the actor is that plays the Joker - as long as it's not Jack Nicholson. Heath Ledger did a damn good manic Joker. You had some of my favorite Batman villains in Batman Begins, Two-Face, Joker of course...

    Is it a perfect Batman? Nope, but it's the best we are gonna ever get. Let's take the catastrophically horrible last Schumacher Batman film? You have 3 of Batman's baddest bad-ass villains - each of them deserved a movie unto themselves as a villain against Batman. Poison Ivy - one of my favorite female villains in any comic book, you have Mr. Freeze, who I always thought of more a tragic figure than villain RUINED, DESTROYED by the worst 'acting' hack job ever in the performance of Arnold Schwarzenegger (Okay Bruce Willis in HUDSON HAWK - pretty vomit inducing bad), and the biggest tragedy of all, BANE, the man who broke Batman's back, the biggest bad ass of em all, and you make him out to be a...to be honest I have no words to describe what Schumacher did to Bane. I don't need to say anything more about Robin or Batgirl do I?

    So yea, I'm not saying this is great cinema, but as a Batman fanatic, at least let us enjoy this flick because we know this is gonna be the best we are gonna get for a live action Batman movie.

    The BEST Batman movie was BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM. That was an animated movie that came out in 1993. I think it only played for a week at the AMC at Marina Pacifica.

    Anywho.

    All we have to do is look at Spider-Man 3 to see my favorite Marvel hero knocked down to size with the biggest bloated piece of crap I have ever seen, what a turd.

    So for now, I'm thankful for THE DARK KNIGHT.

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