Today's Agenda: Stop by midnight comics on Hwy 6 across from west oaks mall to pick up a couple comics like Joker's Asylum and Umbrella academy, and some issues of Iron Man... Go across the street to the Alamo Drafthouse to catch TDK for a second viewing... There goes my saturday plans...
Great descriptions Max, "This is Empire Strikes Back all over again" was my immediate thought after seeing it, but in a lot of ways it was way better. Its one of the best action, drama, psychological thrillers ever to be put in place and Nolan has somehow managed not to make it cartoonish at all. I haven't met one person yet who hasn't raved about the film. I'm a bit of a movie buff, and I've seen hundreds of films and a handful of "masterpieces" but I say this again without hyperbole... The Dark Knight is right up there with the best of them.
I thought the opposite Spoiler I thought the end seemed to, if anything, to mock religion. Didn't he say something along the lines of "people need to believe in something even if its a lie." It was basically saying that the best person that city had was easily corrupted. The next best thing is a vigilante with his own set of problems. Not very Christ like to me.
Spoiler and Christ was hated by the people he was sent to save. I don't really think Batman is anything like Jesus, but he did have to sacrifice his life several times to prove he was incorruptible. There are some metaphors there, but honestly you can find metaphors just about anywhere.
Spoiler you're saying there was some commentary there. i didn't catch that..it didn't strike me that way. i think the truth that is being communicated is self-sacrifice. as moe says, it's ulimately just metaphor. that's the great thing about art...you can i can look at it and see 2 entirely different things.
I agree Spoiler Clearly, sacrifice was a big theme in this film. We just differ in opinion because i think they made it seem as though people needed to THINK there was something good to believe in. As opposed to HAVING something good to believe in, in Jesus. You guys are right about metaphors being subjective too. Either way this movie was...da bomb.
Go watch it. Soon. My sisters and their friend got back from the movie and they said they hated it. Which is understandable I guess...these are the same people who thought Lord of the Rings was too long. And this movie deserves to overtake the laughing-stock that was Spiderman 3 as the single best opening of all time. Compared to TDK, Spiderman-3 was a horrible made for-TV kid's movie.
One of the best things they did was the Joker videos he sends to the news, Spoiler when he's got the fake Batman tied up and he takes his mask off and laughs or when he's caressing his cheek to calm him "ssshhh ssshhh." And when he's got the reporter hanging upside down and he's repeating certain words as the reporter is reading his message.
You guys think a matinee Dark Knight at Tinseltown 290 will be sold out? I mean, no one actually goes there anymore. So probably not right?
`Dark Knight' sets box office record with $66.4M http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/box_office_dark_knight By DAVID GERMAIN AP Movie Writer July 19, 2008 LOS ANGELES - Batman's joust with the Joker has set another box office record. Stoked by fan fever over the manic performance of the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, "The Dark Knight" set a one-day box office record with $66.4 million on opening day, Warner Bros. head of distribution Dan Fellman said Saturday. The movie's Friday haul surpassed the previous record of $59.8 million set last year by "Spider-Man 3." "The Dark Knight" might break the opening-weekend record of $151.1 million, also held by "Spider-Man 3." "I think they're in jeopardy," Fellman said of the "Spider-Man 3" records. "The Dark Knight" began with a record $18.5 million from midnight screenings, topping the previous high of $16.9 million for "Star Wars: Episode III — The Revenge of the Sith." The opening day grosses for "The Dark Knight" far exceeded the full weekend haul of its predecessor, "Batman Begins," which took in $48.7 million in its first three days in 2005. Reviews were excellent for director Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins," but they were stellar for his "Dark Knight." "We've really never seen anything like this," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "The death of a fine actor taken in his prime, a legendary performance, and a movie that lives up to all the hype. That all combined to create these record-breaking numbers." Buzz had been high for the Batman sequel well before Ledger died of an accidental prescription-drug overdose in January. Trailers last fall revealing Ledger's demented Joker, with crooked clown makeup, turned up the heat even more. The critical acclaim over his performance that built from advance screenings left fans in a frenzy. "It's a combination of things. Certainly, that's a great part of it, but I think this movie's gross was partly because of the reviews it received and the incredible buzz and word of mouth that preceded it with our early screenings," Fellman said. "And the success and quality of the last one, `Batman Begins,' delivered by Chris Nolan just set the tone for the opening of this movie." "The Dark Knight" reunites Christian Bale as Batman, the vigilante crime-fighter tormented by personal tragedy, and co-stars Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman. Maggie Gyllenhaal also stars. The film spins an epic crime duel as Ledger's Joker orchestrates a reign of terror on the city of Gotham aimed to spread chaos and break down the restraint that keeps Batman on the right side of the law. While critics are taking the film seriously enough to suggest Ledger could be in line for an Academy Award nomination, the action-packed movie also delivers as pure summer movie escapism. "If you're worried about mortgage payments and gas prices, when you're sitting in `The Dark Knight' for two and a half hours, you're not thinking about any of that stuff," Dergarabedian said.
