The Dark Knight TDK Press Screenings

[sasquatchs]

For reference here's the first 2 pages of the RT stuff from my cache. There's only a couple of unique bits though

There should be no spoilers in this review if you've at least seen the trailer. But I will be posting spoilers throughout the thread in response to reader questions. I, of course, will mark them accordingly. Enjoy.

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He's the hero when Gotham needs one - thanklessly fighting the evil that all of us fear; but that we all have within us. When necessary he will turn and take the blame for all that has gone wrong. He is whatever the city needs him to be. He is unflinching and uncorruptable. He is Batman.

This theme runs throughout The Dark Knight - which is, the darkest, unforgiving Batman movie I have ever seen - and Christopher Nolan's epic masterpiece. We either die the hero, or live to see ourselves become the villian.

It seems the streets are safer in Gotham, and crime lords now fear the night - however, from the opening shot we get a forboding sense of the evil to come. And evil comes - in a opening bank heist sequence that I would never dare give away - we meet the Joker. I find it difficult to put into words exactly how i felt watching Heath Ledger portray the joker, now that he has passed - it almost pains me to think that he will never get to see this movie. He has created one of the most mercilessly evil characters I have ever seen on screen, one that actually disturbed me from time to time because i didn't know what he would do next - one that nearly gaurantees him an Oscar nomination. From the moment he shares his first "magic trick" with the table of crime lords, he will stun you - you will not look away when he is on screen. I think he will make some people unsettled.

As the crime lords unite and align under one leader, "The Joker" - with one purpose - "Kill The Batman" - it may seem like our hero Batman takes the backseat here, and you would be slightly correct. While Christian Bale is amazing as always, this is Heath Ledger's show. But Batman is back with a slick new bike, new suit, and a mess of gadgets from Morgan Freeman - that Christopher Nolan of course takes ample time to explain. I have to say that Aaron Eckhart sometimes rubs me the wrong way, but he is great here as Harvey Dent - the shining ray of hope for Gotham, and Two Face - the evil he has become. Make no mistake, Two Face is not some gag reveal tacked on at the end of the film - no, Two Face is a seriously grotesque villian not to be taken lightly; heads you live, tails you die. Maggie Gyllenhaal is a much stronger character than Katie Holmes' version - and creates a dynamic love triangle between her, Wayne, and Harvey Dent.

The series themes of violent escalation take effect, and things quickly become out of control as the Joker holds the city hostage and stages several nightmare scenarios - forcing innocents to make sadistic decisions. Christopher Nolan holds nothing back. Tumbler and batpod chases ensue, evenly matched with bone crunching fist fights where Bale shows off the strength off his new glove hydrolics. Even when faith is lost, and it appears things are at their worst Batman thanklessly fights on - until two principle showdowns when decisions are made, and characters are defined.

This movie is beautifully paced by Nolan, with a very strong script. His action sequences are a marvel to behold (an end over end tractor trailer flip had the audience gasping), George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have been made to look like complete fools this summer. There is just a scant of CGI to be seen throughout - at one moment a helicopter was crashing and I was thinking, "here come the computer effects", but no - real flaming wreckage.

Dark Knight will excite you one moment, terrify you the next, and then will grip your heart to see the tragic falls of several main characters - no one is safe in this film. Ledger's performance is not one you will forget quickly, he channeled evil for this role, and I am not taken aback easily. Nolan continues his grand opus that he has been orchestrating since Batman Begins, and will continue on into a third film i am sure. Which is good because Dark Knight ends with a slightly "to be continued" feel to it. This is the movie of the summer, and one of the smartest action movies ever made.

Now just try to hold your excitement for a few more weeks.

9.5/10 - One of the great, dark, comic book epics to ever grace the screen.

It is epic.

An opening sequence uses Batman 'copy cats' with shotguns led by the Scarecrow. Where is the real batman? CRASH - the tumbler comes bursting through the wall - but it's empty - just a distraction. From the shadows the copy cats get laid out one by one from bone crunching hits.

Later - There is an epic sequence when the Gotham swat team are escorting Harvey Dent in an armor car convoy (Joker publicly threatens his life) - when a tractor trailer pulls up next to the convoy. The doors fly open revealing the Joker and his men as they lay seige to the convoy from the belly of the truck. Batman gives chase in the tumbler but is wiped out. And just when we think he's done - the tumbler splits and the badpod launches out - the chase is on!

I guess I didn't give it a 10/10 because it didn't feel completely wrapped up - it left me with a 'to be continued' feeling. Similar to the first movie, events have drawn to a conclusion, but there is so much more to be done - Batman's got more problems when the movie ends than when it started. I guess that's the beauty of Batman though, he keeps fighting against and endless evil.

Ledger has some great performances under his belt, and this is his scariest creation and one that I personally think will score him an Oscar nom.

The hand to hand combat is much better, and there are a lot of fight scenes. It's not so hard to make out what's going on this time, Batman lays A LOT of beat down on bad guys.

I thought before that Spiderman 2 was probably the best comic book that's been made so far - but Dark Knight has superior writing. While Spiderman 2 is good for all ages, Dark Knight is the movie us Batman fans have been waiting for.

