In Contention

Tag: Batman

  • The ‘geek’ review

    Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight(Read the official “Dark Knight” review here.)

    Alright, now that most audiences have begun filing out of cinemas across the country, I figure it is time to offer up The Geek Review of “The Dark Knight.”

    Bear in mind, this review/column/joygasm will be filled with spoilers. If you want to go into the film fresh (as indeed you should — despite the overall lack of major surprises), then steer clear. Most of the spoilerish stuff I’ll save for after the jump, but for now, I’d like to get into the filmmakers’ handling of the source material.

    Christopher Nolan and company have always been aware of the necessity for being faithful to the seven decades of material available to them when digging into this franchise. What has kept the series fresh and not simply a cut-and-paste effort has been a willingness to test those fan-set boundaries and still get away with some rather brazen decisions.

    “Batman Begins” was filled to the brim with such instances: Utilizing Ra’s al Ghul as a creation point of sorts for the Batman. Introducing a love interest previously absent from the canon and revealing Batman’s secret identity to her. Destroying Wayne Manor. Etc.

    With that in mind, “The Dark Knight” has its fair share of departures that still work in the hyper-real-world setting of the franchise, and, presumably, will be allowed to pass, if not cheered outright by fans seeing the film this weekend.

    Spoilers coming! You have been warned!

    (more…)

  • Rounding up the big day’s Bat news

    Warner Bros. Pictures' The Dark KnightToday’s the big day. I’ve embarrassed myself for over a month with consistent “Dark Knight” coverage, and now, I guess everyone gets to see what the fuss was all about. You can find my review here.

    But before we fade off into the good night of Bat overload (save for whatever box office news is coming in the next three days), I figured it best to offer up a nice primer of the net’s news and views on the subject.

    I guess it’s best to revert to the ole’ Oscar Round-up format (which I swear I’ll be implementing again soon enough as a regular feature):

    • Christopher Nolan talks us through the IMAX process in an audio slideshow. [New York Times]
    • Manohla Dargis gives the film a thumbs up, draws a parallel to David Fincher’s “Zodiac.” [New York Times]
    • MSN grasps at straws for coverage, offers a photo gallery of Bat mantle-donning thespians. [MSN]
    • Veronica Schmidt has coverage of the Black Carpet premiere in New York. [The Times of London]
    • Michael Moran corners visual effects supervisor Nick Davis. [Blockbuster Buzz]
    • Wally Pfister gets a nice write-up for his troubles behind those cumbersome IMAX cameras. [American Cinematographer]
    • Fellow Bat-enthusiast Ryan Adams makes some fan space for the day of the ‘Dark.’ [Awards Daily]
    • Jeffrey Wells stays up past his bedtime to hammer out a few thoughts. His verdict: Ledger’s portrayal belongs in the pantheon of great screen villainy. [Hollywood Elsewhere]
    • David Poland can’t let it go, striving to be the only one with “perspective” in this whole pre-sales records media frenzy. [The Hot Blog]
    • Tom O’Neil douses the awards hopes of Heath Ledger. (I still don’t understand why people actually think he’ll win…and the bulk of his Oscar nod talk began right here, so…). [Gold Derby]
    • Amid tons of Bat coverage (and typical bullshit “exclusives”), Nikki Finke reports shattered midnight show records for the film. [Deadline Hollywood Daily]
    • Christopher Campbell offers 10 lam excuses for not seeing the film this weekend. [Spout Blog]
    • And at the time of this writing, she’s holding steady at 94%. [Rotten Tomatoes]

  • REVIEW: “The Dark Knight” (***1/2)

    Warner Bros. Pictures' The Dark KnightPerhaps the summer’s most anticipated film lands in theaters today to the record-breaking advance ticket sales of dedicated fans and those newly curious alike. But what awaits in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” isn’t merely a study in the psychology of a nearly 70-year-old character tailored to the familiar; instead audiences will be met with an accessible tale of deep and painful truths, a unique vision of hope in the face of seemingly aimless villainy, a new staple alongside the greatest of tragedies — in any medium.

