En una estrategia similar a la que Warner realizó con Animatrix y las secuelas de Matrix, ha salido a la venta el proyecto Batman: Gotham Knight.

Batman: Gotham Knight’ es una serie de seis cortos animados independientes entre ellos, todos con libreto tanto de guionistas habituales de Batman en su versión impresa como de prestigiosos escritores del medio. que tienen lugar después de ‘Batman Begins’ y antes de ‘The Dark Knight’ y que aparecerán en DVD en verano de este año. Su estética es la de los anime japoneses y están diseñados por creadores de alto nivel, entre ellos Josh Olsen, del cómic ‘Una historia de violencia’; David S. Goyer, guionista de ‘Batman Begins’; el guionista de cómics Brian Azzarello, Christopher Drake; Robert J. Kral, autor del anime para TV ‘Angel’, y Kevin Manthei, músico de ‘Invader Zim’ y ‘Justice League New Frontier’.

Como en toda recopilación de cortos, es inevitable que algunos sobresalgan sobre los demás, y que el conjunto quede desigualado, siendo la media más que aceptable, eso sí. Pasemos a hacer un leve repaso de las historias:

• Tengo una historia para tí. Dirigida por Shoujirou Nishimi, guión de Josh Olson: Un grupo de adolescentes relatan sus diferentes encuentros con el hombre murciélago, y vemos a través de sus ojos como perciben a una auténtica leyenda urbana viviente.
• Fuego Cruzado. Dirigido por Futoshi Higashide, guión de Greg Rucka: Historia centrada en la policía de Gotham, quienes deben compaginar su incansable lucha contra la mafia y la desconfianza de tener un vengador enmascarado supuestamente de su lado.
• Campo de pruebas. Dirigida por Hiroshi Morioka, guión de Jordan Goldberg. Batman decide incorporar un novedoso gadget a su equipamento para evitar las balas, lo cual induce una reflexión sobre el justiciero y sus métodos.

• En la oscuridad habita. Dirigido por Yasuhiro Aoki, guión de David Goyer: Primera historia de la recopilación con villanos de la galería clásica de Gotham. Batman se enfrenta a un desquiciado Killer Croc y un Espantapájaros endiosado en las alcantarillas de la ciudad oscura.
• Trabajando mediante el dolor. Dirigida por Toshiyuki Kubooka, guión de Brian Azzarello: Una introspección en los orígenes de el hombre murciélago en una historia sobre el dolor físico y emocinal con un joven Bruce Wayne intruyéndose en busca de su lugar en el mundo.
• Deadshot. Dirigido por Jong-Sik Nam, guión de Alan Burnett: Una frenética historia que cierra el proyecto Gotham Knight con un villano de los más carismáticos del universo DC, Deadshot, un loco con una puntería infalible y un gusto refinado por las armas, que lleva al caballero oscuro más allá de sus límites en una persecución implacable.

Con historias que varían desde lo aceptable, como la de Rucka, a lo realmente asombroso, como la de Azzarello, y con animación que va desde lo oscuro y normalito, como la de Higashide, a lo deslumbrante y milimétrico, como las de Nishimi o Nam, Gotham Knight es un ejercicio entretenido y altamente recomendable para pasar un buen rato o para entender mucho del ambiente dentro del universo de "El caballero de la noche".

Aqui les dejo el trailer original:

Fuente:Extracine, Blog de cine

               Batman: Gotham Knight                

 NETFLIX SYNOPSIS:  Batman takes on Deadshot, Killer Croc and other deadly foes in six anime-inspired short films. Together, the interlocking tales bridge 2005's Batman Begins and its 2008 sequel, the Dark Knight, and illuminate our anti-hero's troubled psyche. The powerhouse writing team includes Oscar nominee Josh Olson, Batman Begins writer David S. Goyer, comic book writers Greg Rucka and Brian Azzarello, and "Batman Beyond" creator Alan Burnett.

REVIEW:  I'm a big fan of "The Animatrix" so I was really looking forward to this, since it sounded like a similar concept. But this was a major disappointment in pretty much every department. I'm no expert, but  the animation, except for a few instances, seemed barely above Saturday morning cartoon quality. And there's very little variety from one segment to the next, they all looked pretty much the same to moi. The stories themselves are bland, the dialogue is corny as hell, the voice-acting is mediocre at best. A failure all around. 

1 star
Harold

Guess I'll just watch Princess Mononoke again, or something.

Se trata de una serie de animación de los productores de Batman Begins y The Dark Knight, como en su día hicieron los Wachowsky con Animatrix, de este personaje.

El título es Batman: Gotham Knight, y se compone de una serie de seis cortos animados, cada uno de diferente autor y distinta técnica de animación, que transcurren entre lo sucedido en Batman Begins y esta nueva entrega The Dark Knight.

Tenéis más información en la página oficial -que personalmente me encanta- http://www.warnervideo.com/batmangothamknight/ y por youtube se puede encotrar algunos de estos cortos, aunque de pobre calidad y por partes.

