Heroes in the Dark- The Dark Knight!
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It amazed me no end that someone would try a equivalent of professional hara-kiri by redoing any film of Tim Burton. But Nolan did and gave such a fresh breath to the franchise with Batman Begins that The Dark Knight was the most anticipated film of the year!! He began with elan, is making merry with the knight and the journey has just begun.
And I am being extremely balanced and fair here when i say its worth every fucking minute!!!
I have unashamedly professed a love for comics before. Once the red and blue cape fantasies wore thin, Batman has always been the most intriguing amongst them all. Whilst Burton made Batman in his own signature style and Schumacher tried his bit to resuscitate the comic (pun very much intended) bit, Nolan reinvented!! The character depth and detailing which he gave Bale’s crusader is what prompted me and so many like me to book out the advanced tickets for the first few days. It would be safe to say that Batman Begins was a critical and commercial success (even with a few issues regarding the extremely fast fights) So how do you top that?
Well folks eaaaasy, you make the Dark Knight!!! Slow down a bit on the karate chops and punches, add a bit of flight and slick transport, make it the way you wanted, make it the way they wanted and smash every record in the process, including the ‘cool‘ometer!!!
3 act structure??!! any sorta structure be damned!!
We are thrown full on into the thick of things from the first frame onwards and Nolan never lets go. Clean clever precise climax worthy scenes strewn liberally every minute of this 2 and a half hour epic with no time for a breather. If there is a realistic image for Gotham this venture gets it bang on!! This one is full on entertainment without whoring out on the soul of it all. (I caught the late night weekday show in Melbourne and it felt like I walked into the premiere of Khakee at a theater in Mumbai!!)
I am pretty bad at predictions – see i tend to be an optimist than realist usually- i remember predicting a posthumous oscar when i saw the promos and trailer. It gives me great pleasure to announce that this time around i might have got it right on the dot!! The villains have always overshadowed the Batman in the earlier ventures. Even as Nolan gets the balance right in his pieces, The Joker shines through as the crafty cunning no gooder that he is. So too does 2 face. Ledger had the dialogues, the acts and the role to go overboard with. But his is the most measured performance of CRAZY that we will ever get to see for a while.
Simply put its TOPNOTCH everything all the way mateys…
I wouldnt miss it for anything.. heck /I’m gonna go for the IMAX treat this weekend!!! again…
Njaaaay… for its not everyday that you enter th dark confines of a theater expecting something good and get the that and more in return!!
(Forgive me for this rather impromptu short wank. Couldn’t hold on to it but better brief than spilling the beans i guess. we will talk more after you guys have seen it and after i check out the Imax experience. )
Tags: batman, Christian Bale, Christopher Nolan, Dark Knight, first review, heath ledger, micheal caine, Review, the dark knight, tim burton
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
sahi hai…..thanks Dpac…
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am getting worried, is it not releasing in india on the 18th or what!!! just checked the inox website there is nothing written in the advance booking page or anything…
i hope that this wont release a week later like in the case of pirates 3!!!!
CAN SOMEONE CONFIRM THAT ITS RELEASING HERE ON 18TH?
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Aah…the Joker!! So many memories!! Batman released in ‘89 was one of the first English movies I watched in theater with my father (because IIRC, the movie halls in my city were mostly occupied with ‘Adults only’ ‘Sirf Pukht vaya ke darshako ke liye’ English films)!! Also, as it happens rarely, the theater was selling Batman merchandise after the show, and I ended up buying lots of Batman stickers. My cupboard back home still boasts of those stickers.
Do you remember the Batman tv series where, whenever the Batman or Robin hit the villains, there was a sound and a pop-up bubble (or blast ;)) with words POW, BAM, BOOOSH..lol…so much fun!!
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guess with all these post-modernism sentiments ,the weaker a super-hero the better it is ,that’s why no one likes superman any more ,but in any case batman begins was the best of all super hero movies in the past few years(spidy 2 was quite close to it but not the same)and I am eagerly awaiting “the dark knight” to hit the screens.
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What growth for Nolan!!
From DIY Following made for probably under $10,000 to this $150 MM blockbuster, without ever comprising his storytelling abilities.
I was watching the making of yesterday, and I have to say Ledger is electric. Every time he’s on screen, it is terrific. Nicholson was over the top clownish with traces of evil, but Ledger seems to be IT.
