Saturday, July 19, 2008 -

I just watched The Dark Knight movie at The Cathay......and OMFG IT ROXXORS!!!!......lol


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Seriously, I think it's THE Best damn comicbook movie ever......and you can trust me...since I've seen almost all of them..haha.. The level of realism, complexity, emotional and psychological intensity in the movie really sets it apart from the rest of the comic films.I went in with Sky-High expectations and they were exceeded....that has never happened to me.....EVER!!....OMFG IT RO.......>ahem<...haha
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If You noticed....Comic films always have a very standard 3 act sequence to every one of them.....Origin, Big action-set piece in the middle and then big fight with the baddie at the end. I've always said as enjoyable as films like Ironman, Hulk, Spider-man are.....it always comes down to two guys knocking the crap out of each other.
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The Dark knight completely does away with this rigid 3 act structure and for a 2 hr 30 min film....it really holds your attention and never lets up. After the first 40 mins....Its chock full of twists and turns and every one of them is like a punch to the gut,emotionally......so watching it was getting punched in the gut repeatedly.....haha...by the end of the film....you're completely exhausted......kinda saddened by the events, aghast at the insanity of the Joker's scheme and won over by the quality of the film.
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I think my favorite thing about the movie...is that all the lead characters deliver bloody good performances......not a single one of them slips up.......in Batman Begins, you clearly know that Katie Holmes' acting was severly lacking when put alongside actors like Gary Oldman and Christian Bale............this time around Christian Bale was still awesome and the best Batman actor to date, Maggie Gyllenhall's Rachel Dawes was a more 3-dimensional character then Katie Holme's version( if rachel was still played by Katie...I'm sure 80% of the audience would have cheered when the character got blown up), Gary Oldman was great as very human and relatable comissioner Gordon ( who used to be be a lame supporting character in the prev bat films shouting stuff like ("Batman! There's a new villain in Gotham....he's frozen the new antiquities week.......He's calling himself.....Mister Freeze!!!") and Aaron Eckhart's Harvey/ Two-face was a stellar performance as well.....by the time he becomes two-face, there's no going back....he's a pure engine of hate......
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The only thing why Aaron Eckhart's work as Two-face will be sadly overlooked by the general audiences is because even his acting is completely overshadowed by Heath Ledger's Joker......who seems to be operating on an entirely other level......I mean Jack Nicholson's Joker was good for its time but at the end of the day he was still a portly, middle-aged man caked in clown make-up and dancing to music from "the artist formerly known as Prince"........Heath Ledger's Joker is almost like a force of nature........a new kind of urban terrorist......a comic film villain that audiences have never ever encountered before and I'm not sure they are ready to...LOL....
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Heath Ledger's Joker is like this awkward, shifty figure prone to occasional bouts of extreme violent outbursts, who's riddled with weird nervous tics....you see the way his eyes shift around constantly and how he uses his fingers franatically to articulate his points and wadles like a duck from the hospital........at first, I thought it was kinda weird seeing him licking his lips and playing with his tongue constantly.......then I realized why his tongue always seem to be slithering about in his mouth.....he was tongue-ing the scars on his lips from within the wall of his mouth....like a kid would use his tongue to play with the ulcers in his mouth......Cool.....haha
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You know why the Joker is always 2-steps ahead of Batman in the film? Because he's so goddamn insane that no rational mind can think on the same wave length as him.......Batman can predict how mobsters or normal criminals act because he can identify with certain human desires (wealth, power or revenge)....he's stumped with the Joker.....The Joker don't give a shit about money, he doesn't want to be the top gangster in town, he's not in it for revenge (" Believe me when I say its nothing personal Harvey".....oh yeah...bl0wing up someones fiancee is nothing personal..y'know...just the usual routine...lol)........if Batman could anticipate what the Joker is doing and put himself in the same frame of mind......then err.....that would mean he would be in essence, as psychotic as the Joker....
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The whole structure of the Joker's seemingly chaotic series of robberies,assasinations and bombings kinda bothered me a bit.........The ultimate goal was of course simple: To Prove a point....to Batman that humans, no matter how decent, are still inherently savages when the chips are down......so he takes the Most decent man in Gotham City/ who represented the hope of Gotham and completely destroy him physically,emotionally, psychologically........and then rebuild him as an agent of anarchy shaped in the Joker's own twisted image........Two-face is therefore something like The Joker's greatest work of Art....his masterpiece......his walking thesis proving that humans are inherently evil and all they need is a little push........but I wondered how does the Bank Robbery at the beginning fit in with his grand scheme since The Joker did'nt even want any cash...why bother with the robbery?
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I thought about it......and the way his scheme plays out is perfectly logical but still very difficult to understand or digest after watching the show......comic films never had this kind of intricacy...its usually just "I wanna take over the world!" or "I wanna Kill (fill-in the blank)-man ".........here's the whole scheme as I understand it ...

