"YOU. COMPLETE. ME."
Because my dad started this ritual of watching a movie once a week when he used to hardly watch any, Layla and I watched The Dark Knight with him the other night. My dad is never going to finish watching a 2 hour and 20 minute movie he's not enjoying, so evidently he liked it. This was my third time viewing TDK all the way through and it still turns on my inner flailing fangirl.
I never heard the funny story until recently from Layla of how Marita (the most hardcore Batman fan I've ever met) got so emotional the first time she saw this movie that she came out of the theatre sobbing in happiness because it was just so amazing in every possible way. Of course the movie has been getting a huge backlash for a while now because of how it doesn't live up to the hype for some people. I noticed a reviewer on Amazon who gave the DVD an average rating with basically no more reasoning than "It isn't the greatest movie ever made and has flaws." Well, duh. That could describe any movie. But this is a kind of film that is naturally going to make a greater and very different experience for viewers who have a greater familiarity with these characters. I remember not quite appreciating how depressing the ending of the movie is the first time I saw it because I was on such a high from the perfect twisted beauty of the entire thing, while other people who weren't necessarily Batman fans and probably didn't quite get any chills at Ledger's almost metafictional line "I think you and I are meant to keep doing this forever" I was surprised to hear slightly disliked the movie for being such a downer, even as they could acknowledge how well-done it was.
Although it definitely wasn't made specifically for the comics fan cult either, this really isn't a movie for everybody. That's exactly why I remember being so impressed when the overall reaction to this when it first came out was overwhelmingly positive. Whether they had a more profound reaction to it and came out making dazed, unreasonable claims about how it's the greatest movie ever or just simply enjoyed it, it seemed just about everybody who saw it loved it. I don't even know if I am capable of judging whether or not it deserves a Best Picture nomination without being biased as someone who can't imagine my life without the myth of Batman in its various forms. But ultimately, it doesn't really matter to me whether it's widely acknowledged as a great artistic masterpiece or not. For someone like me, especially in light of Heath's passing just after filming had finished, it's just enough that this movie exists.
(But I do honestly feel that Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard deserve an Oscar for this score, and I'm usually the first to say that the way Zimmer is always being mentioned alongside names like Thomas Newman and - God forbid - John Williams is obnoxious. But what he does works for these movies, and it seems to show he is better suited for more progressive and unconventional things. There's a cool featurette on the DVD showing how he experimented for a long time with things like playing piano strings with razor blades to try to come up with the most unsettling sounds possible for the "music" associated with the Joker, and it's clear he put a lot of thought and effort into creating a unique sound for the film.)
I'm almost scared to think about another sequel being done because even though I know it could probably never be as good as TDK, if Nolan loses his touch somewhere along the way and it isn't even as good as Batman Begins the disappointment would be so heartbreaking. Haha. But I've still been clinging for a long time to a fantasy of the next one involving Tricia Helfer as Catwoman, the only casting suggestion I've seen for a future villain that I've fallen completely in love with. It would be bloody perfect. She can make the same character both scarily intimidating and heartbreakingly vulnerable, she can definitely handle fight scenes, and in real life she basically is Selina Kyle. See? LOL.
I never heard the funny story until recently from Layla of how Marita (the most hardcore Batman fan I've ever met) got so emotional the first time she saw this movie that she came out of the theatre sobbing in happiness because it was just so amazing in every possible way. Of course the movie has been getting a huge backlash for a while now because of how it doesn't live up to the hype for some people. I noticed a reviewer on Amazon who gave the DVD an average rating with basically no more reasoning than "It isn't the greatest movie ever made and has flaws." Well, duh. That could describe any movie. But this is a kind of film that is naturally going to make a greater and very different experience for viewers who have a greater familiarity with these characters. I remember not quite appreciating how depressing the ending of the movie is the first time I saw it because I was on such a high from the perfect twisted beauty of the entire thing, while other people who weren't necessarily Batman fans and probably didn't quite get any chills at Ledger's almost metafictional line "I think you and I are meant to keep doing this forever" I was surprised to hear slightly disliked the movie for being such a downer, even as they could acknowledge how well-done it was.
Although it definitely wasn't made specifically for the comics fan cult either, this really isn't a movie for everybody. That's exactly why I remember being so impressed when the overall reaction to this when it first came out was overwhelmingly positive. Whether they had a more profound reaction to it and came out making dazed, unreasonable claims about how it's the greatest movie ever or just simply enjoyed it, it seemed just about everybody who saw it loved it. I don't even know if I am capable of judging whether or not it deserves a Best Picture nomination without being biased as someone who can't imagine my life without the myth of Batman in its various forms. But ultimately, it doesn't really matter to me whether it's widely acknowledged as a great artistic masterpiece or not. For someone like me, especially in light of Heath's passing just after filming had finished, it's just enough that this movie exists.
(But I do honestly feel that Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard deserve an Oscar for this score, and I'm usually the first to say that the way Zimmer is always being mentioned alongside names like Thomas Newman and - God forbid - John Williams is obnoxious. But what he does works for these movies, and it seems to show he is better suited for more progressive and unconventional things. There's a cool featurette on the DVD showing how he experimented for a long time with things like playing piano strings with razor blades to try to come up with the most unsettling sounds possible for the "music" associated with the Joker, and it's clear he put a lot of thought and effort into creating a unique sound for the film.)
I'm almost scared to think about another sequel being done because even though I know it could probably never be as good as TDK, if Nolan loses his touch somewhere along the way and it isn't even as good as Batman Begins the disappointment would be so heartbreaking. Haha. But I've still been clinging for a long time to a fantasy of the next one involving Tricia Helfer as Catwoman, the only casting suggestion I've seen for a future villain that I've fallen completely in love with. It would be bloody perfect. She can make the same character both scarily intimidating and heartbreakingly vulnerable, she can definitely handle fight scenes, and in real life she basically is Selina Kyle. See? LOL.