The Dark Knight review thread

[bassman]

Yes, his cape partly deploys, slowing them down... My mani issues were (as listed before);- 1) Bruce somehow turning every phone into a 'sonar' - Come on now! Bit unbelievable! Just bugging them all for audio would have been enough! 2) When he went into the final building, PLEASE tell me the sonar system he was using through his vision wasn't from the mobile phones people were carrying... And instead was something just built into his suit? 3) The Joker's plans always just seemed to work just a little too well, no matter how much risk was involved in them, and how many variables... 4) Someone get Bale a throat lossenger - God his voice went strangely raspy/butch whenever he put that mask on... 1) True, it can be unbelievable to an extent, but this is what Chris Nolan calls "hyper-reality". It's as grounded as possible to reality, but it still has several outlandish things. Remember the water vaporizer in Batman Begins? Yeah... And I guess they were probably relying on the audience to, at this point, know that Wayne is one of the richest people on the planet and his company's technology is a bit beyond what we see in everday life. 2) Earlier in the film Fox questions Wayne about the company's spendings, in which Bruce says that he put it under Military cellular technology(or something like that). Fox expresses a bit of discontent with this idea and Bruce says "I'm playing this one close to the chest". I assumed this means it's something Bruce was working on for awhile. After Fox first showed him the device in Hong Kong, that is. Again, I think this one should fall into the "hyper-reality" section. It's a realistic film, but it's still a comic book film. 3)My thoughts on this: We're told of Joker's existence in Gotham at the end of Batman Begins. If I'm not mistaken, it's mentioned in TDK that it's been roughly six months since the events in BB. I took this to mean that he was slowly planning and setting all of this up and he started excecuting this plan when he meets with the mob bosses near the beginning of the film. The bank heist was a hint to what he's been doing between films... 4) I can agree with this in some cases. I think he should relax a bit on the voice when talking to Gordon and Dent. When he's talking to criminals, he's trying to scare them. So it works in those areas. Remember the scene in BB? - Flass: "I swear to god!" Batman: "SWEAR TO ME!!!!" That was a great use of the voice. MZ - Great review. You seem like a guy that would be perfect to go to see a flick with. We could've talked for hours about this flick.

[Neil]

1) True, it can be unbelievable to an extent, but this is what Chris Nolan calls "hyper-reality". It's as grounded as possible to reality, but it still has several outlandish things. Remember the water vaporizer in Batman Begins? Yeah... And I guess they were probably relying on the audience to, at this point, know that Wayne is one of the richest people on the planet and his company's technology is a bit beyond what we see in everday life. 2) Earlier in the film Fox questions Wayne about the company's spendings, in which Bruce says that he put it under Military cellular technology(or something like that). Fox expresses a bit of discontent with this idea and Bruce says "I'm playing this one close to the chest". I assumed this means it's something Bruce was working on for awhile. After Fox first showed him the device in Hong Kong, that is. Again, I think this one should fall into the "hyper-reality" section. It's a realistic film, but it's still a comic book film. 3)My thoughts on this: We're told of Joker's existence in Gotham at the end of Batman Begins. If I'm not mistaken, it's mentioned in TDK that it's been roughly six months since the events in BB. I took this to mean that he was slowly planning and setting all of this up and he started excecuting this plan when he meets with the mob bosses near the beginning of the film. The bank heist was a hint to what he's been doing between films... 4) I can agree with this in some cases. I think he should relax a bit on the voice when talking to Gordon and Dent. When he's talking to criminals, he's trying to scare them. So it works in those areas. Remember the scene in BB? - Flass: "I swear to god!" Batman: "SWEAR TO ME!!!!" That was a great use of the voice. MZ - Great review. You seem like a guy that would be perfect to go to see a flick with. We could've talked for hours about this flick. (1) Yeh, but if he'd just used the cell phones as bugging/listening devices to then triangulate the Joker that would have been better I think... No need for all the silly sonar nonsense which was just pushing the believability envelope a bit too far ... (2) So was your take with his sonar vision (in the final building), that it was an autonomous sonar device built into the suit, or were mobile phones somehow still at play? Because Fox somehow seemed to still be involved with this system didn't he back at Wayne HQ? And that was all the mobile phone stuff going on? I was a bit confused TBH...

[clanglee]

4) Someone get Bale a throat lossenger - God his voice went strangely raspy/butch whenever he put that mask on... o Correct me If I'm wrong, but Batman's suit comes equipped with a voice scrambler. It's part of his disguise and it adds an element to the whole "striking fear" aspect.

[Neil]

Correct me If I'm wrong, but Batman's suit comes equipped with a voice scrambler. It's part of his disguise and it adds an element to the whole "striking fear" aspect. That could well explain the 'lossenger effect' . This hasn't been mentioned in either film though, has it?

[bassman]

That could well explain the 'lossenger effect' . This hasn't been mentioned in either film though, has it? No. It's never been covered. About the bat suit sonar: It was connected to that huge device Fox was using. So basically it was a monitor for him to see the phone signals that the machine was picking up.

[Neil]

No. It's never been covered. About the bat suit sonar: It was connected to that huge device Fox was using. So basically it was a monitor for him to see the phone signals that the machine was picking up. (a) Cell phones just cannot do sonar... OK Fox's special one could, it had been designed to, but not regular ones... As regards trying to find the Joker, only audio was required, no sonar, so they could have stuck with just that premise, (b) There were Cell phones in every part of the building, everywhere, absolutely everywhere, to do the sonar? Hmmm... I didn't buy those two aspects... Pushing it a bit too far for me...