    Picking up right where 2005’s “Batman Begins” left off, Gotham City is rebuilding itself in the wake of criminal warfare, infrastructural corruption and weakened, nearly vanquished public spirits. Right off the bat (no pun intended), the film begins to make good on the promise of Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman) at the end of the first film — escalation — as a new criminal mastermind has begun to systematically relieve the mob of its accrued earnings, bank by bank, and with a taste for theatricality.

    The Joker (Heath Ledger) is revealed in the film’s opening scene (unveiled in December as an IMAX “prequel” with prints of “I Am Legend”) as a methodical, macabre merchant of chaos, yes, but with an ingenious sort of order and preparation that seems to fly in the face of his later insistence on a subscription to bedlam. But his own hypocrisies aren’t on the agenda, as he later exhibits to dramatic effect.

    Gotham itself has been provided a sliver of hope amongst the former and upcoming strife of the city in the form of district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), a “white knight” grinding away at the underbelly of the city and systematically cleansing the streets. The vigilantism of the outlaw Batman is on the table as well, but Dent is smart enough to understand that Gotham is responsible for the Dark Knight’s existence, having sat silent as the city slowly rotted from within.

    (more…)

  • Oh, and putting a number to it…

    I’m gonna go with $153 million for the opening weekend haul of “The Dark Knight.” I could be grossly off the mark, but I also kind of feel like a lot of the big box office naysayers are part of some strange backlash against all the pre-sales story madness. It could just as easily land around $135 million, but I sense a record-breaker, so that’s my call.

    We’ll see. To those hitting up the late screenings, enjoy the show.

  • The top 10 Joker stories of all time

    Cover of Batman #251In a a few hours’ time, I’ll be loading up on a few Red Bulls and braving the wee hours of the morning to take in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” as will thousands of other movie-goers who have apparently broken pre-sales records across the country.

    In the meantime, however, I thought I’d offer up a list of the all time greatest Joker stories, in honor of the late Heath Ledger and his portrayal in the film.

    Here’s my take (no time for explanations…I want to get a nap in at some point tonight):

    10. “Wildcard!”
    By Marv Wolfman and Jim Aparo (Batman #450-451)

    9. “Slayride”
    By Paul Dini and Don Kramer (Detective Comics #826)

    8. “Soft Targets”
    By Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka and Michael Lark (Gotham Central #12-15)

    7. “The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge”
    By Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams (Batman #251)

    6. “Mad Love”
    By Paul Dini and Bruce Timm (One-Shot)

    (more…)

  • Terry Gilliam should be ashamed of himself

    Terry Gilliam and Heath LedgerTo say nothing of the fact that he has proven to be painfully irrelevant for over a decade, director Terry Gilliam has crossed the line with his recents comments chastizing Warner Bros. for what he feels is “tasteless” capitalization on the death of Heath Ledger.

    From Yahoo! News (via WENN and The Movie Blog):

    …the moviemaker fears that the producers of Ledger’s second to last picture, The Dark Knight, are shamelessly capitalising on rumours that the late star will be awarded a posthumous Oscar for his role as evil villain The Joker.

    He says, “That’s what Warner Brothers are saying, but they’ll do anything to publicise their film. That’s just what they do and you can’t get upset because it’s bulls**t.

    “They’re like a great white shark which devours whatever it can.”

    “Bullshit” doesn’t begin to say it, Mr. Gilliam.  Any time I hear someone go on about how the studio has disrespectfully gone out of its way to plaster Ledger’s image on the promotional materials for “The Dark Knight,” I immediately controlled the urge to wrap my fingers around a roll of quarters and smash a number of teeth entering the double digits out of their skull.

    What would you have them do?  The Joker was always going to be a focal point of marketing.  This is the “it” role of the film.  It is the character any marketing whiz would be a fool to ignore or even modestly exploit in the build-up to a release such as this.  And because poor Terry Gilliam has so many years of trouble with studios digging into his side, he goes and joins the chorus of ignorance with comments such as this.

    Give me a fucking break.

  • Amen

    Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

    Personally I find it to be a complete lack of understanding for acting.  I also find it rude to try to create some kind of a sound byte for such a tragedy.  The man was a complex man, he was a good man, but you know what, I saw him having nothing but the best time playing the Joker.

