The Official Dark Knight Countdown Thread

Yeah, that.



































I still wonder where the magazines for those weapons are, though (inside the front wheel, maybe?). I wonder the same thing for the metal Cylons in nuBSG.

Whoa! Looks like it's nearly three hours long. I'll be too busy this weekend to see it.

This movie was excellent! I had high expectations and it just clobbered them. It's really a testament to an actor when you can't recognize anything of themselves in the role and Heath Ledger was just amazing. He was the joker. Outstanding performances all around, especially Maggie Gyllenhaal, who is definitely going to be outshined by Bale, Eckhart, Ledger and Oldman but she was fanastic, so much better than Katie Holmes. I don't know how long it was but whatever the runtime it didn't feel like it, and you left feeling like you did when you left Begins, like you could plop right back down with some popcorn for the next chapter. I'll be seeing it again and again and again. Go see it yourselves as soon as you get the chance.

A+

This movie was epic.

I'm a big fan of the Animated Series, and I often use it as the benchmark for any Batman media.

[spoilers]
The Bad
Harvey Dent and Bruce Wayne are not best friends in this picture, unlike the animated series, which would have given much more weight to the moral dilemna that faced Batman as he had to figure out who to save. In addition, I just didn't feel Bruce Wayne's attraction to Rachel Dawes in this film. I also felt that the people in the film acted in ways that were counter to natural human interaction. A ferry full of people would blow up a ferry full of convicts without a second thought and vice versa, and the Gotham PD would kill Joker without a second thought instead of trying to haul him in again.

Also, Harvey Dent is killed at the end of the film, preventing him from ever being in a future movie. As two-face is one of my favorite villains, I feel that they cut themselves short by including him as a villain and then killing him off in the same film. Since the greatest members of batman's rogues gallery are now dead (or the actors who play them) I feel that the next two films are likely to be lackluster, but we can't judge this film on what the next films won't be.

The Good
I believe in Harvey Dent. I believed that Aaron Eckhart was Harvey Dent in every way, and was absolutely suited for the role. I believe that Heath Ledger was everything the Joker should be, and they played true to the concept that Joker is nothing without Batman, it is sad that he will not be able to do another film, and even more sad that it will be some time before we see a Joker in a Batman flick again.

The film kept me guessing, there was only one point in the entire film where I knew what was going to happen next, and that was the situation with the bomb in the guys stomach. I expected Rachel Dawes to live and Harvey Dent to be horribly disfigured.[/spoilers]

Overall, the film was excellent and delivered almost everything I could want from a Batman film.

4/4 Stars

One critic says:

"It's overly plotted and has too much rapid-fire cutting. Nolan had big ambitions for the movie, but before he made "The Dark Knight" into a smart action film, he wanted to make sure it functioned perfectly well as a dumb one. He could have compromised less, and should have."

I agree: too much exposition and morality for dummies, too little play. Thank goodness for Heath Ledger .


Heath Ledger receives (of four)!

Believe it or not, I just saw Batman Begins for the first time last night.

I can't say I was that impressed. The main villan plot point required too much tech setup to work. Way too much. Batman vs. the ninjas? I wasn't feeling that at all.

The one comic book villan in the movie was probably more creepy without the scarecrow mask on but he was taken down by.... a taser?! That's one step away from him falling of his horse and knocking himself out.

Anyway, I still have high hopes for this new movie. From what I know about it, it should be able to correct all the problems I had with the first movie. What Batman needs is a flat-out batshit crazy comic book bad guy that simply lives to see shit blow up and burn, and it looks like this one delivers just that. The Joker looks flat out psychotic.

I usually can't sit through movies at all. I was going to give this summer a try and see at least 3, but I feel like Indiana Jones burned the hell out of me. Here's hoping it will at least end on a positive note.

I'm off to see The Dark Knight!

I saw it this morning and loved it. I think it was better than the first.

It's out next week for us

I can NOT believe Nick's revelation. That sucks HARD.

Still ,I expect to be wildly entertained.

One quibble I have about the Bat-cycle though...

It has GUNS?

BATMAN has GUNS!!??!?

Michael Keaton's batmobile had guns. Why so surprised?

I think I'll stay out of this thread until I've seen the movie. Spoilers are way too tempting to read and I want to have some suspense left next week.

Felt it was too long. Connecting the plot dots became tedious. Guess I was looking for a summer movie.

