The Dark Knight

I am pretty sure I saw "Hoosier" on the side of the BatPod thingy's rear tire in the movie tonight. Also, that movie was amazing. I'm actually glad it was so long. Movies here cost almost $10 and The Dark Knight is like seeing two movies at the same time.

Pretty good.....Saw it last night, wasn't prepared for a 2.5 movie but I enjoyed it.

would've thought Scarecrow would have gotten more play though.

Yep, Hoosiers up front and Super Swampers out back (for the Tumbler at least).

Geek link: http://www.chickslovethecar.com/Tumbler.aspx

I would honestly like to see the Joker stay...

But i can't think of many people that could pull it off...

Edward Norton Javier Bardem

I honestly think Christian Bale himself would be good, but i think he's the best Batman i can think of. Well, maybe not Batman, but he's the best Bruce Wayne.

Saw it in normal theatre, going to imax this weekend.

fastEddie wrote: Yep, Hoosiers up front and Super Swampers out back (for the Tumbler at least). Geek link: http://www.chickslovethecar.com/Tumbler.aspx

Good site, just ignore the posters. I wonder what will happen for the next batmobile?

If they do decide to recast the Joker (which I like from a narrative standpoint since he's the true "arch enemy", but don't like from a casting standpoint since Ledger kicked so much scrote in that role) I'd suggest This guy.

If you saw Rian Johnson's "Brick" you'll know why. Lots of chops with that kid.

BTW, Johnson went to the same High School as my wife and pulled a personal favor with the principal to let him film most of "Brick" there. As we watched it I got a complete rundown of where Dana used to get high, skip class, sneak out to the beach and make out with guys as those areas appeared on screen.

And I still liked the movie, so that has to tell you something.

jg

I saw the movie (Finally!) last night, and I couldn't sleep because of the Joker. I have never been that convinced by a character. At several points in the movie I told myself "thats just Heath Ledger in makeup" but my mind wouldn't fall for it. That was the Joker channeled through Heath. Forget being the best comic book movie ever, that may have been the best action movie I've ever seen. But frankly, they had me with the disappearing pencil trick.

Finally got to see it for myself. It was definitely a lot more provocative than what the term "comic book movie" would suggest. While I don't think the Joker was the greatest movie villain of all time, he's definitely in the top ten, maybe the top five. A lot more disturbing than the Tim Burton version.

As for the villain for the next version, how about coming up with a version of the Riddler that's mostly like the real life Zodiac, only with a bigger love of gadgets and bombs? The Zodiac even threatened to bomb a school bus once, mailed cops a drawing of some sort of device he said he'd use for the attack, but didn't go through with it. I could definitely see the Riddler as a version of the Zodiac with a dose of Unabomer and Tim McVeigh thrown in.

Bane would definitely fit the darker and more realistic storyline, too.

Just got back from seeing it a second time. Last time was with friends, this time with my GF. I did pick up on a lot more.

Wowak wrote: But frankly, they had me with the disappearing pencil trick.

yeah, I agree with that.

Finally saw it, at the drive in here in Baltimore (largest screen in the USA!). Stunning movie. If Heath really was trying to stay in character inbetween takes for any length of time, I can see why he was disturbed and had a hard time sleeping... He really embodied that role.

SPOILER ALERT!!!! If you haven't seen the movie yet, you might want to skip this post! It's not much of a spoiler, but still.

So I was wondering something about the movie. In the scene when they have to go after Harvey and Rachel, the Joker tells Batman where they're at, so Batman tells Gorden that he's going after Rachel so they can go after Harvey, but when they show up, it's switched. So was the Joker berkeleying with him? Also, Batman didn't seem the least bit surprised when he walked into the room and saw Harvey instead of Rachel and they never mentioned anything about it. Any thoughts?

Yeah, I assumed the Joker was screwing with him, knowing that he'd go after the girl but I too was suprised at the lack of response from the B-man when he saw Harvey sitting/laying there instead of Rachel.

That one had me too at first. I'm pretty sure it was another of the Joker's sick jokes to tell them the opposite addresses. But I'm not sure how much Batman trusted the Joker to begin with, and would probably be mentally prepared for anything. After all, the Joker could have had just about anything at that location - he could have opened the door to find a dozen of the Joker's thugs with machine guns, a building rigged to blow up when he opened the door (with the hostages at a different location entirely), find the Joker's filled the building with water and turned it into his own private shark aquarium... Finding that the Joker had simply given him the opposite addresses was pretty simple compared to what Batman must have been bracing himself for.

I saw it last night, and even with all the hype concerning Ledger's performance I was blown away. He really brought a realistic criminal element to the role, instead of the "make believe" feel that the other bad guys have had.

I'm not so keen on Bale's Batman though. He just seems kinda flat, and dull. Granted, I'm not a comic guy, so maybe his portrayal is closer to the comic book version. (err....graphic novel) I liked Michael Keaton's Batman better. He added a little comedic edge that I thought made his character more likeable.

