$155 million plus later, The Dark Knight is certainly more than a little buzzworthy. Of course, assuming you’ve seen it, you should have already read my review, but there are a few other things that have crossed my mind since seeing it a second time. (Minor spoilers below…)
- If you see it in IMAX, which you should, you really need to be in the last row. The first time I saw it, we were five or six rows from the back, and it was still a little too close. The second time we were in the very last row, and we had the perfect vantage point. Being in the middle is of course still ideal, but you’re better off being as far back as you can and over to the side than in the middle a few rows down.
- This is more about Batman Begins, but still: At the end of the first movie, Batman tells Ra’s al Ghul that though he won’t kill Ra’s, he doesn’t have to save him either, and Batman escapes the crashing train without Ra’s, allowing him to die. But isn’t that sort of the same as killing him? Batman didn’t directly cause the train to crash, but he instructed Lt. Gordon to do it, so he was still responsible. In Dark Knight, Batman saves the Joker because of his no-killing rule, but is it really that different? Yeah, had he let him go, he would have been more directly to blame for that death than for Ra’s’, but he’s sort of splitting hairs then, isn’t he?
- Isn’t it a little weird that, through the whole movie, Gotham’s mayor NEVER SEEMS TO AGE?
7 users commented in " A Few More Dark Knight Thoughts "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackSaw it this weekend with the wife (Not on IMAX unfortunately). Don’t really know how I feel about how good this movie really is. I know I liked it a lot but it was rather strange watching it since it seemed, at least to me, that Ledger’s Joker was one of the greatest acting jobs I’ve ever seen and I couldn’t take my eyes (and mind) off him. Each time he was on the screen he was so amazing that every scene he wasn’t in was a drag. About halfway through the film I realized that I wished the movie was just titled “The Joker” and it was just Ledger going off for 2.5 hours. Every scene the Joker wasn’t in I was hoping would pass by quickly so I’d get to watch him again. I really cannot recall another time when a performance blew me away that much. I need to watch this thing again just to take it all in and really judge the film as a whole (it was very good…)
About your points – I agree with you on #2. And that whole no killing thing is absolutely ridiculous; “Uh, no, I won’t kill the psycho who killed all these people, instead let’s arrest him, and maybe he’ll kill more people trying to escape”. Stupid. That’s why I love the Punisher. He just kills everyone.
And about Gotham’s mayor – he seems a little young to be mayor but he does seem like he’s been there for a while (seems experienced and all that). And not aged. Hmm. It’d be really weird if the movie came out not on 7-18 but rather on 8-15…
I agree that Ledger was pretty freaking awesome, but I thought the other actors were all good as well. After I watched the movie the first time, I said to my friend that I thought some people would say that the Joker didn’t get enough screen time. But I think it works as it is because even when he isn’t on screen, he is the motivating factor behind pretty much everything that’s happening.
As for why Batman won’t kill, that’s just established in his comic book mythology, and it was made clear in Batman Begins – he thinks that by killing, he would become just as bad as the criminals he is fighting. But I hear what you’re saying – especially considering some of the things that the Joker has done in the comics, it’s amazing that Batman has resisted crossing that line.
So how *did* Richard Alpert get off the Island and into Gotham?
Batman wouldn’t even kill the Joker when he killed Robin. He simply doesn’t kill. It was Raz’s own fault he was on the train, so his fault he could dies.
But it’s a moot point, since it’s a good thing Raz isn’t dead and all…
and yeah – Ledger was *amazing*, but I was seriously surprised by how good Aaron Eckhart was.
I’m with you – Aaron Eckhart was great, and his performance is likely to get lost in all of the Heath Ledger hype.
But wasn’t it the Joker’s fault that he was on that building?
Yes, but also Batman’s fault the Joker was thrown off the ledge. Not saving Joker is flat out murder (hard to say unjustifiable, but still murder). Not saving Raz is justifiable.
Eckhart’s performance was awesome, and key to the movie. The reason he makes Dent such a great character is his performance is so convincing. It doesn’t feel like he’s just paying lip service to `yeah I’m a good guy now, but really I’m turning evil’, instead you actually believe him that he wants to make Gotham safer. This makes his fall to evil more meaningful. Also, the Joker actually had to push him over the edge, it wasn’t a sudden, instant transformation. In that regard, it would have been nice if Eckhart had played Anakin, and Nolan written the part.
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