Os dejo con el trailer oficial en HD. La calidad de las animaciones y el dibujado es brutal.

Eu confesso que nunca fui exatamente fascinado pelo universo Batman - Ou mesmo pelos mundos provenientes das HQs, sendo uma provável exceção os X-Men... Talvez. Minha limitação como admirador da ficção animada e desenhada originada do mundo oriental é notável, não há como ou por que esconder. Vi os filmes Batman, Batman - O Retorno, Batman Eternamente, Batman & Robin, e bem mais recentemente, Batman Begins; Mas nunca, mesmo, eu cheguei a nutrir qualquer admiração especial pelo morcegão.

Só que, com tanto marketing envolvido no tão falado "Batman: O Cavaleiro das Trevas", nem mesmo eu escapei da febre e fui levado a assistir, por minha enorme curiosidade, a produção Batman: Gotham Knight (em português, Batman: Cavaleiro de Gotham), que é um vídeo promocional do novo filme. E a minha expectativa tem explicação: trata-se de uma seqüência em animação, com "cara de anime" (desenhos japoneses) e produzida por estúdios nipônicos, de mini-historinhas que, pelo que li por aí, estão situadas entre os filmes Batman Begins e o então Cavaleiro das Trevas. Cada um dos trechos possui traços próprios (talvez, e no máximo, próximos, e só em alguns casos) e um estilo próprio de história - Já que cada um deles possui um diretor diferente.

E não menos importante, quando eu vi que a Madhouse estava no meio dessas produções eu fiquei definitivamente empolgado. Afinal, o estúdio foi o responsável por muitas das animações que eu mais aprecio: Monster, Death Note, Hajime no Ippo, Claymore... Além da Madhouse e seu padrão de qualidade, outros três grandes nomes se envolveram na série. O Studio 4ºC, por exemplo, é quem está por trás de Animatrix, Memories (filme animado de 1995) e do clipe "Breaking the Habit" do Linkin Park. Temos o Bee Train, responsável por Tsubasa Chronicle, Wild Arms: Twilight Venom e El Cazador de la Bruja. E o Production I.G. é o responsável por ainda mais petardos, como Ghost in The Shell; Tsubasa: Tokyo Revelations; Ghost Hound (um esculacho de animação); xxxHolic; The King Of Fighters: Another Day... Legal, né? Foi impossível que eu não tentasse me envolver.

Voltando ao Gotham Knight, aqui vai um resumo sem spoilerzões a respeito de cada historinha - São seis, no total:

Have I Got a Story for You (em português, "Eu tenho uma história pra vocês", animado pelo Studio 4ºC), que basicamente lida com a impressão das pessoas sobre quem é Batman e sobre como o morcegão se apresenta para as pessoas. A história foi escrita por Josh Olson, que também adaptou a Graphic Novel "Uma História de Violência" pros cinemas.

___________________

Crossfire ("Fogo Cruzado", animado pelo Production I.G), que traz à tona a discussão sobre se Batman é uma unanimidade em Gotham. E o legal é que Crossfire é o primeiro enredo em Gotham Knight a trazer o Detetive Crispus Allen como personagem, o mesmo que nas HQs se tornaria o hospedeiro do Espectro, outra estrela da DC Comics. Esta historinha foi escrita por Greg Rucka, autor de HQs e Graphic Novels diversas.

___________________

Field Test ("Teste de campo", pelo Bee Train), que lida com a tecnologia usada por Batman e seu impacto nos serviços do super herói. A historinha tem um traço muito único de animes (ao meu ver, mais do que as outras histórias em Gotham Knight), e tem Jordan Goldberg como escritor.

___________________

In Darkness Dwells ("Na Escuridão Reside", pelo estúdio Madhouse), que também conta com a participação de Crispus Allen, além da aparição do Killer Croc - O Crocodilo, no Brasil, vilão conhecido das HQs de Batman - e Jonathan Crane sob a forma do Espantalho (Scarecrow), que também é um dos clássicos inimigos do homem-morcego e dispensa apresentações. Esta tem um pouco mais de ação, e enfoca a astúcia de Wayne. A história foi escrita por David S. Goyer, um dos idealizadores do próprio filme "Batman: O Cavaleiro das Trevas", e o escritor do filme "Blade" - Sim, aquele mesmo do Wesley Snipes, a adaptação da série da Marvel. Curiosidade: a oscilação do sintetizador sobre a voz de Crane é muito alta, e pude ouvir a voz dele sem muitos ruídos em dado momento; hauhauahua, que voz histérica que escolheram pro Espantalho! Berros hilários.

___________________

Working Through Pain ("Superando a dor", pelo Studio 4ºC) é o de enredo mais carregado, realmente um primor. Como sugere a minha tradução livre do seu título, a história mostra um pouco da iniciativa de Wayne como alguém que deve enfrentar a dor em certas situações. Ela é de autoria de Brian Azzarello, um autor americano de HQs.