    From Christian Bale’s interview with Matt Lauer on The Today Show, a very blunt, very serious and extremely direct response (given over and over at this point) to the continued ignorance displayed by those who want to paint the Joker as “the role that killed Heath Ledger.”

  • Alfred and Lucius on The View

    “The Dark Knight” old-timers Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman stopped by “The View” yesterday morning to chat with the gals.  Of all the scheduled TV appearances this week and last, I’d say this duo on the couch at once is the most interesting get.

    Here’s part one:

    httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=PT_crYfF9Ik

    And part two:

    httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=rwfXLR-WCb4

    They also dropped by The Today Show earlier in the day, which is also worth a look.  Christian Bale did the same a few days prior, his only TV appearance from what I can tell.

  • This has had me concerned for a while…

    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?’

  • What will be the Bat’s final haul?

    Warner Bros. Pictures' The Dark KnightI’m frankly surprised so many people seem to expect a $100-115 million opening weekend for “The Dark Knight.”  That is, admittedly, where I placed my vote, but I didn’t expect so much company.

    I’ll probably put an actual number to my guess in that light some time this week (all these stories about blasting away advance ticket sales records have me wondering if we’re underestimating the thing).  But for now, I’m curious what readers think the final box office tally of the flick will be.

    So, have your say in this week’s poll.  The final total for “Batman Begins” was right around $205 million, so I think it’s safe to say most people expect that bar to be hurdled.  But I’m including good cross-section of choices, in case some folks want to be brazen.

    And again, if you want to put an actual number to it, let us know below.

  • Exclusive ‘Dark Knight’ clip from MTV

    For some reason this clip isn’t working on the MTV’s site (where it originated), but I found it on YouTube.  Holy, holy:

    httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=RFUFHepGu-g

  • Batman through the years

    Michael Keaton in Warner Bros. Pictures' BatmanDominic Wells of The Times has written a cross-section of Batman as seen on film through the past five decades.  I can’t believe I didn’t know this was being written under my nose.

    He takes us back to the serials of the mid-to-late 1940s and into the “Pow!” and “Bam!” psychedeliq of the 1960s TV series, through the Michael Keaton protests of Tim Burton’s re-imagining as well as Joel Schumacher’s disintegration of the franchise, before bringing us up to speed with Christopher Nolan’s vision of the character.

    I especially liked this bit of insight following an aside on Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” (and the subsequent push for a film adaptation):

    The book was a critical and commercial smash, and plans were laid for a film. Adam West, now 58, lobbied to reprise the role, which would have suited the Dark Knight Returns storyline. I met him in 1988, when Britain was again gripped by Batmania (TV-am’s ratings leapt 25 per cent after screening the Sixties episodes), and he sounded as though he’d given it considerable thought: “In the final scenes of the film, if it’s bizarre and mysterious, you can still have Alfred the butler driving the old Batmobile to the rescue. We’d have been using all hi-tech, wonderful slick new stuff, and at the critical moment, there’s Alfred, driving the old Batmobile. People would stand up and cheer.”

    But he kind of gets testy with me on this assessment of Burton’s 1989 elseworld take:

    Even so, it’s not particularly good. There are strange holes in the plot where the producer Jon Peters and Tim Burton didn’t see eye to eye, and Kim Basinger, then the producer’s real-life girlfriend, is a waste of space.

    Easy now, Dom.

    Read the rest here.  One of the commenters mentions Sandy Collora’s “Batman: Dead End,” which has always been a fun watch.  If you’ve never seen it, have a look:

    httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=Hjp0I_okX0w

  • Viral marketing pays off for ‘Dark Knight’ committed

    WhySoSerious.comI stumbled onto this today at /film, but it turns out the “Dark Knight” viral marketing campaign, thoroughly concocted and carried out by 42 Entertainment, has paid off in spades for Bat-fans who stuck it out.

    A wave of Tuesday noght screenings across the country was announced on the WhySoSerious.com viral site, and each of them: free.  So if you’ve been huffing it about your metropolitan area participating in those crazy scavenger huts and paying close attention to every nuance the viral sites have put out there, now’s your chance to step up and get your cookie.

