The Imagination of Fantasy

THE DARK KNIGHT

Who's seen it?  I just did, and I know I'm behind the times, so someone else in this group has to have seen it!

I have lots of thoughts, but let's hear yours first.

Re:THE DARK KNIGHT

pippin06:

Who's seen it?  I just did, and I know I'm behind the times, so someone else in this group has to have seen it!

I have lots of thoughts, but let's hear yours first.

I've seen it.

I've actually been dealing with some sickness and anxiety lately.  And I felt compelled to see the movie because so many people were asking me to go and everyone was just talking about it anyways.  But when I saw it, I felt sick and anxious and the mood of that movie does not help!

Anyways I thought it was good, but as I had expected, I didn't think it was as great as the outrageous hype.  But I'm not surprised by the hype either.

*SPOILERS*

My opinion is that at the end you just feel really bad that Heath is dead since there's no resolution with the Joker character and it's pretty clear they were planning on bringning him back.  And since pretty much all of the enjoyment of the movie comes from the Joker that's a disappointment.  It's not like Katie Holmes and Maggie Gyllenhall where you can just substitute one for another.  I don't think they would ever attempt to have someone else play the Joker now.  And now Morgan Freemen is in critical condition too, so who knows what kind of cast will be in the next movie.

Re:THE DARK KNIGHT

Risselada:

I've seen it.

I've actually been dealing with some sickness and anxiety lately.  And I felt compelled to see the movie because so many people were asking me to go and everyone was just talking about it anyways.  But when I saw it, I felt sick and anxious and the mood of that movie does not help!

Anyways I thought it was good, but as I had expected, I didn't think it was as great as the outrageous hype.  But I'm not surprised by the hype either.

 

Well, I think I can see what your saying, because I fall into that trap all the time. I myself loved The Dark Knight as much as the hype said I would, but then, I'm a huge Batman fan, which shouldn't surprise you. But then I heard people saying it was overhyped, and I could understand how someone who didn't like the movie would say that, but then I started thinking about hype in general.

If critics, and moviegoers, love a movie, and tell YOU that they loved the movie, and you didn't like it, does that mean the movie wasn't up to the hype? The hype(aside from advertising, which is always just fluff and hyperbole anyway) is something purely mental on the part of the person who either is, or isn't, hyped up. I loved it, and I'm telling everyone that cares to listen that it's a great film. Does that mean that, if you(or everyone) doesn't like the movie, the hype was unwarrented? It's all personal taste.

(And no, I'm not doing this to be confrontational, even though we seem to bicker a lot about seemingly inconsequential remarks, but it's just so darn fun to disagree with you)

Re:THE DARK KNIGHT

Fantastic. Hands down. I'm only sorry I haven't had the opportunity to see it three more times in the theater, like I did the first one.

By the way, has anyone been keeping tabs on the latest recasting couch game? The Batman one? There's some serious genius going down. Hugo Strange seems like a stroke of brilliance.

Re:THE DARK KNIGHT

Risselada:

I've seen it.

I've actually been dealing with some sickness and anxiety lately.  And I felt compelled to see the movie because so many people were asking me to go and everyone was just talking about it anyways.  But when I saw it, I felt sick and anxious and the mood of that movie does not help!

Anyways I thought it was good, but as I had expected, I didn't think it was as great as the outrageous hype.  But I'm not surprised by the hype either.

*SPOILERS*

My opinion is that at the end you just feel really bad that Heath is dead since there's no resolution with the Joker character and it's pretty clear they were planning on bringning him back.  And since pretty much all of the enjoyment of the movie comes from the Joker that's a disappointment.  It's not like Katie Holmes and Maggie Gyllenhall where you can just substitute one for another.  I don't think they would ever attempt to have someone else play the Joker now.  And now Morgan Freemen is in critical condition too, so who knows what kind of cast will be in the next movie.

To be honest, Rizzo's take sums up how I felt about the movie too.  It was a fantastic movie...because of Heath Ledger.  He made this movie for me.  The other stuff was good, on par with the original, but the Joker and Ledger's portrayal amped this movie up for me, making the sequel better than the first.

And I'm sad!  That performance was sheer genius (and so was replacing Katie Holmes, even if she didn't want to come back, with Maggie Gyllenhaal).  And now we don't have him.  And I kept thinking about that the whole time (and I just knew they wanted to keep him around...if it all possible).

And I may be a biased Midwesterner, but I had a hard time suspending disbelief when looking at Chicago...er, Gotham City...er, Chicago.  I mean, I felt I was looking at Chicago, with a few digital replacements to play tricks on the eyes.

And I also felt the superhype (and, yes, WorkingDead, hype is in the eye of the beholder, but let's face it, this movie, perhaps deservingly so, has got the press) clouded the movie for me, which was already bleak and cloudy in mood.

Though flipping 18 wheelers in the middle of Chicago's financial district was pretty cool...

Anyone else have an opinion they want to share?

Re:THE DARK KNIGHT

TheWorkingDead:

Well, I think I can see what your saying, because I fall into that trap all the time. I myself loved The Dark Knight as much as the hype said I would, but then, I'm a huge Batman fan, which shouldn't surprise you. But then I heard people saying it was overhyped, and I could understand how someone who didn't like the movie would say that, but then I started thinking about hype in general.

