(no subject)
The Dark Knight
Oh, man. What happened here? I loved Batman Begins, but even then, I kept my expectations in check for this one. I'm honestly not even trying to be difficult and contrarian - I really wanted to like this.
Am I allergic to fun?
The Dark Knight is a real mess. After opening with a thrilling introduction to the Joker, the film plunges headfirst into an incoherent jumble of characters, factions, and relationships without ever taking the time to explain what the hell is happening. For instance, the movie introduces us to Harvey Dent, a character whose trajectory largely becomes the focus of the film, but it never really establishes who he is and why he suddenly becomes so significant to the fate of Gotham City.
Then there's Ledger's Joker, whose performance is weird and entertainingly over-the-top, though he ends up being more of elemental entity than a believable, human character with real motivations and emotions. I don't know what kind of a role the Joker plays in the original comics, but here, he's a frustrating, unstoppable farce of nature, thanks to seemingly limitless resources and a pile of fortuitous plot developments. The rest of the cast doesn't make much of an impact, unfortunately - even Bale, who pretty much just acts smarmy when he's not growling under a cowl. In Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne undergoes a physical and psychological transformation from spoiled rich kid to caped crusader. Here, his progression amounts to acquiring a handful of new gadgets.
Not only does The Dark Knight's grim tone and brutal violence effectively dampen its sense of fun, the film is also surprisingly self-indulgent in its pretensions. Characters spend inordinate amounts of time pontificating about choice, heroism, chance, and other vague, abstract themes without really saying anything, and the film's climax is a ridiculous, contrived attempt to make a point about human nature. The film's action hasn't changed from the previous film - that's to say, it's still loud, choppy and unsatisfying - and watching an invincible hero demolish faceless goons is much less interesting the second time around. (TWO out of five)
Oh, man. What happened here? I loved Batman Begins, but even then, I kept my expectations in check for this one. I'm honestly not even trying to be difficult and contrarian - I really wanted to like this.
Am I allergic to fun?
The Dark Knight is a real mess. After opening with a thrilling introduction to the Joker, the film plunges headfirst into an incoherent jumble of characters, factions, and relationships without ever taking the time to explain what the hell is happening. For instance, the movie introduces us to Harvey Dent, a character whose trajectory largely becomes the focus of the film, but it never really establishes who he is and why he suddenly becomes so significant to the fate of Gotham City.
Then there's Ledger's Joker, whose performance is weird and entertainingly over-the-top, though he ends up being more of elemental entity than a believable, human character with real motivations and emotions. I don't know what kind of a role the Joker plays in the original comics, but here, he's a frustrating, unstoppable farce of nature, thanks to seemingly limitless resources and a pile of fortuitous plot developments. The rest of the cast doesn't make much of an impact, unfortunately - even Bale, who pretty much just acts smarmy when he's not growling under a cowl. In Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne undergoes a physical and psychological transformation from spoiled rich kid to caped crusader. Here, his progression amounts to acquiring a handful of new gadgets.
Not only does The Dark Knight's grim tone and brutal violence effectively dampen its sense of fun, the film is also surprisingly self-indulgent in its pretensions. Characters spend inordinate amounts of time pontificating about choice, heroism, chance, and other vague, abstract themes without really saying anything, and the film's climax is a ridiculous, contrived attempt to make a point about human nature. The film's action hasn't changed from the previous film - that's to say, it's still loud, choppy and unsatisfying - and watching an invincible hero demolish faceless goons is much less interesting the second time around. (TWO out of five)