The Dark Knight – Review

            Respect for the source material.

            This is a term that gets passed around a lot when people are talking about the alarming amount of comic book movies these days (well, more so comics than other adaptations). A term with a lot of merit that I think has been passed around so many times that the meaning has become a bit muddled, as will happen with current buzzwords. But I’m not here to talk about that. Not yet, anyway. I’m here to talk about The Dark Knight, which I was lucky enough to see at a special trade screening on Thursday. It has come to pass that every friend I have now hates the shit out of me.

            “Now where do we begin?” I suppose the best place to start is with the simple statement that this film is a force of nature. And most importantly of all: this work is something that I can call a great film without a single reservation or excuse. Every single aspect of this movie was firing on all cylinders for each of the 152 minutes of the screening, and this is owed in three parts to 1) the relationship between director Chris Nolan and cinematographer Wally Pfister 2) the vise-tight scripting of Jonah and Chris Nolan, and 3) the joining of both one and two with one of the most solid ensemble casts in recent years. No one is under used, and everyone has something to do here. Every single person in this movie is there for a reason, and nails every beat they are given. With this script and the freedom to own their parts in the story, it becomes apparent that these are not actors in roles. These are people, living their lives, making difficult choices, enjoying victories, and facing the repercussions of their mistakes in a city that is as much a character as Wayne or Dent or Joker. Despite the very personal nature of the plot, the story takes place on several different scales, embracing at many points the entire citizenry of Gotham. This is a living, breathing organism of a city, and the internal debate within each of the characters serves as a microcosm of the way that the city itself can change, for good or bad, possibly on the flip of a coin (Oh yes, it’s there, and by God they made it work). What works so well is that Christopher Nolan had the vision to take not only the source material and characters seriously, but the audience seriously as well. This IS an epic crime drama, and the reason I compare Nolan to people like Sydney Lumet is because I see this kind of 70s sensibility about the way he creates his films and populates them with characters that I get to know, who refuse to let me take my eyes off them.

            By choosing the cast that he did and letting them run with it, Nolan and Pfister are free to sit back and capture the pure electricity that occurs between these characters, in fully realized, beautiful frames. There are shots in this movie that took my breath away. Bale, crouching on the corner of a Hong Kong skyscraper at dusk with the sunset over the city backlighting him in this purple and orange glow, with background and foreground in perfect frame. It lasts all of a second. I know that some have griped in the past about the fight editing and camera work during the action scenes of Batman Begins, and though I disagree with them and very much like the effect they were going for, I will say that Nolan took a different approach this time. While still incorporating that premise that sometimes Batman can move faster than you can see (there is a part where he takes 4 or 5 guys out at the same time, a rope is involved, and they never see it coming), I loved how you get that premise while seeing nearly every brutal attack the Batman makes (and he takes on rooms full of people). It perfectly illustrates just how effective and confident Wayne has become since the first film. This simply IS Batman, detective work and all. And it’s not just Bale that has completely vanished into the character…

            Joker. My God in heaven what Heath Ledger unleashed in that character is one of the most terrifying and complete pieces of acting work I have ever seen.  When you’ve read that “he’s the shark in Jaws” comment from Nolan, I guess Spielberg must have forgotten to film the part in Jaws where when the shark chases you back onto land, he has another set of teeth in the sand under your ass ready to devour you from what you assumed was safety… You dumbass. Ledger does not exist on this screen. Somehow, he tapped into the elemental lifeblood of decades of continuities and distilled the essence of the Batman’s most dangerous adversary. And while the Joker will tell you that he’s not the sort of man to have a plan, make no mistake: He is in competition for the soul of Gotham. A competition that relies heavily upon… No. I refuse to spoil even a tiny bit of Ledger’s work, because no one should do themselves the disservice of not seeing this fresh. I will say that if an audience full of professionals reacts vocally during a magic trick, or one of the many little stories Joker tells, it’s going to be an atom bomb in an audience who isn’t trying to write objectively in notepads.

