spacemaster83

One actor does not always a film make. First, before everyone rips my head off with comments, I must say Ledger is amazing. I do not think that there are many modern versatile actors. Too Bad he is gone. And this is definitely a poignant, revealing, deeply moving swan song for him.
Now this being said I must criticize this film for a second. With all respect to Nolan, I do not see why people are so ga- ga over Bale as Batman. Truth be told he is really not that well versed in heroic voices. He spends most of role sounding like he is constipated. This is not to say I hate Bale, most assuredly I do not. I actually think he is quite talented. But I do not like him as Batman. He is too gruff and sketchy in his role in society, and definitely not the Dark Knight of Frank Miller's envisionment.

Some plots are slightly off in the film, such as Harvey Dent's racing rise and fall. It took Harvey a long time to become Two Face and this is not explored. Also, there is a medical fallacy, you can not ever go walking around with your epidermis cut away, so that your bone exposed. That made me laugh so hard. If there is one thing that Batman has always presented it is some degree of reality. Those scenes are just ludicrous to say the least. I am not sure whether the Nolans thought that and just did it anyways as a joke. If it is a joke then I get it, if it is not then it is a serious miscalculation.

There are other holes in film too. To be specific, the editing is much too jumpy and jarring. Some scenes, I feel should be rearranged for maximum effect. Such as the events that lead to the deaths. And the fights between Batman and the Joker at the end. It is a little bit disorienting in places, and sometimes downright annoying, as in the chase sequence, where objects just appear to be totaled and then they are still going. Hmmm?

Some moments are very tightly edited, starting with the first sequence at the bank. This is so taunt and well executed, one forgets it is a Batman film. Until we see the Joker it is much more in the vain of say Heat. The scenes are arranged very effectively.

But I can not overlook the music. I am surprised Hans Zimmer was part of the process. I am wondering now, if Zimmer really had much to do with it. It is not a very effective score, action films do not have to have head pounding, bass booming boring scores. Batman (1989, had a excellent score by Elfman (Danny) ) and of course films like Apollo 13, Kill Bill, Heat, X-Men, Spiderman 1,2,3 ; Air Force One and many more action films come to mind.

Music is so important to the medium of film. This score is not great, it not even suited to the story. You could take the score and stick on any horror film or Steven King story and it would work. Not that Steven King films all have weak scores, but some most definitely do.

I hate to harp on this next point, but Batman is not a horror story in any regard. He is not supposed to give you nightmares, criminals perhaps, but not ordinary citizens. The Joker is insane, he is a maniac to the extreme and very immune to human emotion. However, The Clown Prince of Crime is not so careless and under fashioned conscience. The costume here is neglectfully dealt with. Part of the joke of the Joker, is that he is a snappy dresser. Much more a kin to this aspect is Cesar Romero or even Jack Nicholson. His hair is always immaculate, clothes well fitting and pressed, shoes polished, and you can spot him in any crowd.

Moreover, he is most impressed with Batman and he wants to kill him!! Why did they neglect this aspect. He wants Batman dead, and Batman in this film is so weak. The Batman and the Joker are not equals! Batman is most distinctly stronger, smarter, faster, and much more willing to give in for the better of the population. The Joker must be treated as a clown, not a killer, a butcher or the exaggeration of any these. You lose the character here and he becomes a average crook. Just a slaughterer. He has to be treated as more of an imp, a force to be dealt with, he is weak in strength, but strong in accomplices and jokes, gags, tricks and ideas for crimes. This was not done in any regard.

The Batman must always be the symbol of good. The Joker evil. He can not go around blowing everything up though. That is not his way. He is much more interested in crime. He is not a terrorist. He is a mastermind and famous make up expert. He inspires what has been described as “laughing larceny”. He loves crime, not terrorism. He is as mad as the Mad Hatter, but he is not flighty or stupid. Everything he does is drive Batman crazy.

This is not what is the focus of the picture. The focus is gaining control of the underworld. This is his second goal, most of all he wants Batman dead. He lies about this in the picture. He most assuredly wants to beat Batman. He realizes that in order to become a success he must defeat who sees as his equal. The Batman is not in this frame of mind, all criminals are below him and society. This is of the utmost importance. This slight can not be overlooked.

All this in mind, it is quite a unique picture. Like nothing I have ever seen before. Performances to watch: HEATH LEDGER, GARY OLDMAN, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Bottom Line: Do not expect a Batman story, as much as a horror story. If you like that more power to you. Batman does not come off very well in this version.

Perhaps the ultimate "children's" film ever made, Oz helps us find the kid in all of us again. The mythical tale, based on Frank L. Baum's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz comes superbly to life in MGM's grand epic structure. Over fourteen screenwriters, five directors, scores of technicians, lighting , sound, and musicians brought the 1939 classic triumph together. Most likely Judy Garland's most beloved character turn, she was thought too old for the part, but she not only pulled it off, she made us redefine what it is to be young and scared and alone, and a good friend.

Citizen Kane is without much doubt the most debated and most revered film of anyone who has ever seriously taken up film study. A Director's film, it is lavish, over the top, expensive and expansive. It is a legend in the annals of Hollywood Studio Filmmaking in the early 1940's. Never has anything come to the screen like it and probably never will. A bold proposition that poked fun at real life tycoon William Randolph Hearst, it ripped apart big business and politics at a time when it was taboo to do so.

Perhaps the most under appreciated of Keaton's comedies, the 1924 classic parodied detectives, films and idle mindedness all at the same time. It helped paint a picture of what film could do when not strapped down to straight forward narrative conventions. Keaton brought new life to the screen comedy and showed us more than ever that he was not above insulting or diminishing his pride to make us laugh.

It has been called the film that launched Science Fiction films as a genre, well if you do not count such films as a Trip to the Moon by George Milies. However, it can be said that it helped develop a sense of panic the shape and position modern man in technological times. Perhaps more a keen to Blade Runner or The Matrix in a even more technological turmoiled world shows us that Metropolis still holds as much weight in 2008 as it did in 1927.

Die Letzte Mann was a 1924 gem made by F. W. Murnau at time when it was greatly viewed as a success to the older generation who the world seem to be casting aside for younger, hipper, more modern thinking. The film shows the life, failure, loss and finally in a fantasy sequence, success of a doorman who is played by very able and flexible Emil Jannings. The Last Laugh (English title) show us that old people are worth much more then we sometimes treat them as.

Chaplin was never ever one to shy away from being controversial. He also never one to take the medium of film lightly. Though he almost exclusively produced and directed comedies in his whirlwind Hollywood film career, he was nevertheless aware of the power and scope cinema could have. No surprise then that he chose as his victim of ridicule in 1940 the personage of Hitler the then revered German Dictator and the plight of the Jewish people of Europe. Called a traitor by some of his own friends at the time, Chaplin was not at all praising Hitler as some thought but was rather pointing out the obvious fact that the Hitler like all Dictators and Emperors would eventually lose the power that he took from his people and country.