Believe The Hype.
Seriously, every single great review or tidbit you've heard about this movie. Believe it.
This movie can only be described in superlatives.
All the actors/characterization—brilliant. Even the smallest role felt well fleshed-out. Even the smallest moment between the mains felt so real/nuanced. There was great chemistry between all the leads and special mention to Heath—-he bloody well deserves the Oscar buzz we've been hearing about. He totally lost himself in the role.
I was in suspense from the opening scene to the last. And that's not to say it's non-stop action, but even the 'quieter' scene had reason/purpose either toward the development of plot or characterization, and held little hints of things that would show up later in a significant way.
The pacing was awesome and the writing tight; there were no clichés. And don't expect to anticipate or predict anything as there were many, many surprises and twists in this really, really, well-done, well-acted, well-shot movie.
Violence. Yep quite a bit of it on camera. But a lot of it was of the Psycho school of film making—- the director did the set up of the scene, then cut away so the audience supplied the pay off in their imaginations.
I thought Batman Begin was awesome, but this movie blows it right out of the water.
Dark Knight tops my list as the best super-hero movie made so far.
ETA: Here's a link to one of those 'hype' reviews I suggest you believe 100%, (also it's much better written than my ramble, and bonus points to him for the Aqua Teenforce "Sofa King" reference. lol)
One last thing....can Christian Bale get any more sexier? Dang.
10 comments:
Damn.
Damn, that sounds good.
Okay, I might have to put it on my list after all. ;)
And what REALLY seems exciting to me is that, if it's all that, it might just set a standard for subsequent superhero movies to follow.
And that would be awesome.
"it might just set a standard for subsequent superhero movies to follow. And that would be awesome."
If only, Raine.
But I'm not holding my breath.
You have an exceptional cast here--Bale, Caine, Oldman (an amazing character actor) Ekhart (no one's really taking about his portrayal of Harvey Dent/Two-Face but he was very good. Morgan Freeman did his usual "I make acting this good look so easy".
Special effects did not overwhelm the movie, but they were effective. There were many places the audience gasped out loud in the showing I was at. And I've heard teh movie is even more amazing on an IMAX screen.
Too many alternate reality movies rely too heavily on special "Matrix" effects to the detriment of characterization and story depth.
The story was tight and dealing with larger questions/themes on morality. Not that there was any preaching, but more in the sense of choices we make, how they affect us. Do you become a monster to catch the monster? etc. Lies that are kind, etc. I could go on.
Really an excellent movie. Go see it. Even if you don't agree with the hype, I doubt you'll be sorry you went.
I have to second Jaye's comments!
Morgan Freeman did his usual "I make acting this good look so easy".
LMAO Yes he did! It felt as if the movie were much more about CHARACTER and story than special effects. Heath was just effing phenomenal (I think in part because he was what he was, no explanations, no apologies, he was just NUTS) and definitely deserves an oscar!!!
I agree 100% . I loved the movie!
You have to go into it knowing there is a lot of hype, and yes everyone says it lives up to the hype, which, ironically, sort of hypes it more. But honestly, it was great. I love Christian Bale, and I love that in this movie Alfred and Gordon are really given a chance to shine as well. Maggie Gylenhall does a great job as Rachel. (Better than
Katie Holmes, I think)
There is violence, but it's not blood and gore. It's mostly explosions and gunshots, and your own imagination that really brings it home. The most questionable (as in should kids
see it) thing shown is two face..and that's all I'll say because I don't want to ruin it for anyone.
The movie itself does an awesome job of showcasing the question "How far do you go...or how far will a "good" person go?"
It's hard to watch the Joker and know it's Heath Ledger under that make up, which I think makes a statement in itself for the acting.
A great job by all involved from writing, filming to acting.
Sasha, ditto everything youself. As for Heath/Joker, I kept looking for Heath and there was nothing, not the voice, not the facial features (and consider it's fairly simple makeup he has on, and no prosthetics) not body language/gait. Nothing. As many have said, he didn't play the Joker, he became the Joker. Very sad he left us at his pinnacle performance and so very young.
Oh Gads, yes! I loved every face grabbing second of this movie. Though I have to admit, I was worried that my son might have nightmares of TwoFace.
Aaron Eckheart is one of my most favorite actors and he was believable as this guy who deeply wanted to change the world. Someone as single-mindedly good as him can easily come off cartoony. I felt like this was really The Tragedy Of Harvey Dent than anything else. Finally, someone took a complex character and kept him complex instead of simplifying him to the lowest common denominator.
Actually, that can be said of ALL the characters in this movie.
Dee
Dee, the boy was saying something similar today, that even though Bale was excellent, and ofcourse there would be no story without Batman, in many ways the movie was more about Joker, Gordon and Dent. It revealed more layers of those 3 than it did Bruce. But considering Begins was all about exploring Bruces layers, no biggie. ;-)
I'm going, I'm going.
One thing: I heard on the news that Bale had been arrested for assault charges. Allegedly, he hit his mom and sister? WTF? He denies this of course but I can see it now, while watching this film, thinking, he hit mom and sister?
He really is sexy. I loved the first movie. Thanks for the review!
Keishon
Keishon - In the UK they have Class 4 and 5 verbal assault. Class 4 is verbal assault with "an intent to cause alarm."
I suspect this is what happened.
Also, apparently it wasn't his mom/sis who filed the charges. Someone complained about the noise. His mom was insulting his wife and I guess saying some none too complimentary things about him also, and he lost it (in terms of yelling/swearing. Not physical assault).
This is just stuff I've read around the web, btw. But since I don't want to think of him as a mom-beater, I'm going to go with the yelling match version.
You know you're the third person I've spoken today who's said 'alright I'll see it' and part of me wants to freak out and say "You had doubts?" lol. Then I realize the movie hasn't even been out for a week yet! :-P
Thanks for clarifying. My next day off is next Tues..blech.
Keishon
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