Eckhart, think of the future!
I come away from The Dark Knight, with mixed feelings.
Bottom line - I'm OK with being part of the opening weekend box, and I'll get myself a copy on DVD not long after it comes out. In other words, I feel good about investing in the franchise. But I still came away with expectations unmet.
The pacing of the movie isn't quite steady; too many places where it felt about ready to wrap up, and then had to rebuild toward the next piece. Maybe the problem was the narrative, or my assumption of the narrative, The flow ends up breaking the immersion.
The cast is a mix of actors and characters - in particular, I think I'm tired of the pap chemistry thing. That would be you, Mr. Freeman; and to a lesser extent Mr. Caine. I actually want to forgive Caine a little bit - he's doing well on choices I didn't like; in fact, I came away thinking of Sir Alec, a little bit, in that he kept things small. It's still too damn transparent - it should be easier to distinguish Alfred from Cutter.
I think the cowl slipped on Bale this time around - his Bruce lost a little bit of that public facade that keeps him out of suspicion.
There is one actor I want to single out, and I didn't succeed in figuring out who it was that was playing the role; but there's a big actor playing one of the convicts that was brilliant - abso-fuck--in-glute-ly brilliant - in the two minute scene he was featured in.
And then Ledger. I'm having a real hard time with that one, so lets break it down into parts.
1) Was I watching a character, or an actor? Character - absolutely. That was somebody else on screen.
2) Was the character real, in manner and motivation? Another checkmark. Nearly total immersion - ruined a touch by the fact that I was watching this performance.
3) Was the performance consistent? Yes.
4) Was it The Joker? No, I don't accept that he was. His motivations weren't nearly disturbing enough (should I be disturbed that I didn't find that character disturbing?).
OK, Spoilers Ho!
[more ]