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Deadshot ("Pistoleiro", pelo estúdio Madhouse) também possui um pouco mais de ação e tem uma cara mais hollywoodiana no que diz respeito ao tipo de história em relação aos outros títulos de Gotham Knight. Como diz o título, a historinha traz o Pistoleiro - Deadshot, outro vilão clássico do morcegão - tentando assassinar Gordon, o tenente que costuma ajudar Batman nas variadas histórias do mesmo. Deadshot tem a autoria de Alan Burnett, que trabalhou em "The Smurfs" e em "Batman: Animation Series".

___________________

A minha avaliação geral é a de que a mistura de visual japonês com a mentalidade americana é um grande negócio quanto a Batman. Isso ficou provado e agora é incontestável pra mim. Comecei dizendo que sou alheio ao universo do homem-morcego e, por causa basicamente desse título, me interessei verdadeiramente pela DC e por seus feitos. Somente após ver o Cavaleiro de Gotham é que tive empolgação para ver Batman Begins, por exemplo; E fui inspirado para conhecer Watchmen, dadas as excelentes referências sobre tal obra e sobre a importância de seu autor, Alan Moore.

O conceito de multi-historinhas também é algo que me interessa. Sou fã de The Twilight Zone e me agrada o fato de contos serem curtos e terem início, meio e fim definidos - Ainda que nem sempre explícitos. Mais do que a comparação com as séries de TV ser impossível, a verdade é que foi atingido um outro patamar através desta produção quanto a mesma ser atraente, quanto a despertar curiosidade por conta da multiplicidade de mini-universos. E tal curiosidade tende a ser bem sanada, principalmente porque são vários Batmans diferentes, com boa variação temática, e então buscando sempre atingir a um conjunto maior de gostos.

A aparição de um vilão famoso e complexo como o próprio Coringa sequer se fez necessária, por exemplo. In Darkness Dwells está no mesmo nível de todas as outras histórias, mesmo que nela Batman enfrente, de uma vez só, o Espantalho e o Crocodilo. O paradoxo de uma produção com fins lucrativos, e inclusive promocionais sobre outra obra maior, se mostra interessante nesse contexto porque a obra por si só possui valor. Nunca foi necessário apelar em Cavaleiro de Gotham. Não há cenas de sexo, violência ou qualquer coisa muito extrema a nível visual. Violenta é a qualidade do que se vê.

Batman: Gotham Knight é pra fazer virar fã... Pra dizer o mínimo.

Plus, I was indoors for the whole day. Yay! A typhoon was passing by Hong Kong, and it was MADNESS outside.

So how was I granted DC Comics awesomeness even though I was up to my geekerky for the whole day?

1.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold!

I guess it's aimed at little kids... but dude, it's awesome. Just watch the trailer all right?!
Was it awesome, or was it AWESOME?!
Basically, Batman teams up with other superheroes every episode. Not just Blue Beetle, Ollie without his beard and Elastic Man. But also with Jonah Hex (wtf, didn't see the coming), Green lantern Corp, Flash etc. (crossing finger for Nightwing!)

and dontcha just love the music? It's like those 70s/80s lounge songs. And strangely, the first thing that came in mind was Cowboy Bebop and Lupin the 3rd.

So uh... the first DC awesome thing that happened to me today was finding, watching and enjoying the trailer of Batman: The Brave and The Bold.

2. and 3.

and

I ordered DC shirts from Animation Shops!
... well I technically didn't, because they don't ship to Hong Kong *shakes fist*. So I pretty pleased my brother (with a cherry on the top of course) who lives in Japan, to buy it for me! And guess what, IT WORKED!

I'm OVER THE MOON!

I wanted The Flash shirt for SO long, but the other site I was planning on purchasing it from only had XL. I was mega bummed. But then I came across Animation Shop. So yay for me!

But my brother tends to take his time to send parcels... so I won't be expecting it anytime soon.

I'm still happy tho :D
*does the happy dance*

4.

I finally convinced my mom to buy me Batman: Gotham Knight on Amazon (Japan)! ... and it's the Japanese DVD version, so I guess the menu's in Jap but everything else is the same as the English version?

I hope so.

I would've bought it at HMV/CD shop, but I couldn't effing find it! I went around most DVD shops I know the day it was released, but they didn't have it. I went again next week to check, they didn't have it. The week after that, nada. I must've appeared severely lame.
Yeah, I was annoyed. They had the new Birds of Prey DVD, but not Gotham Knight.

Ok, in a nutshell; it's six Batman adventure in six different art style. Imagine Animatrix, then throw Batman into the picture,... and take away the whole Matrix story.

Tell me that doesn't look hardcore!

I'm hoping that it would be great! It looks awesome, so I'm like 80% sure it's gonna be brill!

*sigh of happiness*

And guess what I'm looking forward to tomorrow!
I'm going to my weekly visit to the comic book shop! *does happy dance again!* :D Hopefully the TPB I ordered is there, and along the way I'll pick up Nightwing #147.
Hey, I thought it would be an awesome timing to jump into Nightwing monthlies. It's a 4 issue Batman R.I.P. tie-in, and Two-Face probably plays a big role by the look of the cover!

and in #149, he fights against all of Batman's rogues! It's gonna be insane! and awesome!

