Deshi!
DESHI!
Basara!
BASARA!
DESHI!
DESHI!
BASARA!
BASARA!
DESHI!
DESHI!
BASARA!
BASARA!
HOLY
FUCK! I AN HYPED FOR THIS MOVIE!
And
why shouldn’t I be? It’s the sequel to
what is easily the greatest superhero film ever made with arguably the best director
to emerge out of the 2000s at the helm and is the most highly anticipated film
2012. Now granted, this does leave a lot
of room for disappointment but I’m keeping myself optimistic. Chris Nolan has yet to let us down and I
seriously doubt he will on this one. But
unfortunately, we still have some time before the film comes out and, as is
customary here on The Illusive One’s Reviews, I’m going to give my thoughts on
the film’s predecessor, The Dark Knight. Now, before I go any further on this post,
let me just warn those who haven’t seen the film that this post will contain
spoilers as this one will be more about what I took away from the film and how
I feel it has aged in comparison with the other superhero films out there. It other words, it’s probably going to be
more me going on like some crazy fanboy, (I get really passionate about comic
book movies. You should all know this by
now), rather than a traditional review.
If you don’t wish to read something like that, I understand. But I
promise you, you will have a really, really, bad day if you don’t….
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But before I get into the magnum
opus of comic book films, I want to give a few thoughts on its predecessor, Batman Begins. To put it simply, I didn’t really care for
it. Why is this, you may ask? Well, as I mentioned in my Amazing Spider-Man review, there was
this odd period between 2004 and 2008 when comic book movies just seemed to
suck and I just wasn’t into them anymore. And, sadly, Batman Begins was not spared from my empathy and I just wasn’t into
Batman any more. It also didn’t help
that the last major things that I saw him in were Batman and Robin and pre-Unlimited Justice League Animated series
where he just came off as useless and out of place to me for the most part. When I got around to watching it the film
didn’t impress me and quite frankly, it still doesn’t. Granted I do understand why so many other
people like it, but it just didn’t do for me what it did for other people. For starters, I didn’t think Christian Bale
was a very good pick for Batman, mainly because of his voice, (like everyone
else). Katie Holms was just terrible,
and I mean, terrible in her role as Rachel and I just can’t help but wonder
what the casters were thinking when they put her in the role. While I thought Liam Neeson was good as Henri
Ducard, type casted though he may have been, as Ra’s Al Ghul, he failed to
impress me. Not that I didn’t like how
they made the character more realistic, but his performance as the big bad of
the film just didn’t do it for me. The
biggest problem I had with it, however, was the story. Mainly, the second half as it just felt
rushed. This is something that all
origin superhero films suffer from but this one just seemed really hurt by
it. In short, everything in the second
half seemed like it took place over three days and it just seemed too
compressed and was ripe with SSBS. The
whole twist with Liam Neeson turning out to be Ra’s I saw coming a mile away,
as I did with the Scarecrow’s secret benefactors. And finally, the action scenes sucked. Redundant to say I know, but they just
sucked.
However, there are good things to
note in this film that I have noticed as I got older and they’re good if for no
other reason than how they were expanded on in the sequel. While Bale and Neeson were miscast the rest of
the actor did pretty good jobs in their roles.
Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Cain, Cillian Murphy, Tom
Wilkinson, and Rutger Hauer were good in their roles but couldn’t bring the
film up for me. It’s also worth noting
that this is one of the few superhero films where they acknowledged that this
is a real world with real problems and just beating up a bunch of criminals
isn’t going to necessarily change anything, (something that most superhero
films failed to do). But in the end, it
just wasn’t for me. Maybe it was the
time period it came out in. Maybe there
are more people out there who share my opinion of it and I just don’t know
it. Or I’m a complete minority on this. Either way, this film just didn’t impress me
the way it did others and remains one of “those” kinds of films for me.
But then came along The Dark Knight. Where do I even begin? In a nutshell, this film is just great all
around. As I’m sure we all know, the
story revolves around Batman as he, along with Lieutenant Gordon, and the new
D.A. Harvey Dent as they try to take down the remaining mafia organizations in
Gotham. In retaliation, the mob hires
The Joker, a freelance bank robber and psychopath to kill Batman and return the
city to the status quo. Little do any of
them know, his plans are much bigger and darker in nature.
