Batman Dark Knight movie review
by Derek Gendron, July 24, 2008
Batman Dark Knight movie review.
Well what do we have here? I feel strongly about this movie and had to write Batman The Dark Knight movie review.
I loved Batman Begins. It was a well-thought plot, believably high-tech toys and the lack of the Men in Black type humor. Christian Bale played a great wealthy tycoon trying to find his true soul in the world. He struggled with demons that that the audience could quickly grasp. It made sense watching Batman Begins.
Batman Dark Knight is not a film for a minor. I think that needs to be repeated on the likes of CNN, Fox News and other media outlets. My son of 13 went to see the film before me and frankly, I feel I have let him down; exposing him to early and unnecessary horror. The face, or lack of face of [level-basic]two-face (Harvey Dent played by Aaron Eckhart) was not only over-exposed horror, it was something that the producer Christopher Nolan felt he should focus on for long periods of time. Shocking to the average adult, this movie is abuse of a minor and should shock the conscience of the adult soul. Is this what our fine movie industry has stooped to for sales? Its obvious, the answer is a resounding yes.
Desensitizing the world.
When my little brother was electrocuted for hours, his face was horribly disfigured from the current. I insisted on seeing him before burial, despite objections from those around me. I still saw my little brother and rubbed his face one last time. His jaw was similar to the wonderful Hollywood in this movie – a painful reminder of what damage can be done to the human body.
As a former Marine, I can handle it and I can separate the two when watching a movie with similarities. But what they did in this movie, without warning to the younger viewing public is very, very wrong. It makes me sick to imagine how Aaron Eckhart faces his family with this brutal lack of conscience. Perhaps he just plops a big check on the table and says, sorry… Many innocent children are being exposed to something that NO children should ever have to see in their lifetime, ever.
Children hoping to see Batman.
In addition, the moral of the story is that good is bad, bad is good, good can be really bad, bad can sometimes be great. And everything that is supposed to be good is probably mostly very bad – and should be assumed so. As an adult, I came away with one solution for all problems, hit someone, hard… I cannot imagine what our youth will grab as good and valuable from this film..
Having ranted about the moral blemishes and lack of true film rating, I can move on to the plot. The movie is not worthy of tons of text, my time is simply too valuable for that. However, I will bullet the good vs. bad of the film.
The Good of Batman Dark Knight movie review
- When Heath Ledger’s performance of the Joker was good, it was great. There were times in the film I actually saw the word Oscar, but with a caveat (see below).
- Imax spectacular views of aerial shots of Hong Kong
- Imax incredible jump from skyscraper was breath-taking
- Great logo!
The Bad of Batman Dark Knight movie review
- Truly unbelievable scenes pushed the envelope to B-rate status
- The plot carried several open-ended items that left the movie-goer wondering, what??? Really?
- The Joker was spectacular one minute and downright ridiculous the next, can anyone top Jack Nicholson’s joker?
- The joker, despite being punched in the face, thrown into walls and glass and physically tortured by the good-guy Batman, lacked any swelling, blood or real damage whatsoever.
- The media playing this to be a great motivation for the public in bad economic times…lol
- Men in black type humor peppered throughout. A police officer sees a helicopter start to crash…that’s not good he says, the helicopter drops in his vehicles path and burst into flames, that’s really not good…argh.
The Ugly of Batman Dark Knight movie review
- Horrific scenes of two-face’s burned face, muscles, tendons and all showing.
- The overall morals of the story leave adults wondering about law, order, good and bad.
- The crowds leaving the theater, obviously confused, let-down and wondering if one should speak up to another and actually say, what the hell was that?
Want to read the specifics about the illogical faults of the movie, visit http://thedarkknightsucks.com/. I could not have outlined it better than random posts from some movie-goers.
Would I go see this movie again? Without hesitation, no. Would I recommend the movie, again no. Wait for the dvd, actually wait for the free viewing on regular tv/cable – perhaps the censors will wash some of the visual grossness of two-face (i doubt it). Many of you will go see it, we are generally sheep when it comes to following fads or doing what the crowd will do, I did.
