Ok, so it’s way late to be making best of 2008 lists, but the Dark Knight has been top of mind lately. And I’ve been lucky enough to actually see some great flicks in the past few weeks.
Finally saw Wall E, which as Molly wrote, is superb, Gran Torino, which is both beautifully made and takes the story in some really unexpected directions and Slumdog Millionaire, which almost, almost made my number one movie for 2008.
But in the end it was my second viewing of Dark Knight that did it for me. I liked it so much better the 2nd time. The 1st time I saw it, I could barely take it all in. The drama, the explosions, the varied characters, it was almost overwhelming. And exciting and riveting and at times, even touching.
And at heart, I’m a genre girl, always will be.
Now I know in advance, Molly disagrees with my choice, and I'm pretty sure this would not be Maureen's choice, but isn't that what makes this all fun. Everything is subjective.
What did it for me about Dark Knight was the sheer scope of the movie and the screenplay. The way all the subplots played off each other, moments of subtlety in a big film, and the brilliance of the acting.
Loved the Joker, obviously, and loved how they created the relationship between the Joker, Batman and two face. It wasn’t till the second time I saw it that I fully got how much Bruce Wayne idealizes Two Face, and how cleverly the writers surprised us with that storyline, but in a way that made total sense.
That Batman went to save Two Face made perfect sense. The only wrong note was the showdown between the two ferries. It was predictable, but the rest, loved it. Genre at it’s absolute finest.
3 comments:
See, I didn't think Batman went to save Two Face. I thought the Joker told them the wrong places, and Batman accidentally saved Harvey though he meant to save Rachel.
That's true, MaryF. But he went to save Twoface in the end, and saved the vision of how everyone saw him. Maybe that's what Sinead means.
I'm with you Sinead. I saw Dark Knight twice in the theatre and once so far on DVD. There's something new every single time. It was my #1 of 2008.
I liked the two ferries showdown - I thought it worked. The big false note for me was Rachel - ugh.
The scene that really worked for me was when Wayne introduced Two face at the fundraiser he'd planned for him. When I first saw it, I thought there was some sarcasm in his words, but the second time, I felt like Wayne meant every word.
He chose to save Two Face because Gotham needed two face more than Rachel and he needed two face almost as much.
You can see that I read a ton into the movie and certain scenes..
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