Now the first thing that this film
got right was the acting, casting, and dialog.
To put it simply, nearly every cast member in this film deserved an Oscar
Nomination and is a quantum leap from what they had before. While Christian Bale is still kind of sketchy
as Batman, (more on that in a later), his dialog with people who were on to his
secret was spot on and well performed.
While I felt that Michael Cain, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman were
just ok in Batman Begins, in this
film they get a lot more screen time, an update with their dialog and brought
their A Game to their performances and, in my opinion, each deserved an Oscar
nomination for the performances they gave.
The same can be said for Aaron Eckhart’s extremely underrated
performance as Harvey Dent/Two-Face who was fantastic as both the charismatic
D.A. and broken vigilante and in my opinion is the best version of the
character ever brought to film, television, or videogames.
I
have to say, Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel was a huge upgrade from Katie Holmes
in terms of acting abilities. It is true
that she isn’t as attractive as Holmes, (shame on you people who thinks that automatically
makes Holmes better), but she was a lot more believable in the role. In short, she actually looked and acted like
a lawyer and unlike her character in Batman
Begins, actually serves a purpose in the film other then to be Batman’s
love interest. Many of the minor cast
members were also great in their parts, giving it their all and are all still
somehow memorable with limited amount of screen time, such as the characters of
Stephens and Ramirez just leave a big impression despite having so few lines
and screen time. Easily the most un-appreciated
actor in this whole film was Eric Roberts as the slimy, confident, cocky mob
head Maroni and it just shocks me that this guy is still doing B movies after
that performance. Easily one of the most
underrated comic book movie performances ever.
The
guy who stole the show, however, and the one everyone remembers is Heath Ledger
as The Joker. What can I honestly say about
him that hasn’t already been said? The
writing is for him is great, (I’ll go more into that later). The performance is great. The way his scenes are directed are
great. It’s just a great part. The only thing that I can really do in this
regard is bring up what some of the other fans already have and the inherent
criticism that comes with the popularity of the portrayal. The most common complaint that I’ve heard
against it is that he’s not funny and that he should have been more like The
Joker from Arkham Asylum and that’s
the way the character should be. But
let’s really think about this for a second.
For starters, like a lot of other long running comic book characters,
the character has changed so much over the decades it’s really impossible to
say what the Joker is “suppose” to be like.
So saying how the Joker is “suppose” to be is a very loose statement at
best. Second, this portrayal, despite
what some of the more hardcore fanboys say, does keep the essence of what the
Joker is but at the same time does something new with the character. For one thing, this Joker is funny. The humor is darker and a bit more subtle but
is their all the same and it’s all designed to make you crap your pants in
fear. And he is a psychopath who does deranged
things often just for the sake of doing them.
The main difference between this version and others is that he actually
has a major plan for Gotham and this is what ultimately makes this version of
the character better but still a bit questionable among the more hardcore fans.
But my opinion of
this whole debate is just stupid. All of
the Joker’s are good in their own way.
However, I personally believe that this one has the best writing, as it
trades in all kiddish jokes and ridiculous antics for a serious plan that was
for Gotham’s sole, demented jokes that were scary as well as funny and an all-around
shit you pants scary portrayal. And
that’s why so many people like this version.
It’s a very disturbing performance that gets under your skin. The Jack Nicholson and Mark Hamill versions
are funny and enjoyable, but they never reached the same level of memorabilia,
depth and intensity. As far as Heath
Ledger’s death is concerned, I really think that critics of the portrayal have
blown that whole thing out of proportions.
It does account for a lot of added interest in the film prior to release
and for its initial finical success but they did not blow his portrayal out of
the water and it deserved all the praise it got.
But
what is good acting and good characters without a good plot? Well, as The
Avengers proved, a billion dollar grossing movie! Ha, ha, ha, ha! (Seriously, though it was a
good summer blockbuster and deserved its financial success). But in all seriousness, the story of The Dark Knight is easily the best of any
superhero movie and among the best I have seen for any film, rich with
complexities, dark tones, and serious themes that hit you like a ton of bricks
with layers of realism that had yet to be seen in any superhero film and still hasn’t
been seen sense. And quite frankly, it’s
is a little difficult to talk about. It
expands on everything that was established in the first film and takes it to
new heights. For starters, the realism
factor has been upped. Batman doesn’t
just beat the criminals up and leave then for the police to find or deals with
everything on his own. He actually coordinates
with Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent and shares relevant information with them that
will help take down the mob in a court of law.
