BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT NO SPOILERS

[radiator]

More mild spoilers


So who were all the batman copycats? I got the impression they were in  cahoots with the Scarecrow. Also was wondering if it was the real Scarecrow, wasn't he imprisoned at the end of the last film? Couldn't tell if it was Cillian Murphy, as you only got a glimpse of him.

[Bart Oliver]

I wasn't disappointed. But then being disappointed in the past by previous big screen Batman meant my expectations weren't all that high to begin with.

I think the Batman copycats were just that- copycat vigilantes and not in collusion with either the Scarecrow or the Mob.

What I liked:

- Performances by Ledger and Oldman were consistantly solid and on the whole believable.

- The production design had a modern, gritty, realistic feel without being overly stylised like parts of Batman Begins i.e. The Narrows and the Wayne Monorail.

- The epic scale and clandestine nature of the opening bank heist, [spoiler]especially the way the Joker instructed his crew to cap each other for a bigger share of the take[/spoiler].

- [spoiler]The magic trick with the pencil, it pretty much set the tone of the rest of the film[/spoiler]. Witty, immediate and just brutal.

What I wasn't quite so sure of:

- The Bat Voice.

- The 12A rating.

- [spoiler]The whole mobile-phone-sonar-vision thing, seemed like it was lifted from a previous Schumacher flick[/spoiler].

- [spoiler]Why kill off Two Face at the end[/spoiler]?

I enjoyed it alot. But in the battle of the billionaire playboys this Summer, Downey Jr's Stark trumps Bale's Wayne comfortably.

[the shutdown man]

Of course I remember now that there's a spoiler button at the top of the reply box, so I'm just a plain old twat....



[spoiler]Two-Face's ending was what I was referring to earlier. I had assumed they were going to set him up as the bad guy for the next film. Not that I think they handled the character badly or anything, and Two-Face's time on screen didn't feel rushed, but I was just a little surprised by that.[/spoiler]

Also, at first, I did think the Bat-vigilantes [spoiler]were working with Scarecrow, especially the way they seemed to hover around his van and aim at the mob, and since Batman locked them all up together. But then on closer inspection, Scarecrow does attack one of the bats with his fear hairspray , so I think it's safe to say they weren't working together.[/spoiler]

[Peter Wolf]

12A certificates means that the film can be seen by under 12s if in the company of parents/guardians which means maximum potential cinema attendences and takings.

 £££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££

 $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

 Suitable for ALL ages.

[radiator]

[spoiler]"Also, at first, I did think the Bat-vigilantes were working with Scarecrow, especially the way they seemed to hover around his van and aim at the mob, and since Batman locked them all up together. But then on closer inspection, Scarecrow does attack one of the bats with his fear hairspray , so I think it's safe to say they weren't working together."[/spoiler]

Ah yes, right you are.

[spoiler]I thought Two-Face survived the fall, and they locked him up and faked his death. It wasn't really made clear. If so, there's no reason why he couldn't return.[/spoiler]

On the subject of the 12A rating - I presume they got it because the violence isn't very graphic - very little actual blood etc, but it would still have shit me right up if I were a kid.

[Roger Godpleton]

Stuff I didn't like

-The whole Hong-Kong jaunt could of been gone as it only really served as a set-up to the omni-sonar. The sonar would also have had more dramatic impact if it had been something he'd been planning for a while, instead it seemed like he was only using it because his back was against the wall. Considering that Wayne hoped to retire and spend the rest of his days boffing Maggie, it would make sense for him to have such a scheme in mind IMO.

-The Ramirez subplot could probably have been cut, as it was very thin. For most of the film I thought she was Renee Montoya (didn't see Begins).

-I seriously hope Hollywood gets bored of 9/11 soon. This was hardly I Am Legend level but it did seem a bit clumsy and heavy handed in places, esp the video broadcasts.

[Richmond Clements]

I seriously hope Hollywood gets bored of 9/11 soon.

Eh? It was the biggest event of our generation, of course it is going to inform everything that comes after- like Vietnam did, like WWII did.

[Tweak72]

I saw this and for the most part liked it. [spoiler]The Batman's cape/glider thing was used really, really well in this film and had a realistic feel to it. The film had a very grim feel to it which was excellent and the casting and performances where also brilliant. And not too much obvious CGI.[/spoiler]

However, whilst Heath Ledgers take on the Joker was creepy and I liked how he gave the Joker a [spoiler]'nerdy' feel the portrayal just didn't have enough JOKER in it. The whole set up with "I am going to make this pencil disappear" was brilliant but not followed through. The Joker was just too sane for my blood.[/spoiler] But then my idea of the Joker is strongly influenced by "The Killing Joke"

And the whole [spoiler]"is it my scares?" thing was not done well. All in all good effort but not a credible Joker. The whole performance needed a lot more laughing to be any good.

