So....I saw "The Dark Knight"

[98EXL]

Special Features are awesome..and I never watch those

 

[jkendrick]

With the new one coming out in a few days, I thought I would bump this. I will probably see it in a few weeks. Aside from Heath Ledger's Joker, I preferred Batman Begins to the Dark Knight. Nolan movies, in general, tend to frustrate me. I quite like most of them, but I'm frustrated because I often feel they should be so much more. It often feels like there are plot holes and illogical choices made by characters to shoehorn the plot in the direction (and on-the-nose "larger messages") that he wants to achieve. I often feel a little cheated, feeling as though I just sat through a Rube Goldberg machine of a film.

(spoilers for several Nolan films follow)


In the Dark Knight, we had Harvey Dent's all-too-sudden transformation and Joker's needlessly complicated scheme... for a guy who professes to subscribe to chaos. I mean that two boats section should have never been committed to film. In Inception, my favorite Nolan movie to date, we needed at least some reason why Michael Cane didn't just pick up Cobb's kids and bring them to Europe. In the Prestige, which my wife and I just watched last night, we get the 11th hour introduction of HG Wells-like sci fi which, in my opinion, totally violated the rules for the world established for the film. It may sound like I'm hating, but I really enjoyed all of these movies and I'm looking forward to the new Batman. Anyone excited enough to be seeing it this weekend?

 

[BetterSense]

The Dark Knight failed for trying to do too much in one film. Movies like this must be simple, and The Dark Knight was not simple enough. You take the Joker, and Batman, and you'd a have a good movie. You take Batman, Joker, Dent, the boat scene, the girlfriend thing, and it's just too much for one movie. It might have worked if the credits had rolled right after Dent rolled over after being burnt, but I was bit disappointed. I approve of the decision to shoot IMAX, though.

 

[jkendrick]

I agree that for a two hour movie it should have been simpler, but I don't think it needed to be simplistic. The thing I admire about Nolan films is that they are essentially blockbusters that attempt to elevate the genre, give you something to think about, something to feel. My problem relates to your point. By trying to do too much, we end up with a film that never allows us to care about the characters or relate to the choices made. Consequently, the characters from Bruce Wayne to Harvey Dent to boat full of average citizens to boat full of convicts feel like the choices they make are merely at service to the plot and not organic in any way. This didn't prevent me from enjoying most of the movie, but I hope the new one allows a story to be told that feels like the result of the natural choices made by the characters rather than a Rube Goldberg-esque exercise in getting from point A to point B.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Anyone excited enough to be seeing it this weekend?

No. But the trailer was nice enough that it compelled me to rent the prior two and watch them for the first time.

I lost interest in big screen Batman when Keaton got replaced by Kilmer and never looked at it again.