I'll also pick up Final Crisis: Rogue's Revenge #1 for the sake of Flash. Hopefully the comic book store still has some left! :x

Awesome count: 9
I shall refrain from using that word in my next post.

But here's the critique most widely held: Why does Batman talk like the offspring of Clint Eastwood and a grizzly bear?

Donning the costume for the second time, Christian Bale has delved deeper into the lower registers. As Bruce Wayne, his voice is as smooth as his finely pressed suits. But once he puts the cape on, the transformation of his vocal chords is just as dramatic as his costume change.

Particularly when his rage boils over, Bale's Batman growls in an almost beastly fashion, reflecting how close he teeters between do-gooder and vengeance-crazed crusader.

"The Dark Knight" hauled in $43.8 million to rank as Hollywood's top movie for the third straight weekend, fending off "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" which opened a close second with $42.5 million. It has earned $394.9 million in just 17 days, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Though much of the voice effect is Bale's own doing, under the guidance of director Christopher Nolan and supervising sound editor Richard King, the frequency of his Batman voice was modulated to exaggerate the effect.

Critics and fans have noticed.

"His Batman rasps his lines in a voice that's deeper and hammier than ever," said NPR's David Edelstein.

The New Yorker's David Denby praised the urgency of Bale's Batman, but lamented that he "delivers his lines in a hoarse voice with an unvarying inflection."

Reviewing the film for MSNBC, Alonso Duralde wrote that Bale's Batman in "Batman Begins" "sounded absurdly deep, like a 10-year-old putting on an `adult' voice to make prank phone calls. This time, Bale affects an eerie rasp, somewhat akin to Brenda Vaccaro doing a Miles Davis impression."

Before the similes run too far afield, it's worth considering where the concept of a throaty Batman comes from.

In his portrayal on the `60s "Batman" TV series, Adam West didn't alter his voice between Bruce Wayne and Batman. Decades later when Tim Burton brought "Batman" to the big screen in a much darker incarnation, Michael Keaton's inflection was notably but not considerably different from one to the other.

But it was a lesser-known actor who, a few years after Burton's film, made perhaps the most distinct imprint on Batman's voice. Kevin Conroy, as the voice of the animated Batman in various projects from 1992's "Batman: The Animated Series" right up until this year's "Batman: Gotham Knight," brought a darker, raspier vocalization to Batman.

Conroy has inhabit the role longer than anyone else and though animated voice-over work doesn't have the same cachet as feature film acting, there are quarters where Conroy is viewed as the best Batman of them all certainly superior to Val Kilmer or George Clooney.

The animated series are notable because they drew on the DC Comics of Batman as envisioned by Frank Miller, whose work heavily informs "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight." (Bale and Nolan were unavailable to comment for this story.)

As Batman has gotten darker, his voice has gotten deeper. As some critics suggest, Bale and "The Dark Knight" may have reached a threshold, at least audibly.

- Steve

but then again, it's not available in Malaysia yet

if the DVD's are still not available in Malaysia by the end of this year, i guess i'll be buying it online

if i do, it'll be my first time buying stuffs online

this 75 minutes Gotham Knight is set supposedly between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight

Batmanime, as fans call it consists of six anime segments by different writers and anime studios; Madhouse, Production I.G, Bee Train and Studio 4°C

the six segments are Have I Got A Story For You, Field Test, In Darkness Dwells, Working Through Pain and Deadshot, in chronological order

imagine having Batman, my favorite childhood (now, teen-hood) hero appearing in anime form

my, this is super- awesome =)

Bruce Wayne in animated form is SO handsome!!

i love all DC Universe Original Animated Movies and hope there'll be more from them

let's make the bat- signal BRIGHTER =K

Quick note, I want to say thanks to Tommy, owner/maintainer of the fantastic Bat-Blog, for referencing my Gotham Knight review over at the Girls Entertainment Network. Thanks, man, that was awesome of you! :)

Now where in Gotham did he find that movie font ... ;D I looked everywhere!

Or should I say, three.

To contain my Batcitement (going to see this film made me actually feel happy--such a rare and alien feeling) I bought the animated Batman movie Gotham Knight and watched it the night before.

Gotham Knight (which could also be called Batman 2.5) features 6 loosely connected stories, some referencing events of Batman Begins. It's beautifully animated and well-written; any Bat Fan is bound to love at least two of the segments and enjoy the rest.

But back to The Dark Knight. Fanboys are claiming the role of The Joker drove Heath Ledger "insane" or pushed him over the edge....it's an idiotic urban legend that's taken on a life of its own and will probably be with us for decades. Ledger was no more made insane by this role than he was turned gay by Brokeback Mountain.

