Alert: Slight Spoilers.
I know I'm going to going to get flak for this, but I've thought a lot about The Dark Knight since I saw it last Friday and I've come to the conclusion that while the movie is great, it's not the masterpiece that seemingly everyone claims it to be. To me, it can really be broken into two parts: The first half and the second half, where the midpoint is just after the car/batpod chase scene. Let's get this straight though: any scenes with Heath Ledger as the Joker are fantastic. In terms of losing yourself in the role, if I did not know he was in the movie beforehand I would never have guessed who the actor was under all the makeup. Everything you've heard about his performance is true: magnificent.
Overlooked in all this is Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent. The only thing I've seen him in before this was a few minutes of Thank You For Smoking when it was on TV, and I felt he was great in his role as a public defender striving for justice -- even if he ends up doing it his own way. On the flip side of the coin (see what I did there?), there's Christian Bale as Batman. This movie reaffirmed that I really don't like his voice when he's in costume. While I understand he changes it to keep his identity secret, it sounds as if he's an emphyzima riddled crusader of the night who'd been chain smoking since his parents got shot.
Like I said before, I felt most of the first half of the movie was drab and I found myself thinking, "move along...". The two main things that stood out for me that dragged the movie down was the Hong Kong scene (which I thought was totally unnecessary) and the car chase scene. I can't even remember much else that happened between these events because it was so forgettable (minus the Joker with mobsters scene: "You want to see a trick?"). I wasn't a huge fan of the chase scene as it was muddled with events like when the tumbler (batmobile) jumped up to take a RPG for the police transportation bus, or Batman shooting everything up with rockets to clear a path for his badpod (motorcycle). This chase culminated in Batman crashing his batpod after swerving to avoid the Joker -- something that made no sense to me.
After that crash though, everything fell into place. It turned into a superhero/crime drama that highlighted all the characters at their finest (or ugliness) -- the sacrifices of Batman, the twisted mind of the Joker, and the revenge of Harvey Dent. If I were to rate just this half I would give it a solid 10 out of 10, but since I'm judging the movie as a whole, I'm going to throw out:
My Score: 9/10, Must Watch, and Buy!
I gave Iron Man a better score because in my mind that was a much more enjoyable movie -- but I do acknowledge that The Dark Knight is not only the best comic book movie ever crafted, but one of the better movies to come out in a long time. This could also be the first one that I would not be surprised to see some sort of award consideration for during the upcoming award season -- or am I reaching too much and superhero movies will never be taken seriously? Either way, I gave this movie a solid 9 out of 10, and called it overrated -- go watch this movie.
Alert: Major Spoiler
By the way, was anyone else really grossed out by Two Face's free floating eye ball? Gives me the chills just thinking about it.
As of this writing,
Rotten Tomatoes: 95% (Spider-Man 2: 93%; Iron Man: 93%; Batman Begins: 84%)
MetaCritic: 82 (Spider-Man 2: 80; Iron Man: 79; Batman Begins: 70)
Overlooked in all this is Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent. The only thing I've seen him in before this was a few minutes of Thank You For Smoking when it was on TV, and I felt he was great in his role as a public defender striving for justice -- even if he ends up doing it his own way. On the flip side of the coin (see what I did there?), there's Christian Bale as Batman. This movie reaffirmed that I really don't like his voice when he's in costume. While I understand he changes it to keep his identity secret, it sounds as if he's an emphyzima riddled crusader of the night who'd been chain smoking since his parents got shot.
Like I said before, I felt most of the first half of the movie was drab and I found myself thinking, "move along...". The two main things that stood out for me that dragged the movie down was the Hong Kong scene (which I thought was totally unnecessary) and the car chase scene. I can't even remember much else that happened between these events because it was so forgettable (minus the Joker with mobsters scene: "You want to see a trick?"). I wasn't a huge fan of the chase scene as it was muddled with events like when the tumbler (batmobile) jumped up to take a RPG for the police transportation bus, or Batman shooting everything up with rockets to clear a path for his badpod (motorcycle). This chase culminated in Batman crashing his batpod after swerving to avoid the Joker -- something that made no sense to me.
After that crash though, everything fell into place. It turned into a superhero/crime drama that highlighted all the characters at their finest (or ugliness) -- the sacrifices of Batman, the twisted mind of the Joker, and the revenge of Harvey Dent. If I were to rate just this half I would give it a solid 10 out of 10, but since I'm judging the movie as a whole, I'm going to throw out:
My Score: 9/10, Must Watch, and Buy!
I gave Iron Man a better score because in my mind that was a much more enjoyable movie -- but I do acknowledge that The Dark Knight is not only the best comic book movie ever crafted, but one of the better movies to come out in a long time. This could also be the first one that I would not be surprised to see some sort of award consideration for during the upcoming award season -- or am I reaching too much and superhero movies will never be taken seriously? Either way, I gave this movie a solid 9 out of 10, and called it overrated -- go watch this movie.
Alert: Major Spoiler
By the way, was anyone else really grossed out by Two Face's free floating eye ball? Gives me the chills just thinking about it.
As of this writing,
Rotten Tomatoes: 95% (Spider-Man 2: 93%; Iron Man: 93%; Batman Begins: 84%)
MetaCritic: 82 (Spider-Man 2: 80; Iron Man: 79; Batman Begins: 70)
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