It establishes that just doing the usual hero thing like beating up
criminals doesn’t really solve anything and that it takes real people in power
like cops and D.A.s to bring criminal to justice. This is something that you NEVER see in other
superhero films and gave it a very neo noir feel to it that perfectly blended
with the Batman story line.
It also happens to be the only superhero film
where the world they are trying to protect feels like a living, breathing
entity on its own. In other words, it
was something that you were fully invested in and most superhero films just
fail to do this effectively. In this
film they establish that this is a city in trouble and needs help. It isn’t just some random alien invasion, or
a CEO who wants control over people.
This is a city that has problems, with people in despair, where
criminals run wild and is truly in need of saving and by the time the film
comes to its end you are fully invested in said city’s fate and how things will
work out. Again, it is something that no
other superhero film has done effectively before or sense.
And
then we have Batman’s battle with the Joker and everything about this was just
fantastic. Now, I give superhero films
like The Avengers a lot of crap
because their villains have very simple motives, be it just trying to get rich,
take over the world, or just simple revenge.
The Joker’s motive for doing what he does and how he does it is a lot
more complex and, again, are more realistic.
His motive is to spread anarchy and chaos, to prove to Gotham and Batman
that deep down everyone is just as insane as he is and if pushed to a certain
extent they will become just like him and how he actually does this is just
brilliant in every aspect of the word, using what he knows about certain people
to his advantage. Essentially, it was a
much grander and better thought out version of his plan in The Killing Joke. And all of
these things mentioned before moves the story along at a great pace ensuring
that every plot device and line of dialog has some kind of use in the long term
and never drags. There really isn’t any
other word to describe it other than say it’s the plot of The Dark Knight.
And
of course we have all the themes that are intertwined with the film and are
what really push the film into what I call “Dark Knight” comic book movie
territory as opposed to just being “Good”, “Bad” or “Great”. Now, other then maybe the Spider-Man films, the Bryan Singer X-Men films, and Watchmen, most superhero films don’t even try to have complex
themes and thought provoking questions.
And even these films don’t quite hit you the same way as this one does
as it take them to a whole new level.
Now all of the aforementioned things, (the living city and actual use of
a legal system), make the film great but it’s the themes that solidify it. The first is Batman’s no kill rule. Again, this is something that most superhero
films don’t address. Sure there are
superhero films where the hero never kills anyone intentionally, but they never
really establish that it’s bad for the hero to kill off the villains. This in turn, leads to the big themes of the
film; escalation and how far one can go for justice and what is acceptable? Like the animated series of the 90s it does
address the possibility that Batman maybe doing more harm than good as The
Joker was unleashed by the mob directly due to his actions and again is
something that is rarely addressed in other comic book films. The justice part was addressed in the first
film but ultimately came off as a little preachy to me. In this film, however, it was a very well
addressed issue. How far can and should
one go for justice? Are the prices you
pay ultimately worth it? Should one lie
or kill in order to obtain that end? In
fact, by the time the film ends, you really don’t have any clear answers to
these questions. While what they ultimately
do does resolve the problems the city faces it leave the audience free to
interpret whether or not it was all worth it.
Was that what Chris Nolan intended?
I honestly don’t know but that’s the way I interpreted it.
From
the technical side of things, this film is easily one of the best I have ever
seen. In an age full of overused
cartoonish CGI effects, The Dark Knight
manages to have special effects that look completely realistic throughout the
entire length of the film. Unlike other
films this one uses actual shots of cities, miniatures, and real explosions
instead of computer generating everything and this resulted in me believing
everything that I saw on screen which is an incredibly rare feat for any film
to do. The sound effects were likewise
great and it’s probably the first time that I noticed just how different sound
effects like gun shots and car crashes are from the spoken dialog in a
film. The action scenes are a vast improvement
over those of the first film and are nail bitingly intense and keep you on the
edge of your seat the entire time. While
they aren’t the best action scenes in the world, (Chris Nolan has been steadily
improving on them but they still leave something to be wanted), compared to all
the overblown, tensionless action sequences that most films have nowadays, The Dark Knight manages to pack a lot
more emotion and tension into these scenes which is something worth noting.
