Vince’s Take 

If Batman: The Long Halloween and The Killing Joke had a baby it would be Dark Knight.  Having read both graphic novels I can say it definitely takes after its father; assuming that the father is The Long Halloween.  To my understanding The Killing Joke was supposed to be a major inspiration for the film.  That may be true, but it does show in the plot.

Hands down my favorite part of this movie is the heavy involvement of Harvey Dent.  Not only is Dent a joy to watch, but his involvement in The Long Halloween is heavily drawn upon for the events of the movie while not ruining the events of the thirteen issue comic book.  Good job, writers.  That’s impressive.  Upon hearing of Aaron Eckhart’s involvement I was immediately excited, and having him as a major character in the movie couldn’t have been more satisfying.  Eckhart is every bit as strong of a hero (at least partly *wink wink*) as Bale and Oldman, and is a welcome addition to the team.

Good ‘ol Batsie doesn’t disappoint.  Christian Bale brings the same intensity that we saw in Batman Begins.  I don’t have much to say about his performance because I’ve pretty much accepted that Christian Bale really is Batman.  The emotional pulls in this movie are too great to confirmedly label one character as the heart in the movie, but, in my opinion, it’s Lt. Gordon.  Tragedy and heroism exists win Gordon as a special variety distinct from Gotham’s White Knight and Dark Knight.

As for the Joker, I thought there was only a few moments where the characterization seemed watered down, but that can easily be explained away.  Ledger is chilling and hilarious as the Clown Prince of Crime.  I had my worries that the Joker was going to be too dark to be in keeping with what the Joker was supposed to be: a madman with a demented sense of humor that the audience will judge themselves a little for laughing with.  I must say, I worried for nothing.  They delivered and then some.  Particularly in the laugh, I think there’s even a slight reminiscence of Nicholson’s Joker while allowing Nolan and Ledger to make it their own.

I felt the movie had a little too much action in it.  I found myself asking, “How much can the Joker actually plan in advance?”  I assume his recourses are the same as that of the various crime bosses in town, but still his terrorist acts happen with such frequency I question the feasibility of the events within the time period given versus the Joker’s ability to create those plans and execute them as intended.  And there’s my only major complaint.  I loved this movie, guys.  Do not miss it for your own sake.

Cap’n Logan’s Take

Comic book films are far too often worrying about their audience’s attention spans. They need to knock this off. The difference between Dark Knight and most “seroius” comic book movies is about a half hour. That’s the time that makes the difference between being just an action thriller and a real mind-bender. Dark Knight takes its time– it’s two and a half hours long– and gets to be both.

I can’t think of another comic book movie that has so much story. I haven’t seen a lot of recent movies period whose plot gets nearly this complex. I don’ know anything about the novelization, but it could very easily be written between three and four hundred pages. Despite that many of these are characters we know from the first film and that there are certain things that simply must be done when dealing with the Joker and Two-Face, it’s not predictable. Spider-Man had two and a half villains (yes, I’m counting New Goblin as the half villain) and it couldn’t juggle all of its characters. Joker and Harvey Dent/Two Face are well developed, each have full and logically interconnecting stories, and Bruce Wayne/Batman, Alfred, Lucius Fox, Gordon, and Rachel are still three dimensional characters who grow, change, and matter. As Vince hinted at, this is a film not just about the Joker, as Tim Burton’s film was, and isn’t just about Batman, as Begins very appropriately was– it’s as much about Gordon as it is about anything. We care about him, we applaud for him, and we cry for him. Boy, do we cry for him.

The Dark Knight is an apt title– Nolan couldn’t make a darker film. There are points where the film is almost so depressing it’s no longer entertaining… but that’s only because we have so much invested in these characters, and that’s amazing in one film, since many of those are people we didn’t get to know last time. We don’t want Harvey to become Two-Face. We don’t want Batman to have to make the tough decisions that almost break him.

And the best part– Joker orchestrates all of it. If it weren’t for the incredible complexity of turning Harvey Dent from the most decent man in Gotham, the man who has single-handedly changed things as much as Batman, I’d say Joker didn’t get enough screen time, because he’s so interesting. He’s not interested in money or fame– he just wants to make a point: you can bring the most decent person in the world down in the most unspeakably evil way, and you can do it for very little coin. This is a Joker with actual principles. They’re twisted, but they’re principles, and though he’s a killer and a lier, he never goes against those principles. And the best thing about him is that we never know exactly how he got to be how he is because he keeps telling conflicting back stories about himself. He’s as complex as Batman, very much his opposite, and though he’s a mystery, he’s multi-layered and we can tell that if we knew what really happened to him, we’d probably feel a little sorry for him.

Problems? I’m the only person on the Internet who’s probably saying this, but I liked Katie Holmes and I missed her. Rachel looked a lot older and I kept having to remind myself it was the same character. Not a problem with the writing, but this was not the continuity to change an actress with such a pivotal role. I would have liked more original scoring– I expected themes from Begins to come up, but I had hoped at least Joker woud get his own melody. I didn’t like that the one trade-off for Batman’s new costume was that it would be more vulnerable to gun fire and knife wounds. It seemed like a plot contrivance so Joker would be more of a match for him. And I really would have liked Wayne and Dent to have already been friends before the film began, because, while the film did develop that aspect enough for us to buy it when Dent is destroyed and then corrupted, it could have been that much more bittersweet for Batman.

And the saddest thing of all is after layers upon layers of real substance, as the movie proves, even more than Iron Man, the real validity a comic book film can have (a point made by Roger Ebert), after Batman and the Joker build that real comic book rivalry, and after Joker gets the incredible line, “You and I are destined to do this forever…” we’ll never get to see him again.

