My one fear about The Dark Knight

Cafe Society
1

I’m pretty hyped to see this movie with all the critical buzz saying it’s absolutely incredible.
My one fear however is that everyone seems to be talking about how great Heath Ledger’s Joker is and nothing else. It’s great that he’s great in the role but I really want to see a great Batman movie, not the Joker show.
I want to hear how great Christian Bale is being Batman again.
I want a gripping story, great performances by all, fantastic action, everything.
Not just a “Daniel Day Lewis There Will Be Blood” movie.

Any early buzz to put my mind at ease?

2

Christian Bale is a known quantity now. You can bet there was tons and tons of discussion about him as Batman for Batman Begins, but now that he’s proven he’s pretty good at it, there’s not much need to talk about it further. Heath Ledger as the Joker is the new thing here, so that’s what’s being discussed.

I’m sure Bale would put on just as a good performance as in Begins.

3

One thing that I’ve heard amidst all the Joker buzz is that we also get to see how Harvey Dent (played by Aaron Eckhart) becomes Two-Face, and that the make-up is disgustingly way over the top. So I’m looking forward to that.

4

Just saw the preview before seeing Hancock (another good summer flick, BTW - don’t believe all the reviews). Looked pretty good, without too heavy an emphasis on the Joker - and I’m someone who was actually underwhelmed by Batman Begins.

5

I wouldn’t mind seeing the Joker show.

6

Read this review of the movie.
Review: The Dark Knight

I think people would be raving about Heath Ledger’s performance even if he hadn’t died and that the movie as a whole will be very good as well.

7

One thing I’ve been wondering: How widely is it known among non-comic book readers that Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face? The other day my wife asked me if I knew that Aaron Eckhart is playing Two-Face, and I had to stifle my :dubious: face. I told her to make sure not to go telling everyone that, just in case other people don’t yet know.

8

Should I have spoilered my post? Sorry about that. I’m not a comic book reader, and I thought it was pretty well known. Billy Dee Williams played Dent in Tim Burton’s first Batman movie, and Tommy Lee Jones played Dent / Two-Face in one of the later Schumacher sequels. I don’t think you need to be regular comic book reader to know who he is or who he becomes.

9

Thanks!
I think this quote from the review:
“Once again Bale has grand fun playing up Wayne’s playboy persona, and his physicality in the action scenes proves excellent - he really is the bedrock of the series and Nolan thankfully never lets him get outshone screen time wise by his various antagonists - making sure that these films remain very much about our hero.”
eases some of my fear.

10

No, no. No spoiler needed. I’m sure most people do know that already. I was just wondering to what extent it was “common knowledge” to the non-comic book crowd. I never mentioned his transformation to my wife, so that she might be surprised by it, but I guess she heard it on tv or something.

11

FWIW, my 11-year-old son didn’t know who Dent was, although he knew about Two-Face.

12

My fear about the Dark Knight is that Two-Face is to The Dark Knight as Venom is to Spider-Man 3… tacked on at the very end with very little to do except look evil and such.

13

There are very few movies I’ll make a point to go see in the theater. I can’t wait to see it on the big screen.

14

Jones didn’t “play” that role - he beat it to death with a garishly-painted shovel.

15

Hilarious. :smiley: I know the Schumacher sequels were traumatic experiences in the cinematic history of the caped crusader, but I did think Carrey’s Riddler was a commendable performance. Given the choice, and considering the over-the-top campy route that those films went, who else would have acted it any better, though? For all intents and purposes, Tommy Lee Jones could probably have just as well played Harvey in the upcoming film with a tone suitable and appropriate to the look and feel Nolan was after and done just as good a job as Eckhart, and without beating the role to death with a garishly-painted shovel. Point being, I don’t blame the the actors at all for the horrendous Schumacher films, I blame Schumacher and whatever management approved the projects in the first place. Still and all, I’ve a tremendous new respect for Ledger even without having seen the film yet. And I am somewhat reluctant to admit that I actually balked at the casting choice when it was first announced. Given all the films of his that I’d seen, I just never pictured him in the role of the this character, or taking it at all seriously, largely because of his heart throb status. I was astonishingly mistaken to have underestimated him. What a remarkable legacy he has left us with.

I haven’t come across any negativity amongst the reviews from those who’ve seen it, and these are largely from people who had very high expectations for the film going in, and who are very critical of films of this nature. Despite the fact that commercial spots are starting to crop up everywhere, there is actually very little plot detail being given away, and I like that … it’s completely the opposite of what has become the norm in promotional trailers today, wherein a movie sucks so badly that every single interesting or funny scene is placed in the trailer to generate even a shred of interest. With the good films, it’s quite the opposite; they intentional keep the good stuff from us, which is great.

You have to dig pretty deep to find people who aren’t fond of Nolan’s reinvented take on the franchise, and now that the origin story is out of the way, there is little to hold this film back. I feel this will be one that you can’t take in all at once, and which will require multiple viewings to soak in the complexity of the various themes. Between the epic story, the interplay of the characters, the action sequences, and one actor-in-particular’s final showstealing role, I expect it to be a lot to digest, and I expect to see it at LEAST twice. This was the case for me with ‘Begins’, which I admittedly wasn’t sure about when I first saw it, but it has grown on me immensely after several viewings and a lot of reflection, and is easily one of my favorite films of the last several years.

I haven’t looked forward to any sequel (or perhaps any movie) this much since, I don’t know … Terminator 2? And to think, I was only eleven years old back then. I feel this sequel, like T2, will also become a resounding classic within its genre.

16

What if he’s tacked on at the very end as a lead-in to the third movie, where he takes a larger role?

I haven’t read much about Dark Knight, so I don’t know if it’s going with the traditional self-contained format as all the other Batman movies or if it’s actually planning to be a serial.