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- First reviewJuly 19, 2008
- Last reviewJuly 19, 2008
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jakester23's Reviews
Overall rating
4
/
5
Ambitious with flaws
PostedJuly 19, 2008
jakester23
from New Yori, NY
As a filmmaker, I appreciated the ambitious nature of this movie. Nolan is one of the most talented directors out there and he always does excellent work. The movie was spectacular in terms of its reach, themes, action and vision but it also was flawed in that it was trying to combine too many elements at the same time.
Other than the brilliant character development and script of the Joker, the rather average dialogue negated the gritty realism the film was trying to portray. In that sense, it almost seemed like the Joker was in his own movie separate from the actual film. One excellent scene where you really felt this was when the Joker escapes and is sticking his head out of the police car and is enjoying the breeze in silence. This realistic and deep moment did not seem to aesthetically mesh with the rest of the film because there simply were too many elements to think about to bring it up to par with the Joker. In that sense, you never really cared about the other characters nor did you care about Gotham city. You never saw the mob actually run the city so there was a disconnect between the vicious goals of the Joker and of Batman himself.
The other theme of trying to make Batman an ambiguous hero as the needed, polar opposite of the Joker was difficult to feel. When Batman avoids killing the Joker while on his bike, it is not clearly understood. Yes, people are dying but to avoid killing the Joker for self-righteous reasons at point blank range needed to be stronger.
Other major characters such as Rachel Dawson and Harvey Grant were average in terms of performance. Gordon was also average in terms of character (not performance since Oldman is the amazing) so you didn't care when you thought he was killed.
However, aside from these flaws, the core of the movie worked and the brilliant action-cinematography and choreagraphy was excellent. Nolan doesn't always explain where things are coming from since he wants to mimic the 'bat-like' nature of a fight with a bat and that is one of the most original approaches to his sequences. The good and evil theme with Gotham could probably have been taken a bit more seriously rather than in passing with one-liners but overall, the ambition of this movie itself makes it stand above the rest of the comics.
Other than the brilliant character development and script of the Joker, the rather average dialogue negated the gritty realism the film was trying to portray. In that sense, it almost seemed like the Joker was in his own movie separate from the actual film. One excellent scene where you really felt this was when the Joker escapes and is sticking his head out of the police car and is enjoying the breeze in silence. This realistic and deep moment did not seem to aesthetically mesh with the rest of the film because there simply were too many elements to think about to bring it up to par with the Joker. In that sense, you never really cared about the other characters nor did you care about Gotham city. You never saw the mob actually run the city so there was a disconnect between the vicious goals of the Joker and of Batman himself.
The other theme of trying to make Batman an ambiguous hero as the needed, polar opposite of the Joker was difficult to feel. When Batman avoids killing the Joker while on his bike, it is not clearly understood. Yes, people are dying but to avoid killing the Joker for self-righteous reasons at point blank range needed to be stronger.
Other major characters such as Rachel Dawson and Harvey Grant were average in terms of performance. Gordon was also average in terms of character (not performance since Oldman is the amazing) so you didn't care when you thought he was killed.
However, aside from these flaws, the core of the movie worked and the brilliant action-cinematography and choreagraphy was excellent. Nolan doesn't always explain where things are coming from since he wants to mimic the 'bat-like' nature of a fight with a bat and that is one of the most original approaches to his sequences. The good and evil theme with Gotham could probably have been taken a bit more seriously rather than in passing with one-liners but overall, the ambition of this movie itself makes it stand above the rest of the comics.
Yes, I recommend this movie.
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