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1.)The Joker robs the Mob bank at the start because he wants to grab the attention of the Mob bosses in a big way And to demonstrate to them that their dirty money is not safe in the banks of Gotham from cops or even simple freaks like himself........which plays a major role in convincing the mob bosses to go along with Ng Chin Han's plan to safekeep all their money for them and then escape back to HK away from the Gotham police's jurisdiction....Joker told them that Ng Chin Han would sell them out eventually (which the Joker is counting on)......he also probably (correctly) predicted that Batman would get his hands on the Ng Chin Han guy even if he was in HK.......and the captured NG Chin Han did indeed rat on his mob partners like the Joker predicted.............and all of the mob bosses were rounded up in one swift swoop....
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Phase one of his plan is complete: he wanted to prove to the Mob bosses that Batman was a super-credible threat who could get to them anywhere and any place and he wanted to gain the trust of the mob bosses.....which he achieved when Ng Chin Han ratted them out just like the Joker told them he would and the fact that all of the bosses got indicted further convinced them that they needed some help and The Joker might be the man to solve their problems for them.....why does he want to gain their trust and convince them that Batman is their number one problem? He's still pretty small-time and needs the mob resources to back up his grand plan.......especially resources like the crooked cops within the GCPD like Berg and Ramirez who he would use to stay ahead of the cops and to kidnap Harvey Dent and Rachel dawes...



2.) The Joker targets the Judge, Comissioner Loeb and Harvey Dent for execution....and promises that people will die unless Batman reveals his secret identity......these 3 civil servants were most instrumental in rounding up and the mob and charging them....the Mob at this point still believe that the Joker is working in their best interests by killing these three characters so they continued supporting the Joker( who they think is in it for the money)....and if you notice.....the Joker's crew only consists of psychotics and mental patients like the schizo guy in the police outfit or the fat guy with the cell-phone bomb......this psychos are easily swayed, can't provide the police with any useful info even when they're captured and whose testimonies probably don't count anyway since they are insane....



Phase two of his plan is completed too: The Joker's main goals in this phase seems to be to introduce himself to Gotham in a grand scale and establish himself as one scary muther-focker...LOL......and to draw Batman into the open (Batman initially thought that the mob was more important then going after some clown when talking to Gordon at the bank)...The Mob think that the Joker's methods are extreme but he's earned their trust by targetting the biggest threats to them.....but actually he could give a rat's ass about the gangsters and he picked this few targets....including the mayor later on because they are the linch pins of the city..........and by killing such prominent people.....he'll elicit panic and fear on a inhumanly wide scale from the citizens of Gotham..... and by threatening to kill more people unless Batman reveals his secret identity....he's in fact turning the whole city against Batman............which illustrates the point that he makes to Batman later that the people of Gotham may need Batman now but like the animals they are, they'll just as easily turn against Batman one day...



3.) The city turns against Batman and calls for him to turn himself in.....Harvey Dent "reveals" himself as Batman and is taken into custody and the Joker plans this massive attack in a "Slaughter is the best medicine" semi-trailer ,the night that Harvey is being transported to prison, with the intention of being caught and he implements the end game by having the crooked cops on Salvatore maroni's pay-roll kidnap Rachel Dawes and Harvey Dent while in jail, the Mob is of no more use to The Joker at this juncture. Rachel get blown to bits and Harvey Dent went from original to crispy after his face caught fire.



