Batman - The Dark Knight

[Aaron_Robertson]

I suppose you've never read george bernard shaws "three plays for puritans", the preface of which is a scathing indictment of shit theatre, that despite being written over 100 years ago can be applied perfectly well to the crud hollywood pumps out today in the cinemas.

but yeah anyway, obviously im a suicidial, intentionally contrarian cock because unlike people such as yourself I've got the audacity to give a fuck about culture, art and society and the temerity to develop an informed opinion that I can call my own which I'm not afraid to express.

I don't blame you though, it's much easier to just clap along with everyone else, especially when people will tell you kill yourself and call you a cock if you don't.

This is way blown out of propotion now and to be fair Stripey your the one clapping along following something that SOMEONE ELSE wrote that you feel applys today and was written over 100 years ago? Out of date much?

Calm down and stop yer whining min!

[Stripey]

This is way blown out of propotion now and to be fair Stripey your the one clapping along following something that SOMEONE ELSE wrote that you feel applys today and was written over 100 years ago? Out of date much?

Calm down and stop yer whining min!

The reference is there to put my point of view into context and demonstrates that I'm not just being contrary for the sake of it, you blithering semi-literate idiot.

[Guest Bob]

The reference is there to put my point of view into context and demonstrates that I'm not just being contrary for the sake of it, you blithering semi-literate idiot.

If you take a photo of a turd and place it in a fantastically ornate and beautiful frame it doesn't mean you've got anything more than a photo of a turd. Top marks for presentation, zero marks for content.

It doesn't matter to anyone how you try to frame it or what context you feebly attempt to parcel your shit in. It's just the same old shit and you're just bloody contrary.

Stop being a fucking cock for once.

[Paranoid Android]

I went to see it on Friday night. Firstly I will agree with anyone who has said that Ledger's performance is brilliant, even after the hype I was completely blown away by how good his performance is. Certainly the best performance I can think of in any 'hollywood blockbuster'. And it was quite easily better than any other performance in the film, Bale didn't even have to do anything as he wasn't given any acting to do.

Aside from the excellent Joker I was a little disappointed by the film overall. I would probably say it matches up to Batman Begins, just, but doesn't surpass it. Imo they biggest flaw is

Two Face. The transformation of Harvey Dent to Two Face isn't needed at all, it's completely rushed and unconvincing. I'm not really sure why they scrapped the previous idea of the change to occur at the beginning of the third film.

The scenes on the boats were very cringe worthy and the whole mobile phone sonar thing with Batman and his white eyes was just bad.

I might go see it again, I could possibly be being a little harsh due to the high expectation I had been sucked into having, but I am genuinely quite suprised at how the film appears to be getting near universal acclaim as flawless.

[Stripey]

I am genuinely quite suprised at how the film appears to be getting near universal acclaim as flawless.

Personally I suspect it's largely because heath ledger is in it.

[Stripey]

The worst of it is that since man's intellectual consciousness of himself is derived from the descriptions of him in books' date=' a persistent misrepresentation of humanity in literature gets finally accepted and acted upon. If every mirror reflected our noses twice their natural size, we should live and die in the faith that we were all Punches; and we should scout a true mirror as the work of a fool, madman or jester.[/quote']

There is something terribly reassuring about quite accidentally pulling a 100 year old book out of the shelf and coming across a paragraph like that, don't you think?

[Paranoid Android]

Jack Nicholson's performance is in no way any where near as good as Ledger's. Nicholson's performance is fun but there's nothing great about it.

[black_matter]

but yeah anyway, obviously im a suicidial, intentionally contrarian cock because unlike people such as yourself I've got the audacity to give a fuck about culture, art and society and the temerity to develop an informed opinion that I can call my own which I'm not afraid to express.

Plenty of people on these forums do give a fuck abuot culture, art and society and have the tenerity to develop and informed opinion, but what these people also have is social skills and manners to not shove there opinions down the throats of others and in portraying there thoughts and opinions dont manage to sound like the worlds biggest moan or put themselves on some pedestal.

For example this quote

Tomorrow, thousands of mindless consumers will eat inburgerking/mcdonalds/subway/kfc etc because "its easy" "its convenient" and "they like it". The same thing will happen again and again and again for months on end as each of these tasteless, pointless chunks of entertainment protein get hyped, released, and exploited. Fair enough if you derive pleasure from eating (metaphorically speaking) shit, it's the way you act as if it's normal, as if there is an excuse for propping up these industries that degrade humanity to such an awful extent, that I find so offensive.