[bassman]

(a) Cell phones just cannot do sonar... OK Fox's special one could, it had been designed to, but not regular ones... As regards trying to find the Joker, only audio was required, no sonar, so they could have stuck with just that premise, (b) There were Cell phones in every part of the building, everywhere, absolutely everywhere, to do the sonar? Hmmm... I didn't buy those two aspects... Pushing it a bit too far for me... You have a valid point. That element of hyper reality is certainly there. Maybe they weren't using particular cell phones but the cell phone waves that populate the area. The signal from a cell phone has to shoot around, eventually get to the satelite, and then back down to the other phone lines I think...right? So maybe they somehow used the breaks within those waves and turned them into Sonar? I dunno... I thought it was funny when Fox first showed Wayne the phone: "It's sonar" "Like a b...." "YES, Mr Wayne like a submarine:" Wayne was going to say bat and Fox stopped him. Nice little touch...

[MinionZombie]

MZ - Great review. You seem like a guy that would be perfect to go to see a flick with. We could've talked for hours about this flick. Cheers dude. Indeed, I'm obsessed with film and filmmaking, and just like to let a movie sweep me away. Usually when I'm out with the lads to see a flick, the ride home in the car tends to end up in some filthy-minded depths relating to the movie (or a trailer). For example, when me and a couple of mates went to see Doomsday, the trailer for Teeth was played ... after that, I turned to one and said "you know how you solve that problem don't you? ... Butt sex!", and he cracked up ... then it took on a life of it's own on the ride home, hehe. On the ride home from TDK though, me and Ben got into some really deep discussions on the likes of Harvey Dent - before and after his deforming, and the whole coin toss motif. As well as a discussion about the whole two boats thing, we got deep into the ethical rammifications of it all, and realised just how frickin' deep Nolan & Co got in the script - superb stuff. Then we ended up in a whole tangent, originating from the whole sonar database (yeah, NORMAL phones can't do it, but phones with special tech put in them deliberately by Wayne Enterprises CAN do it in a COMIC BOOK film ) ... about database/surveillance culture, which was deep in itself. Now, I vote Tory - the Conservative Party - but I'm totally against surveillance society, and meanwhile Ben votes Labour (who are traditionally left wing ... but not anymore ... they might as well rename 2008 as 1984 these days), and he was totally in favour of CCTV everywhere ... so we got into this epic debate about CCTV and suchlike, but had to stop cos I just got too irate, lol. Back to movies though, yeah I just enjoy having a good time at the flicks and love to get into passionate discussions about them on the way back, such as coming back from Indy 4 pointing out all the far-fetched stuff from 1 through 3 when two of the lads bitched about the alien stuff.

[mista_mo]

I thought that the voice he did was great....Mainly because he (Bruce Wayne) literally becomes a whole other person when he puts on the bat suit- it is his escape from his other life, and he ceases to be Bruce Wayne. I hope the next film touches on Bruces inability to ever let go of being batman, as fighting crime is a never ending business, and while he cannot bring himself to kill the criminals, he can't let go of the persona he has adopted either. That, as far as i am concerned, is the best aspect of Batman and Bruce Wayne; He fights a never ending war against criminals, and has to have enough willpower to keep himself from going over the edge and give into the darkness. He essentially is always walking that thin line.

[MinionZombie]

Just watched the hospital scene again, f*ck me it's soooooo good. "Hiiiiii..." Plus the whole walk out/explosion which was just awesome. I'd definitely watch a third film, as long as it was Bale and Nolan behind it - but I wouldn't want it until they've had plenty of time to digest The Dark Knight (and time for we the viewers to digest TDK, which was so bloody mind-blowing as is), and then come up with something really good to do, in true Bale/Nolan style. That's ALL I'd want out of a third film, otherwise if it was just left with The Dark Knight, I would be happy still, because TDK is so absolute, so complete and just so awesome, it'd be insanely hard to top - or indeed, to sequelise anyway, WHERE do you go from there? Indeed, Mo raises a good point in terms of the Wayne/Batman dynamic, which is really only where it can go from here. Ah mate, I hope they bring out a boshty-as-fook double disc DVD straight off the bat, none of that "vanilla release now, proper one three months later". *sigh* Anyway, man I love TDK!

[clanglee]

That could well explain the 'lossenger effect' . This hasn't been mentioned in either film though, has it? No, I don't think they ever covered it in the movies. . but it is so in the comics. . so I use it as a nice explination for the growly grrr voice.

[MinionZombie]

No, I don't think they ever covered it in the movies. . but it is so in the comics. . so I use it as a nice explination for the growly grrr voice. And it's a damn sight better than him coming out of the shadows and going "ooh, you are awful ... but I like you" then bopping them on the head ... ... or talking in mockney lingo or something. "WHERE???!!!" - who doesn't love that?

[bassman]

There's only one thing that could have made TDK better. The old hit graphics...

[MinionZombie]

There's only one thing that could have made TDK better. The old hit graphics... Err ... no. It does annoy me when columnists or whatever go on about TDK being so "dark", and comparing it to how the "original" Batman (i.e. circa the TV show) was so light and fluffy - err, the original comics were pretty dark, the roots of Batman lie in darkness. The TV show took it into a whole other direction that was never originally intended. Annnnnnnnyway ... did I happen to say recently that The Dark Knight was f*ckin' awesome?

[Neil]

Err ... no. It does annoy me when columnists or whatever go on about TDK being so "dark", and comparing it to how the "original" Batman (i.e. circa the TV show) was so light and fluffy - err, the original comics were pretty dark, the roots of Batman lie in darkness. The TV show took it into a whole other direction that was never originally intended. Annnnnnnnyway ... did I happen to say recently that The Dark Knight was f*ckin' awesome? I like the fact the last two films have been back to basics, more genuine and more brutal... That's why they are the best Batman films made IMHO...