Friday, July 18, 2008

Why So Serious?

I see that Max has a post about "the movie", but before I read it I'm going to put in my two cents. This is by far the darkest and most sinister exploration of any superhero scenario to see the big screen. It was fantastic. It has been a long time since I've felt really disturbed by a movie, and I cannot tell you how sad it is to know that not only is Heath Ledger not around to do any more of these movies, but that this was his last performance.
I'm not really going to talk about much else, so I'll do it briefly here. Everyone else was great. I had no complaints. The story was great, the acting was great. The action does deserve note. I have seen few films that literally deserve the term "action packed", and somehow, this film did it for two and a half hours. It blew me away, no pun intended.
Now, onto the serious business. The Joker was scary. He was absolutely frightening. The menace that he presented was something I have never seen before on screen. The only thing I can relate it to is in the comics, and only when the Joker is done right. This was it. He is an unstoppable force, almost more a concept than a man. He exists to work against Batman, against society, against the schemers. There are no rules. After all, it's all just a big joke in the end. I was blown away by Ledger's performance. It was absolutely stunning. All I can say is, the superhero movie is moving into new territory. Iron Man showed us that, and the Dark Knight took us down into the depths. I highly recommend seeing this movie. Even the sound work was noticeably impressive. Oh, and there's nothing after the credits. The only question now, is who will be in the next movie? My guess? Calendar Man


2 comments:

Nathan Riemer said...

Calendar Man is just a poor man's Mr. Monday. Everyone knows Copperhead is the most feared of Batman's foes. Did you get my message? I'll admit it was a bit shellshocked sounding, but I'd just witnessed what can easily be described as the best film of the year, the most intelligent comic book film ever made. What truly made it great, in my opinion, in the end, wasn't the special effects (which were fantastic) or all the action (also awesome) or the fact that the one character who drove me crazy... (ahem, nevermind, don't want to spoil...) it was that the filmmakers understood the characters. They understood what it meant to be Batman, or the Joker. And it was the most brilliant interpretation of Harvey Dent I've ever seen. If Iron Man got a 10 out of 10 stars, I give this film an 11.

Jared Evans said...

I didn't. I will check it.