and you do realize that the only reason it raked in that much, was becuase there weren’t huge movies that came out all too often… they have had 5 such films, just this summer, and its not even movie season yet. which means that if it had the same stretch between it comming out and the next big thing that titanic got, then it would continue its success to a much greater magnitude than titanic. but since i think the mummies 3 comes out, and im sure something else huge soon after, that will start chipping away at its box office numbers… (also, had titanic been followed by a big chick flick then its numbers would have dead ended too, and actually been a box office flop.)

OMG, It’s like the best movie…ever.

There, I’ve joined in with the masses. All better?

Sorry guys. Five years at college gives us the right to be arseholes about our subjects from time to time.

Allow me to clarify. The defining aspect of a man’s inner struggle (in film) is the notion that he might not live to survive his peril or be fundamentally altered in the process of doing so. For this threat to to be believable, the audience must allow themselves to continually question the character’s future until the threat is resolved, either through man’s victory or the character’s death. Take, for example, another Heath Ledger film “Brokeback Mountain”. Until the very last scene, the audience is never totally sure whether or not Enis Del Mar will accept his lifestyle and his love or reject them for a life of solitude. In the end, the decision is made for him, and he (and we) are forced to accept the consequences of his actions, regardless of how pretty or ugly they may be. THAT is what the inner struggle of man is about.

Now, did anyone beyond the age of 7 honestly believe that Bruce Wayne was going to permanently hang up his cowl at any point in the film? Did anyone consider that Batman would not be utterly victorious by the film’s end? Had anyone thought of his battle-versus-the-forces-of-darkness even ending in a stalemate? Of course not - that is the POINT of a super hero film, after all. We all understand that the super hero is going to be victorious. The arc about Bruce Wayne “walking away” from Batman, therefore, is entirely symbolic and holds very little real dramatic value beyond that of a simple plot device. It is essentially wasted film. We KNOW Batman’s really not walking away, so why bother taking us through a highly melodramatic sequence that ends in exactly the way we all suspected? Because it’s bad story telling, that’s why.

It is drama on-a-stick and that’s exactly why I challenge the cinematic merit of films such as these. American audiences have been conditioned to accept poor story telling as canned plotlines as drama. A TV movie could have come up with the same script, sans the gargantuan effect budget. And I’m not particularly explosions because, in this era, any 12 year old with a copy of After Affects can generate nearly the same thing. You’ve seen one CGI explosion, you’ve pretty much seen them all. For $120 million dollars, I expect more than a fake building covered in fake fire and ascending into a fake chasm of death.

Finally, and I only say this as a matter of record, but it’s nearly blasphemous (or completely idiotic) for anyone to compare this film to “The Godfather”. Everyone knows what the Godfather is, so I’m sure that is your best attempt at quality cinema, but please show it a little more respect. D.K. is a slightly above average average franchise picture, at best. The Godfather, on the other hand, is universally regarded as one of the greatest achievements in cinematic history. People dolled out the same B.S. when Spiderman came out - if any of you are old enough to remember that. Super hero pictures are basically amusement park rides designed to generate revenue for the studio - period. Some are more artsy, some are less so, but they all serve the same purpose at the end of the day - and it’s not to beat Titanic at an Oscar race.

This movie is being claimed as one of the greatest movies of all time. your mother should disown you. That means this movie may be considered up to the level of the godfather (by the way the dark knight is a gangster movie, not in the traditional stereotypical italian shoot em’ up) which I’m sure you think is a crap movie anyway, let me guess you think sonny corleones death was to violent and wasn’t enough of a character arc for your taste.

I’m sorry i still cant get over the fact you think there is no arc for any character. The way Christopher Nolan turned Harvey Dent into Two-Face was magical…and believeable!!!

I will now discuss the joker… I’m not going to disagree that Jack played a great joker. He’s a great actor, no doubt. The way the characters were portrayed were polar opposites. I just have to cast my vote for Mr. Ledger, who did display more emotion and hatred. I would also like to point out the only reason i decided to rant and rave about your so called “expert posts” was that when i read it I almost instantly released my bowels. The fact that your only reasoning for your contempt of this movie is that you think it had to many explosions and was horribly told story is laughible to the point of soiling myself.

Now on to your comment about the movie being to filled with too many explosions. Thats why these movies are called action movies. However there is so much more to the movie, which is why it apeals to such a broad audience…. I guess except those who have aquired film degrees…… oh wait YES IT DID!!!!!

