Jen's Ruthless Reviews
Just a small public service - saving YOU from bad movies, one review at a time!
Now Showing (7/19/08)
The Dark Knight - starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine
http://thedarkknight.warnerbros.com/
The Dark Knight - starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine
http://thedarkknight.warnerbros.com/
The Dark Knight
2 Watch Checks
I liked this.
It starts out a little slow, but picks up speed pretty quickly and once it did, I was hooked for most of the rest of the movie.
Great action sequences, great chase sequences (not quite as original as Wanted's but very good), and none of that jarring camera work that made me queasy with Batman Begins.
Gary Oldman is very toned down as Jim Gordon, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine both get some nice one-liners and advance their parts in the story fine. I liked Maggie Gyllenhall's Rachel Dawes better than Katie Holmes but still think the character's a bit pointless (and whiny).
Christian Bale is great as both Bruce Wayne and Batman, but even though they give him a few angsty scenes, he's really not the heart of the movie. Also, I have to say his snarling whisper as batman does start to grate 2+ hours into the movie.
The really solid performances are Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent and Heath Ledger's Joker. You totally see a side of Dent you aren't really expecting (in more ways than one!). I love Tommy Lee Jones in anything but Eckhart's Dent is better.
I have to say as much as I liked Ledger's Joker performance, I'm not sure where the Oscar buzz is coming from. He was very good. In fact, there is one sequence where I thought he was excellent (and the Joker doesn't come off as a caricature) but for him to get an oscar nomination, I think it would have to be a weak year for Actors. He does totally take the Joker in a different direction than Jack Nicholson did and it's not until after the movie that I even thought about comparing the too. There's really no comparison -- one joker is maliciously goofy and one's just malicious.
I loved that Chicago = Gotham! I do wish they would make Greg Rucka's "No Man's Land" into the next Batman movie.
This is a really long movie (about 2 and half hours) which seems excessive for a comic book movie, but there weren't many points where it dragged at all.
Oh, I did stick around to see if there was anything after the credits. There wasn't.
I'd say it's probably my #5 movie for the summer so far (Wall-E, Indy, Ironman, Wanted and Dark Knight).
2 Watch Checks
I liked this.
It starts out a little slow, but picks up speed pretty quickly and once it did, I was hooked for most of the rest of the movie.
Great action sequences, great chase sequences (not quite as original as Wanted's but very good), and none of that jarring camera work that made me queasy with Batman Begins.
Gary Oldman is very toned down as Jim Gordon, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine both get some nice one-liners and advance their parts in the story fine. I liked Maggie Gyllenhall's Rachel Dawes better than Katie Holmes but still think the character's a bit pointless (and whiny).
Christian Bale is great as both Bruce Wayne and Batman, but even though they give him a few angsty scenes, he's really not the heart of the movie. Also, I have to say his snarling whisper as batman does start to grate 2+ hours into the movie.
The really solid performances are Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent and Heath Ledger's Joker. You totally see a side of Dent you aren't really expecting (in more ways than one!). I love Tommy Lee Jones in anything but Eckhart's Dent is better.
I have to say as much as I liked Ledger's Joker performance, I'm not sure where the Oscar buzz is coming from. He was very good. In fact, there is one sequence where I thought he was excellent (and the Joker doesn't come off as a caricature) but for him to get an oscar nomination, I think it would have to be a weak year for Actors. He does totally take the Joker in a different direction than Jack Nicholson did and it's not until after the movie that I even thought about comparing the too. There's really no comparison -- one joker is maliciously goofy and one's just malicious.
I loved that Chicago = Gotham! I do wish they would make Greg Rucka's "No Man's Land" into the next Batman movie.
This is a really long movie (about 2 and half hours) which seems excessive for a comic book movie, but there weren't many points where it dragged at all.
Oh, I did stick around to see if there was anything after the credits. There wasn't.
I'd say it's probably my #5 movie for the summer so far (Wall-E, Indy, Ironman, Wanted and Dark Knight).
My ratings system is based on "Watch Checks" - the amount of times I check my watch to see how much time is left in the movie. The higher the number of checks, the less the movie held my attention!