The real star was Harvey Dent which was done in exactly the right way and I am sad that he didn't survive.[/spoiler]

over all a 6/10 or Two Stars out of Five

 

[Tiplodocus]

Well I thought that was fantastic.

Enough material in there fore TWO films and I left the cinema wanting more.

Strangely though, I loved the first twenty minutes then found myself in a bit of a longeurs for about twenty minutes more but once they'd completed all of the mechanics they needed to set up the plot and it kicked off in earnest, I thought the film was fantastic.

Loved all of the action sequences (not as fast and in shadow this time) especially BATPOD vs 18-Wheeler Truck, the whole Joker attacking Harvery Dent convoy and in particular (because it had Bats trying to save people at the same time as taking out bad guys and SWAT) the bit in the building above the ferries.

Was BATMAN a pussy in all the fight scenes? I didn't think so except for where it was needed to make a story point; how he's struggling to come to terms with the consequences of his actions and his confusion at his inability to deal with someone like the Joker.

ALL performances absoultely spot on - Caine may be a cypher every now and then but he still does it with a delightful twinkle in his eye that I'd forgotten he had (prior to Nolan he's just about telephoned in every performance of the last twenty years).  And OLDMAN was brilliant.

[spoiler]Oh and I fell for the two unexpected deaths (the one that didn't happen and the one that did). Nice switches that sat naturally in the story (rather than being gimmicks).[/spoiler]


And the ending was fantastically downbeat - perfectly intune with the mythic and legendary feel the BATMAN story should have and also something of a minor human tragedy for Bruce Wayne; you aren't punching the air with delight that he's going to be Batman forever.

All opinions of course - that's what I want from a BATMAN film; it may not be your cup of tea.


By the way, we took Tiny Tips (8) along.  And I must admit, I was worried we'd be traumatising him with the relentless violence, the Joker forcing all of these horrible choices on everyone and moral complexity of it all but in the end, perhaps because of the lack of gore and the fact it was complex, most of the stuff sailed above his head.  He loved it and proclaimed it the best film he's ever seen and reeled off the countless brilliant action sequences rather than the scary creepy bits.  And he slept soundly last night.

[Roger Godpleton]

over all a 6/10 or Two Stars out of Five

 

Er, and that makes sense how?

[johnnystress]

Just back from the cinema

I thought it was good, an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon

The Joker was great the bat-voice was not so great

Not sure why they bothered having The Scarecrow in it at all

I thought he died in the last one? must watch it again and refresh my memory

[the shutdown man]

He didn't die, Rachel shot him in the face with a taser during the big finale, and he galloped  off screaming. That was the last we saw of him.

[Tweak72]

over all a 6/10 or Two Stars out of Five

 

Er, and that makes sense how?

Well 6/10 if the score is out of 10 as it deserves that score so people will look at it and think "that's an OK but not brilliant score"  
However out of 5 stars 3 stars is thought of as very good not just OK but not brilliant
What I mean is most people don't look at 3 stars and think " hum that's only a 60% score" do they? The mostly think "Ooo, 3 shiny stars out of 5. If it was a hotel or restaurant that would be really good" so if you see a 2 out of 5 star score people think "that's an OK but not brilliant score" Unnerstand?

[Richard]

Actually I would  assume that two stars meant it was shit.

It's ok, just didn't really live upto the hype for me.

How could any film possible live up to that much hype? It was hyped to death.
If you had gone to see the film without having heard anything about it, you would have loved it.
They used harvey Dent properly, by showing us what he was like when he was a good guy before turning him into Two-Face, unlike the Tommy lee Jones film which tol us his origin in a ten-second flashback. I actually thought he was a more interesting villain than the Joker, since we get to see him develop.

Just confused about one thing:
[spoiler]Did Ramirez die or not? Dent flipped a coin and said "you live to fight another day officer" and I didn't notice her get killed, but later Gordon said he killed TWO cops.[/spoiler]

I thought the intro was a bit too long, and the film could have started with the Joker's pencil gag, but overall it was great.

[Hoagy]

I thought the bat-voice is better than ..Begins. It has a nice disguising quality to it.His Bruce Wayne voice had an almost American Psycho bravado about it and I was glad to see Bale hone it in before it became too manic. Still, reflections of the Joker were creeping in to the man, who will be, the bat.