Is Ledger's Joker Oscar-worthy? It's a moot question due to the tragedy of the circumstances. I thought it was an excellent performance for a rather limited character. A better question would be "Does anyone give a shit about the Oscars any more?"

Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent was equally good as was Gary Oldman's James Gordon, and Bale, of course, IS Batman. I'm in the camp that thinks that Maggie Gyllenhal--so hot in her weird way--is an improvement over Katie "Xenu" Holmes.

With hundreds of extras running around, Gotham doesn't have the dark, claustrophobic feel it did in the first movie and is therefore less of a "character." That's a minor gripe. The more serious ("Why...so...SERIOUS?") problems I had with The Dark Knight were unfortunately recurring: its exceeding length, suspense build-ups that tarry and about halfway through all the characters are "endumbened" as they often are in horror movies, in order to move the story along. Without giving anything away, much of the Joker's evil plans involve infiltration, but there's a marked lack of checking and double-checking credentials. "Cop A" climbs into a vehicle with "Cop B" whom he's never seen before and doesn't think twice about it. It does get tedious, but as the box office shows, curmudgeons like me aren't going to stop what may end up being the biggest movie of all time.

Until next summer.

Аз очаквам филма с ОГРОМЕН интерес, и се подготвям гледайки Batman: Gotham Knight

Ако се чудите какво е това, обяснявам бързо. Batman: Gotham Knight e "филм" издаден директно на DVD и съставен от 6 кратки епизода, който разказват случки в периода "Batman Begins" и "The Dark Knight", както и малко за миналото на Брус.
Различните епизоди са написани от Josh Olson, David Goyer, Brian Azzarello, Greg Rucka, Jordan Goldberg и Alan Burnett; и също така имат тотално различна визия (правени са от четири различни студиа). Батмън е озвучен от Kevin Conroy, който е и любимият ни прилеп в оригиналната DC Animated Universe.

Най-точния начин да опиша този "филм" е като ви припомня за "The Animatrix", в която нещата се развиват по-сходен начин (само дето там епизодите бяха 9) или пък "Dark Fury" - кратка анимация, която разказва събитията между "Pitch Black" и "The Chronicles of Riddick".

Шестте епизода в Gotham Knight, са както следва:
1. Have I Got A Story For You (Studio 4°C)
2. Crossfire (Production I.G.)
3. Field Test (Bee Train)
4. In Darkness Dwells (Madhouse)
5. Working Through Pain (Studio 4°C)
6. Deadshot (Madhouse)

Из различните епизодчета, ще видите "Плашилото" и един много смъртоносен снайперист, както и малко повече за развитието на сътрудничеството между шефа на полицията Джеймс Гордън и Батмън.

В общи линии остро препоръчвам на феновете ;) а ако още не сте убедени, ето ви и едно трейлърче

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.1388588&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]

PS: Ааа да, филмът можете да си свалите от тук - Batman - Gotham Knight а субтитри от тук. Приятно гледане.

Well, this isn't going to be a movie review, exactly, but it's going to be about movies, and it's going to deal with, in large part, a movie you had a statistical likelihood of seeing this last weekend if you bothered darkening the door of your local movie theatre at all between midnight last Thursday and Sunday evening. (No, shocked as you may be, I'm not talking about Mamma Mia!)

I've been a Batman guy for a loooooooooong time. There was a little Brave and the Bold digest my mom brought me home once when I was probably about five and home sick; it collected this neat little Batman vs. Deadman story which was drawn by Neal Adams -- "You Can't Hide From a Deadman," originally printed in Brave and the Bold #86, Oct/Nov 1969 -- and I was hooked ever since. It was still a few years yet before I started reading comics regularly, but I remember coming in on the tail end of Batman: Year 2, reading Ten Nights of the Beast, The Killing Joke, and A Death in the Family when they were first printed (The Dark Knight Returns I came to about three years late or so just 'cause it looked kinda ugly to this ten year old when I first saw it on the shelves -- let's face it, I was just too young to get it), and I was definitely at the movie theatre on 23 June 1989 for the first night the Burton/Keaton Batman was playing, which I saw three times that summer while it was still in the theatres. A tick over nineteen years later, maybe not much has changed.

I've also been a Christopher Nolan guy for a good bit. I saw Memento three times when it was in theatres, and keep in mind that meant, at least for the first couple of times I saw it, driving about half an hour to the arthouse which was playing it. I talked it up to whomever would listen, took friends to see it, bought David Julyan's score CD, bought the DVD (both versions), and so on. I bought (and quite liked) Following when it came out on DVD, and while for various reasons had to miss Insomnia when it was in theatres, I've enjoyed it on DVD since (but, truthfully, it remains the one I've seen the least number of times -- maybe that's nothing to lose sleep over?).

For me, getting to know a director's work is getting to know what kinds of themes interest them, what kinds of images they consistently use, what they like to do with structure, which actors they re-use, who scores their movies, what kind of pattern they're continuing (or establishing) with new works, and so on. To put it another way, a director is always infinitely more interesting to me when there is something more I can get out of one of their movies by placing it in the context of the rest of their work.