Despite all the good things that
this film have, there are some legitimate faults with the film that I need to
address and snuff out things that overanalyzes have tried to use to downplay
the film. Now, before I start bashing
the over analyzers and bringing up said faults, there are some things that, as
a Batman fan, annoyed me. There are a number of little things that
annoyed me and at times I wish that they called one character “this” instead of
“that” but the big one for me was Two-Face.
Now as I mentioned before, this was easily the best version Harvey Dent/Two-Face
to ever come to any adaptation and as a big fan of the character I couldn’t
have been happier about how he turned out.
So, as you can imagine, it really ticked me off that they killed him off
in the last ten minutes of the film.
Granted I understand why he had to die from a narrative point of view
but it’s still irritating to see one of my favorite villains get killed off
right after they get the character right after so many attempts. But that’s just a personal issue I have with
it and it’s not a real flaw with the film.
As
far as legitimate faults go, however, this film has little to none and most of
the so called “faults” don’t really amount to much more then overanalyzing. Normally this is something that I don’t
bother myself with as people who look at things like this usually tend to be
idiots who need to get a life and stop being contrarians looking for
attention. But given the fact that a
certain blogger has told me that he’ll bring this stuff up in a future post, I
have to give my take and counter arguments to these opinions. Now, unfortunately there are people out there
who don’t know the difference between a legitimate problem with the plot and
overanalyzing, so allow me to explain the difference. Take The
Avengers for example. Bringing up
the fact that Bruce Banner was suddenly able to control his transformation into
the Hulk during the climax, when on that very same day he was completely out of
control during the act on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s flying aircraft carrier is a legitimate
plot hole. Bringing up the fact that
Black Widow and Hawkeye should have been killed during the final battle because
they don’t have any superpowers is overanalyzing. Bringing up the fact that Thor’s return to
Earth doesn’t amount to much more then “It’s magic bitch” is a legitimate fault
with the film. Bringing up the fact that
half of the impacts Tony Stark takes throughout the film should have broken
every single bone in his body is overanalyzing.
So,
where am I going with this? Well, it’s
about the most common overanalyzing complaint against the film. The most common one and the only one that I’m
going to address here is that some people say that the Joker’s plan was to
complex and should have failed much sooner than it did; especially considering
the fact that most of his men consisted of mentally disturbed thugs. The overanalyzing in this case is a little
more complex in this case as I’ve heard people bring up the fact that Navy
SEALS couldn’t pull this off to questioning how the Joker would know people
would act the way they did. And quite
frankly this is the kind of overanalyzing that give film critics and film buffs
a bad name and it just disgusts me that people still do this.
But,
because I’m me, I have to make some kind of overanalyzing counter argument to
this and quite frankly, these arguments have some very simple explanations to
them, as is usually the case. It can all
be summed up by simply saying that the Joker is a genius and just knows how
people will more the likely act in certain situations. Batman going after Rachel? He saw the way he leaped after him earlier in
the film. Placing the bomb in the
schizophrenic’s stomach? Just needed a
guy crazy and desperate enough to do it.
How did he know he could provoke the cop into a fight? He killed like a dozen cops! And cops are not known for their fair
treatment of cop killers! As far as the
plan itself goes, a good deal of it was probably improvised as much as planned
out due to the ever changing circumstances.
While he probably did know to a certain extent where he wanted to go
with his plan he probably didn’t know how he would pull it off up until the
later parts of the film.
There
is, however, a much more simple explanation to this and is the one that I personally
prefer; IT’S JUST A FUCKING MOVIE! AND A
COMIC BOOK MOVIE AT THAT! I mean
seriously, if people can suspend their disbelief long enough to believe that a
billionaire dressed up like a bat fights crime with the help of his butler and
CEO are you really going to tell me that the Joker’s plan for forever tainting
Gotham’s soul is too much and overly complex?
That is what made the movie so damn good! Seriously people! Stop the overanalyzing! It’s pointless and there are much better
things to do with your time!
Ok,
now that I got that out of the way, there are some things that I do consider to
be legitimate faults with the film. While
these aren’t things that cripple the film, they do keep it from obtaining a
perfect score on my rating system. The
first major problem is Christian Bale as Batman. Not that he’s terrible but when compared to
the other people who have played him in the past like Kevin Conroy and Michael
Keaton, his performance doesn’t really hold up.