See, to me this quote sounds like the most cuntish thing ever written on these boards. See, to me it sounds like, because you dont eat at fast food outlets, then you're a better person than the people on these boards who do choose a fast food outlet now and again. Now that you have all the knowledge upon culture, art and society as you show so well you should learn how to respect others opinions and broadcast your opinion in a more socially acceptable manner...of course unless you enjoy being a cunt.

If that's the case then by all means carry on. You've the attitude of a total cunt down to a T.

[Lemonade]

Anyway, back on topic...

I saw the movie last night, and after all the hype I was expecting it to be the best movie of the year by a mile. TBH it was good, really fucking good but it wasn't quite perfect, there was still a couple of flaws. I thought the Joker character was brilliant, but the fact that he came across as such an evil sadistic bastard was more down to the script and the things he did off camera than Ledger's performance IMO. Ledger was certainly excellent, but not Oscar worthy in my opinion. If he wins it it's because he's dead, not because he deserved it. You can't really compare him to Jack Nicholson because the character was so completely different.

The whole movie was really dark, scary, violent.... delicious. My only real gripes with it is that the first half dragged on a bit, there were scenes that made the story overly complicated and didn't have any relevance later in the movie that could have been cut out and taking the running time down without missing out anything important. It took a long time to get going properly, but once it did it absolutely crackled, I was completely engrossed. The Joker was just so evil it defied belief. Also, I thought Maggie Gylenhaal was a bit miscast as Rachel Dawes, and she really wasn't given much to do, the character didn't have any memorable scenes or lines.

Also I felt that Two-Face wasn't explored in quite enough depth, they introduced him and then bumped him off pretty quickly, he could have been a great baddie, or even taken on the role in the next movie. But after building up the Harvey Dent character for so long, it just seemed they didn't quite do enough with Two-Face.

All in all though, a thoroughly enjoyable movie. Nolan's vision of Gotham is so dark and brooding, it gives you an almost trapped in, claustrophobic feeling.

[Afro Droid]

I suppose you've never read george bernard shaws "three plays for puritans", the preface of which is a scathing indictment of shit theatre, that despite being written over 100 years ago can be applied perfectly well to the crud hollywood pumps out today in the cinemas.

Quoting Benard Shaw doesn't make you right, infact, it makes you look like a tosser.

If Batman is culturally redudant - explain the lasting appeal! The comic book has ran for over 50 years, there have been countless animaited and live action TV shows, and two hugely successful ffilm franchises. Batman IS a cultural icon whether you like it or not.

Can we go back to talking about the movie now....?

[Stripey]

Quoting Benard Shaw doesn't make you right, infact, it makes you look like a tosser.

If Batman is culturally redudant - explain the lasting appeal! The comic book has ran for over 50 years, there have been countless animaited and live action TV shows, and two hugely successful ffilm franchises. Batman IS a cultural icon whether you like it or not.

Can we go back to talking about the movie now....?

No, as I've already said, it helps to contextualise and legitimise my point of view, which is why I brought it up in the first place, and if knowing what I'm talking about makes me a tosser in the eyes of people like you, so be it.

Anyway, I haven't called it culturally redundant at any point, infact that's a rather odd phrase and I'm not sure what you mean by it, perhaps you could explain?

Personally, I got sick of batman and DC comics before i was 10 years old, I found comics like 2000AD and manga/anime much more grown up, deeper and satisfying at that age when i was a child. I don't care if batman is a "cultural icon", the fact it's been exploited for over 50 years for commercial gain and people are still pathetic enough to buy into this tired "franchise" is exactly my point.

[Stripey]

hahah, I've just watched the film and frankly I was not surprised atall. It is a violent (I would not take a 12 year old kid to watch this and anyone who does ought to be ashamed of themselves as parents) cheesy as fuck steaming heap of hollywood poo. Anyone claiming this is "the best film evar!" clearly needs to take their head out of the fucking sand and watch some proper cinema. Laden with cheap dramatic devices and sound effects, this film contains some of the hammiest self-conscious acting I've seen in ages (because I don't normally watch this type of shit but I thought I may aswell since everyone is so affronted by my disdain for these kind of films).

Honestly, I think it is incredibly sad that so many people are taken in by this crap and willingly pay to watch it. Shame on the lot of you.

[Stripey]

I'd be disappointed if Ledger won a best actor gong for it, though, because he was essentially playing a character role

What else would he playing, if not a "character"? Himself?