I feel a little bad for the others because it seems like a great ensemble cast that has performed terrifically – Bale, Gary Oldman, Freeman, Caine, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gylenhaal…I mean I woulod watch any of these actors in a movie, and to have them all in one? I hope people don’t overlook that because of Ledger’s death.
and yes, this is the first time i felt like i really got the feel for Gotham, and ooh cool explosions and shit. i got my knickers in a twist already. can’t wait for IMAX tomorrow.
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I have been waiting for this film for a long time now. I have been a fan of Batman for as long as I can remember and this seems to be the definitive Batman movie. I can’t wait any longer!
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Whoa…This “improntu short wank” is enough to make one want to watch the movie. Thanks DPac…
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Gary Oldman was Conan O Brien’s Show last night & he was saying that there is very few CGI in the film.
WOW!
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@va-
RRRrunnnn
@R Rick,
sorry dude no idea!!
@ tejas u bet !!! KABooooM!!!
@vineet,
it aint that brotha. its the dimensions added to the character.. plus the fact that this hood is self made…
iron man is too cocky for my taste..
@dabba…
yeah the taaliyan will be there for ledger. but the ensemble wont be overlooked…
i am surprised with ledger..
heres the most amaZing rework of a dark dude in years and he simply refuses to come out blaring from the woodwork..
he somehow manages to shine within…
see it u will understand what i mean
@vishesh n arthi
u guys are in for a treat
@all..
had to sit thru half n hour of cheesy ads to get to see this one… hope u guys are luckier
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Mainak…
i didnt overlook tht
u know, if i dont mention CGI in a post about a summer superhero blockbuster even once, its got everything in the right place
only thing to add would be the contribution of the other Nolan ..
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Releasing inn India on the 18 th
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Its releasing in India on 18th itself but advance bookings have not started at IMAX till now!! other multiplexs have opened bookings for TDK btw. Damn … i have to watch it at IMAX and nowhere else :((
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i am watching it tomorrow 10:45 show
imax gold :D
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Dpac, did u manage to see a trailer of watchmen? how was it? i dont know whether they will be showing it in india
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@papai
no watchmen trailer as yet…
dunno if its eve released online..
all i found was the making of featurette
http://watchmen–trailer.blogspot.com/
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and heres the trailer
http://www.cinematical.com/2008/07/17/the-watchmen-trailer-is-here/
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thanks !
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Bull’s eye!!! I mean, Jack Nicholson’s take on Joker was maybe one of the greatest villains per se, BUT Heath Ledger in Dark Knight? He’s ‘THE’ Joker, man! For any ‘Bat-fan’ who’s intrigued and fascinated and scared-out-of-wits by the sheer darkness and over the top eccentricity of the character in the comics and graphic novels, Ledger’s is the definitive portrayal of pure and unadulterated EVIL that The Joker is. No motive, no defined interests, but sheer evil and a desire to wreak endless havoc- if Joker was to come alive from the pages of DC, it would have looked exactly like that…Ledger achieved that and more! Will sound insanely crazy but I somehow feel that playing that character, getting into the ’skin’ of the joker the way Ledger did, might have somehow added to his torment and eventual drug overdose that led to his unfortunate and untimely demise. What am I saying? Going way overboard maybe- but so is the performance!
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Amborish – on that getting into the ’skin’ of the character part – that is something Jack Nicholson quoted after the death of Ledger. Apparently Jack said that he had warned Heath about the eccentricity of the character of Joker, and how playing it could affect the actors themselves. It probably did take its toll on Nicholson as well.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/01/24/2008-01-24_jack_nicholson_warned_heath_ledger_on_jo.html
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@amborish,
when goth became mainstream Nicholson’s performance lost quite a bit of its venom. (and u mean accidental prescription drug overdose rt :-)
and love this line from the NYT review
“”No matter how cynical you feel about Hollywood, it is hard not to fall for a film that makes room for a shot of the Joker leaning out the window of a stolen police car and laughing into the wind, the city’s colored lights gleaming behind him like jewels.”"
thnkx for the link Tejas
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AND the sound design team is gonna be rich with awards…!!
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Hey DPac, wonder what Anurag has to say about this performance – given he’s one who always stuck to explorations of Darkness as his forte?
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keep the lookout for soundbytes from him..
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