The Dark Knight: Contains Spoilers

I love Batman so i cannot see this movie. I'm glad they are in a way remaking the Batman movies all over again and doing it the right way the way the originals were suppose to be made. The characters in these Batman movies are awesome and the storylines are too. This Joker i think will be better then the Joker in the original one and Two Face i think will be better then the Two Face in Batman Forever. I'm gonna enjoy this Batman movies alot.
 
tdk-twoface.jpg

Well there is a concept picture of Two-Face, not sure if it's a spoiler or not since there is nothing confirmed on it.

First thought says, the third Batman movie is going to be badass, but I think the studio is going to be dissapointed with the returns for the Dark Knight. Not that the movie is going to be bad, but with the mature theme and look of the Joker in this movie, I just can't see the families coming in hardcore to this movie.

That being said, the third one if that picture is any indication, is going to go down a much darker path then this one will. That picture is amazing to say the least and it's uncomfortable to look at for too long, especially in a two hour movie.
 
Uncle Shocker the Batman movies are suppose to be dark and come on you rather see these Batman movies then Forever and Batman and Robin? I don't think so. And the majority of the people who see these type of movies are 18-35 year old people. Parents will still take their kids to see this even if its dark shit parents let their kids see anything thse days anyway so that will be no problem.

And the 3rd one will be kickass proably better then this one coming up and Begins and not wanting to get ahead of myself but i hope Mr. Freeze or Bane is the villian in the 4th one.
 
The darker they make Dark Knight, the better, I think. While it will turn off the family viewings, it makes it more likely that adults will go see it more than once, simply because of how disturbing Heath Ledger is. Basically, what they lose in children's tickets, they will make up for it with repeat adult tickets.
 
Statistically, adults don't repeatedly see the same movie in the theatre. Kids are the ones who want to see a movie in the theaters four times. So, I agree with Shockey, the dark elements of this film my cause the movie to lose some revenue. However, it doesn't really matter, because this movie is going to bring in a TON of money regardless.

Also, regarding the Two-Face picture, that's just gruesome. I honestly don't see how the studio would possibly allow that to be the designthey go with for Two-Face. Maybe when he's initially disfigured, it could work. But the studio wouldn't even be able to market that face. It would drive away audiences. That's what's so difficult about bringing Two-Face to the big screen. In Batman Forever, they made him a goofy villain, used vibrant colors for his costume, and really did a good job making him market-friendly. They even managed to stay true to the REAL Two-Face and give him reddish-purply scarring. I will be very interested to see how this turns out.

Now, I'm not usually very squeemish when it comes to movie violence. But as much as I love the Batman movies (Batman and Robin excluded), I just don't think I could stomach looking at THAT for two hours. It's simply revolting. Maybe give him some dead hair on the the scarred side of his head, cover up the exposed muscle tissue (that's the part that really gets me) And don't make it look so much like he was charred by an explosion. It's acid, not a nuclear war head.
 
The Two-Face pic is just a bit of concept art. It's not the final product. If you've seen the picture of the toy, the final product should look something like that.

That being said, I am totally jazzed for this movie. I've been a huge Bat-fan for a very long time and have enjoyed all the tv shows and movies (yes, that includes Batman & Robin). I've read some spoiler-free reviews and I've read nothing but good things, which is very, VERY rare for most movies.

Only about 3 more weeks to go!!! Yay!!
 
If this movie isn't the movie of the summer then, well, it must be absolute crap Best movie I've seen so far is Iron Man, which was seriously let down by its third act.

As for Two-Face, I'm going to avoid all images of him before going to see the movie. It'll be awesome for it to be a surprise, but I'm really pissed off that America gets it a week earlier than over here. Still looking forward to it tons - the trailers I saw in America teased what look to be some great moments, and stuff that really break the conventions of super hero movies, which are mostly shit anyway. It's really more of a crime thriller than a super hero movie anyway and... I'm just excited. That's the message of this post. Just one more month.
 
The first review is out for The Dark Knight, courtesy of Peter Travers at Rolling Stone Magazine. Now, personally, I don't like a whole lot the movie critics that work for magazines. But Peter Travers, along with the staff over at Entertainment Weekly, are actually good at their jobs, because they actually care about film, and not just what actor is in it, or who the magazine is owned by, and therefore are required to write good reviews for certain movies (trust me, it happens). Peter Travers, in my opinion, is the Roger Ebert of magazine critics. Say what you will about Ebert being a cranky, slightly mean-spirited man, the guy knows film. And so does Travers. And it is because I trust his word more than pretty much any other professional out there that I am posting his review here. It is pretty much spoiler-free, with the exception of a few lines from the movie (pretty much all of which have already been in the trailers anyway). But there IS one slight half-spoiler which I will cover up, so that you can skip it if you'd like. For those of you who'd like to read the "spoiler" (it reveals an important piece of the plot, without going into the specifics), simply roll over the text and highlight it. So, here is the FIRST review of what is, IMO, the most anticipated film of the year. Peter Travers gives The Dark Knight 3 1/2 stars out of four, or what comes out to about 88/100 on Metacritic.

