The Dark Knight - build the hype

[Afterthought]

as I'm sitting here, we are officially 12 days away.
most of the media has already seen it and are saying 2 things:
1) this is the Godfather II for our generation. it's that good.
2) Ledger apparently will be nominated for an Oscar in this performance.

as I wish we could make this a movie (k)night, I'm also a realist.
so since I can't be everywhere at once, I'll just pass on what you might want to take a look at.

a) the trailer - seems like a good start.
b) The Long Halloween - One of the Top 5 Batman stories of all time. (spoilers)
added this because the story is rumored to be borrowing elements from it.
c) impressive poster - really impressive.

[Kub]

Me and a friend are gonna go try and see it in the IMAX, though opening day is already sold out.

[Xero]

Building the hype...

[KillerDark]

Seeing it tonight. its gonna be awesome

[Xero]

I am going with Larry and a couple other friends later tonight - anyone else want to meet up?

[KillerDark]

Awesome movie.. it exceeded all of my expectations, and they were set pretty high :X.  Highly recommend seeing it.

[Afterthought]

let's begin.
Tuesday I'm off to buy the ticket. word is that all the midnight showings are sold out. and sadly that was correct.
thankfully, AMC did the 3:30 AM showing on Friday morning.
it was packed, but i didn't care you see for i was in heaven.

(SPOILERS AHOY!)

from the beginning with the Watchmen trailer to the end credits, this film is solid gold.
in fact, it's better than gold. it's platinum-gold. PTAU!
the bank robbery sets up the tone of the whole film. and it shows just how ruthless/funny/witty the Joker is.
don't even get me started on "the magic trick." that was just utter brilliance.
Heath Ledger is beyond said brilliance. he is the Joker. he did nothing but read Joker comics for weeks on end.
if he doesn't win the Oscar, they should just retire.

the rest of the cast is superb, notably Aaron Eckhart as well in the role as Two-Face.
his fall from grace is borrowed from The Long Halloween, and it's just as touching here as it was in the book.
Gordon is great, Bale is supreme, again they all deliver the goods.
this film is air tight perfection. for a long time i heard "this is going to be The Godfather for your generation."
they were wrong. this is THE FILM FOR ALL GENERATIONS.
this movie grabs you by the throat and chokes the life out of you 80 times over.
there are so many "gotcha" moments. when Gordon dies, when Gordon comes back, when Rachel dies, when the boat decision is made,
when Harvey gets burned, when Batman flies, when the Joker does ANYTHING, when the sonar computer blows up,
when the final hunt is on ----- i need not continue. I've decided this movie is so good, that nothing else needs to be said.
just remember you can quote me, BETTER than The Godfather.

[OPIE]

This was indeed an excellent movie. But sadly I was dissipointed a little. For one big reason.

WE NEEDED MORE JOKER! He did not get enough screen time. Heath had pulled off the part so well in portraying the psychopath that the Joker was and he did not get enough screen time.

There was another little thing that annoyed me with it. In a small way The Dark Knight kind of pulled a spider-man 3. Spidey 3 was all about MJ and Peter, The Dark Knight in it's own little way was more about Rachel and Bruce.

But thats just my two cents. Otherwise, excellent movie and I don't even have to say it because it so obvious it's common sense, but it's a MUST SEE!

[Grizzly]

Another thing it had in common with Spidey 3 is that they both pulled out a villain after about 80% of the movie was over. The difference is Two Face was like an added bonus, while Venom was the main reason I went to see Spider Man.

And Heath Ledger was effing brilliant.

[El DeBarge]

I thought the movie was legitimately awesome, but I have to admit that it's not at all a no-brainer to say it's better than Batman Begins.  I need to see The Dark Knight again to be sufficiently fair to it, but my initial gut reaction was that it was edged slightly by Batman Begins.  Both friggin awesome, tho.  This movie was a pretty decent analogy to The Empire Strikes Back in that "the good guys" kinda get repeatedly butt-slammed, with only some minor moral victories where they scrounged something less than total defeat.  The Joker in this one was an insanely well-done psycho who wants the complete destruction of, well, pretty much everything, but that's not exactly the sort of character that I like to spend my quality free time with.  While the Nicholson Joker was less menacing/threatening, he was the sort of character that would require a heckuvalot of screen time to become exhausted by what he brings.  Ledger's Joker is a very, very bad man.  Worse than Nancy Pelosi--and that's saying something. 

"Magic trick", ROFL!

[OPIE]

I thought the movie was legitimately awesome, but I have to admit that it's not at all a no-brainer to say it's better than Batman Begins.  I need to see The Dark Knight again to be sufficiently fair to it, but my initial gut reaction was that it was edged slightly by Batman Begins.  Both friggin awesome, tho.  This movie was a pretty decent analogy to The Empire Strikes Back in that "the good guys" kinda get repeatedly butt-slammed, with only some minor moral victories where they scrounged something less than total defeat.  The Joker in this one was an insanely well-done psycho who wants the complete destruction of, well, pretty much everything, but that's not exactly the sort of character that I like to spend my quality free time with.  While the Nicholson Joker was less menacing/threatening, he was the sort of character that would require a heckuvalot of screen time to become exhausted by what he brings.  Ledger's Joker is a very, very bad man.  Worse than Nancy Pelosi--and that's saying something. 

"Magic trick", ROFL!

Thank You El, you hit my points exactly. They made mistakes with this movie, And the following movie needs to be better. Although it was a GREAT movie, it just didn't hit the peak that it was hyped up to. I personally believe batman begins was better. You're analogy with star wars was hitting the bullseye. To much talking, to little action. I rest my case.

[Blimigerite]

I went and finally saw the Dark Knight yesterday.  I enjoyed every part of it.  I loved the feel of the movie and the writing was outstanding.  The darker nature of the last two films fits in perfectly with what I imagine Batman to represent.  It's a lot better than a rehash of the 80s tv show.  The movie definitely had a good story and script.  I loved how they left the Joker's backstory open ended and that he kept coming up with different scenerios on how he got his scars.  The blank slate Joker is a lot better than one that has been humanized by telling a tragic story/accident.  I think Ledger is getting better reviews since he is dead but overall I think he did an excellent job as the Joker. (not award worthy but I hold the opinion that they only give awards to movies no one wants to see)  I still think they should have got Luke Skywalker to play the part

I loved the two-face scenes.  His character had just the right amount of screen time to do his character justice yet not take away from the 'main' villian.  The Joker as the main villian worked perfectly with the current movie's timeline of Gotham.  His gang was a little too cannon fodder to me but hey it seems Gotham has a large supply of henchmen. 

[Xero]

Anyone see this?

[Afterthought]

xero, no.
that was horrible.
the fact that it has 1 million + views is bad enough.
you can rip on the movie all you want, it's a free country.
but guess what?
$400 million is a lot of money.
the fact it's done it in so little time gives me hope that it will eclipse Titanic,
a film i've never seen and never will because of the horror therein,
and that hope just adds to the awesome sauce known as The Dark Knight.

[Xero]

Still building the hype...