Skip to main content

The Dark Knight Movie - My Thoughts

The much talked about The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan's sequel to 2005's, Batman Begins, continues to bring an edgy realism to the Batman legend. I've been anticipating this film since the announcement of Heath Ledger being cast as the Joker because, as I mentioned here, I had every confidence that Heath would (and could) redefine this character.

If you're looking for reviews or story outlines this isn't the post for you - especially if you haven't seen the film. This article is my thoughts after having seen The Dark Knight and I'm assuming you've seen it too - hence there may be spoilers ahead.

I didn't get to see this film until a week after its Australian release which gave me time to get a feel for how the movie was being received by critics and audiences. This doesn't influence whether I go to see a movie but if general consensus is good then it gives me confidence that I'm going to be entertained.

Thankfully The Dark Knight opened with fantastic reviews (for the most part) and broke most of the box office records held by Spiderman III - a movie that missed the mark for me with its Emo Spiderman.

Unfortunately, as a result of such a good opening week, I think my expectations were set just a notch too high. Don't get me wrong, I think this is a great movie worthy of every accolade it's been given. As a long time Batman fan with some background knowledge of these characters, I didn't expect to find the plot difficult to follow in places, but I did. There are a lot of supporting characters, particularly amongst the villains. At times I found it difficult to know who was who - catching up later or never really being clear about who was with who.

For example, I didn't get the gang of copycat Batmans right away and was confused that Batman was using a gun and shooting at people. I did get up to speed when the real Batman showed up, at the Scarecrow bust, but it threw me enough to make me wonder about whether Scarecrow was part of the Batman copycat crew or not - even now I'm not so sure?

I also didn't pick up on the fact that there was two mob bosses pitted against each other, Salvatore Maroni (who now runs Falcone's mob family) and Gamble (a Gotham crime lord at war with Maroni). I thought they were all part of the same mob - which the Joker was trying to take over.

When a movie is receiving so many good reviews I tend to look for the bad reviews so I don't have to read the same glowing accolades over and over. This review by Chris Tookey from Mail Online raises a couple of interesting points. Notably that Chris also found the plot difficult to follow at times and that The Joker is incredibly well organized for a man whose mantra is chaos.

Almost everything the Joker does in this movie, in terms of his crimes, would have to have been planned to the 'n-th' detail. Such as sewing an explosive device into a man's stomach, ready to be detonated by the Joker's one phone call, whilst in custody. That isn't something that just happens by chance - it's premeditated and would have to be planned carefully. Even if you're a psychotic, criminal mastermind.

Similarly, Batman, whom we know is well resourced and organized, seems to be able to construct some pretty amazing technology in record time. How exactly do you construct a sonar, visual monitoring station that can observe an entire city using ordinary mobile phones, without your chief gadget man (Fox) knowing about it until it's finished and installed?

All my main points of contention aside what was important for me about this movie was the Joker and whether Heath Ledger achieved what I was hoping he would. I'm happy to say Heath delivers - but you didn't need me to tell you that. You'd have to be under a rock to not know that people are gunning for him to receive a posthumous Academy award for his performance.

So many good things have been written about Heath's performance and this movie that it seems the only way to say something new is to point out the disappointments or the things you'd like to have seen.

Heath's Joker is so engaging that you just want to know more about him. Most interesting is when the Joker starts to explain how he got his facial scars. You think you're getting some insight into his past only to discover later that the Joker has many conflicting stories about the scars. In effect you don't know if you've been given a glimpse or if it's just a story for chilling effect.

Not explaining the Joker's back story is both genius and disappointing. I can't say you ever get to like the Joker during this film. You certainly don't feel for him when Batman beats the crap out of him in the police interrogation room. However, with Heath's performance and interpretation you do wonder just how did he become the Joker (both the character and Heath - rumor has it Heath kept a diary of his character development on the Joker. Maybe some day it'll be published).

Some day, let's hope there will be a big screen, Joker origin story. Something that goes against the comics and the 1989 Batman movie by Tim Burton where the Joker emerged from a vat of chemicals that scared his skin white etc. (Given that Heath's Joker wears white makeup let's hope the chemical story will be dead and buried as too cartoonish).

I do like where this movie series is going with the idea that Batman is not seen as a hero by the citizens of Gotham - despite helping to reduce crime. Given that he's been succeeding most people wouldn't have a problem with a vigilante terrorizing criminals. However Batman's presence seems to be creating as many problems for Gotham as he's trying to fix so the general distrust of Batman is some what warranted and believable.

Overall this movie is as good as people have said. In terms of plot this one is something like the Matrix Trilogy. Just like the first movie in that series, the first movie, Batman Begins, was a more self contained story. All the loose ends were tied up with an option/setup for another film. The Dark Knight is perhaps more of a self contained plot than the second Matrix film but even so the story isn't finished. There are loose ends that have to carry forward into a third film. Batman will need to be rejected even more by the citizens he is trying to serve and protect.

I would recommend seeing this film at least twice because it does move at quite a fast pace. If you're struggling with the plot, like me, then seeing the film a second time is a must. It's not as easy to digest as Batman Begins but I think the little nuances that you'd pick up in a second viewing will make that which you understood the first time shine even more.