Which brings me to The Dark Knight. There are major spoilers to follow from The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Memento, Following, Insomnia, and The Prestige, so do read at your own risk.

I've seen it twice now; I was lucky enough to get in on the viral marketing IMAX ticket giveaway, only because I live in a market where two hours after the site went live there were still tickets available (although only just -- I was 164/170), and thus saw it 50.5 hours before most of the rest of the world had a chance. I also saw it again (in IMAX, natch) last Friday night. I'll get the easy stuff out of the way first: some movies are overhyped. A couple of well-edited trailers, a flashy marketing campaign, and a couple of glowing early reviews can all add up to a disappointing experience in the actual cinema because in the end, it's "just a movie" and doesn't cure cancer. The Dark Knight is not this movie -- it is every bit as good as you've heard, and gets better on repeat viewings. Everybody brings their A-game, be they in front of the camera or behind the camera, be they in a big role or a small role, and they craft a crime epic for the ages along the lines of Heat or The Departed or L. A. Confidential. This isn't Tim Burton's self-aware, dark-but-comic freakshow; this isn't Joel Schumacher tweaking your nose. And -- I say this as somebody who saw Iron Man twice and who thinks it was absolutely terrific -- this also definitely isn't Jon Favreau's bright, flashy, action-adventure story in which A Flawed But Ultimately Good Man Learns Something While Wearing A Costume. The Dark Knight takes the idea of a "comic book movie" and elevates it to a whole new genre and a whole new level of filmmaking; you'll either like that or you won't (I've read some reviews that say it's pointless to try to elevate source material which is absurd to the core to the level of Hamlet), but if your reasons for not liking a movie like this have to do with the title character being dressed as a bat rather than wearing a shirt and tie, that's really your problem, and not that of the filmmakers.

One thing about the story – two years ago, when the title was revealed and Nolan said it was “quite important to the film” (http://www.batman-on-film.com/batmovienewsarchives48.html), I immediately understood it to be a double entendre with “the dark night”. Putting that together with the recasting of Rachel Dawes rather than creating a new character (seeming to point to the need for somebody in whom we were already invested emotionally), I believed from that moment on that Rachel was going to be dead as a doornail by the end of the film. Sure enough. If the rumors are true that Rachel was originally supposed to be Harvey Dent in Batman Begins until there was a studio note saying “We need a chick in the pic, stat”, then that was a great way for Nolan to take it and run with it.

Okay -- I haven't said anything new there. You've probably read a dozen reviews which have said something similar, so I'll move on now to what I really want to write about.

The Dark Knight keys off of several important ideas set up in Batman Begins; definitely that of "escalation," established in the closing conversation in BB between Gordon and Batman, but also very much the repeated line, "It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me" as well as the notion that Batman isn't just Bruce Wayne in a mask; it is in fact who Bruce Wayne actually is.

And as bleak as people are saying it is, the two important things with which you're left at the end of the movie are a) nobody on either boat pressed the button and b) Batman did not let the Joker fall to his death -- a correction of a huge misunderstanding on Tim Burton's part nineteen years ago, and a clear indicator that Batman has decided that "I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you" is no longer a clear enough line in the moral sand, not when your enemy has no rules whatsoever.

All well and good. However, looking at it through the lens of Nolan's other work, bigger themes start to emerge. Much has been made of how much Nolan likes to play with time, but that's really window dressing, a story-telling tool rather than a theme (and it's telling how, as he has matured as a filmmaker, he's done it less and less). Identity, on the other hand, has been a key question in his movies from the get-go; Following and The Prestige study characters who deliberately take on other identities but then find that they can't just simply go back to normal when they're done. The narrator of Following turns himself into somebody who seems slick and clever and affluent, emulating Cobb as much as he can at Cobb's own encouragement, but in doing so he makes it impossible to prove that Cobb ever existed and/or that he's not, in fact, Cobb -- which was, of course, "all part of the plan" in the first place. Angier and Borden in The Prestige both are leading double lives (I've always thought it was particularly clever of Nolan to cast as his leads actors most famous for playing superheroes, and that it added a fascinating subtext to the film), and must maintain the "act" at all costs, to the extent that their lives are quite dependent on it. In trying to figure out each other's magic tricks, Angier and Borden are actually solving the problem of who the other person actually is.

Memento's Leonard Shelby, on the other hand, is an examination of how our natural identities depend on how we experience time and form memories -- if we can't, we're slaves to external sources of information, never able to trust our own instincts about who we are. As a result, Leonard can never stop mourning the death of his wife, because his own perception of time (or lack thereof) can never provide any distance from it. It will always have just happened for him.