            Michael Caine is brilliant as always, but has more to do and has his own wonderful story. Morgan Freeman is not just waiting for the check this time out, and has a great arc in his relationship with Wayne (as well as one of my favorite lines in the film, with a S.O.B. accountant). And Gary Oldman is given a big fat steak of a part to sink his teeth into, as it’s correctly stated in interviews that the movie hinges on the relationship between Batman, Gordon, and Dent. And let me tell you that Aaron Eckhart has done some of his very best work to date here.  Two-Face is my favorite Bat-Villain, as I always loved the personal nature of the origin put forth in the story The Long Halloween. He is heartbreakingly brought to life in this story, and chillingly portrayed. There is a moment from the trailers where Eckhart screams “no!” while facedown in an expanding puddle. When you see who he is actually talking to, and the way that his face just falls in realization, and what that “no” means… Well, this is why it all works so well. Having essentially spoiled myself with all of the random script pages and trailers and TV spots released up to this point, I thought I had a pretty good handle on how this was all going to play out, and thought that I would probably miss some of the magic of the surprises of the film, thinking it would be great as expected, but not amazing. No. There is no way to be prepared for the lengths to which the film goes. It feels good to be respected as an audience member again.  It feels good to have a director deliver a poignant, powerful character drama that doesn’t pull punches, and refuses to talk down to you. As much as I loved Batman Begins, when I left this theater that film felt more like the prologue to the story that this entire team always felt had to be told. It doesn’t feel like the original is less of a film or anything, just that it is a smaller piece of this story, which while stunningly, but tastefully leaving a door open for a new story that I am ravenous for, satisfies to the point that if I never get another one, I can rest knowing that I saw the great Batman story realized for the screen. So complete is this vision. True to the source material? If by that you mean is it true to the letter to the characters I have loved for years, then I say yes. Many people simply couldn’t get on board with the fact that Batman doesn’t wear grey spandex, and Joker doesn’t look like Jude Law bleached albino. Well that would be true to the source material too. In the same way that Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was. If that’s all you care about, your cup of tea awaits you in that horrible movie. When I say this is the best film I have seen all year, know that I am not cracking a smile or making excuses because the excitement my super-duper-secret-early-studio-decoder-ring-screening experience has clouded my judgment. When I tell you that Joker is better executed in 152 minutes of terror, joy, and guilty/dirty laughs than he has been for years in the comics, I’m telling you the truth. Clean slate is what I demanded of myself walking in. Do not miss this.

Why I will not pay to see The Incredible Hulk

Posted by Deekgeek:

Okay listen. I understand what Marvel is trying to do here. Recreating its universe on the silver screen is at the very least, a brilliant marketing move. So I understand the need for this movie to be successful. and regardless of how horrible a Marvel film that started out being written by talentless hack Zak Penn and wannabe fanboy (and pretentious SOB) Ed Norton could potentially be, The Incredible Hulk will make a crapload of money at the box office this summer because people are going to see it no matter what. And as we’ve seen, it’s been doing well. And while I will hold my final judgement until I do actually see this movie, I would just like to put this out there: Marvel is just starting out this universe recreation project and it will take some time and there will be some bumps in the road. As fans, I don’t think Marvel should be praised and applauded for every POS it puts out simply because people are too afraid to say “hey marvel, that sucks.” One flop will not put a wrench in all of Marvel’s future plans. And yes, from what I’ve seen, heard and read, this movie is critically, a FLOP. Comic books are trendy now, and I hate to say that, but that’s all Marvel needs to rake in the dough to continue to produce more and more and more and more. The truth is, no matter how crappy of a movie they make,  mindless movie goers will go and see these films if only for the promise of cars being squashed and buildings being broken. But if we start overrating and faking enthusiasm for movies that had no business being remade in the first place, we’re setting Marvel and ourselves up for failure. Very simply put, raving about The Incredible Hulk will make Marvel put much less thought into their future projects as they’ll see tubfulls of money coming in week after week simply because people went and saw a mentally one dimensional flick who’s goal seems to be to get 14 year olds (or people who act like them) to say “whoa! cool special effects man!” or “wow did you see that?” As fans, we need to demand more from Marvel, because they can certainly give it to us. but just because we’re all still coming off the ultra fun summer high that was Iron Man, doesn’t mean we should be allowing Ed Norton et al to ride on it’s coattails. So, here’s what I’m going to do. I am going to sneak into a showing of The Incredible Hulk just so that the next time I bitch about it, I’ll have actual points to back my views up. Sure, I’ll pay for something….anything really. I’d rather Adam Sandler got my hard earned 7 bucks because atleast when his movie sucks, he doesn’t whine away in interviews about how it only sucked because the studios didn’t let him do things HIS way. Norton has lost all good will with me because of the classless way he’s dealt with this entire situation from the beginning. Like you’ve said Ryan, comic books are this country’s mythology-these stories and characters are the gods and goddesses of the Western world and Marvel really needs to take a  much longer think the next time it decides to just clumsily hand over a project to some pompous asshole who only wants to fulfil his own preteen fantasy of playing a comic book superhero. 

 

More to come. 

A rather unnerving development.

