Bat Post Part 2
I think I going to reserve my judgement til I see it a second time. I came out with mixed feelings - mainly about how they ended the film. On the whole, I thought it was a very well made and thought out film, but I don't think I would exactly call it an entertaining one.
Of course, I thought Ledger was mesmorizing and the most fascinating character in the film and, indeed, the most fascinating version of The Joker of all time. I did appreciate how they did not delve into his backstory at all. He had me laughing one second and on the edge of my seat with my eyes covered the next. A very haunting performance.
I also thought Eckhart was equally fascinating and scary as Two Face.
What was weird for me is that I work in downtown Chicago, and I couldn't help but be mentally taken away from the film everytime they had a view of the city I recognized. I'm never going to look at the yet to be completed Trump Tower again without thinking about the last Joker sequence. The scene in the parking garage with Scarecrow was filmed across the street from my former workplace (which was also just a block from LaSalle Street where they flipped the truck).
Favorite bits in bullet points:
* Joker stumbling out of the hospital and how he had to press the detonator several times before the explosion. I wonder if that was part of the script or was there a real glitch in the filming and Ledger just decided to go with it.
* The Joker/Two Face hospital room scene
* The whole Hong Kong sequence
* The Joker asking for his one phone call
* The last Joker/Batman fight on top the Trump Tower and how it eerily echoed the Nicholson/Keaton fight near the end of '89 Batman.
The most frightening bits (besides the "magic trick" and the "How I got my scars" stories) were the hostage videotapes (very shaky camera and the dread that the victim was going to snuff it at any moment).
For the most part, I thought the moral dilemmas were played out well, especially the issue of Batman wiretapping of all the cell phones in Gotham (Wayne Enterprises in collaboration with the U.S. Government) in order to find The Joker. The movie brought both sides to the issue, but I felt the filmmakers didn't make a stand either way to promote debate on the issue.