{"id":2561,"date":"2008-07-22T08:27:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-22T12:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=2561"},"modified":"2008-07-22T08:27:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-22T12:27:00","slug":"craigs-dark-knight-review-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=2561","title":{"rendered":"Craig&#8217;s &quot;Dark Knight&quot; Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/bp0.blogger.com\/_aatuWUTj6ic\/SIXSR1mqy0I\/AAAAAAAABaM\/ez57NHqBcgA\/s1600-h\/z072208dark_knight.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;\" src=\"http:\/\/bp0.blogger.com\/_aatuWUTj6ic\/SIXSR1mqy0I\/AAAAAAAABaM\/ez57NHqBcgA\/s400\/z072208dark_knight.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5225814146522204994\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><span style=\"font-family: arial;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The Pitch:<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Batman<\/span> done right.<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The Overview:<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Batman<\/span> has been fighting crime for a year.  He&#8217;s formed an uneasy alliance with police <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Lieutenant James Gordon<\/span> and together they have made the streets of <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Gotham<\/span> a bit safer.  <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Harvey Dent<\/span>, the charismatic and popular <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">district attorney<\/span>, with the aide of attorney <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Rachael Dawes<\/span> [Bruce Wayne&#8217;s ex] are putting away criminals through the courts.   Together the four [<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Batman, Gordon, Dent <\/span>and<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> Dawes<\/span>] have created a one-two punch taking on organized crime in <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Gotham<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Without warning and with no explanation, a criminal psychopath who calls himself <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">the Joker <\/span>appears on the scene and begins to terrorize the city.  <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Batman, Gordon<\/span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Dent<\/span> will have to pay a terrible toll if they are to have even a chance at stopping<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> the Joker<\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The Good:<br \/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Heath Ledger&#8217;s performance<\/span> as the<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> Joker<\/span> is amazing from every little tic and nod to the perfect inflection with his dialogue.  <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Ledger<\/span> understood that <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">the Joker<\/span> isn&#8217;t a clown, but instead a psycho with face paint.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">The<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> screenplay<\/span> by <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Jonathon and Christopher Nolan<\/span>  provides great action sequences, spot on characterization and grounds everything in reality.<br \/><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Christopher Nolan&#8217;s<\/span> direction. <br \/><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">The city of <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Gotham<\/span>.  This is the first time in any <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Batman<\/span> movie that the city seemed real.<br \/><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">The<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> dinner scene<\/span> with <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Bruce<\/span>, his date, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Rachael <\/span>and <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Harvey<\/span>.  <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Bruce<\/span> went in not wanting to like <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Harvey<\/span>, but comes to realize he is a decent man and leaves respecting him. <br \/><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">The use of <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Michael Caine<\/span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Morgan Freeman<\/span>. <br \/><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">Every scene with <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Heath Ledger<\/span> as the<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> Joker<\/span>. <br \/><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">Bringing back <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Cillian Murphy<\/span> for one scene as <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">the Scarecrow<\/span>. <br \/><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">The use of the right actors for small but important roles: <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Eric Roberts<\/span> as Salvatore Maroni, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">William Fichtner<\/span> as the bank manager, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">&#8220;Tiny&#8221; Tim Lester <\/span>as a convict.  <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Anthony Michael Hall<\/span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Jai White<\/span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Nestor Carbonell<\/span> also appear.<br \/><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Gary Oldman<\/span> is perfect in his role as <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Gordon<\/span>. <br \/><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">The effects for <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Harvey Dent<\/span> as <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Two-Face<\/span>.  The way the coin toss; <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Two-Face<\/span> name, and new look of his outfit is all worked out for the movie. <br \/><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The Joker<\/span> telling <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Batman<\/span> the opposite locations for the rescure of <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Rachael<\/span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Harvey<\/span>.  <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The Joker&#8217;s scene<\/span> with the criminal bosses, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">the Joker<\/span> being &#8220;questioned&#8221; by the <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Batman<\/span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">the Joker<\/span> visiting <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Harvey<\/span> in the hospital and then the scene right after when he walks out of the hospital.  So much of the movie is just plain good.  Oh, and did I mention that <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Heath Ledger<\/span> ruled in his role as the Joker?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-family: arial;\"><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The Bad<\/span>:<span style=\"font-family: arial;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;\"><\/span>I&#8217;m not sure <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Maggie Gyllenhaal<\/span> was the best person to play <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Rachael <\/span>and I still don&#8217;t like the look of <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Batman&#8217;s cowl<\/span>, but with so much to like about the movie, let&#8217;s just move on, ok?<\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The Ugly:<\/span> What happens to <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Harvey Dent<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The Summary:<\/span> <a style=\"color: rgb(204, 0, 0);\" href=\"http:\/\/zablozone.blogspot.com\/2006\/02\/batman-works.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">I&#8217;m a Batman fan<\/span><\/a>.  No prior <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Batman<\/span> movie had given me a<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> Batman<\/span> that totally worked&#8230; <a style=\"color: rgb(204, 0, 0);\" href=\"http:\/\/zablozone.blogspot.com\/2005\/06\/batman-begins-mixed-feelings.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">not even Nolan and Bale&#8217;s &#8220;Batman Begins<\/span>.&#8221;<\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> &#8220;The Dark Knight&#8221;<\/span> works. It works because the movie is grounded and the characters are treated with respect.  Excellent choices were made all the way around.  <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Heath Ledger&#8217;s performance <\/span>is amazing and gives the movie an additional boost.  I look forward to having <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">&#8220;The Dark Knight&#8221;<\/span> in my dvd collection.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pitch: Batman done right. The Overview: Batman has been fighting crime for a year. He&#8217;s formed an uneasy alliance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[56,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comics","category-movies","comments-off"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}