The Dark Knight

Girlwing and I went to the cinema to see The Dark Knight. We went for the early movie at 14:50 so we were almost alone in the big theatre... only three others sitting behind us. A bit luxurious. :)

I really liked the first movie Batman Begins. It is still science fiction but believable. It is not a hero with super powers but a well trained person with expensive gadgets that help him. It is not preserving the comics look transferred to real actors (like the old Batman movies), it is instead the comics converted to something that could have been in real life. That makes the movie look good and believable even when we see some unbelievable things. I like that. I like to see some logic in the illogical.

The new movie is as beautiful as the first one but it is not as good (still it is a good movie). I early got disappointed when Batman with one hand bent a rifle pipe while the "bad guy" was still holding the other end. Such an act is easy calculated in your head that it is not possible to do. If Batman is strong enough to bend the pipe, the bad guy is not strong enough to still hold the rifle as one usually do when he is about to shoot. Such simple details might be cool for young teenagers without knowledge about basic physics... but please try to avoid them in movies in the future. (There are several others small and bigger logical mistakes in the movie, but I will not mention them here so I don't spoil your viewing pleasure.)

Another big mistake about the movie is the usual "sickness" that Hollywood movies often have. Once they done a great movie and they make a follow up movie, they feel an urge to make it bigger and faster and louder and cooler and bloodier and everything else more. I guess they think that it will not sell otherwise. So stupid...
I think that once they found a concept that works, they should refine it. Keep what is great and tune some parts and some details. Then write a good story! Everything is about the story and without it... the cool effects are just cool effects.

Of some (for me) unknown reason, the woman playing Batman's "girlfriend" is switched with some other actress. Not only is the new one much less pretty, she has also completely changed personality. It seems like the makers of the movie or the new actress didn't put any effort in trying to keep the same feeling for the role.

The great addition to this movie is The Joker. This character is made in the way that makes me like the new Batman movies. He is not made into a comics clown like in the old movies. His face has been cut up and then healed to ugly scars and then painted in red making a giant smile. The character shows up a sharp intellect with seriously disturbed aspects, making him to the murderer he is. We can only guess if he in his insanity cut his own mouth open or if someone else did that to his face and driving him to insanity.

Many are celebrating the actor behind Joker. He got a lot of extra PR due the fact that he killed himself after making the movie and that helped to rise many voices for him getting an Oscar. I am not the one saying if he deserves an Oscar or not, but he did a very good job in this movie. He was actually better than Batman in this movie. If not Batman himself makes you want to see this movie, you should go and see it for the Joker...