It was better than the first one, while the first one was a great, great origin story - this movie is what we've been waiting for, the real meat of this series. This is what the first movie was preparing us for.

It surpassed my expectations - sometimes directors struggle creating the same feeling in the sequel, but Nolan's script is fantastic and his directing is pitch-perfect. I can't wait to see it again when it opens.

People clapped at the end, and throughout the movie. There were also several collective gasps when events shocked the audience.

***SPOILER****

One gasp inducing moment is when Joker is introducing himself to the table of crime lords. He shows them a magic trick where he makes a pencil disappear. You will be stunned.

No it's ok. Let me see if I can answer you.

****SPOILER****SPOILER****

So the Batpod does come out of the tumbler, but it doesn't take away from the realism, or seem Burton-esque. When Batman gets wiped out in the tumbler, we switch to a view of the cockpit HUD. We can see that the front left wheel of the tumbler serves as the front wheel of the batpod. The tumbler splits (limited CGI here), and two side mounted guns flip up - then he takes off - stunning the crowd that had started to gather around the wreckage. Then BOOM - the tumbler wreckage self destructs leaving no evidence.

I said An opening sequence uses Batman 'copy cats' - not The open scene. The opening scene is, as you stated, an amazingly crafted bank heist.

I don't have a ticket to take a picture of, they don't give tickets to employee screenings.

***SPOILER***SPOILER***

Like I said, I didn't give it that last .5 because it didn't feel completely wrapped up at the end. Certain storylines are finished, yes, but Batman is left with more problems than he started with - and is on the run.

It's one of the best, darkest, and brilliantly written action comic movies to ever be made.

Scarecrow is small time here. After a great beginning sequence with him, he doesn't reappear in the film. Batman has more to deal with than some punk spraying hallucinogens - there are serious, deadly forces at play here and a realistic city that honestly feels like it is in great danger. Joker makes Scarecrow look like Mr. Rodgers.

I know that his Batman voice bothered some people, and it's back again in this film. I personally like it, because it's like his 'other side', and he's hiding Bruce Wayne.

***SPOILER***SPOILER***

Batman is a seasoned crime fighter and much darker here. At times when dealing with the Joker he straddles the fine line between Hero and Villian, the beauty of Bale's performance is that he knows he has to be a bad guy to fight this kind of evil, because the Joker doesn't play by any rules. He destroys, maimes, and kills - and not because he has a plan, but because he likes it. But Bale also knows he must be the hero, that's what separates him from the villians.

The Joker likes to tell stories to his victims, usually stories dealing with how he got his scars. He always tells a different story, and we are never sure how he got them or when he's telling the truth. One particular scene, while holding a knife to the face of a victim he says, "My daddy was a evil bastard. He would drink, and one night he took a knife to my face, and said - 'Why So Serious?', 'Why So Serious?', 'Let's put a smiiiiile on the face!". I have chills just remembering it. Joker's makeup gets more and more worndown as the film progresses until the end when it looks like open sores on his face. Nolan takes Two-Face to an extreme even i wasn't expecting.

This bit in the trailer when Joker says, "You have fight in you, I like that" - and out of nowhere Batman appears, "Then you're gonna love me" - POW. That's not cut up for the trailer, it happens just like that in a scene that will make you clap and cheer.

I think Nolan got the message about expanding the fight scenes, because hand to hand combat is Batman's bread and butter.

Joker makes you chuckled a few times, and seeing stunned reactions of cops and pedestrians to the action that is going on can make you laugh here and there. But it's really the darkest, unforgiving Batman movie ever made.

This is a great scene where we realize just how crazy Joker is. To prove he doesn't care about money at all, and just is totally insane - he burns the huge stack of money he and his cronies just fought to obtain, and there's a great shot of him in front of it. "It's all about sending a message", he says. He doesn't need payment, he just enjoys causing death and destruction.

 

[Commodore Schmidlapp]

So is the Rotten Tomatoes guy for real after all? It's kind of looking that way...

It appears so.

 

[Schlosser85]

If he's really legit, that makes me happy, because his stuff sounded great.

 

[Mangelo]

Hello, Batfans! Another newbie here, but I'm a long time "troller."

This is a legit review that I just pulled off of Rolling Stone on-line:

The Dark Knight

Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

RS: 3.5 of 4 Stars Average

2008 Warner Bros. Pictures Action



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, ***** 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.


PETER TRAVERS

 

[lordofthenerds]

Wow, this movie sounds beyond awesome. Could this get better reviews than Iron Man?

 

[Mister J]

The handful of reviews threads that had popped up over have been closed in favor of the central one, stickied at the top of the board. I ran through the recently closed threads, grabbed what links or cut/paste reviews that I saw and edited them into the first post or re-posted them in the sticky. Merging just would have been messy and, at least for the time being, it's easy to identify the actual link to the review.

In going forward, please use the sticky to post new reviews that you come across. One thread of rapid fanboys happily agreeing with positive reviews and bitterly taking offense to less than sterling reviews is plenty.

http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=305539