Can i just ask what films you do like???

back to what you said about the bats inner struggle, i’m sure you’ve heard this before, and it doesn’t get excluded in movies, “actions speak louder than words” how do you think they portrayed things in the silent age. there was still great acting without any speaking. also, sometimes less is more. the subtleties in everything that he does are how his struggle is shown and developed, you just aren’t looking very closely… i mean, i have a feeling that the explosions in the trailer, (which is supposed to garner excitement without giving too much away) put you off to the whole idea of the movie (not to mention that its a forbidden remake of already remade characters), and so going into the movie you held low expectations, which also leads to low concentration, focus, and understanding.

oh yeah
guess what, all those people who made horrible horrible movies, even the ones who made Soul Plane, or Gigli have film degrees, i’d say they still have pretty crappy creative eye’s. Not to mention all those who never get their chance to make a real movie becuase they have even worse creative “eyes”, yup they have film degrees too. and those critics who never have a clue what their talking about becuase their heads are too far up their own behinds, they have degree’s also…

show some modesty next time would ya…

and lastly
if you don’t like it, you should shut up. thats right, im telling you to shut up… you don’t have to go see it, you can donate $10 to charity instead, then we’ll all be happy, and the world will be a better place… if your not going to donate to charity and you aren’t going to see the film again, the i don’t quite care to hear anything from you, and neither does anyone else for that matter. its not like it was a bad movie that people should be warned about so all you’ve been doing, which means that all you’ve been doing is attempting to impose your opinion on other people.

(ps. gasp, don’t people get that when the joker says you’ll have to break your one rule, it foreshadows him killing Harvey Dent.?)

oops… stout critic… poor speller at 3 am… sry..
actualy, the only people that buy into that kind of hype are, well, the people creating it… but… come on , since when has an actor dying been this big a deal? the only reason we haven’t stopped “missing” ledger is becuase of his spectacular role, not the other way around. nobody cares about actors, (nobody sane anyway), they’re rich… (super rich), and we know nothing about them other than their roles or what magazines say… if you think him dying is what the excitement is about, then you buy into the media too easily… if they stopped using stupid circular chatter to garner rating off of someone elses death and a movies success, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation, becuase we would all just simply be able to agree, his performance was legendary, and the movie kicked *** too…

i am a very stout film critic, who does not take himself lightly on the matter, and i still haven’t heard one thing from you about the movie itself that made it not so great other than the fact that you don’t like explosions, and you grew up loving Nicholson’s joker.

classic yes, but i would not be frightened if he walked into the room with me, which would be rather odd with the joker being one of batman’s most fiendish rivals. thats why i believed Tim Burtan’s more child pleasing version deserved a more adult reappraisal.

a last note going back to your mention about action and explosions…
1. what would the city have to fear if the joker wasn’t blowing things up?
2. batman talked just as much as everyone else did if you had paid attention, if not you miss very many subtleties(and not just with him, but many of the characters), either way we all knew who the films real star was going to be as soon as the first movie ended.
3. its true two face’s character has been hastily portrayed in both batman films, but poorly portrayed? not at all. does harvey twoface deserve his own movie? yes. but could this one have existed if he had though? no… he’s the one the audience can invest their emotions in, if they held his reign off for a third film, then the joker would win and the only plot arch left available would be the love triangle. also the film would lose its biggest theme of corruption and the corruptibility of the just…
wow this is getting long, so lastly,
4. this movie, while rich with character development, digging deeper into the psyche than any previous batman film ever did, was more about the citizens of Gotham than anything else.
5. what was meaningless about the story telling, i mean, i hear what your saying, but theres nothing behind it other than ‘people are silly for likening this becuase its bad’

maybe you should see this movie again, and pay much closer attention than you did the first time you watched, becuase it seems you must have missed what the brilliant acting of an allstar cast led me and millions of others to see. and if you still don’t like it, be my guest to come here and give me reasons why that can be supported by the film itself, and not preconceived notions of what it is supposed to be, or what its supposed not to be. becuase what it is, is what mythology is, stories that invoke deep and meaningful thought over the gray area between right and wrong. if you wanted to not like the movie, then you’d ignore this thought, and so the movie would have no meaning at all for you…

would you like to tell me what i’m missing? why isn’t this movie great?

what you and many “haters” are missing is that your just as ill suited to judge as anyone else… i was born in 87, and no, im not missing anything. it was a great film, but since its getting super hyped and popular, all those who feel their above the crowd can’t simply agree with them, so they’ll say that a good movie is bad, just so they can feel above everyone else… that is what i call “elitism” are you an elitist tj(mr. meltbot)?