I can close with one certainty, the producers of Batman – The Dark Knight, got one thing right – the “Dark” part.
While I understand some of your complaints and deem some of them valid from an objective film goer, you also must understand this a Batman film and made for Batman fans. As a Batman fan, I found it the most satisfying Batman film to date, followed closely by Burton ’89.
Maybe check out a few of the greater Batman graphic novels and give it another go and it may ring more true for you…I recommend The Killing Joke, Long Halloween or any of Frank Miller’s books.
You need more background in the Batman´s history to write a consistent critic.
As the last comment upside, I do the same recommendations:
The Killing Joke, Long Halloween or any of Frank Miller’s books.
Yes, I expected a reverb of counter-critics, my own son disagrees. Tonight a commercial for Gogurt (I think) was on tv, kids around 8 – 10, laughing and promoting the Batman movie contest. I still cannot fathom what parent or corporate guardian thinks a kid should “embrace” this movie. Hell, let them watch Rambo 2008 if that’s any indication of the ratings system of the movie industry…
While I cannot intelligently dispute the historical background of Batman (I am a Batman fan btw), the rating let me down. The acting let me down and well, the unintelligible gibberish of a plot wrecked it for me.
“The crowds leaving the theater, obviously confused, let-down and wondering if one should speak up to another and actually say, what the hell was that?”
I don’t know anyone who considered himself letdown by this movie. While each has his or her own improvements to add, none were letdown.
FAIL.
But thanks for trying to be different!
I agree with this blog. This is not for minors. But i think the most creepy for a kid is the joker, which is totally repulsive, specially the videos he sends to the police. And other example, Rachel’s death, could not Nolan show us that she was going to die, No, he has to shock us as well as Batman.
There are parts terribly wrong, for example when Batman prefers to crash and get unconscious so the Joker can kill him, rather than run over the joker, because killing is wrong.
Or in the boats, when the passenger gives up pressing the button and a woman with two small kids simply resigns to the fact that if any of the hundreds of criminals in the other boat press their button they will die, because killing is wrong. So, don’t mothers want their kids to grow up and go to college and marry and give them a lot of grandchildren.
For the other side, the Joker constantly kills innocent people, and also his own henchman and also kills the only criminal boss who supported him all along, and nothing happens to him, the joker is every time more successful
So, one thing is that you don’t want yourself or a loved one to became an angry person, completely obsessed with revenge, who only lives with the desire of killing criminals. But that’s not the message of this movie the message of this movie is that if you are a good person, you practically have to commit suicide in order not to kill the criminal who wants to kill you, because “killing is wrong”, but if you are a criminal, the more you kill and betray the more successful you will be.
And that’s the part where the fans of this movie start saying: “No, Nolan didn’t want to give that message or any message, he simply made a movie, you know, something to see for a couple hours while eating popcorn”.
Considering thay are the ones who claimed it a “master piece” and analyze it as if it were the Bible.
Harvey Dent for example, while being good, he and the police department and Batman, could not do a single thing to stop the joker, as result of that his girlfriend is murdered and half his face is burned. But as soon he became evil, he suddenly can find people wherever they are in Gotham and can even survive and impressive car crash.
and the whole movie is like that, Nolan and his brother help the bad guys and make them do impossible things while Batman keeps realistic.
Even Rambo is a lot more of a morality tale than this movie, in Rambo the bad guys are shown clearly evil (this could be racism or xenophobia, but still is more moralistic than “the dark knight”). and people want to be like Rambo, not like in “the dark knight” which was made to make people thing: “wow, this batman guy is a loser, he can’t do anything right”.
Even the 3 family member I went with to see this movie did not hated it, they didn’t loved it either, the whole theater was like said in thedarkknightsucks.com: they reacted like in a monday morning, preparing to go to work.
Would you rate my many comments on this movie.