Aerial Assault
Footballguy
3. The Dark Knight (2008)
Apologies to anyone and everyone who thought this should have been the 25-pointer, but . . . well, it’s the 23-pointer, dammit, and a scatterplot of my rankings would reveal just how incredibly thin the margin was between the three, so it’s not like I’m slighting TDR much at all. In the spirit of full disclosure, Batman Begins is not only my favorite superhero film of all time, it’s in my top 10 to 15 favorite films of all time, and that would have been a slam-dunk 25-pointer for me. The sequel is grander, more ambitious, and more complex in its plot and ideas, with the advantage of an established universe to work with, and it’s a very, very good movie.
TYPE OF SUPERHERO: Non-Superpowered Martial Artist or Combatant in Peak Physical Condition
THUMBS UP: The action scenes are often brilliant, and the world of Gotham City is constructed almost flawlessly, so that you actually believe in the mythical megalopolis and care about its residents. The Hong Kong sequence, shot using then-early IMAX technology, is simply awesome. The supporting cast is stellar (in stark contrast to their usage in the Batman of 1989), Christian Bale turns in his usual A to A+ performance even if I wish the script had called for him to be less subdued, and Heath Ledger’s turn as the Joker is one of the best acting jobs I’ve ever seen in any film, not just a superhero film. Set design and cinematography are first-rate. And then there’s the film’s plot and its underlying themes, which explore very dark and complex concepts in an accessible way: the most interesting to me are the Joker’s social experiments and Batman’s use of police-state-style surveillance technology (presaging co-writer Jonathan Nolan’s creation of Person of Interest for CBS). This is intelligent scriptwriting and filmmaking at its finest.
THUMBS DOWN: The criticisms here are fairly minor. Because of the sheer strength of Ledger’s performance, Batman repeats his pattern of playing second fiddle to the Joker on the big screen about every twenty years, but that isn’t really anyone’s fault, certainly not Bale’s. I also found the inclusion of Two-Face (never my favorite Batman villain, and now I can’t get the repellent Jim Carrey-Tommy Lee Jones mutual mugging sessions from Batman Forever out of my head) largely unnecessary. The Joker was quite enough villain for the piece, thanks very much, and Dent’s transformation into Two-Face could have been eliminated, although admittedly that would have damaged at least two of the central themes of the film and made the ending more difficult to achieve. The sudden transformation of Rachel from Katie Holmes into Maggie Gyllenhaal was jarring, although again, this was no one’s fault, and I thought MG was terrific. Incidentally, that reminds me of one of the largest plot holes of any film on this list (adjusted relative to the films’ quality), which I have never seen satisfactorily explained: what happens to the guests at the charity benefit (including Alfred) at Bruce’s penthouse, all of whom are left alone with the Joker and his henchmen after Batman’s big leap? In a movie this tightly scripted, the omission of any visual or even a single line of dialogue explaining that the bad guys all fled without hurting anyone, or some such, is glaring. The biggest problem with TDR from my perspective, though, is that it is almost totally joyless and unrelentingly grim. I get that this fits with the particular Batman comic series that inspired the story, and we certainly didn’t need any further yuk-yuk adaptations of the character, but something to lighten the tension would have made a better film.
FUN FACTOID: Bruce’s Lamborghini model is the Murciélago, or Spanish for “bat.”
THE BOTTOM LINE: It’s a cinematic masterpiece and could easily have rated the top nod in the category, but to the extent that the judges should be allowed to tinker with the margins of their rankings by a point or two here and there based on personal preference . . . well, that’s what I did here. At its core, TDR is an exhausting viewing experience, and not quite as fun as it could have been. I would watch Iron Man five times and VfV (or Batman Begins) 10-15 times before breaking out TDR again.
Apologies to anyone and everyone who thought this should have been the 25-pointer, but . . . well, it’s the 23-pointer, dammit, and a scatterplot of my rankings would reveal just how incredibly thin the margin was between the three, so it’s not like I’m slighting TDR much at all. In the spirit of full disclosure, Batman Begins is not only my favorite superhero film of all time, it’s in my top 10 to 15 favorite films of all time, and that would have been a slam-dunk 25-pointer for me. The sequel is grander, more ambitious, and more complex in its plot and ideas, with the advantage of an established universe to work with, and it’s a very, very good movie.
TYPE OF SUPERHERO: Non-Superpowered Martial Artist or Combatant in Peak Physical Condition
THUMBS UP: The action scenes are often brilliant, and the world of Gotham City is constructed almost flawlessly, so that you actually believe in the mythical megalopolis and care about its residents. The Hong Kong sequence, shot using then-early IMAX technology, is simply awesome. The supporting cast is stellar (in stark contrast to their usage in the Batman of 1989), Christian Bale turns in his usual A to A+ performance even if I wish the script had called for him to be less subdued, and Heath Ledger’s turn as the Joker is one of the best acting jobs I’ve ever seen in any film, not just a superhero film. Set design and cinematography are first-rate. And then there’s the film’s plot and its underlying themes, which explore very dark and complex concepts in an accessible way: the most interesting to me are the Joker’s social experiments and Batman’s use of police-state-style surveillance technology (presaging co-writer Jonathan Nolan’s creation of Person of Interest for CBS). This is intelligent scriptwriting and filmmaking at its finest.
THUMBS DOWN: The criticisms here are fairly minor. Because of the sheer strength of Ledger’s performance, Batman repeats his pattern of playing second fiddle to the Joker on the big screen about every twenty years, but that isn’t really anyone’s fault, certainly not Bale’s. I also found the inclusion of Two-Face (never my favorite Batman villain, and now I can’t get the repellent Jim Carrey-Tommy Lee Jones mutual mugging sessions from Batman Forever out of my head) largely unnecessary. The Joker was quite enough villain for the piece, thanks very much, and Dent’s transformation into Two-Face could have been eliminated, although admittedly that would have damaged at least two of the central themes of the film and made the ending more difficult to achieve. The sudden transformation of Rachel from Katie Holmes into Maggie Gyllenhaal was jarring, although again, this was no one’s fault, and I thought MG was terrific. Incidentally, that reminds me of one of the largest plot holes of any film on this list (adjusted relative to the films’ quality), which I have never seen satisfactorily explained: what happens to the guests at the charity benefit (including Alfred) at Bruce’s penthouse, all of whom are left alone with the Joker and his henchmen after Batman’s big leap? In a movie this tightly scripted, the omission of any visual or even a single line of dialogue explaining that the bad guys all fled without hurting anyone, or some such, is glaring. The biggest problem with TDR from my perspective, though, is that it is almost totally joyless and unrelentingly grim. I get that this fits with the particular Batman comic series that inspired the story, and we certainly didn’t need any further yuk-yuk adaptations of the character, but something to lighten the tension would have made a better film.
FUN FACTOID: Bruce’s Lamborghini model is the Murciélago, or Spanish for “bat.”
THE BOTTOM LINE: It’s a cinematic masterpiece and could easily have rated the top nod in the category, but to the extent that the judges should be allowed to tinker with the margins of their rankings by a point or two here and there based on personal preference . . . well, that’s what I did here. At its core, TDR is an exhausting viewing experience, and not quite as fun as it could have been. I would watch Iron Man five times and VfV (or Batman Begins) 10-15 times before breaking out TDR again.
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No, I'm just surprised about your strong negative views on VfV. From your comments elsewhere in the thread and your picks, our movie tastes seemed just about exactly the same. But they were bound to diverge at some point!