Ok, so here we go. It is no small secret that I really love the movie HULK (2003). I think it is a brilliant, ambitious, and gorgeous film, that played with some advanced poetic and aesthetic themes and ideas to create something simply greater than could normally have been expected from a Hollywood treatment of the source material. Ang Lee is a treasure, and from every conceivable angle of that film, it’s plainly obvious that he took this script that might have been utter shit in another director’s paws, and proceeded to craft a surrealistic, mature, and excessively cerebral take on the character of Bruce Banner, not unlike the way that David Cronnenberg took middling Sci-Fi high-concept pieces and crafted body-shock classics that endure to this very day, despite being despised by many critics at the point of release. The simple fact is that all of the arguments that I’ve ever heard from people trying to convince me that the film was anything but wonderful have fallen into two distinct groups: Those who simply didn’t get the movie they were expecting, and took it out on the wonderful art flick in front of them, and genetically deficient dumbfucks that were pissed of that HULK SMASH didn’t HULK SMASH enough, and all those fags spent too much time talkin’ about their feelin’s and shit. Simply put: if you’re in the second camp, fuck yourself and die in a fire. It’s not the movie’s fault that you’re a repressed, idiotic fuckface with no empathy. If you’re of the other variety, and simply got product that you weren’t expecting, fine. I get that. Maybe this new movie coming out will give you exactly what you always wanted, plus gigantic Liv Tyler lips.

Personally, I have had issues with this upcoming INCREDIBLE HULK movie since inception, most of which stem from the shitty attitude all involved seemed to auspiciously display towards the previous effort of 2003. Ok, I get it. You are making a completely different product. Here’s the rub, though: Just because it’s conveniently easy to differentiate yourself from something with the same name as your product that didn’t sit as well with the public at large (read: largely ignorant fucktools, with a smattering of reasonable dissenters), doesn’t mean you have to shit all over someone else’s slavish effort. Ang Lee poured himself into this film, going so far as to perform all of the motion capture work for the Hulk, and everyone on the cast talks of just how seriously he took the idea. And the fact is, opinion has started to change to some degree with regards to the previous film. I mean, it’s not like we’re talking Batman & Robin here. The A.V. Club published a very decent article not too terribly long ago listing the HULK film as one of several items worthy of a conscious revisit, and they state an extremely compelling case. I digress: The point of this entry is not simply to browbeat, but to connect the dots. I spoke earlier of the faction of folks who simply didn’t get quite the movie they were expecting the first time around, and also about the genetic detritus unsatisfied with the level of SMASH proportional to talking the first time around, and both camps’ requirement for a different take more in line with their respective tastes. Fact is: regardless of where you fall on that particular divide, the studios were listening. And since Marvel took over development of their own properties, it’s been universally understood that at this critical stage in their infancy, their properties had better damn well kill if they hope to continue the trend. Iron Man has come and continues to rule on sheer grit and awesomeness. IM was a resounding success on all levels, and I’m immensely happy that it has found a foothold in the imagination of the populace at large. This is a win for geeks everywhere, and brings us one step closer to seeing all of our favorite titles brought to the screen with the panache that they deserve (maybe a Daredevil movie that doesn’t blow goats? HE’S MARVEL’S FUCKING BATMAN, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD). But the fact is no matter how insulted I’ve felt over the handling of this new HULK movie, in order for Marvel to continue to be able to develop their own properties in such an awesome way, this movie has to fucking kill like Iron Man. Which brings me to this delicate precipice upon which I sit. While taking issue with nearly everything about this movie separate from the cast (Like I’m not going to see Tim Roth, William Hurt, and to a lesser extent, because of snarkiness, Ed Norton), I know that this movie has to do gangbusters so I can see future Marvel installments. Simply put, I have to watch this so I can cast my monetary vote (unless I can get in for free). All the while I’m thinking these things, it takes every ounce of my being not to scream to the people excited about this that it was originally written by the WONDERFUL SCRIBE Zak Penn. If you like Fantastic Four movies and X-Men 3, you should probably thank this man… Then FUCKING KILL YOURSELF. Sure, Ed Norton heavily rewrote the thing, but he’s about a cunt hair away from a beating after the shitstorm of The Illusionist (Fuck that, The Prestige owned it). And now that the movie is almost here, the early reviews have started. 

My one point and question is this: After reading this review, clearly written by one of the people in the second camp I described earlier, I have to wonder and ask just where the line between the two camps really is. If you simply didn’t like the first movie (which I found to be heavily reminiscent of the Bruce Jones run of the book tonally), where do you draw your own line with regard to just how brainless a movie should be for the sake of “fun summertime cinema”? Reading this review has helped to quash some of the secret, secret hope that I held for this film to overcome it’s own (read: Ed Norton’s) sense of ego and crass superiorty, and deliver a fun, clever movie that doesn’t dump on something so unable to defend itself that Ang Lee APOLOGIZED for it (which I would incredulously rant about, should we ever meet). But you know, I could be wrong, it could be that the reviewer is simply an assclown, and the movie is great. I’m willing to admit that I was wrong about something that I initially wouldn’t budge on.

How about the rest of you?