From New York Magazine’s David Edelstein, re: “The Dark Knight”:
The tumult is spectacularly incoherent. Nolan appears to have no clue how to stage or shoot action. He got away with the chopped-up fights in Batman Begins because his hero was a barely glimpsed ninja, coming at villains from all angles in stroboscopic flashes. There are more variables here, which means more opportunities to say ‘What the f— just happened?’
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6 responses to “This has had me concerned for a while…”
I think, in his past movies, it’s a fair argument. Not that he can’t stage action scenes, but that he can’t stage FIGHT scenes particularly. I think part of that is his trying to make things mysterious and scary, but it doesn’t quite work. At least for me.
I’ll reserve thoughts on Knight’s fight scenes when I see it. Which is too far off.
For those that have seen the prologue, Edelstein’s critique of Nolan’s direction doesn’t hold much merit. Not to mention the fact that many other reviews of TDK, a majority that is, have praised Nolan’s improved direction of action scenes.
I’m not concerned.
Jeff Wells is loving this already but for sure it’s like the silliest thing. Batman Begins had some excellent fight scenes. The one where Batman first appears and knocks down those thugs worked amazingly well. At least he didn’t confuse the shit out of everyone with the Bay combo of shaky cam + heavy CGI.
Did anyone else really dislike the prologue, save for Ledger? That horrible ADR exposition shit, blah. I was really surprised when that turned out to actually be in the movie.
I haven’t seen the movie…
…but the exposition is just that:blah. But it’s well directed and coherent.
The fight scenes were my biggest complaint with Begins. Apologists tried to explain that Nolan;s extreme-close angles are supposed to “take you into a real fight,” but damnitt, I’m watching a movie, not participating in an Ultimate Cage Match. Lemme see some kung fu, fool!