The Dark Knight

[Uncle Yuan]

Personally, I don't mind the Joker as make-up vs. chemically altered skin.  Perhaps this is the "ultimatization" of the character, but I don't personally see it as that important.  What makes the Joker the Joker is what's between his ears, not on his skin.  I would be much more upset if they were somehow fundamentally changing the persona of the character as opposed to the "detail" of how/why he looks the way he does.

[BentonGrey]

I love the first Batman, but the second was just so.....wrong, on so many levels.  Still, I don't think anyone here is talking that bad about the Burton films...Schumacher...yeah.

[Jakew]

huh ... I thought the second Burton Batman film was a lot better than the first one, after watching them both not too long ago.

[the_ultimate_evil]

the second one gets a lot of flak due to the changes made to catwoman and penguin, though i still say the changes to Oswald added to the character

[BentonGrey]

By making him a sewer mutant?  Making him feel like an outcast has always been part of the character, but making him a freak like that is something else.

:EDIT: To be fair, I liked it when I was a kid, but that was before I was old enough to realize that everything out of the Penguin's mouth was a filthy euphemism.  I can't say I really care for that.

[Tomato]

Batman 1 was good, a little dark perhaps, but not bad. I think alot of that was because Jack Nicolson owned Joker for that era, no matter what nitpicks we have now.

Returns on the other hand, took that dark uber-Burton aspect and beat the movie to death with it. Catwoman was ok(a bit overly insane, but again, burton) but yeah, Sewer-mutant Penguin=fail.

Forever was... well I won't say good, but conceptually it was nice to steer away from the uber-dark of the first two. Horribly horribly campy, but if they'd moved on to something a little more grounded I might have liked it better in context.

& Robin-Uber-fail. I give a good ammount of slack to forever, but & Robin sucked. Dying Alfred? Neon Biker races? *shudder*

[Mr. Hamrick]

Ok, I am going to be a bit of a voice of dissent here.  The 1989 Batman movie was okay at best.  Taken for what it was, it was good.  As a "Batman" film, it was ok at best.  As much as I like Jack Nicholson, I think had be given the REAL ability to run with The Joker character, he would've been so much better.  Instead, we got a gangster in clown make-up who, while he was a sociopath, was hardly "The Joker" from the comics.  Burton was great with the visuals on the film.  However, there were a lot of places where he dropped the ball.  This is even more evident with Batman Returns and all the character backstory changes.  Go back and watch the 1989 film again, the scenes with The Joker had more detail put into them and seemingly more effort.

As for Nolan's vision on The Joker, I've heard nothing but good things from the set.  I suspect that we are getting the whole story based on a couple of production stills.  I could be wrong on this but I have my reasons for suspecting this.   I suspect, like many have suggested, that The Joker's makeup look will evolve as the film progresses.  One of my reasons for this suspicion is this:
 
[spoiler] The Joker is apparently going to be in parts two and three as well as Two Face.  There are some additional rumors that we are getting Harley Quinn and The Riddler somewhere in the mix of parts two and three. [/spoiler]

[Viking]

I largely enjoyed the Burton films, even if I had quibbles with what was done with some of the characters.

Jack Nicholson as the Joker, based on the material available at the time, was in my mind a solid Joker performance.  I feel that it was later trumped by the version created by The Animated Series on Fox, but I don't hold that against Nicholson and Burton for how they previously envisioned the character.

I certainly plan to see the Dark Knight with an open mind.  I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised by a new take on the Joker, if it looks like it works.

However, the characterization of the Joker that I have seen and enjoyed has typically been one of an insane, violent psychotic that still very much cares about style and presentation.  The style, the toy-and-novelty gags, the clown-like appearance... these all became part of his psychosis, and helped define the character that I loved to watch.

Hence, when I see a Joker with stringy hair, partially applied white greasepaint, and smeared lipstick, I don't see a devilish psychotic that can pull off atrocities with style.  I see... a dangerous and disturbed thug, pretty much.  And that's what makes me hesitate initially, because it suggests a character that I don't expect to find particularly engaging.

[JKCarrier]

My view of both Burton and Nolan is that they're pretty good at mood, but lousy at action. Batman is scary and angsty and all that, but he's also an action hero. He's a supremely skilled acrobat and martial artist -- he should be pulling off moves that make Jackie Chan gasp in envy. Instead, we get heavy shadows and quick-cuts to hide the fact that the actors (or stuntmen) can barely move in those silly rubber gimp suits. I still remember the hilarious scene in Burton's 1st movie where Keaton hears something above him, and has to bend at the waist to look up, because he can't turn his head at all. It's like all they care about is how the suit will look on the movie poster, and give no thought to how it will actually function on-screen. Lame.

As for the Joker, we'll just have to see. I agree that the fact that Joker is a bit of a dandy is actually a large part of his charm: Stylish and a bit goofy on the outside, monster on the inside. It looks like Nolan is taking a pass on that dichotomy, and trying to make the outside as freaky and disturbing as the inside. It could work, though it's a little overly-literal for my tastes -- I think superheroes work best when they're highly metaphorical, but that seems to be the minority view these days.

