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Post by StarFuryG7 on May 11, 2012 11:02:48 GMT -5
The guy really is dumber than he looks. Not only was "The Dark Knight" totally understandable, it was GREAT ...and that's coming from a guy who isn't really big on Comic Book Movies, and didn't care much for "Batman Begins". Maybe Downey was smoking a joint and downing bears when he saw it, which would not only be consistent with his past, but would also explain why the movie didn't make sense to him.
What an idiot.
Over at Blastr:Robert Downey Jr. 'didn't understand, didn't get' The Dark Knight Not everyone drank The Dark Knight kool-aid. Four years ago, while promoting his first stint as Iron Man, Robert Downey, Jr. had some choice words for The Caped Crusader. He wasn't a huge fan of the Batman sequel and didn't get the hype surrounding it. MORE: blastr.com/2012/05/remember-that-time-robert.php
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Post by CRAMBAM on May 11, 2012 11:27:58 GMT -5
I liked The Dark Knight, but I do think it's overrated.
I'm not the biggest fan of Nolan's desire to make so realistic.
I didn't like that the Joker was just some guy wearing makeup, and while I do praise Ledger's performance, I still haven't seen a better Joker live than Cesar Romero, and Ledger was no Mark Hammill.
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Post by TrekBeatTK on May 11, 2012 14:38:34 GMT -5
I think it's overrated too. I find I'm liking it less and less as time goes by. I still like it, but maybe like Batman Begins more. I'm not sure. Haven't seen either of them in a few years, but I'll watch them again when the next one comes out.
The whole "realism" thing annoys me because it's still not at ALL realistic. If if were, Harvey Dent would never have survived so long with half his face gone like that. And really, his speech would probably not have been so articulate, as certain muscles would be gone, and certain facial movements impossible.
What's really not understandable and "feels" like it makes sense at first blush but really doesn't is the Joker's motiavtions. He has none. Or does he? I don't know. While I think Ledger did great with the material he was given, I think the writing was lacking. Because he is either a criminal genius with a master plan, or he's making it up as he goes creating chaos whenever oppportune. He CANNOT be both, and the movie wants him to be. So in the end, the A to B to C of the plot really doesn't make sense.
Yes, Downey is being reductive. And I think the "F*ck DC Comics" was a little harsh. But ultimately I think Iron Man was the better movie. We'll see if it's Avengers or Dark Knight Rises that wins the year, and thus who gets the last laugh.
-TK
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Post by StarFuryG7 on May 11, 2012 19:59:31 GMT -5
Perhaps it’s just me, but I actually like the shift to a more realistic super hero for a change. True we’re talking about the stuff of Comic Books here, but comic book heroes and villains tend to be so over-the-top and perform such death defying stunts as to be completely unrealistic. I realize that doesn’t bother most people who are fans of both the Comic Books and the movies that are spun from them, but for me there’s also a line at which point I find it difficult to take such material all that seriously, which is why I’m not a big Comic Book fan in general. I find that so many of these films based on them either aren’t to my liking, or simply go too far in what they depict.
As I pointed out in my initial post to this thread, I thought “Batman Begins” was overrated of the two Nolan “Batman” movies. I think he made it a point of trying to add a dark retro gothic tone to the first film in terms of the Gotham City architecture that appeared wholly absent from the sequel interestingly enough, but in a lot of ways the movie just fell flat. And yet a lot of people liked it apparently. “The Dark Knight” on the other hand is a fine example of a film that does everything right. If there was one problem with it, it was Christian Bale’s all too subdued performance as the title character, which was also why he was eclipsed by Ledger’s more animated performance as the Joker. The movie had incredible action sequences, a plot that ratcheted up its momentum extremely well as it moved along, and it even made unexpected creative use of the iconic Bat Cave computer by having it linked to every cell phone in the city as a means of tracking down the primary villain, tying that aspect of the story also to the modern-day surveillance we citizens have come to know a little too well in a post-9/11 world. It dared to confront the question as to whether such methods are morally right even if they’re being utilized for the right reasons, and it put the Batman character in the kind of precarious situation that the sitting American President also found himself in while trying to prosecute the war on terror in the face of growing dissent by many of the very people he was trying to protect and serve. That real-world political parallel aside, however, the movie just plain kicked ass as far as I was concerned after first seeing it.
As for the Joker and his motivations, I can see why someone might question that aspect of the movie after having seen it just once, but after a second viewing it should be abundantly clear what was driving him. He had been an abused child, only to find himself later rejected as an adult by the one person he loved after mutilating himself out of love in an attempt to make her feel better. Listen to the things he says throughout the film in those moments where he does open up and gives the audience a peak into his bitter thinking. He’s a malicious, vindictive man who’s grown angry at the world, and as a result his actions are meant to inflict pain on anyone that dares to confront him or somehow gets in his way. What he wants is summed up rather succinctly by Alfred when he tells Batman “Some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money …they can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with –some men just want to watch the world burn”, and if you pay close enough attention to everything he says and does in the movie, it’s very apparent that what he wants amid setting the world on fire is for someone to end his existence for him. That’s why he rants “Come on, I want to see you do it!” over and over again after the truck he’s in gets overturned midway through the movie and he stumbles out and then stares down Batman as he comes at him on the motorcycle. That’s why he gives Harvey Dent the opportunity to kill him when he hands him the gun in the hospital after having killed his fiancé and having maimed him. It’s why he laughs like a madman as he’s apparently falling to his death near the end of the film, only to then launch into a fiery tirade against Batman for reversing course and saving his life instead. “I knew you couldn’t do it!” he rails like a lunatic, because everything he’s done up to that point was also with the intent of reducing Batman to his own level and making him feel as lost and in as much despair. He wants him to compromise his principles after reaching a point that he can no longer see things any other way, but Batman doesn’t relent, even though he comes darn close.
As for “Iron Man”, I liked that movie as well, but “The Dark Knight” was just better.
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Post by StarFuryG7 on May 15, 2012 16:32:13 GMT -5
Getting back to this for a moment . . . I didn't like that the Joker was just some guy wearing makeup, and while I do praise Ledger's performance, I still haven't seen a better Joker live than Cesar Romero, and Ledger was no Mark Hammill.
Frankly, I'm a fan of Frank Gorshin's Riddler, and his over-the-top silliness fit that ridiculous version of "Batman", although I think he could have played that role similarly even in a more serious theatrical variation of the comic strip. Gorshin really seemed to revel in playing that role.
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