Peter Travers said:
Heads up: a thunderbolt is about to rip into the blanket of bland we call summer movies. The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan's absolute stunner of a follow-up to 2005's Batman Begins, is a potent provocation decked out as a comic-book movie. Feverish action? Check. Dazzling spectacle? Check. Devilish fun? Check. But Nolan is just warming up. There's something raw and elemental at work in this artfully imagined universe. Striking out from his Batman origin story, Nolan cuts through to a deeper dimension. Huh? Wha? How can a conflicted guy in a bat suit and a villain with a cracked, painted-on clown smile speak to the essentials of the human condition? Just hang on for a shock to the system. The Dark Knight creates a place where good and evil — expected to do battle — decide instead to get it on and dance. "I don't want to kill you," Heath Ledger's psycho Joker tells Christian Bale's stalwart Batman. "You complete me." Don't buy the tease. He means it.

The trouble is that Batman, a.k.a. playboy Bruce Wayne, has had it up to here with being the white knight. He's pissed that the public sees him as a vigilante. He'll leave the hero stuff to district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and stop the DA from moving in on Rachel Dawes (feisty Maggie Gyllenhaal, in for sweetie Katie Holmes), the lady love who is Batman's only hope for a normal life.

Everything gleams like sin in Gotham City (cinematographer Wally Pfister shot on location in Chicago, bringing a gritty reality to a cartoon fantasy). And the bad guys seem jazzed by their evildoing. Take the Joker, who treats a stunningly staged bank robbery like his private video game with accomplices in Joker masks, blood spurting and only one winner. Nolan shot this sequence, and three others, for the IMAX screen and with a finesse for choreographing action that rivals Michael Mann's Heat. But it's what's going on inside the Bathead that pulls us in. Bale is electrifying as a fallibly human crusader at war with his own conscience.

I can only speak superlatives of Ledger, who is mad-crazy-blazing brilliant as the Joker. Miles from Jack Nicholson's broadly funny take on the role in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, Ledger takes the role to the shadows, where even what's comic is hardly a relief. No plastic mask for Ledger; his face is caked with moldy makeup that highlights the red scar of a grin, the grungy hair and the yellowing teeth of a hound fresh out of hell. To the clown prince of crime, a knife is preferable to a gun, the better to "savor the moment."

The deft script, by Nolan and his brother Jonathan, taking note of Bob Kane's original Batman and Frank Miller's bleak rethink, refuses to explain the Joker with pop psychology. Forget Freudian hints about a dad who carved a smile into his son's face with a razor. As the Joker says, "What doesn't kill you makes you stranger."

The Joker represents the last completed role for Ledger, who died in January at 28 before finishing work on Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. It's typical of Ledger's total commitment to films as diverse as Brokeback Mountain and I'm Not There that he does nothing out of vanity or the need to be liked. If there's a movement to get him the first posthumous Oscar since Peter Finch won for 1976's Network, sign me up. Ledger's Joker has no gray areas — he's all rampaging id. Watch him crash a party and circle Rachel, a woman torn between Bale's Bruce (she knows he's Batman) and Eckhart's DA, another lover she has to share with his civic duty. "Hello, beautiful," says the Joker, sniffing Rachel like a feral beast. He's right when he compares himself to a dog chasing a car: The chase is all. The Joker's sadism is limitless, and the masochistic delight he takes in being punched and bloodied to a pulp would shame the Marquis de Sade. "I choose chaos," says the Joker, and those words sum up what's at stake in The Dark Knight.

The Joker wants Batman to choose chaos as well. He knows humanity is what you lose while you're busy making plans to gain power. Every actor brings his A game to show the lure of the dark side. Michael Caine purrs with sarcastic wit as Bruce's butler, Alfred, who harbors a secret that could crush his boss's spirit. Morgan Freeman radiates tough wisdom as Lucius Fox, the scientist who designs those wonderful toys — wait till you get a load of the Batpod — but who finds his own standards being compromised. Gary Oldman is so skilled that he makes virtue exciting as Jim Gordon, the ultimate good cop and as such a prime target for the Joker. As Harvey tells the Caped Crusader, "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain." Eckhart earns major props for scarily and movingly portraying the DA's transformation into the dreaded Harvey Two-Face, an event sparked by the brutal murder of a major character.