Not a feel good movie by any means.

Silly cell phone gadget deus ex machina was especially tiresome. The bat cycle was silly too. It really wobbles.

Like Maggie Gyllenhaal but she just looked tired and old. Probably the look they were after.

Wow, wow, wow, wow.

That is all.

Hmm. I liked it a lot.

But I'm gonna have to see it again. I think I missed some of the plot points. Like with all

Also, the ending was kind of anti-climactic. There wasn't really a sense of closure... probably because they are already working on the inevitable sequel.

What other Batman villians could fit well into Nolan's gritty, realistic Gotham City? It's seems like they've pretty much used all the really interesting ones... Ra's Al Ghul, Scarecrow, Joker, Two-Face.

I'm not sure who else they could feature in the 3rd movie that would lend itself well to the type of story Nolan is telling. Penguin? Riddler? Kind of corny.

Maybe Bane? or Catwoman? Bring back Ra's?

It's clear they were planning to use the Joker in the 3rd movie... but that seems less likely now.

I don't think they'll be using the Joker again at least under this particular series of Batman movies. It would be extremely difficult for them to recast the part, especially considering the performance we got from Ledger in this movie.

As for villains, that is a good question. I'm not sure who they can choose that will match up to what they've done already.

I think for me one plus to this series is that they don't really have plans to bring in Robin (unless that has changed recently).

Maybe they can create a new villain for him to fight?

Well they could always do the Batman vs. Superman movie.

Superman and Batman usually make for good adversaries/rivals and there is an interesting dynamic between the two.

If they were going this route I could see it following off from The Dark Knight... the police are hunting Batman, a new villain shows up and causes trouble, everyone blames Batman, the government gets desperate and calls in Superman, a big brawl ensues, eventually the two team up to take on the villain.

But I'm not sure how they could make Superman fit into this universe. It'd be worth it to see Batman take down Superman in his Batwing with some kryptonite tipped machine guns.

It looks to me like they're going to in the direction of

Personally, I thought it was a good film. I think there's an hour-and-three-quarters film in there that's truly excellent.

Ledger was amazing. Everyone else was at least good.

I really would rather not see a Superman/Batman flim, at least not using this incarnation of the Batman universe. The idea is pretty much a fanboy wankfest anyway, but it really doesn't fit this grim & gritty, "realistic" version of Batman.

In the comics, Ra's is immortal via the Lazarus Pit, so they could perhaps bring him back. We just assume he died in the elevated train car crash at the end of Batman Begins. But I think they would need to give him a more compelling modus operandi than just "the world is corrupt and we're going to burn it to the ground so that civilization can reboot itself yet again."

Killer Croc or Clayface? Too outlandish for this version of Batman.

Poison Ivy? Perhaps, but probably not.

Riddler or Penguin? Not really seeing how they fit into Nolan's universe.

Bane? I think this is a possibility, with some reworking.

Mister Freeze? No, I think Arnold ruined this character forever.

Catwoman? I'm not sure they'd do this after the Halle Berry disaster.

Is it possible they could recast the Joker? Yeah, but I don't know that any actor would want to follow Ledger's act and become the victim of the inevitable comparisons.

Well, Two-Face could come back I think. They could explore his character more.

According to the spoilers I've read, it's the first option you mention. But I haven't seen the movie yet, so I could be wrong.

Ledger was perfect in the role of Joker. I think that Bale did as good a job, if not better this go around than he did in the first. But, I also think that anyone who plays the Joker correctly would have to somewhat upstage Batman so to speak.

On villians:

1. Anthony Michael Hall was reported last year to have been playing Edward Nygma aka The Riddler....but that turned out not to be the case. Still, I think that you could make a dark and psychotic Riddler work in Nolan's world. But he wouldn't be anything like the guys we've seen before.

2. I refuse to believe that they are finished with Two-Face

3. Ras is the sort of guy who can easily come back, but not until late in the series (not before the fifth movie if they go that long) - the plot? Ras' attempt to make Bruce his heir maybe?

4. The IMDb page for the film mentions Bane blowing up Arkham....but the cast list shows no "Bane" - someone who saw it could explain but I assume Bane might be the next primary villain (if indeed it's not Two Face) given he already exists in that universe.
I, for one, think that "Nightfall" VERY much lends iteslf to movie adaptation....especially if you cast a compelling Azriel-character and be sure to kill him off at the end.

