The Dark Knight

[jbissell]

MINOR SPOILER ALERT: Not really a spoiler but The Joker is still alive- Heath Ledger isn't. How sweet would it be to see Daniel Day Lewis take the role?

I'm almost certain they won't recast The Joker, especially with the kind of acclaim Ledger's performance has gotten.  It seems like the best villain for the third movie would be the Riddler. I could see them turning him into a guy who sets up crazy elaborate plots (like Saw, or what I assume happens in Saw since I've never actually seen any of them). All the other remaining villains are too ridiculous for a more "serious" Batman movie. Honestly, I'd be fine with Dark Knight being the last one but I know that's not too realistic.  I'm really hoping they don't bring Robin or Batgirl in at any point.

[buffcoat]

I think Christian Bale said that as long as he was Batman, there would be no Robin.  Which I extrapolate to mean no Batgirl, as well.

[jbissell]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/22/2310831.htm?section=justin

[kimota]

I haven't seen it yet but I overheard some guy talking about it this weekend at a Zine Fest and it was obvious he hated it.  He went on at length about how right-winged it was based on the surveillance systems in it, how hard on women the movie was and the best bit I heard was "..not only that, it glorified vigilantism."   

[Gilly]

****HUGE SPOILERS****

You know, I haven't heard many people talk about the cell phone tapping and that Batman was only able to finish off Joker by using very illegal equipment and that Lucious was so quick to make the decision to go ahead with it. Obviously, it was destroyed and Batman has never followed the laws to a t but it was surprising that they decided to go all 24 on us.

[todd]

****HUGE SPOILERS****

You know, I haven't heard many people talk about the cell phone tapping and that Batman was only able to finish off Joker by using very illegal equipment and that Lucious was so quick to make the decision to go ahead with it. Obviously, it was destroyed and Batman has never followed the laws to a t but it was surprising that they decided to go all 24 on us.

It was also the weakest part of the movie. It was half-baked political commentary that failed to make a strong point one way or the other, and the technological aspect wasn't fun or interesting at all for the story. They should've dropped the whole concept.

Still a good movie!

[jamesp]

****HUGE SPOILERS****

You know, I haven't heard many people talk about the cell phone tapping and that Batman was only able to finish off Joker by using very illegal equipment and that Lucious was so quick to make the decision to go ahead with it. Obviously, it was destroyed and Batman has never followed the laws to a t but it was surprising that they decided to go all 24 on us.

It was also the weakest part of the movie. It was half-baked political commentary that failed to make a strong point one way or the other, and the technological aspect wasn't fun or interesting at all for the story. They should've dropped the whole concept.

Still a good movie!

The Toronto Globe and Mail review summed this part up a bit: "If the Joker suggests Osama bin Laden, Batman could be a morally conflicted George W. Bush. He is forced to resort to violent interrogation, even mass surveillance (one-time-only, of course) when he enlists Morgan Freeman's Lucius to turn every cellphone in Gotham City turns into a sonar imaging system."

I too don't think the allusions worked. SPOILER ALERT -- The whole idea of the hostages being disguised as Joker's henchman and Batman relying on the sonar was kinda lame anyways.

[iAmBaronVonTito]

i liked it, even with the lame parts.  although, i dont get the whole BOLT preview before (what seems like every movie ive seen this last month).

and i dont think the joker should come back.  however, i preferred this TWO FACE look much better than the tommy lee jones character.  and the small SCARECROW cameo in the beginning...weak.  do it or dont, i say.

[Bryan]

I don't buy the political allegory. People are too keen to tack that on to everything these days. Batman has always (or at least since the 80s) been 1) a vigilante and 2) morally ambiguous.

The Joker as Osama bin Laden? That's just dumb for a bunch of reasons.

Edit: Did I say I loved this movie? I did love it. It's terrific.

[dave from knoxville]

I haven't seen Batman Begins (is that what it's called?) or this, but I gotta say, I don't find Batman inherently interesting and all the clips I see of this movie look totally boring.  Are they just not showing the interesting parts of the movie on purpose?  All the clips I see are like people having meetings, and then there's 20 seconds of Heath Ledger talking like an old hard hat guy in clown makeup. 

Actually I just realized what's funny about Ledger's Joker is he could totally be based on one of those ex-cons who dress up as movie characters outside of Mann's chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Also, I'm not denying that this movie is good, I just was voicing the fact that I'm not really getting the pull of it.  But shit, I went and saw Hancock and didn't think it was that bad.  At least the first half was fun.

For me at least, the most interesting stuff came from (for a comic book movie anyway) extensive discussions/discourses between pairings of the major characters. I was trying to explain to Andy from Knoxville why I loved it so much (he did too), and I think it comes down to movies it reminds me of, particularly great old westerns, in which the character-driven action was a framing device for larger questions. The Dark Knight's got more of a philosophical bent than most films in its genre, and that, for me, was fun. Maybe the best super-hero movie ever, and, I think, the best movie of any kind I have seen this year.

[dave from knoxville]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/22/2310831.htm?section=justin

You know why Bale beat his Mom? Her disappointment when she learned there was no Robin.

[dave from knoxville]

Also, I would suggest Gillian Anderson as the perfect Catwoman.

Or Crispin Glover.

[Gilly]

Crispin Glover as Catwoman? That would be a sight to see and I bet he would be delighted to take the role. He wouldn't be a bad Riddler and I really want to see Nolan's take on the Riddler. I'm not a hater of Batman Forever: it wasn't great but it was kind of fun. But, the Riddler deserves another look and Nolan's Batman would be a great time to revisit the character.

[dave from knoxville]

I generally recommend Crispin for any role that comes open. I wanted to see his Bond.

[jamesp]

I generally recommend Crispin for any role that comes open. I wanted to see his Bond.

I can't imagine how Crispin would look coming out of the water wearing a speedo like Daniel Craig in Casino Royale.

I normally dismiss the IMDB Top 250 rating, but has anybody else noticed that The Dark Knight is #1 of all time?