Phase 3: The Joker planned to be captured because like all criminals, he is afterall vain, and he (like in the comics) can't resist having a sit down with Batman and layout his symbiotic relationship he shares with Batman and mess with his head since he knows fully well that his plan regarding dent is already put into play and cannot be stopped. The conversation about how fragile the human psyche is and how easily people can turn into animals is fairly important since from here-on in.....now that the Harvey Dent situation is more or less reaching its inevitable conclusion, The Joker's schemes after his escape from jail both involve setting up life and death situations,proving to Batman that what he said about people and their loose morals is true........he knew that Batman would go after Rachel dawes and have the GCPD go after Dent from the moment he saw Batman dive out of the penthouse to save her.........so he switches the locations of where Dent and dawes are siuated in.........knowing that Batman will get to the place more quickly then the police can........he's taking a gamble that Batman will save Dent because at this stage....he's not finished with Harvey Dent yet.........and his plan went according to plan.......Harvey was rescued and Rachel was blown up.........which plunged Batman in semi-depression and pushed Harvey Dent completely over the edge......



4.) The Joker tells the whole city that he's going blow up a hospital unless Reese, the guy who found out Batman's identity, was killed within 60 mins......which gets the whole city riled up and many of them out for blood and the Joker takes the time to symbolically pass the torch to his logical successor...his creation...Two-face....who he's counting on to take his plan to its logical conclusion......I have no doubt that The Joker would'nt have mind one bit if Two-face had really blown his brains out....since his work was already done.......he's re-made Two-face into his own twisted creation.....a more psychologically dangerious villain than he could ever be. Although the Joker is one scary pyscho, he is like this cypher, an unknown force of evil with no ties to anyone...........Harvey Dent as two-face can do more emtional and psychological damage then Joker ever could..........he went from being Gotham's perfect white knight that will usher in a golden era to this disfigured, psychotic half-a-man and he was Batman's and Gordon's partner and friend and they trusted each other with their lives........so imagine the kinda emotional and pyschological turmoil that each of the 3 men face when dealing each other other as enemies......he is indeed the perfect successor....and The Joker's pride and joy....LOL



Phase 4 is done too: The conversation between The Joker and Batman in the interrogation room now begins to make complete sense as the Joker illustrates whatever he told Batman with dramatic examples............he turns a large percentage of the city into a blood-hungry crowd willing to take a life by threatening to blow up a hospital.....The Joker demonstrates that under the right circumstances , normal decent people can be brought down to his level.....he could tell Gotham to shoot Reese, or a 70 year old lady or a small child and there would be people willing to do this......because Humans are selfish and self-preservation of their lives and their normal status quo can take precedence over the lives of others...........also at this stage, Harvey's transformation is complete and the Joker goes down personally to meet his creation.......to personally put the weapon in his hands and set him on a personal quest for vengeance that there's no going back from......Two-face at this stage is of course so emotionally and psychologically battered that he becomes everything he's fought against...



5.) The end Game. The Joker, by now is the most feared person in Gotham city and so when he threatens the entire city and force them to evacuate.....that's exactly what they do.....the criminals and civilians are seperated into two barges........and each of the barge is rigged to blow......and each barge is given the choice and means to blow the other one up, otherwise when the clock strikes midnight, The Joker will blow them up anyway.....all this is of course just Joker proving his point draatically again(its not even the main event) and distracting both Gordon and Batman while Harvey dent go around killing the people who betrayed him.....so that they don't have a clue that their friend is doing to himself and by the time the 3 of them are reunited...Harvey Dent would have already crossed the point of no return.