5. I don't think Halley's train wreck has anything to do with Catwoman showing up...but I do think that she can't carry the "primary villian" tag...she's a secondary player since she's not pure evil.


If I were doing it, and could make unlimited movies, I'd do it this way:

#3 - Two Face

#4 - Bane/Knightfall

#5 - Riddler/Catwoman

#6 - Ras returns, with an ending that sets the stage for...

#7 some variation of "The Dark Knight Returns" (this would take a lot of setup in previous films)


And every single time I'd be tempted to somehow re-introduce Joker....I might give in and ditch the Riddler in #5 and bring him back. It wouldn't be the first time a part had been recast and good as Ledger reportedly is, I doubt seriously no one else could play the part.

Well, from what I gather the Batman graphic novels have been a huge inspiration for this current series of movies...


Batman: Year One --> Batman Begins
The Long Halloween --> The Dark Knight
Batman: Dark Victory --> 3rd film?


The plot for Dark Victory follows directly from The Long Halloween, which itself continues the story of the early days of Batman.

It'd probably be best if they ditched the Robin aspect. Robin can be used well in the Batman mythos (see the Animated Series, Robin's Reckoning) but they'd have to play it serious and as a real tragedy... not that farce in Batman Forever.

The third movie could focus on three things: the Gotham PD's manhunt for the Batman, Two-Face warring with the Gotham mob using his own twisted vigilante justice, and the introduction of another villain (right now I'm thinking either Riddler or Bane)... or they could just wrap up the story with a trilogy.

I guess it depends on how long Nolan and Bale want to keep doing this.

Those sound interesting. Although I'm not sure if the Robin thing will happen. Everything that I've read so far indicates Nolan doesn't want to have Robin included in his version of Batman.

I saw this yesterday and it was a great movie. A little slow in the beginning, but it picked up. Ledger really did give an excellent performance.

As for the discussion about what villains to include in the next film, I think they could get away with bringing Two-Face back. I don't think they specifically said he was dead in the movie (they just said that Harvey Dent was dead), so there's the possibility of him maybe coming back. If Nolan wanted to bring the Joker back, I don't think he could get away with recasting him like he did with Rachel. I might buy a copycat Joker, but it still wouldn't be the same.

I would actually like to see Mr. Freeze or Poison Ivy as the next villains. Mr. Freeze has such an interesting back story compared to others. Poison Ivy could be some enviro-nut preaching about global warming or something topical like that. The biggest challenge would be making Freeze and Ivy "realistic" and not like the Arnold or Uma Therman versions. How do you justify a lady being able to shoot vines out of her arms?

The Penguin and Catwoman wouldn't work well as main villains, but they could work if they're given the same kind of spot that Two-Face had in this one.

The Riddler would be interesting to see, but would ultimately be measured against Ledger's Joker because the characters are somewhat similar. Hell, the Riddler could start off as a copycat Joker and then turn into the actual Riddler.

And couldn't they bring back the Scarecrow? Or was he killed in that one beginning scene (I can't remember)?

You can't do The Dark Knight Returns without The Joker. They is no way that anyone can follow up Ledger's Joker and be credible.

I have been a fan of Ledger's since The Patriot. I thought he deserved Best Actor for Brokeback Mountain and thought it would be awkward for him to play this role, but man was I wrong. What a brilliant guy. I feel really deprived that I will not get a chance to enjoy any more works from this guy.

TDK was head and shoulders above BB... and seeing as how this movie featured The Joker, it's only right that I was comparing this one to Tim Burton's 1989 Batman featuring Jack Nicholson. Quite frankly, there is no comaprison. This movie is head and shoulders above all it's predacessors.

The psycological workings of The Joker and Two-Face came through crystal clear. I saw it lastr night and I'm thinking of slipping out tonight to see it again...

Wow. Just wow.

The thing is, The Dark Knight Returns is set 20 years in the future, during most of which Joker is in Arkham, and we first seem him in a rather catatonic state. The Joker was older and more subdued in the comic than in any form I'd ever seen in him, and it fit. He was more suave than insane, which made it easier for him to convince everyone he'd really changed. It was an interesting take on the Joker, and it also built on the "love" that Joker feels for Batman, which was touched on towards the end of this latest movie.