strokeof_genie: (Blue Beetle and Bats)
strokeof_genie ([personal profile] strokeof_genie) wrote2008-07-18 05:52 pm

The Dark Knight

Saw The Dark Knight last night at midnight. It was freaking amazing. I already have (vague) plans to see it again. Don't listen to people when they say "Blah blah blah it was too long/too drawn out/wtf was that plot because I don't get it." It was all necessary, and there was not one wasted minute. I'm biased, but I've asked people who aren't, and they feel the same.

Heath Ledger has been my favorite of the Jokers', hands down. Aaron Eckhart was great as Harvey Dent - scenes he was in he just captivated. Unless he was in a scene with the Joker because, holy crap. This was Heath Ledger's movie. It was, hands down, his show. Christian Bale was great as both Batman and Bruce Wayne, and showed the struggle of being both very nicely. He's still a young Batman, and I'm really looking forward to how they have him grow into the role. He's not quite there yet, because he doesn't realize that there will always be need for Batman as long as Gotham stands. He starts to at the end of the movie, though.


BUT. The Joker. He's just, he's this chaotic force throughout the movie and the first half, things make sense because Batman thinks he is in control. And then, in the second half, things go to hell in a handbasket because it isn't Batman's plan at all. The Joker orchestrated the whole shebang and it's going perfectly, as far as he is concerned.

His ultimate goal throughout the whole movie is to do two things; force Batman's hand into deathly action because Batman doesn't kill - but the Joker can make people die because of him. And they do die, and it's sinister. The second thing the Joker wants to do? Prove that anyone - anyone - can be brought down to his level, or at least that anyone is capable of evil.

He does this by essentially creating Two-face. You good comic fans will know that Harvey Dent eventually = Two-face. In this, Joker creates circumstances that warp Harvey's mind so totally that his sense of justice forces him to hunt after and kill. It's just.

It's a gorgeous and ingenious and beautiful movie, and the Joker is by and large the best part of it. It's creepily wonderful to watch him, and to see how clever and insane and strangely rational he is. He is completely uninhibited. He is exactly who he wants to be, and there's a part in the movie where he tells Batman, "You complete me." Which is strangely true, because Batman is exactly who Bruce doesn't want to be. The Joker is the unrestrained and gleefully manic side of Gotham, whereas Batman is the exact opposite.

There are parts in the movie where several different people tell Batman and/or Bruce Wayne that Batman himself created the Joker and opened the door for more people like him when Bruce stepped up and went where normal people wouldn't. It's said at the end of Begins, too, when Gordon mentions it at the end of the movie, after the credits. And it's true. Joker says, "This town needs a better class of criminals."

Speaking of which, don't bother staying after the credits. Nothing is there. I had to pee before the movie started, and didn't move from my seat until the credits were done, and GOD that was painful.

[identity profile] kilted.livejournal.com 2008-07-19 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
Oh yeah, The Joker completely stole the show. I was talking to a friend at work about how it doesn't seem right that he's the most quotable character in the movie because he's the villain, but he was. And yeah, a lot of what he said made a scary sort of sense. A brilliant character brilliantly played. No one else could have done better, I think.

[identity profile] strokeof-genie.livejournal.com 2008-07-19 09:10 pm (UTC)(link)
YES. I loved how he kept everyone in the dark, and even at the end of the movie you were left with so many questions about the Joker. "No fingerprints, no identity, nothing. His clothing is...custom. All he had in his pockets were knives and lint." When Gordon said that, I was just like, 0_0;

[identity profile] fire-at-wi11.livejournal.com 2008-07-19 05:54 pm (UTC)(link)
That is far more coherent than the ALKDFJDSLKFJDSKLFJDSLKFAJKLSJAFASD OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG *DIES* that is still going through my head like 9 hours after getting out of the theater XD

[identity profile] strokeof-genie.livejournal.com 2008-07-19 08:25 pm (UTC)(link)
*steals your icon* I...have this disturbing crush on this Joker. It's really awkward, because when I flail about the movie, I mostly flail about the Joker. At work today, I had to stop myself like twelve times from saying, "AND THE JOKER IS FUCKING SEXY OMG ALKDFHAGAKSKALKJA!!!"

I'm seeing it again, because that'll only help my obsession, right? I mean. I mean nothing, I'm lusting after the Joker. Jeeeeeeeeeesus.