[TR!ΔNGL€ T€€TH]

hahah, I've just watched the film and frankly I was not surprised atall. It is a violent (I would not take a 12 year old kid to watch this and anyone who does ought to be ashamed of themselves as parents) cheesy as fuck steaming heap of hollywood poo. Anyone claiming this is "the best film evar!" clearly needs to take their head out of the fucking sand and watch some proper cinema. Laden with cheap dramatic devices and sound effects, this film contains some of the hammiest self-conscious acting I've seen in ages (because I don't normally watch this type of shit but I thought I may aswell since everyone is so affronted by my disdain for these kind of films).

Honestly, I think it is incredibly sad that so many people are taken in by this crap and willingly pay to watch it. Shame on the lot of you.

Well, at least you've seen it now, so you can justify your thoughts on the movie.

[Spoonie]

watch some proper cinema.

off topic, but i'd personally welcome some examples of proper cinema.

[Ian_Brown]

It's really good. Not a classic and the praise is over the top but one of the best films I've seen in a long time.

I never really go to the cinema anymore as the 00's have been a dire time for the movie industry but this was certainly worth it.

My only real complaints about the movie are parts of the plot were a little weak.

Harvey Dent suddenly becoming an insane murderer was a little hard to swallow and it seemed odd to introduce the Two Face character so late on in the film. I also thought the Rachel Dawes character was a bit lame and Gylenhaal (sp) lacked Holmes' looks. It didn't remotely bother me when she died. It was the same when Gordon appeared to die, it drew no emotion out of me.

I'm generally not a super hero fan to be honest but I like the way Nolan has made the Batman series almost plausible.

The real gem of the film was Ledger as the joker, a magnificent performance. Without Ledger I'm not sure how good this film would have been.

It's a shame William Fichtner didn't get more of a role, he's a terrific actor. His role was just really a nod to Heat.

Oh and despite it being really good Nolan's best film by a mile is still Memento.

[Neil]

hahah, I've just watched the film and frankly I was not surprised atall. It is a violent (I would not take a 12 year old kid to watch this and anyone who does ought to be ashamed of themselves as parents) cheesy as fuck steaming heap of hollywood poo. Anyone claiming this is "the best film evar!" clearly needs to take their head out of the fucking sand and watch some proper cinema. Laden with cheap dramatic devices and sound effects, this film contains some of the hammiest self-conscious acting I've seen in ages (because I don't normally watch this type of shit but I thought I may aswell since everyone is so affronted by my disdain for these kind of films).

Honestly, I think it is incredibly sad that so many people are taken in by this crap and willingly pay to watch it. Shame on the lot of you.

So you actually went to the bother of finding, downloading (I assume you didn't actually go to a cinema) and watching this film just so you could reply and tell everyone in a local music forum it's a "steaming heap of hollywood poo" ? This after telling everyone beforehand that it's shit anyway like all other Hollywood films.

I wish I had as much free time as you appear to have.

[Alkaline]

off topic, but i'd personally welcome some examples of proper cinema.

I expect an interesting array of cliched art-house films with obscure (possibly foreign) titles and potentially involving "off-the-wall" subject matter.

[Lemonade]

I expect an interesting array of cliched art-house films with obscure (possibly foreign) titles and potentially involving "off-the-wall" subject matter.

Possibly made up titles, since none of us will have ever heard of them anyway since we are all so retarded.

[Ian_Brown]

I'd always had Stripey down as the happy go lucky sort as well

[Stripey]

off topic, but i'd personally welcome some examples of proper cinema.

if you don't know, you don't need to know.

[Stripey]

So you actually went to the bother of finding, downloading (I assume you didn't actually go to a cinema) and watching this film just so you could reply and tell everyone in a local music forum it's a "steaming heap of hollywood poo" ? This after telling everyone beforehand that it's shit anyway like all other Hollywood films.

I wish I had as much free time as you appear to have.

Believe it or not I was willing to give "overwhelming popular opinion" the benefit of the doubt, I mean if so many people insist this is the best film ever made there must be something to it right? Sadly I felt vindicated after seeing it...

[Alkaline]

if you don't know, you don't need to know.

Haha, that's a total cop-out. I think we'd all like a glimpse of what makes you tick my good man

[Mora-Treat-Guru]

Decrying what is essentialy pulp fiction for it's lack of artistic merit is pretty redundant. These films are made for entertainment, not for further reaching meaning, and thus should be judged upon those merits.

and don't get me started on the 'real' cinema statement...

.

[Stripey]

Decrying what is essentialy pulp fiction for it's lack of artistic merit is pretty redundant. These films are made for entertainment, not for further reaching meaning, and thus should be judged upon those merits.

.

Yep, they are just made for cheap thrills, which is why I find the suggestion that "its the best film EVAR" totally offensive. Watching films like these is like listening to scooter, i.e you'd have to be high on class-a drugs or literally retarded to derive any pleasure from it.