Batman Begins and The Dark Knight bring many of these concepts together. Bruce Wayne, as depicted by Nolan, his brother Jonathan, and David Goyer, has assumed at least one identity (if not two, counting the "playboy Bruce" persona) which changes him and those with whom he interacts permanently. At the same time, the whole reason he does so is because, to a certain extent, he can never get past the trauma of losing his parents, because the one way he knows to heal, revenge, has been taken from him -- and he realizes it won't necessarily do what he hopes for anyway. One way or the other, he's permanently emotionally stuck, much like Leonard Shelby, and this drives him to take on the dual persona (which is itself an interesting inversion of Bale's character/characters in The Prestige, Borden -- two men having to lead one life). To apply Memento's questions, then -- can Bruce trust his own sense of who he is? Is the Batsuit really a message he sends to criminals, or a message he's sending to himself, much like Leonard Shelby's tattoos? To apply The Prestige's questions, can he stop being Batman without causing himself, to say nothing of others, harm?

Several of the films deal with familial loss; Memento and The Prestige both with the loss of a wife under circumstances which are left ambiguous, Batman Begins obviously having the murder of parents as a pivotal point (but also has Ra's Al Ghul talking about taking vengeance for a murdered wife), and The Dark Knight has the murder of Harvey Dent's fiancée as a major engine of the plot (while also showing Gordon's wife mourning his death in the line of duty). All of these cases are motivators for vengeance, but in The Prestige in particular it's clear that Angier's lust for revenge eventually wanes, and he continues out of the sheer momentum of hatred -- "I don't care about my wife, I care about his secret," he spits out halfway through the movie. Looking forward, perhaps we can surmise that Bruce Wayne eventually faces the danger of being Batman just to be Batman, with no particular purpose driving him.

One can draw a line of connection between Dormer's corruption in the name of catching the bad guys in Insomnia to what Gordon and Batman choose to do at the end of The Dark Knight; if it can be proven Dormer planted evidence even once, then it calls all of the convictions to which he's contributed into question. In TDK, if Harvey's spree as Two-Face is made public, their efforts to fight the mob will have been entirely in vain. Bending the rules to make the criminals pay is a slippery slope in Nolan's universe, one with very real consequences. Even if everything ostensibly turns out all right, somebody will have to pay the piper -- and sometimes it's the wrong person.

(By the way, Nolan has mentioned that Aaron Eckhart was looked at for Memento. I think one can look at Eckhart's Two-Face for a glimpse of what he might have been like as Leonard Shelby. I think that was a career-defining performance for Guy Pearce, so I wouldn't have it any other way, but Eckhart would have been really interesting in the role. Different from what we got, but definitely interesting.)

In terms of recurring visual motifs -- there is always a "lair" in Nolan's film, a location where the main character's dark secrets are hidden and their true identity may be found. This goes all the way back to Following, where The Young Man takes Cobb to his apartment under the ruse that it's somebody else's (and of course Cobb knows what's going on immediately). In Memento it is the basement of the abandoned building where Jimmy Gantz's body and Leonard's real clothes have been left. In Insomnia it is Finch's cabin. In Batman Begins and The Dark Knight it is the Batcave (or its temporary replacement). In The Prestige it is the theatre basement where all of Angier's "prestige materials" are kept. More often than not it involves "going down" someplace; I will leave others more qualified to speak about Jungian psychology to discuss the implications of the "descent" into the place where one keeps secrets, potentially even from oneself.

Breaking of legs is something which has shown up twice in a row now -- Angier falls through a trapdoor and the cushion has been removed, shattering the entire limb from the looks of the brace he's put in, and Batman drops Sal Maroni from a height which is just enough to break his ankle (although Nolan is far more subtle about showing Maroni with a cane later than he is with Angier). Being a year and a half out from a broken ankle myself and still recovering to some degree, both of those moments make me squirm each time.

Casting is an interesting point -- Nolan doesn't quite seem to have the "stock company" of David Mamet or, to a lesser degree, of David Lynch or Tim Burton, but three films in a row now have starred Christian Bale and Michael Caine. To some extent, Bale, Guy Pearce, and maybe Following's Jeremy Theobald, too have a visual continuity I can't quite explain -- distinctive faces which wear woundedness well, maybe. Bale and Pearce definitely have a carved-out-of-wood quality -- and I don't mean that in a bad way -- to their facial and bodily structures (harder to say with Theobald). Hugh Jackman and Aaron Eckhart are somewhat the opposite -- classically good-looking men who you want to like and have be the ostensible good guys (which, naturally, is what makes their characters more interesting when they turn). Mark Boone Junior has had significant supporting roles a couple of times, Theobald showed up in a bit role in Batman Begins, and Larry Holden is quite the chameleon, going from L. A. lowlife Jimmy Gantz in Memento to the dapper D. A. Finch in Batman Begins (as well as having a bit in Insomnia). He gets really interesting performances out of people, be it well-established character actors like Joe Pantoliano or Andy Serkis or people harder to define, such as David Bowie -- who, by the way, I really wished would have gotten a Best Supporting Actor nod for Tesla. He was onscreen for all of ten minutes, maybe, but he owned every frame in which he appeared. I'd love for Nolan to find a reason to cast Carrie-Anne Moss again -- her appearance in Memento is still the most interesting thing she's ever done, in black vinyl or out of it, as far as I'm concerned. (Probably, since she's being cast in "mom" roles now -- at all of 40! -- she would be out of the running for a future cinematic appearance of Selina Kyle/Catwoman. Maybe she could play Selina's mother, Cougarwoman?) Gary Oldman disappears so completely into the role of Gordon that it's hard to tell if Nolan is actually giving him any direction or if he's just getting out of the way.