Comments

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

Introducing the Second Sunday Skateboard Sessions - Doing Less to Skateboard More

This was my second heelflip attempt of the day. I was pleased I at least got the full rotation even if I didn't land it. I  am determined to keep skating for as long as possible, though, since my last post in May 2024, about reigniting my kickflip battle at age 54 , I've probably been skateboarding less than I had hoped. Still haven't landed that elusive kickflip either. Strangely I've been wanting to film myself skateboarding again but have been reluctant to do so because it can be a bit of a hassle trying to create interesting content, not to mention a lot of editing, if you want to capture the full journey of learning a trick. I really hate editing. Looking at my camera equipment the other day I was thinking what is the most minimal setup that I can put together that would make it easy to film skate videos anywhere? I landed on using my Samsung A13, Android phone, mounted on a GoPro selfie stick that has a tripod base in the handle, and a wireless mic I bought some t...

I'm Confused About Why People Prefer to Say Discombobulated?

D iscombobulated. Is a word that I think someone rediscovered about three or four years ago (maybe more because the pandemic years have thrown out my sense of time) and now I hear it a lot. It's not a new word by any means, but when I started hearing multiple celebrities using it in everyday sentences, I actively had to look up what it meant. Define it with as many synonyms as you like but essentially it's just another word meaning 'confused'. Seinfeld Quotes: Quotes.net The words are pretty much interchangeable. He was discombobulated by too many choices. He was confused by too many choices.  My confusion is the length of the word. It's unnecessarily long with too many syllables. There are many other words that mean confused, and therefore also mean discombobulated. Most of them are shorter and easier to say. So why not just say 'confused'? Perhaps discombobulated sounds more intelligent, maybe?  Hawaii Five-0 Quotes: Quotes.net I've noticed it gets us...

The Princess' Butterflies - Using an AI Image to Video Generator to Animate Art That Started as a 23 Year Old Rough Pen Sketch

B ack in October of 2023 I used Prome AI's Sketch Rendering feature to color a 23 year old rough pen sketch I did of a princess watching butterflies, sitting next to a waterfall in the forest. You can read more about that in my previous article,  The Princess' Butterflies - Using an AI Art Generator to Color and Enhance a 23 Year Old Rough Pen Sketch The three images I used to create my final image (bottom right). Notice how closely the AI has followed my line art sketch (top left) but in the first image (top right) has misinterpreted the waterfall as some kind of large tree stump. Prome's render of the artwork was pretty good but I did end up creating a composite image myself from two of the best renders, to get my final image. Since then AI Image to Video has come a long way, particularly when it comes to creating animation from artwork and maintaining the art style for the whole generation. AI still does much better with turning photographic images to video but I found ...

Two Former Right Wing Australian PM's Call Out President Trump and His America First Approach

Q uite often, leaders on all sides of politics, once they've retired from office, become the kind of person, with a political view that I would've supported, if they had been that person with that viewpoint, when they were leaders. Case in point, two former right wing, Australian Prime Ministers were individually interviewed about President Trump's negative impact on Australia and global politics in general. Both said things that even a left leaning 'woke' voter like myself could get behind and nod in agreement with. Keep in mind both these former PM's are right wing politicians that should be aligned with the US Republican party, and President Trump's views on many issues. Malcolm Turnbull Mr Turnbull, like President Trump is a businessman turned politician. He's a person I was all set to vote for until he aligned himself with the Australian Liberal Party. Which was a little unexpected for me because up to that point his politics sounded more left than ...

TV Series Review: Skeleton Crew (2024) (Disney+) *No Spoilers*

I f you saw the trailer for  Skeleton Crew  and decided the show looked too much like Star Wars for little kids, and didn't watch, you missed out on a real treat. While I will say this show was definitely targeted at bringing in younger fans to the Star Wars universe, it is very much more like family viewing than kids only TV. Not to mention, characters are literally gunned down or murdered on this show, but without the really graphic violence you might see on a more adult orientated show. It's actually no more kid only orientated than the first series of Stranger Things  (2016), or even the original  Star Wars  (1977) movie. In fact the whole show is a not so subtle homage to original Star Wars (1977), Treasure Island  (1950), and eighties movies like The Goonies  (1985), ET  (1982), Explorers  (1985) and others. The plot is very straight forward. A group of children, living in the Star Wars equivalent of the suburbs, find an aband...

Second Sunday Skateboard Session Ep 2 - Some Improvements

TET heelflip - looking better but still not a land. A s of writing this I've stuck to my plan of filming myself skate every second Sunday. By the time this post goes up I will have three episodes done. As part of that goal I am also skating more between episodes, about every second to third day for an hour, practicing Braille's Skateboarding Made Simple, Volume 1. That said, I'm not posting these videos here immediately after they're posted to my @TETLife YouTube Channel because I only post an article once a week, and that would make every second article a Sunday Session post. These posts are really so I can add some additional thoughts after the fact, and, of course, because this blog is about all things that interest me, of which skateboarding is one of them. In episode two I had intended to speak to camera more than I do but my driveway is right next door to my neighbor's shed/workshop, and I get a little self-conscious if I'm not too sure whether he's th...

Making an Effort to Be a President Trump Free Zone - Final Rant (I Hope)

I  hope the American people, who voted for President Trump, get the full experience of what they thought they voted for along with what they're actually getting.  Now may be a good time for them to learn to speak Russian because if World War Three does break out, it's not beyond possibility that it'll be the USA and Russia against the rest of the world, as Trump appears to be emboldening Russia to dig in on their attack on the Ukraine. China, may opt to stay neutral, or even join forces with the rest of the world because they've been quietly winning an economic war with so many countries, they may not care so much about the USA. Especially since President Trump wants to bring manufacturing back to America and impose tariffs on every country exporting anything to the USA. After that fiasco meeting President Zelenskyy had in the Oval Office with President Trump I've pretty much had enough. I'm not writing about what new dumb ass thing Trump's doing this week. ...