[BentonGrey]

Yeah, that's one thing I'm really hoping that they've learned their lesson about.  The action for Batman begins was really quite good, all things considered, but hopefully we'll get away from the claustrophobic shots and actually see some of the action in this movie.  The signs look good, just take a gander at the new batsuit.  It's definitely designed to make that kind of movement easier.

[Midnite]

Latest rumour:


Apparently The Dark Knight is still filming in the Battersea Power Station after last week's shocking explosion. Here's an update posted on SpoilerTV:


On the evening of Sunday 21st Oct a couple of dark blue SWAT vans with 'City of Gotham Police Dept.' written on the sides were parked on the site, and a dark blue helicopter (didn't see any insignia) was flying low near the power station. This morning (Monday 22nd Oct) as I passed the area on the train again, the two SWAT vans were still in the same place, but a long white tent had now been erected nearby and there were quite a few cars on the site, so I guess some filming must have taken place at some point during the day as well.

Meanwhile, a German website Kino.de has a very good article about The Dark Knight. The site is in German, after I translate it with Yahoo here's what I got:

     :spoiler:







* Batman will go to Hongkong for some kind of "gangster hunting", but the producer Chuck Roven won't tell us why Batman travels to Hongkong.
    * The IMAX preview with I Am Legend is the first five minutes of the film.
    * "The whole thing is not 'Joker Begins', because we did not tell how the Joker became what he is", says director Christopher Nolan. "During these five minutes it is shown how the joker of the small crook becomes the most-dreaded gangster of the city - it is more of a "The Rise of the Joker"
    * Batman's new mask will have white lenses on the eyes when he turn on the Bat-sonar detection.

Source: http://www.batmovienews.com/tdk/batm...-white-lenses/

[BentonGrey]

I like the white lens thing, that will look cool.

[RTTingle]

Hmmm...

anyone else been checking out the whysoserious website?

Sure the candle has burned down to almost nothing, but notice how the rightside of the pumpkin is now starting to rot?

Hmmm...

RTT

[TheMarvell]

im probably last to notice this, but the mouth is shaped like the bat-signal

[Mr. Hamrick]

great observation

[spoiler]it almost looks like that pumpkin is being beginning to have a scarred left side of the face . . . . making it look like that there are two parts of it.  what could it mean?[/spoiler]

[Midnite]

Its going to end up looking like this:

[spoiler][/spoiler]




After 10 days:

[Mr. Hamrick]

I agree Middy.  I also suspect that we may get something else from the occasion as well.

[the_ultimate_evil]

nice find middy

[Cardmaster]

Heh, according to Wikipedia, Long Halloween was one of the direct inspirations for the storyline of Dark Knight...

Excellent find, Middy... Excellent find....

[The Pwime]

god, this movie is going to be amazing...

[TheMarvell]

maybe Two-Face revealed?

[Midnite]

A little reminder, check out the site at midnight. Can't wait to see what it is.

[Mr. Hamrick]

The burning pumpkin over at www.whysoserious.com has been replaced with a game. 

sunrise tomorrow it begins.  and there are landmarked destinations up for several cities

if i didn't have something to do in the morning i would be tracking down the Atlanta one.

curious

edit:

Each city has TWO destinations apparently.  The two Atlanta ones are in two blocks of one another approximately.  One of the locations is the court of appeals and the other is near GA State Univ.

[BentonGrey]

Does that remind anyone else of Edward Nigma?

[Mr. Hamrick]

Does that remind anyone else of Edward Nigma?

no, not at all.  considering the last romp that was done.  Mr. Nygma asks riddles, he doesn't create elaborate games. 

[RTTingle]

Got one Miami clue down...

... and I even found a picture of it online that I can send in.  :)

The other clue I know where it is, but no idea what they're asking for.  Oh well.

RTT

[the_ultimate_evil]

anyone else getting annoyed with this, its fun tease and great marketing but come on. it better be worth it

[Mr. Hamrick]

"The Only Way To Live In This World Is Without Rules"

When you click on the picture beneath that note, you get a another production still from the movie.  This one looks to be The Joker in the backseat with someone else driving the car.  The person driving the car's face is blurred.

There is audio: "So, tonight you're going to break your one rule." said in a bit of a whisper.

And there is another link when you click on that site. You are taken to a site called "www.rorysdeathkiss.com" and another game is revealed.  This one involves taking your picture while made up like The Joker in front of one of your city's most favorite landmarks.  He is asking that the game begin tomorrow.

[the_ultimate_evil]

anyone else feel let down all this for a picture and another blooming game, we better get something major sometime soon

[Midnite]

anyone else feel let down all this for a picture and another blooming game, we better get something major sometime soon

Well the big thing is suppose to happen in December. This was just a Halloween treat, they didn't have to do anything you know.