WARNER BROS OFFICIALLY KICKS SUPERMAN RETURNS TO THE CURB
It’s especially daffy when you think about the rest of DC’s heroes – who operate in more science fiction/supernatural worlds than Batman – being saddled with the oppressive ‘reality’ that made Batman Begins so intellectually unsatisfying and more than once threatened to capsize The Dark Knight.
Well fuck me! It appears I’m not the only one to see some negative aspects in the gritty realism of The Dark Knight. Though I may not agree on Batman Begins, I thought it had just enough surrealism for me to believe that a guy could be running around in a bat suit scaring the living shit out of bad guys.
This was my major gripe with TDK, it was the “all too real” feel to the movie, right from the get-go, and the bank-job looked like it was a cross between Heat and Point Break not a superhero flick. And it was Chicago, you can hide the landmarks all you want it still looked like Chicago, not Gotham. At least in Batman Begins there were enough features, like the train system, to give it that just-a-little-left-of-real feel, a small disconnect from our reality and a big enough suspension of disbelief to make Batman believable as a character – And the villains also.
Scarecrow looked like a freaking moron in TDK just walking around in a parking lot. While in the dingy and dirty asylum he was believable. Not to mention over the top mob bosses who fit in Batman Begins but look like dilweeds with their comical stereotypical ethnic diversity cliché.
If it weren’t for Heath Ledger’s brilliant Joker and that amazing Batpod, the movie, despite its amazing morality play and social commentary on everything wicked – from torture to illegal surveillance – that has transpired from the 9/11 tragedy would have sucked. Yes Yes I know the Joker’s magic trick, shock and awe. I think the whole movie was a huge fucking allegory on the war on terror. And I love allegories; it’s why I worship at the Altar of the Cylons. But by making TDK so bloody real it took the suspension of disbelief away with it.
And of course everyone is just begging for another helping of Batman. Right. Unless you invent a new vilain, who can you setup in this universe that Nolan has created? There’s no room for the supernatural vilains that populate the Batman’s comic universe. And if you do turn this now very sedate and very real drama back to its more surreal aspects will the hordes of movie fans accept this turn? I think not. And after what probably is one of the best evil characters since Hannibal, where do you go from there? (And if you haven’t read the script, Two-Face is DEAD)
In the search for cinematical greatness, Nolan shot Batman in the foot. I know who can do this…Joss.
I think Nolan knows exactly where he wants to take this in the 3rd movie.
I think he said somewhere that he didn’t like the Penguin which is my favorite for the 3rd.
Well I read on a few sites that Nolan was basically out of the third act. People are already talking about potential replacements as director. Like Whedon and some other dude I cant remember right now.
I have read that Nolan has not signed on yet for the third. but I can’t imagine them not bringing him back after TDK had the second largest gross of all time.
**shrugs**
I liked TDK.
You are really hard to please.
Dude, you are so right, That’s what I’ve been saying all along!To everybody. but nobody listens!
Now don’t get me wrong, TDK was a great movie, but it’s a stand alone movie.
Something that has nothing to do with the batman universe!
I too found this movie completely disappointing in the batman aspect, it’s everything BUT batman!
And that was not Gotham; you could tell it was Chicago from a mile away, hell he was standing on the Sears tower, what the hell was up with that?
Like I said a great movie, one of the best movies of all time, but not Batman.
I think they should bring back Tim Burton; he was the only one to truly understand Batman as a character and person!
-Matt