Phase 5 has a few hiccups: For the first time in the movie, The Joker is thwarted.......Batman proves him completely wrong......this part really highlights the fact that Christopher Nolan really understands the characters.............The Joker sees THE worst in people, he belives that nature will always oversome nurture that humans are inherently animals who put on a hypocritical moral front........and Batman, underneath it all, despite what he has seen and experienced like his Parents bleedin to death in front of him,is still an eternal optimist, he sees the BEST in people,he believes in them............and both men are so confident in what they beleive in, The Joker has no doubt that by 12am...one barge would have blown up the other and Batman also does not doubt for a second that none of the barges will destroy the other..........the last part is not a physical battle but basically down to a battle between Both men's belief systems...and Batman won............Batman proves to the Joker that normal people can have the moral fibre to make the right decisions...that maybe not everyone cracks or reverts to a blood-thirsty state when facing a tough situation....maybe it was just HIM all along......snapping and turning insane because he was too much of a coward to face reality...



The Batman of course denies Joker his final and biggest victory, at a super high cost, he ensures that the image of Gotham's white knight, Harvey Dent, remains untarnished in the eyes of its cictizens.......because imagine the spirit of the city if it gets out.........they have witnessed their chief judge blown up, the comissioner of Police dying after ingesting hydrochloric acid, their "hero-cop" Jim Gordon apprently falling in the line of duty, the city's second leading D.A Rachel Dawes blown up, a hospital completely destroyed, The Joker turning their fellow citizens into blood-thirsty crowds and then have a major life/death decison placed in their hands during the incident with the rigged barges......and if they find out that their one biggest hope, the person who was mostly likely to lead them out of all this misery and into a Golden age has been turned into a deformed, grotesque murderer who's no different from The Joker.....I think any sane person would be on the first plane or boat out of the city rather then live in Gotham....which is hell on earth or the next best thing.....



The sacrifice Batman makes just sums up the character perfectly for me........he may act like the nastiest, craziest super-hero around but he is the most Moral one.......he takes on the weight of the world willingly and without complaints,he's sacrificed everything for his mission and his promise to his parents;his mental health, his physical health, any possibilities of companionship or love, any chance at happiness............and he blames himself for every death he fails to prevent.....in the comics,he even blames himself for the people Joker kills.....he, personally refuses to break his non-killing code but by letting the Joker live, he believes that for each person the Joker kills.....he's indirectly responsible.....





Even the title of the movie made complete sense.........Harvey Dent was Gotham's White knight, operating within the confines of the law, trying to save the city, loved and respected by the People of Gotham.................and Batman is its Dark knight; feared, hated, misunderstood by the people of Gotham, a man who has given everything but expects Nothing...hunted by criminals and the police alike.........talk about over-worked, Under-paid!!...LOL



In conclusion,if you think about it, all the deaths, all the bombings and assasinations and double-crossing was just so Joker could give a 2 hr 30 min lecture to Batman about the fragility and violatility of the human psyche with practical examples along the way to illustrate his points.....To get Batman to admit that all those moral codes and principles were all Bullshit.......Boy would I love him to be a guest lecturer in RMIT!!!.......It's weird I usually don't understand lectures by noted professors or doctors or professionals in the industry but I understood this lecture by a crazed clown perfectly....hahaha..and wrote a mini-thesis on it!!



For your information, to write this blog post, I had to dress up in clown make-up, purple suits, dye my hair green and slit both corners of my mouth and stuff lint and knives in my pocket to get into the correct mind-frame so I could dissect the film's overall plot..........hahaha...the sacrifices I make for journalistic integrity....



I'll rate this film 10/10.........Comicbook films are probably never ever gonna get this good again......hell it's not a great comicbook film...its a great film..Period.



Update: The Dark Knight movie just made 66.4 million dollars on its opening day alone. The Biggest oppening for any film in History.EVER.........deserves every cent....



Anyway This post has killed most of my brain cells today........hahahha.....so I'll end with THE funniest thing I have seen all week......its an mtv movie awards spoof segment.....where Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr and Jack Black get together to discuss how to promote their new film; Tropic Thunder now that both KungFu Panda and Iron Man are Box-office smashes.......you get to see Ironman kick Kungfu Panda in the nuts...LOL...it has to be seen to be believed:





http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBNVJG15tGs





Enjoy it.......after this long,psychological review.....everyone needs a laugh.....c'mon......

WHY SO SERIOUS?!?!

8:27 PM