Do you guys think this movie will top Star War IV ? 1 1997 Titanic $600,788,188 2 1977 Star Wars Ep. IV: A New Hope $460,998,007 3 2004 Shrek 2 $436,721,703 4 1982 ET: The Extra-Terrestrial $435,110,554 5 1999 Star Wars Ep. I: The Phantom Menace $431,088,297 6 2006 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest $423,315,812 7 2002 Spider-Man $403,706,375 8 2005 Star Wars Ep. III: Revenge of the Sith $380,270,577 9 2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King $377,027,325 10 2004 Spider-Man 2 $373,524,485
this movie was legen...... wait for it... DARY! Legendary. seriously though, the movie was epic. worth the hype.
The 1990's gave us Titanic. This decade belongs to The Dark Knight. I'm sure it will get #2 domestically when all is said and done. Not sure if it'll surpass Titanic, but you never know.
I went in with high expectations and it actually exceeded them. It was just a great great movie - I'm no fan of Heath Ledger, but he was amazing.
I'm gonna have to really see this again to get a better feel for it. I loved it to be sure, but so many things happened in this one, many of which were unexpected, that it was hard to digest on first viewing. So for me it's not quite in masterpiece territory yet. Now that I know where the film is taking me I think I can enjoy it better. For example: Spoiler I kinda got the impression that this was an action film...it had pretty much one major action scene that I don't think was quite on the same level as the tumbler chase scene in the first. It's not an action movie, it's not really a movie with a lot action (and let's be clear, my definition of action is bullets, fighting, explosion, car chases). It had a few minor fights here, some gun and knife play and the big chase...but honestly all that seemed[ to take a back seat to the story, the underlying themes and the characters. And that's fine...just wasn't necessarily expecting it. Now that I know, I think I'll appreciate the film more. Gordon's supposed death. Thanks to someone here who didn't put up a spoiler tag I knew that a main character was gonna die. That didn't bother me so much. I thought the most logical choice was Rachel Dawes. So I was a bit flummoxed when Gordon was shot. I kept thinking, no it's fake but everyone I expected to reveal the truth truly believed he was dead. So for 15-20 minutes I'm thinking "what the hell is going on" in the back of my head. How can they kill Gordon, he's not even commissioner yet. I had no sense of time during the movie so about when Gordon's death happened I'm sitting there thinking, why hasn't the Joker done more yet? This is gonna suck if he doesn't have more of a screen presence than this...then sure enough his whole plan starts to unravel. So based on that, when I came out of the theater I was like....wow...but I wasn't quite "drained." This movie is complex and I imagine it'll take a number of viewings to appreciate all the details and all the wonderful performances and scenes. As compared to the first...Begins seemed to have more "money shot" action sequences. But Dark Knight has more character development and a more intriguing story with a lot of twists; it was incredibly tense from beginning to end. And the first scene did such an excellent job of setting the tone for the entire film. This really was Joker's vehicle; everybody was forced to endure the ride. As for the endlessly debated Rachel Dawes character....I don't think Maggie G was any better than Katie Holmes. In fact, dare I say, I believe Katie was better. You may disagree with that, but watch their performances side by side and take all bias out of the equation...at the very least, they're equal. And maybe I'll change my opinion after watching Dark Knight a few more times but I felt more invested in Katie Holme's Dawes than I do with Maggie Gyllenhaal's version. And if there's one thing that could have been done differently....a mistake that should never have been...is that I shouldn't have read a single review of this film before watching it. Go in fresh. I usually do that, but I couldn't resist reading the hype...it lives up to it yes; but I probably would have walked away breathless like others did if I hadn't read about its awesomeness beforehand.