So -- back to The Dark Knight for a moment. What's ahead? Where can a third Batman movie potentially go Or, to put it another way, what in the world do they do to top this one? And I think the answer is, they need to not bother trying. They need to go in the opposite direction and do something smaller, grittier, more – dare I say it – intimate. Maybe even something which feels more like a stage play than a movie – I don’t know, something more like Memento (and maybe even with David Julyan scoring rather than the Zimmer/Howard team, good as it is). They’ve set it up well to go in that direction – Batman is on the run (although presumably Bruce Wayne is not, since his being outed was prevented), his relationship with Lucius is strained (if not severed entirely) so that he won’t be able to just go to him with gadget requests anymore, and so on. Somehow he’ll have to repair what the events of The Dark Knight have broken, but that’s going to require operating on a smaller scale for awhile, I expect. Robin could work within this thematic framework, but it seems unlikely they’d go that way. Presumably in a third movie we’d be able to return to Wayne Manor, which itself could thematically represent some sort of shift back to the status quo.

In terms of what this means for a villain – hard to say. I would say that the Riddler could work on the thematic level – possibly something like Saw, only, y’know, worth watching. I’d be really surprised if the people at the helm wanted to revisit the character. Hard to say. I wonder if maybe somebody like Talia wouldn’t work, perhaps continuing her father’s efforts? It would certainly tie into what’s come before, and with Batman as a reluctant outlaw, there would be the element of temptation for him to join her on several levels. Catwoman could be done easily within the rules of Nolan’s universe, but I doubt Warner Bros. wants to go anywhere near that character for awhile.

(Here’s an idea – what about a Gotham Central TV series set in the Nolanverse between TDK and film #3 -- The Dark Knight Returns??? -- ? If Batman is having to be in hiding to some extent, then he can just be a vague, undefined presence to some extent who doesn’t have to directly appear.)

(Which reminds me – having watched the Gotham Knight DVD a few times now, too, I’ll say that presumably, Anna Ramirez was used instead of Renee Montoya because the powers that be didn’t want Renee Montoya to wind up as a dirty cop. That said, “Crossfire” now makes less sense as a result, not more – unless the point was to make her fall be even tougher for those who figured she was just a generic Montoya stand-in. Also, the Goyer segment doesn’t exactly jive with what we see of Crane at the beginning of The Dark Knight, but at the same time, Gotham Knight appears to also forget that Wayne Manor burned down during Batman Begins, so it’s not an exact match anyway.)

(I will also note that I think the Joker could be recast. Likely? No. Possible? Yes. Nolan would just have to do what he did this time, which is find the best actor for the job.)

(Okay, enough with the parentheticals.)

(I mean it.)

Maybe the biggest clue is in the final scene. It’s clear that Nolan and co. regard the Batman/Gordon relationship as the moral foundation of the particular stories they’re telling. That may seem obvious, but I think it’s very much underscored in the last scene of TDK, which is a clear counterpoint to the last scene of BB. For example –- Gordon telling Batman “thank you” and him replying, "You don't have to thank me" seems to be very much a reference to the last line of BB, and in general both scenes function to wrap up the moral point of the preceding story and establish what the guiding principle will be for the next one. Given that, as much as escalation was the driving force of TDK, can we surmise that Gotham learning to accept the hero they need will be the plot engine of the third film?

Enough for now. I have plenty to say about all of this, but this is already quite long. I'll come back to it another day, maybe.

Here's what I wrote for GEN this week.

UPDATE: By the way, I think the format for these GEN week-in-review posts are so ... clunky. I like the ComicNerd formats much better---and they're so much easier, too. I think I'm going to work on a redesign for next time.

4/5

ich bin zwischendurch eingeschlafen, nicht weil es nicht spannend, sondern weil ich wirklich müde war. hab 2 von 6 verpasst leider. das was ich gesehen habe war allerding ziemlich cool. das konzept ist dasselbe wie bei animatrix. verschiedene studios machen jeweils einen kurzfilm zu batman. jeder teil hat komplett sein eigenen stil und erzählt einen anderen teil der geschichte.
da steckt sehr viel mühe drin und es ist alles sehr schön gelungen. daumen hoch.
als bonus sind noch 4 episoden der zeichentrickserie mit drauf. ebenfalls großartig.
einziger schwachpunkt: 5.1 sound gibts nur auf englisch und ungarisch(!). auf deutsch gibts nur stereo. aber das original ist eh das beste und deshalb haben wir das geguckt. und es ist auch relativ einfach zu verstehen. also was solls.