the vynsane asylum

Sleazer wrote:Ledger was great but not in it enough. The movie needed more of him. Therefore, this movie could have been better so it is overhyped (the movie, not Ledger).

i can agree with that in essence, though the movie wouldn't have been as hyped were it not for ledger's death. taking ledger's death out of the equation, i think the movie would've been better - but the pre-release posthumous oscar buzz kinda really heaped it on in the last minute, making anything short of the most brilliant stop-making-movies-now-we'll-never-top-this performance a bit of a let-down. as it was, the performance was really unique and interesting. it could never live up to the hype, however.

vynsane wrote:

Sleazer wrote:Ledger was great but not in it enough. The movie needed more of him. Therefore, this movie could have been better so it is overhyped (the movie, not Ledger).

i can agree with that in essence, though the movie wouldn't have been as hyped were it not for ledger's death. taking ledger's death out of the equation, i think the movie would've been better - but the pre-release posthumous oscar buzz kinda really heaped it on in the last minute, making anything short of the most brilliant stop-making-movies-now-we'll-never-top-this performance a bit of a let-down. as it was, the performance was really unique and interesting. it could never live up to the hype, however.

Hannibal Lecter is considered among the top movie villains of all time and Anthony Hopkins received an Best Actor Oscar for it.

Why bring this up?
Hopkins/Lecter had 16 minutes of screen time in Silence of the Lambs.

Diabolical wrote:

vynsane wrote:

Sleazer wrote:Ledger was great but not in it enough. The movie needed more of him. Therefore, this movie could have been better so it is overhyped (the movie, not Ledger).

i can agree with that in essence, though the movie wouldn't have been as hyped were it not for ledger's death. taking ledger's death out of the equation, i think the movie would've been better - but the pre-release posthumous oscar buzz kinda really heaped it on in the last minute, making anything short of the most brilliant stop-making-movies-now-we'll-never-top-this performance a bit of a let-down. as it was, the performance was really unique and interesting. it could never live up to the hype, however.

Hannibal Lecter is considered among the top movie villains of all time and Anthony Hopkins received an Best Actor Oscar for it.

Why bring this up?
Hopkins/Lecter had 16 minutes of screen time in Silence of the Lambs.

i may not have been making much sense up there... what i meant to say was, had ledger not died, the performance would have gone on to receive the praise it had received. the fact that he has died, however, created the hype surrounding it which in turn made people expect "the heath ledger show, with special guest-star batman" - the performance was absolutely perfect, as was the amount of screen time allotted to it - remember, 'always leave them wanting more'. kudos to nowlan et al: god knows they had a bunch of cutting-room-floor ledger scenes that could've made their way into the movie if they wanted to feed into the hype - sticking to their guns and keeping the film the way they initially cut it was the right way to go.

it will be morbidly fascinating to see some of those cuttings on the DVD, however. much like the brandon lee interviews on the crow 2-discer.

I really didn't think he had too little screen time.
I meant that more as further proof that less can be more when it comes to great performance.

okay, i guess now i KNOW i'm not making any sense...

all i'm saying is i'm sure there are a lot of people out there with the same opinion as sleazer - that they wanted/expected more screentime for joker. most of that, i'm nearly certain, is based on the amount of hype. had there been no hype, i'm sure only a small percentage of the current 'expecting more' crowd would've still not been satisfied.

as it stands, i wanted more, because it was fantastic, but i'm deeply satisfied with what i got. i like to want more. the disappointment in this situation is that there never will be more, save for alternate/deleted scenes with the joker involved on the dvd. but the sequel they were OBVIOUSLY counting on will never occur. shame.

Fuck those bastards for wanting more gay cowboys in their Batman movies.

vynsane wrote:okay, i guess now i KNOW i'm not making any sense...

all i'm saying is i'm sure there are a lot of people out there with the same opinion as sleazer - that they wanted/expected more screentime for joker. most of that, i'm nearly certain, is based on the amount of hype. had there been no hype, i'm sure only a small percentage of the current 'expecting more' crowd would've still not been satisfied.

as it stands, i wanted more, because it was fantastic, but i'm deeply satisfied with what i got. i like to want more. the disappointment in this situation is that there never will be more, save for alternate/deleted scenes with the joker involved on the dvd. but the sequel they were OBVIOUSLY counting on will never occur. shame.

No, it's because he was fucking awesome, not because he was dead.

Having now seen it three times, I am noticing and loving the tinier details of this movie. one example, during the Dent fundraiser, Bruce is alone on the balcony and tosses the champagne out of his glass, then the Joker unknowingly mimics his adversary in the later scene where he crashes the party. Without even realizing it, the two men are teetotaling mirrors of each other. i don't know if that was intentional or if it was Ledger improvising or what, but it makes an awesome movie nearly sublime.

Another thing was the almost Meta-artistic approach to revising the Batsuit. After the first film, Bale complained how heavy and constrictive the suit was, so how do they address it in the second movie? By working it into the plot! Fucking brilliant.

Man, this was insanely fucking good. I didn't expect so much Two-Face, and he was cool, but the Joker stole the fucking show. Awesome.

This was so fucking good, I called up the Pope.

"What you want? It three in morning here, my child."

"You have to see The Dark Knight!"

"Ah, I see dark night outside my window. It always dark at night."

"No, the movie!"

"Eh, fuck you, kid. I wake up, I call God and tell him to give you boils."

So I got boils. It was fucking worth it.

So, Nark...tell us..."Speed Racer" or "The Dark Knight"?

Tough to compare, but, for sheer enjoyment, I'm still going with Speed Racer. I actually think Batman Begins is still slightly better than TDK, but they're both incredible movies.

Ledger and Eckhart definitely deserve Oscars.

anarky wrote:I actually think Batman Begins is still slightly better than TDK, but they're both incredible movies.

The main difference for me was I didn't enjoy "Batman Begins" that much on the first viewing. It took multiple viewings for me to really appreciate it. I thought "The Dark Knight" was spectacular right off the bat. I also think that "The Dark Knight" improved upon the minor flaws of "Batman Begins".

Anyway, look what I found on the internets. It's Harvey, Harvey, Harvey Dent!

anarky wrote:Ledger and Eckhart definitely deserve Oscars.

Maybe for Thank You For Smoking but not for Dark Knight.