If critics, and moviegoers, love a movie, and tell YOU that they loved the movie, and you didn't like it, does that mean the movie wasn't up to the hype? The hype(aside from advertising, which is always just fluff and hyperbole anyway) is something purely mental on the part of the person who either is, or isn't, hyped up. I loved it, and I'm telling everyone that cares to listen that it's a great film. Does that mean that, if you(or everyone) doesn't like the movie, the hype was unwarrented? It's all personal taste.

(And no, I'm not doing this to be confrontational, even though we seem to bicker a lot about seemingly inconsequential remarks, but it's just so darn fun to disagree with you)

First of all, don't sweat it Aaron, I think we both know all our comments are amicable now.  And disagreeing can be fun!  How exciting are the threads that make you want to respond in argument!  The ones where everyone just agrees are the boring ones that fade away after just a few posts.

I guess I wasn't saying that the hype was unwarrented, I'm just saying there are few movies that achieve certain extreme levels of hype.  And yeah I'm not referring to just advertising, although that has to be taken into consideration.  But when there is so much anticipation and advertising, the movie usually can't live up to it.  So when a movie like that does elicit a critical and popular response that almost exceeds the level of advertising hype, that's pretty extreme.  Some movies don't get that much advertising but then turn out to have huge critical and popular response.

Sometimes with a movie like that, I have to judge it almost the same as if I knew absolutely nothing about it.  If there was a moderate amount of hype, and I heard recommendations from certain people I trust, I would probably really expect to like it.  But if simply everyone I know loves a movie, the people I trust and the people I don't, then it's the same as if I knew nothing about it usually.  So I have to judge a movie based on what I would if I knew nothing.  When a movie is a sequel and I've seen the original, it's not that hard to start making opinions based on what came before.  So in this case I did not like Batman Begins as most everyone else, so I figured I probably wouldn't like this one as much as everyone else either.  And when you consider that The Dark Knight was #1 on the IMDB top 250 list for a while and is still up at #3 as I type this, that's a retarded ammount of hype.  So even if I were to say I loved the movie, that kind of language still doesn't measure up to the kind of hype this thing has.

Re:THE DARK KNIGHT

Risselada:

First of all, don't sweat it Aaron, I think we both know all our comments are amicable now.  And disagreeing can be fun!  How exciting are the threads that make you want to respond in argument!  The ones where everyone just agrees are the boring ones that fade away after just a few posts.

Hey!  Are you saying that I'm boring cuz I agreed with you?  Want to argue about it?!?!

JK. JK.  Couldn't resist. :-)

Re:THE DARK KNIGHT

pippin06:

Risselada:

First of all, don't sweat it Aaron, I think we both know all our comments are amicable now.  And disagreeing can be fun!  How exciting are the threads that make you want to respond in argument!  The ones where everyone just agrees are the boring ones that fade away after just a few posts.

Hey!  Are you saying that I'm boring cuz I agreed with you?  Want to argue about it?!?!

JK. JK.  Couldn't resist. :-)

Yep!  BIG OLD BOOOOOORING!

:)

Re:THE DARK KNIGHT

Risselada:

  And when you consider that The Dark Knight was #1 on the IMDB top 250 list for a while and is still up at #3 as I type this, that's a retarded ammount of hype. 

You might be happier now that The Shawshank Redemption is back at number one. I bring that up because it's ridiculous to use IMDB as a gauge of how hyped a movie is. I mean, have you seriously looked at that list? Or read any of the comment threads about the films? One of the top discussions is 'What was the plot?' But IMDB kinda proves my point. Movies there are ranked not by actual talent, skill, or achievement, but by polling what people thought. Because more people have ranked The Dark Knight as a great movie than have, say, Goodfellas or Citizen Kane, TDK gets a higher rank. All that means is that TDK has reached a wider audience ance pleased a large amount of those people.

And yes, I abbreviated the Dark Knight because I'm lazy and my dinner is ready.

Re:THE DARK KNIGHT

TheWorkingDead:

 

You might be happier now that The Shawshank Redemption is back at number one. I bring that up because it's ridiculous to use IMDB as a gauge of how hyped a movie is. I mean, have you seriously looked at that list? Or read any of the comment threads about the films? One of the top discussions is 'What was the plot?' But IMDB kinda proves my point. Movies there are ranked not by actual talent, skill, or achievement, but by polling what people thought. Because more people have ranked The Dark Knight as a great movie than have, say, Goodfellas or Citizen Kane, TDK gets a higher rank. All that means is that TDK has reached a wider audience ance pleased a large amount of those people.

And yes, I abbreviated the Dark Knight because I'm lazy and my dinner is ready.

This is totally true.  I personally don't use the imdb as a gauge of anything, really, except to see what movies and DVDs are coming up (that's all listed on its home page) and the articles on the hit list.  It's more accessible to more folks, and it's very anarchical, with it's crazy message boards.  The only thing that's really useful there, to me, is the average star ratings...but then again, that's the average of the masses, and who knows what constitutes "the masses."

But the hype I was thinking of just kind of came from other people who'd seen it, especially the obsessed people, and the media coverage of it.  After all, it's in the top 5 grossing films of all time now.  I don't think it's this year's Titanic, but that still puts an awful lot of pressure on me, the filmgoer, to love it.  Such pressure = hype. 

It didn't ruin the movie for me.  It just didn't live up to the hype for me.  Except Heath Ledger.  He was definitely hypeworthy without the hype breeding disappointment.