Bale's Bruce Wayne is kind of a prick. Arrogant, show-off prick. It was hard for me to root for a guy like that. Maybe they were just trying to stir up empathy for Harvey Dent, making Harvey out to be the "regular guy" fighting for the girl against the super-rich egomaniac.

I just watched Batman Begins again last night and Bale/B.W. does seem to have a better sense of humor "At least we'll have spares." etc. than in this most recent film. But this most recent film is darker overall too....

SVreX wrote: Come on, I know you like it! Why so serious?? Heath Ledger has just rivaled Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lechter. Wow!

I liked it a lot. Two comments here:

1) Anybody who thinks Jack Nicholson can act should be forced to watch the Keaton/Nicholson Batman and then watch the Bale/Ledger Dark Knight back to back. Jack phoned it in, just like he does every performance. Case closed.

2) If you enjoyed the movie, you owe it to yourself to find your local comics store and buy the graphic novel compilation of Frank Miller's original "Batman: The Dark Knight" 4-part-series from ~1987. Don't worry, lots of other people will be too, and the comics guys won't bite you. Yes, this is the same Frank Miller that did Sin City - and pick that up while you're at it.

Honestly, I didn't like the movie all that much. Too long, way too long...

Heath Ledger was great, and I do think Christian Bale makes for an excellent Batman.

I did find an article which explains most of the stuff in the movie that made it un-enjoyable.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-07-29/film/the-dark-knight-selling-tickets-mdash-and-a-muddled-political-message

This one, too. I'm pretty apolitical - I don't care if it's for or against anyone in particular. I just don't want to be distracted with those themes when I'm watching a movie like that.

http://poplicks.com/2008/07/did-bush-adminstration-bankroll-dark.html

MadScientistMatt wrote: That one had me too at first. I'm pretty sure it was another of the Joker's sick jokes to tell them the opposite addresses. But I'm not sure how much Batman trusted the Joker to begin with, and would probably be mentally prepared for anything. After all, the Joker could have had just about anything at that location - he could have opened the door to find a dozen of the Joker's thugs with machine guns, a building rigged to blow up when he opened the door (with the hostages at a different location entirely), find the Joker's filled the building with water and turned it into his own private shark aquarium... Finding that the Joker had simply given him the opposite addresses was pretty simple compared to what Batman must have been bracing himself for.

I don't think Batman was prepared for anything at all. The whole point was that the Joker was inside his head, and that he was always one step ahead.

It was definitely one of the Joker's sick jokes, but the Joker was definitely the one in control.

16vCorey wrote: Also, Batman didn't seem the least bit surprised when he walked into the room and saw Harvey...

Batman would have had to know that time was of the essence, and wasting any time pondering the mixup would have led to death.

MikeSVO wrote: This one, too. I'm pretty apolitical - I don't care if it's for or against anyone in particular. I just don't want to be distracted with those themes when I'm watching a movie like that. http://poplicks.com/2008/07/did-bush-adminstration-bankroll-dark.html

Most of that article was a little over the top and conspiracy theorist for me, but this line had me cracking up:

"As if the allusions to the current administration's policies were not obvious enough, by the end of the film, Harvey Dent even looks like Dick Cheney blew the left side of his face off."

Good stuff.

SPOILER ALERT

...

Saw it Saturday at the Drive-In. I think Crispin Glover would've made a creepier/more convincing Joker, though the scene with Ledger in the nurse's outfit, walking out of the exploding hospital was rad.

Given that a supervillain pretty much has to fit the definition of a terrorist to be a threat to a whole city, I would have thought it rather strange if the city's reaction to the Joker hadn't somehow mirrored our current debates.

poopshovel wrote: SPOILER ALERT ... Saw it Saturday at the Drive-In. I think Crispin Glover would've made a creepier/more convincing Joker, though the scene with Ledger in the nurse's outfit, walking out of the exploding hospital was rad.

The shot where Harvey Dent saw the Joker with the wig on:

"Hiiiiiiiiii."

That creeped me out so bad.

16vCorey wrote: SPOILER ALERT!!!! If you haven't seen the movie yet, you might want to skip this post! It's not much of a spoiler, but still. So I was wondering something about the movie. In the scene when they have to go after Harvey and Rachel, the Joker tells Batman where they're at, so Batman tells Gorden that he's going after Rachel so they can go after Harvey, but when they show up, it's switched. So was the Joker berkeleying with him? Also, Batman didn't seem the least bit surprised when he walked into the room and saw Harvey instead of Rachel and they never mentioned anything about it. Any thoughts?

[SPOILER]

What better way to berkeley with him than to have the person he wanted to save die. He didn't pause because there wasn't time. All he could do was save who was in front of him. It was never mentioned to Harvey because, what would they honestly say, "If it makes you feel any better, we actually wanted to save Rachel"?

[/SPOILER]

I was expecting the pencil thing, so while I was entertianed, I wasn't surprised. But the entire sequence with the nurse I though really embodied the whole creepy factor of the joker.