Comic book like? Comic book like? Have you ever read a comic book in your life? That movie was a two-part episode of Law and Order, it was nothing like any Batman comic that's ever existed.
Although I do agree that the movie is unrealistic, the important thing to realize here is the irony in the fact that Nolan was obsessed with making this movie (about a guy with a sore throat in a fursuit fighting a clown) as real as possible, to the detriment of it resembling anything that's ever had anything to do with Batman in history.
By comic book like, I was referring to the unrealism. I guess I should rephrase it a little. I was basically saying that it's a mixture of realistic and unrealistic in a way that I feel comes together well.
Then you made the fatal error of equating realism with seriousness.
Sorry I got all upset, I don't like this movie very much. I do like comics, which is what got me so nutty - because Nolan did everything he could to distance himself from the character's roots (though ironically enough, his depiction of the Joker lined up with that character's very first appearances almost exactly, in what appears to be a total coincidence). Now that I've cooled down, I can say I don't even think the movie's that bad. I'm just pissed that Nolan would have rather been making any other movie. Few characters or franchises have even half as rich a history as Batman, and he didn't want anything to do with any of that.
^Yeah, you seem to have some mood swing anger issues. Maybe you should get that checked.
The movie was probably the most serious superhero film ever made.
The most serious superhero movie ever made was Darkman, or maybe the first Hulk movie (serious doesn't necessarily mean good, mind you, though that movie has its moments). Or, actually, maybe Batman Returns. This movie's most famous quote involves repeatedly dismissing the concept of seriousness as unnecessary.
That movie was a two-part episode of Law and Order, it was nothing like any Batman comic that's ever existed.The sheer diversity of works including Batman means that it's hard to think of something a Batman comic hasn't done. Silver Age nuttiness, RIP insanity, Grimdark, hopeful, chaotic, stupid... The fact that Batman features so heavily both as a solo hero fighting small time gritty crime in Gotham and as a major member of the Justice League just shows how firmly the superhero is split between tones. There is no one true Batman style.
And the Joker? There's been plenty of Joker interpretations too, from the harmless Joker of the 60's to the narcissistic one of Batman.
Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.
Agreed with the previous comment. Batman can have any style he wants as long as the core spirit of the character and his mythos is still intact. Which means that as serious or campy as the different versions can get, as long as he's a guy in a bat suit driven to wage war on crime because of his parents murder, he's the goddamn Batman.
And what most people don't seem to realize is that the Joker here is supposed to be an Adaptation Distillation for the character. Take away all the jokes, joker gas, weird toys, acid-bath origin, and everything and you're left with a cold, murderous psychopath who embraces his insanity and considers himself the Only Sane Man in a crazy world, which is exactly what TDK Joker is. And being close to the characters roots was NOT a coincidence; Nolan has said that Joker's earliest appearances and "The Killing Joke" were the biggest inspirations for this version.
@Epnoymous Kid: YMMV very much, because I don't like American comics, and if I made a Batman movie, I'd do it exactly the same way Nolan did, except make it shorter.
@Eponymous Kid, a movie and a comic book are two completely different things. If you're setting out to make a movie about a guy in a bat (not fur) suit fighting a clown, you're not going to be taken seriously by making it from the comics. In a comic, the whole chemically bleached skin thing is acceptable. In a realistic movie, it isn't.
I'm glad Christopher Nolan made a fresh, Batman-movie universe. Instead of trying to mimic the comics exactly, what you do is you break the characters into their bare basics (billionaire in Bat suit, clown based murderer) and you work up from there.
I don't know, I think that the movie was great. It wasn't supposed to be an exact copy of the comics, but it wasn't supposed to be its own original idea. It could have had a little less grim dark, but it probably wouldn't be the same without that theme. What do you think of this situation, Bonsai?
The world isn't ready for giant T4 combustion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GbpGiYmBSs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKm9
Batman has been portrayed many different ways, different times, ranging from the campy 1960s comedy to the dark current series, though mostly leaning towards "dark" of some kind, usually taking itself seriously. The original comics look like, from what I've seen of them, they're rather matter-of-fact and not excessively dark at all, but do take themselves seriously with their plots.
I think this was a good movie, and a good fresh take on the characters, while trying to make them make sense and come off as believable.
Thanks for the reply!
The world isn't ready for giant T4 combustion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GbpGiYmBSs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKm9Leave a Comment:
(Dark Knight - second film - review) Intelligent and realistic while simultaneously exaggerated and unrealistic
James Rolfe once said of Batman that "it's about a man who dresses up as a bat and fights crime. There's a limit to how seriously that can be taken."
This movie seems to have realized exactly where that limit is, and is smart not to exceed it.
On the one hand, the characters are very human and have believable traits, yet at the same time have an almost comic book-like mentality to them when it comes to some of their dialog and behavior. Harvey Dent's random dinner table quote that "you either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain" in a discussion of ancient Rome is the sort of melodrama you'd expect from this kind of movie, and while it's foreshadowing, it's also corny.
It's also a good example of what the story itself is: intelligent, yet corny while taking itself seriously.
There's Xanatos Gambits galore. The Joker proves himself to be able to outsmart everyone, from police to the mob to Batman himself. While he's clearly an exaggerated character, with his clown-like makeup, constant wisecracking, and sense of humor combining the silly with the cruel, he's also intimidating because he's genuinely intelligent and scary on a human level. Remove the eccentricity from the Joker, and he could be a very scary person. Keep it, and he's clearly a character from a work of fiction, but a damn fascinating one.
Similar to The Bourne Series, there's a lot of outsmarting going on between Batman, the Joker, and their respective enemies - as well as each other. It's very fast-moving and thriller-esque, but more fantasy-based owing to the setting. Batman and the Joker do things that Jason Bourne can't do, because they are highly improbable and/or impossible. But that's of course part of the fun.
A big part of what makes the movie succeed, in my opinion, is that even with the exaggerated and unrealistic things the heroes and villains do, their motivations are still human, and there's still a real life underpinning behind all their actions. It's unrealistic if described, yet plausible in context. It makes it therefore easy to care about the characters and find them interesting while also enjoying the high stunts and antics that go on.
The story is a mix of the unrealistic and the very real that blends together in a way that just works, and is a lot of fun.