The main problem is him trying to blend in normal society as Bruce Wayne
the drunken Billionaire. As people have
pointed out, he comes off as someone who is looking for attention or as someone
with something to hide. In other words,
if someone told me that this guy was Batman, you would probably believe it. When in the Batsuit he uses that infamous
voice and it gets old very fast. When he
has conversations with Alfred and Fox when not in his Batman outfit it does
work but still doesn’t make up for the rest
Another
gripe I had with it is hand to hand combat action scenes. While they were a lot better than the ones in
Batman Begins, they just seemed
really staged. A perfect example of this
is Batman’s opening fight with the Scarecrow’s men. It just looked like they were lining up to
get their asses kicked or something.
Hopefully this is something that Nolan has stepped up his game on for The Dark Knight Rises but in this one it
was sub-par.
And
that’s really all I have to say about the film itself but to be honest, I don’t
think I’ve done it justice in this post, as it’s really one of those films like
Jaws, Star Wars, or The Godfather that’s
beyond review and you just have to watch it and get your own opinion of it. As it stands, this film is almost universally
considered to be the greatest comic book film of all time, and maintains the
highest approval rating and average score of the genera on Rotten Tomatoes, and
the highest rated of the genera on IMDB and Metascore. It also happens to be the only superhero film
to win and be nominated for widespread Academy Awards and was the major cause
for the criticism the Academy faced that year for its failure to give the film
a Best Picture Nomination. While there
are some people who argue against this, you won’t get away with saying that
films like The Avengers, Iron Man, or Watchmen are better films.
You may argue that they’re more faithful to the source material and that
as adaptations they’re better or that you enjoy them more, (which I have no
problem with), but as films standing on their own you simply won’t. This was a film that showed that superhero
and comic book films don’t have to be crowd pleasing shitty summer block
busters and that they can be intelligent with thought provoking themes and
complex storylines and characters and it really depresses me that more films of
the genera haven’t followed this one’s example.
But
anyway, as you can tell I love this film and not only consider it the greatest
comic book film of all time but one of my personal favorites. Nearly everything about it I just love from
the casting, to the characters, to the dialog, to the story, to the special
effects, to the direction. It was
fantastic all around and created the filmmakers created a movie that can only
be described with one word: Masterpiece.
All
Around
9.75/10
Comic
Book
Movie
Rating
Dark
Knight Level
So now that I’m done praising this
movie up the ass, what are my expectations of The Dark Knight Rises. Well,
as anyone who have read my posts or talked to me when I first heard that they
were going to do a sequel for sure I was indifferent. This was just a film that I didn’t think
needed a sequel as the ending to this one more or less wrapped everything
up. But when I saw that Bane was the
main villain, Ann Hathaway was cast as Catwoman, the initial teaser trailer,
and heard the Deshi Basara chant, I was as hyped as everyone else and my
anticipation has only continued to build due to the insanely good advertising
campaign.
As
you can imagine, there are a number of things that I’m expecting from this
film. First, I’m expecting a great
version of Bane, (one of my favorite Batman
villains who has sadly been fucked up the ass sense the Knightfall Story Arc),
action sequences that blow the first two out of the water and for it to be
better than Batman Begins and The Avengers. What I am not expecting, however, is for it
to be better than The Dark Knight,
(although I am hoping). I just don’t
think that THAT can be done. The biggest
fear that I have for it is that it’s going to borrow to much from its
predecessor, (although given its 164 minute run time I don’t see that being
likely), or that it will regress from the summer blockbuster Oscar bait tones The Dark Knight has and go for more
shitty summer blockbuster tones and based on what I’ve seen in some of the
later commercials, it looks as if it could go in that direction. Still, I’m keeping my mind open and hoping
for the best. At the very least I could
rant on about this The Dark Knight
and am finally able to use this meme.
Did that make any sense? Only if this one proves to be what we all
hope for it to be. So until next time,
this is The Illusive One saying….
DESHI!
DESHI!
BASARA!
BASARA!
DESHI!
DESHI!
BASARA!
BASARA!
DESHI!
DESHI!
BASARA!
BASARA!
DESHI!
DESHI!
BASARA!
BASARA!
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