Beware the Spoilers

When I first heard Bruce Timm was doing an animated movie that would take place between Batman Begins and Dark Knight, I was excited. But I became less excited when I learned it was not only going to be in anime style, but also in vignettes. I’ll admit I have a general distaste for anime, but even beyond that, this all sounded like too much for one movie to handle, and it was.

There are six short films, all done in an anime style and each done by a different director, much like the Animatrix. Somehow, this worked better for the Matrix than it did for Batman. I think a lot of that is because Matrix is about a particular universe more than it is about a single individual– yeah, the movies are mostly about Neo, but he’s in every scene, and none of the Animatrix is really about him. Obviously Gotham Knight had to be exclusively about Batman himself. But in none of these six short films is the psychology of Batman really explored like it was in Batman: The Animated Series. In some of the films, a very simple story is told, and I understand it, but I wonder what the overall message is supposed to be. Others are quite disjointed, throwng up a lot of bizarre images, but not telling much of a story, and I still find myself wondering what the point is.

 When I read or watch a Batman story, I want it to be straight forward, with a clear beginning, middle, and end. I don’t care what the format is, anime or not. Art films can be made legitimately with other properties, but you shouldn’t do it with Batman. An attempt at a comic book art film is what made the first Hulk film so lame. Comics can be serious, they can make a point, but I don’t think they should be so “innovative” that they can’t hold an audience.

Understand that I found a couple of these short films to be quite interesting and entertaining, but I was jarred through the whole movie by trying to keep my continuity straight. All of this is supposed to be in the Begins/Dark Knight continuity, but Kevin Conroy is doing Batman’s voice in every film. Don’t get me wrong, Conroy is the best Batman ever in my opinion, but I’m used to hearing him in the Bruce Timm continuity. He and Christian Bale, though both playing dark, are still playing two entirely different versions of Batman.

The first of the films, “I’ve Got a Story For You,” is cool in concept but ultimately doesn’t have much of a point. It’s about three kids, each with a different Batman story, each perceiving Batman in an entirely different way. It spends so much time showng elborate fight scenes that obviously didn’t happen the way the kids narrate them that lmost no real plot is told, and it amounts to an inferior version of a fantastic Batman: TAS episode called “Almost Got ‘Em.”

My favorite is the second, “Crossfire,” which is most closely related to Begins. It’s about two cops who take a prisoner, who Batman delivered to Gordon, across the Narrows, which is now filled with nothing but inmates after the events of Begins. There is a lot of commentary about whether Batman is a vigilante and how much good or bad he’s been doing for Gotham since Begins. Batman looks his best in this one and has a very epic fight scene in the midst of a huge fire. This is the closest the movie gets to using an anime style that serves Batman well.

“Field Test” is another one that’s excellent in theory but badly executed. It has one of the most desracting animation styles (I just can’t get around a Bruce Wayne who looks like that) and it moves far too slow in pace for being so short. It does have one of the best and clearest messages, however. Basically, Bruce gets an invention from Lucius Fox that makes him almost invincible, but the risk to his enemies is too great, so he opts to risk his own life rather than theirs. With an idea like that, it’s too bad the writing wasn’t better.

“In Darkness Dwells” has an absolutely steller script, probably the best writing in the whole movie. It reads much like an early Batman: TAS episode or a recent comic. Unfortunately, it’s the worst animation in the entire piece. It’s so gritty that the people hardly even look like people. Killer Croc doesn’t look like he has a rare skin disease, he looks like he’s a giant monster from another planet– he doesn’t even look lizard-like! And Batman’s got the stupidest looking costume in this one. Watch it for yourself, though– the story’s good enough I’d rather not spoil it.

“Working Through Pain” is nothing short of an abomination. No story is told here whatsoever. It’s hard to tell what exactly this thing is trying to do. At the very beginning, Batman’s in the sewer (we have no idea why) and some guy walks up and shoots him. Batman. Only two people down there and Batman gets shot by some random thuggish guy who is obviously still on Scarecrow’s fear toxin for some reason. The bullet hits Batman’s side and he crawls around bleeding and having flashbacks of some Indian woman he went to train with. We have no idea when this was, or if he was Batman yet when it happened (I get the feeling it was). But this is Begins continuity, so why would he go train for months with someone when he’s already been through his training with Ducard? And, why isn’t he wearing any body armor so he won’t bleed to death in the sewer? There seems to be no real point to these flashbacks, and at the end, Batman’s found a whole bunch of guns in the sewer he wants to take back with him, and he looks really sad about it. Okay. Batman hates guns. Knew that. And that’s all I really got from this. Lamest, most pethetic Batman ever, and he’s lucky he’s made it this long.

The final film, “Deadshot,” is pretty solid. It, too, has an anti-gun message, but it makes more sense than the other. It ties Batman’s hatred to guns directly to his parents’ murder, which at least brings the original mythos in and makes it feel a little more like Batman. Bruce keeps a collection of guns, not to use, but to better understand his enemies– he says that guns give you the power of God, and while he calls that an “attraction” he can understand, it seems to be the very reason he won’t use one. This one finally delves at least a little into his psyche, and I liked that, but I still prefered the epic mysteriousness in “Crossfire.” The story here, about a sniper going after Gordon to bring out Batman, isn’t bad.

It’s worth taking a look at, but unless you’re a big collector like myself and want everything with Batman filmed in your collection, you might rent this one. I don’t imagine it’ll ever be on my frequenly watched list.

LLAP

 -Cap’n Logan