    Personally, the viral stuff wore out on me long ago.  It became something of a burden to even feel informed at one point, and the overall depth kind of left me for wanting.  But maybe I’m getting old.  All of that said, I’m actually very happy to see the end result pay off for loads of committed fans who clearly have a passion for this character and this franchise.  It’s a special symbiosis.

    And in a strange sort of way, the whole episode rings as a nice au revoir to Heath Ledger.  The Joker has been “behind” all of the viral shenanigans, after all.  So congrats to all the fans who stuck it through.  Enjoy the early show (and come on — when you’re just a fan and not stuck in the cynical world of film criticism and journalism — an early screening is pretty much the greatest thing on earth).

  • ‘Le Chevalier Noir’

    Sweet:

    The Dark Knight poster on the streets of Paris

  • Two Face on Leno

    Aaron Eckhart dropped by “The Tonight Show” Monday night. Of course, I wasn’t able to catch it, but here’s the “Dark Knight” stuff (Michael Caine will be on the show tonight): 

  • Difference between day and ‘Knight’

    Adam West in Batman: The MovieA couple of Bat-stories around the web this morning (both of which I first came across at Hollywood Elsewhere).

    The first is this New York Times piece from Michael Cieply, about “Dark Knight” screenings rolling out as early as 6:00 a.m. in some cities due to the blast of ticket sales for showtimes around the clock.  Here’s a look:

    Movie theaters have sometimes opened their doors at odd hours for their most highly anticipated films, say, an entry in the “Star Wars” series, and midnight shows have become part of the summer blockbuster ritual.

    But all-night sellouts far in advance of an opening have come only with the near ubiquity of online ticket sales. Fandango.com, for instance, reports well over 1,500 wee-hour showings for “The Dark Knight” in theaters that typically do not open their doors before about 10 a.m.

    I expect to be a wee hour guy.  Despite the fact that the press screening drops Monday (the day I return to the states), I don’t think I’ll make the show.  So Thursday at 3:15 a.m. I’ll be with the masses over at Universal CityWalk.

    Meanwhile, Reel Geezers star Lorenzo Semple Jr. has cranked out a remembrance for Variety detailing his days as a scribe for the “Batman” television series.  If you can get past his woeful ignorance of the character int he first half, you might actually have a laugh at the direction he and Bill Dozier took the material and why.  Check it out:

    Days of innocence, days of Andalusian heaven! From the very beginning, Bill Dozier and I had seen millionaire Bruce Wayne and his Bat regalia as classy comedy, hopefully appealing to kids as an absurdly jolly action piece and to grown-ups for its deadpan satire, entirely nonfraught with psychological issues. I mean, golly gee!

    Personally, I love the old “Batman” show.  I recognize it for what it is and have a lot of fun with it.  I think it also says a lot for the character, that it has given way to so many (vastly) different interpretations.  But I was a kid once.  And pre-Tim Burton, I was plopped in front of the tube watching reruns of King Tut wreaking havoc — and tuning in, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel each and every week to see what happens next.

    The special edition of the old “Batman: The Movie,” by the way, is out on DVD and Blu-ray.  I’ll be picking it up sometime next week I’m sure.

  • David Poland dings ‘Dark Knight’

    Slightly.  Here’s a taste:

    I wanted that movie that Nolan was chasing. I really wanted that movie. But as is the nature of the dramatic arts, there is a mystical and undeniable gut feeling when you know that even the best film has come to its natural end. And in The Dark Knight, this occurs more than half an hour before the picture actually ends… maybe an hour…

    But he makes a mistake positing that Nolan would ever offer a “director’s cut.”  The director has infamously debunked such ideas, making it clear that his definitive vision of a film is what is on the screen.

    Read the rest of Poland’s review here.

  • Michael Bay’s ‘Dark Knight’

    It seems Spill.com got a hold of the very same “Dark Knight” script “written by Michael Bay” that landed in my inbox this week and has apparently been making the ha-ha rounds.  All in good faux fun, of course, but I’ll let /film’s link take you there.