[identity profile] fire-at-wi11.livejournal.com 2008-07-19 08:54 pm (UTC)(link)
OMG I HAVE THAT AWKWARD CRUSH TOO! I'M PRETTY SURE I ALMOST HAD SEX WITH THE JOKER IN MY DREAM LAST NIGHT! BUT INSTEAD HE JUST KILLED A LOT OF PEOPLE, INCLUDING THIS GUY WHO I GUESS WAS MY FRIEND, BUT STRANGELY ENOUGH I DIDN'T SEEM TOO PHASED BY IT *G* But yeah, everyone is like OMGXTIANBALE and I'm like um yeah, you take him *pulls the Joker into a side room*

AND OMG! THE NURSES UNIFORM OOOOOH MY GOD *dies* IT IS SO DISTURBING HOW HOTT I FOUND THAT *CAN'T EVEN THINK PROPERLY BECAUSE OF THE SEXXXAY*

[identity profile] strokeof-genie.livejournal.com 2008-07-19 09:05 pm (UTC)(link)
OMGOMGOMG.

I found the entire movie sexy because of him, from the little slurping sounds he made to the NURSE UNIFORM OMG I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE to his forearms when he pushed the sleeves up in the jail cell to HOW FUCKING BRILLIANT HE WAS. I JUST. And his laugh! It was awesome! I CAN'T THINK EITHER. Do you know how hard it was to be properly coherent and write that review up there? I sat there for, like, ten minutes and wrote, and then walked away and came back, and repeated the process like twenty times because all I wanted to say was

OMG JOKER OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG HE'S HOT!"

[identity profile] fire-at-wi11.livejournal.com 2008-07-19 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)
OMG THE LITTLE SLURPING AND LICKING HIS LIPS CONSTANTLY WAS SO HOTT. AND THEN IT REMINDED ME OF DAVID TENNANT'S TONGUE FLICK IN GOF AND THEN I WAS LIKE OMG HOTTNESS OVERLOAD! Those socks, those socks MADE that nurses uniform. amazing. and yes, his forearms, and his LEGS in the aforementioned nurses uniform and just GUH He was all in all just ridiculously brilliant and amazing and INSANE

HAHA JUST SAY THAT THEN! PEOPLE MUST REALIZE! AND RECOGNIZE! AND ALL THOSE OTHER R WORDS THAT ARE IMPORTANT ...LIKE RACCOON AND ...RUTABEGA *has clearly lost her mind*

[identity profile] strokeof-genie.livejournal.com 2008-07-19 10:17 pm (UTC)(link)
THEY DID MAKE THE UNIFORM OMG. HAHAHAHAH SOCKS. I even started to like the way he played with his hair and the way his makeup was messy and guh.

[identity profile] fire-at-wi11.livejournal.com 2008-07-19 11:05 pm (UTC)(link)
HIS HAIR AND MAKEUP WAS GUUUUH XD I got out of the shower this morning and I was like damn, if I didn't wash my hair for like a week I could totally cosplay the Joker XD

[identity profile] strokeof-genie.livejournal.com 2008-07-19 11:16 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm going as the Joker for Halloween, I've decided. And dude, it will take a while to wash out, but mix lime green and forest green oil-based paint together, and slather that shit on your hair. Most cheap-y-cheep paints sold at, like, Walgreens are sort of like that. And sure, it's not at all for your hair, BUT. Who cares?

[identity profile] strokeof-genie.livejournal.com 2008-07-19 10:19 pm (UTC)(link)
PS> hey, did you know that the clapping scene was, like, unscripted? Heath was just so into the character oof the Joker that he started mockingly clapping, and Nolan was like, "Shit, keep filming!"

[identity profile] fire-at-wi11.livejournal.com 2008-07-19 11:09 pm (UTC)(link)
YEAH I KNOW! THAT MAKES ME SO HAPPY! But like, damn, I mean it was just brilliant but I almost wish that it hadn't been so brilliant because maybe if he wasn't so into the character and in such a bad place, he would still be here :( It kind of makes me feel bad loving it so much when it just completely ruined him.

[identity profile] strokeof-genie.livejournal.com 2008-07-19 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)
I know. I was like, almost crying after the movie, and that had nothing to do with how badly I had to pee. I was like, "How? Who is going to replace him? It won't be possible. It won't be. He was the perfect Joker." And that is what hurts, because since he was the perfect Joker he...yeah. You said it perfectly. He ruined himself for the role. It hurts to think about. It might be just me making myself feel better, but I think he would love to have us love his work so much.

[identity profile] fire-at-wi11.livejournal.com 2008-07-19 11:22 pm (UTC)(link)
I know I'm like bitches better not try to recast for the next movie because that will NOT work! I know, I know he would want us to enjoy it and laugh at it because he put so much into it but it's still so sad :(

[identity profile] strokeof-genie.livejournal.com 2008-07-19 11:24 pm (UTC)(link)
They'll have to, and I have a couple of people who I think would maybe do a good job probably. But I'm not going to say anything about it because I don't want to jinx it and because I want Heath to return from the dead so he can reprise his role as the Joker.