No fair giving away the mysteries of The Dark Knight. It's enough to marvel at the way Nolan — a world-class filmmaker, be it Memento, Insomnia or The Prestige — brings pop escapism whisper-close to enduring art. It's enough to watch Bale chillingly render Batman as a lost warrior, evoking Al Pacino in The Godfather II in his delusion and desolation. It's enough to see Ledger conjure up the anarchy of the Sex Pistols and A Clockwork Orange as he creates a Joker for the ages. Go ahead, bitch about the movie being too long, at two and a half hours, for short attention spans (it is), too somber for the Hulk crowd (it is), too smart for its own good (it isn't). The haunting and visionary Dark Knight soars on the wings of untamed imagination. It's full of surprises you don't see coming. And just try to get it out of your dreams.
 
*Squeals with glee*

God, I love it. If only Katie played Rachel in this one, then I'd actually get a certain amount of satisfaction when/if Joker kills her off.

I'm very curious as to what Alfred's "secret" is though. I hope it's not something like "Alfred is Bruce's father" or "Alfred paid Joe Chill to kill the Waynes'"
 
It's probably something to do with Bruce's father. I keep being told that the movie will delve a little deeper into Bruce's relationship with his father. It would Linus Roach a reason to return in flashbacks, considering he's landed a cozy job starring on Law and Order since appearing in Batman Begins.
 
I have to say, I just can't wait for this movie to come out. I've expressed my excitement early on in this thread, and I am just dreading the wait now.

What I can say, though, is I was browsing through Verizon's ringtone service, and found out that they were featuring Dark Knight voicetones. They have plenty of Joker, Batman, and Alfred quotes to chose from, so if you're interested and have Verizon, I say check them out.
 
Yeah only a few weeks until the biggest movie of the year. I cannot wait also this movie is both kickass and badass at the sametime. Joker is truly the Joker in this movie and after seeing a few trailors i'm so hooked inot his movie. Batman is the star but Joker is the real star of the movie.
 
Heath Ledger is going to give the movie stealing preformence, but I am also interisted in how Arron Eckhard is going to play the villigente take on Two-face. I am hoping they keep him from dying in the movie and expand on the conflicts and give more depth between his two personalities and the conflict of himself and Batman in the next instalments. I think this will add on a twist to the Batman series.
 
He is not gonna die cause he is gonna be the villian in the next Batman movie. He gonna be Two Face. I don't know about the Joker they said he not gonna die in this one so i guess he will proably be in the next one too.
 
He is not gonna die cause he is gonna be the villian in the next Batman movie. He gonna be Two Face. I don't know about the Joker they said he not gonna die in this one so i guess he will proably be in the next one too.

I'm not sure if the Joker is going to be in the next one. From early reports, the entire third one was supposed to be built around the Joker on trial, and Harvey Dent trying to kill him for revenge. It goes back to the theme in the first movie with Ra's Al Gul and Bruce Wayne, with Two-Face taking on more of the Gul role. He realizes that criminals mock society, and that the Joker on trial is a laughable situation, where as Batman would have to protect the Joker from Dent, and also keep Dent from going down that path. Pretty good idea.

I think with the performance that Ledger has reportedly given, that ther is no way in hell that they would dump that role onto someone else. With Ledger's death, talks of an oscar for the role, it would be impossible for anyone to live up to those shoes. I fully expect the Joker to be killed off or vanish without rhyme or reason.
 
Nolan said that the film won't be changed in any way from what Ledger filmed. So the probable situation is that the third one will start off with people saying ''Where the fuck is The Joker''. If he says he's not going to alter the film in any way, then it's going to end as normal. As I don't see him coming back for a third It's not really his problem if it then doesn't give the next a logical starting point.

From what I've heard this film is a masterpiece. Put people tend to gush over dead people, and their final roles.
 
There was a lot of talk long before Ledger's death of this film being great. People that saw testings of the film were comparing this Joker to Hannibal Lecter, which comparing anything to Silence of the Lamb is a pretty good accomplishment.

I agree though that people tend to gush over anyone that died, hell look no further then these forums and I'm sure you can dig up plenty of threads saying Eddie Guerrero was the greatest of all time, when I would wager if you look up a thread from the year before, no one would have made that statement.

I doubt that this is going to be a "Crow" situation. Ledger is just one piece of a fascinating cast of damn good actors. Now you can make the argument that Ledger made be the biggest piece of that machine, but he's not the only one which is important. Batman Begins is already arguably the best comic book movie out there, and take into account that the second one was going to be against arguably the best Villain in all of Comic-Dom, we were setting ourselves up for a superior movie to begin with.
 
So are they still gonna do the storyline with Joker being on trial for the 3rd one or not? I think they could just have cameo appearances for the Joker in the 3rd one were it look like Heath Ledger. I like that storyline better. Is that what actually happened in the comic books were Joker turned Dent into Two-Face and he went to get revenge.
 
Luike I said, I don't think Nolan will see the third as his problem. It'll be up to whoever takes over, that is if he decides not to return. They should just recast. If The Joker is integral to the 3rd then I suggest they hire Joseph Gordon-Levitt. At least for the similar look he and Ledger share.

josephgl4.jpg
 
Luike I said, I don't think Nolan will see the third as his problem. It'll be up to whoever takes over, that is if he decides not to return. They should just recast. If The Joker is integral to the 3rd then I suggest they hire Joseph Gordon-Levitt. At least for the similar look he and Ledger share.

josephgl4.jpg


Yeah they do look the same and yeah they should just recast and use that guy. He looks almost like Ledger and if he can act thats a bonus. If they do do that and cast that guy you think he gonna have a better performance as the Joker then Ledger?
 
I'd consider him a better actor. But if he was to do The Joker he'd have to do it very similar to Ledger. Continuity wise it wouldn't work if he didn't. He'd draw comparisons if it was different. If he was the same then he'd get bashed. Not that it would be a problem for Levitt. He's superior and a role like that could make him into the star he should be.
 
I'd consider him a better actor. But if he was to do The Joker he'd have to do it very similar to Ledger. Continuity wise it wouldn't work if he didn't. He'd draw comparisons if it was different. If he was the same then he'd get bashed. Not that it would be a problem for Levitt. He's superior and a role like that could make him into the star he should be.

Then if that was the case why didn't they have Levitt play the Joker instead of Ledger? If Levitt is a better actor. But i mean come on lets be real he cannot do it the same way as Ledger not everybody has the same acting skills. So Levitt will have to be different i mean if he is a good actor and better then Ledger, then he could be a better Joker so let him do his thing i mean keept the same style the Joker has in this one don't have him be Nicholson Joker but Ledger's Joker but have him well you know what i'm trying to say.

And not to be racists or anything i'm really not but i mean come on why can't a black dude play Joker? I mean in the comics they never showed Joker's real face so we don't know if he is white or black. And black people have funny sounded voices too.
 
I don't see why there would be a problem in recasting The Joker, should he be a character in the third movie. Parts are recasted all the time. It may draw some criticisms at first, but most choices are when it comes to these tentpole flicks. People flipped when Michael Keaton was cast as Batman, and they flipped when Daniel Craig was cast as James Bond. But both of those men ended up giving great performances, and the audiences accepted them. Had Ledger not have died, and they recasted Joker, this wouldn't even be considered a big deal. But because he's dead, people expect Ledger to be accepted as THE quintessential Joker, and they haven't even seen the final product yet. It's like no other portrayal of the Joker should ever be allowed, which is ridiculous.
Jake, I must say, your choice of Joseph Gordon-Levitt is inspired, but I haven't seen enough of his work to decide whether I think he would make a good replacement. Other than 3rd Rock and The Lookout, I don't really know what else he's done.
Personally, should the Joker come back for the 3rd installment (and, for the record, I don't think it makes much difference whether he does or not), they would do well by casting Benicio Del Toro. True, he's a bit older than Ledger, but I think he would make a great choice. He's been my choice to play Joker since I saw Sin City. I think if they were to use similar facial prosthetics that they used in Sin City, he would look a lot like The Joker. I'd also like to see Kenneth Branaugh do a screen test for the Joker. He's such a gifted actor, I love to just get a taste of what he would bring to the role.
 
True that true that but after seeing the trailors you could just see that Ledger not cause of his death is the best Joker of all time so far and has portayed that piece perfectly. The guy should get an oscar award award this movie. I don't even have to see it yet to tell he was a great Joker. Ledger rules!!!!
 
Well, that's a little ridiculous, to hail him as the best incarnation, without even seeing it yet. True, the trailers are fantastic, and true, the critics and his costars are singing his praises, but to make up your opinion based on other people's thoughts is just ignorant. There have been many incarnations of The Joker, most of which are strong within each of their own rights. I will personally not form an opinion until I see the finished product. For all we know, the best stuff was wasted on the trailers, something that happens all too frequently in Hollywood. However, this performance, actually, this movie in general looks to be very good, and I can't wait to see if it lives up to expectations, which, just by the looks of things, it appears that it will.
 

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