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Did I enjoy this film? Yes. Does it have problems? Many.

Heath Ledger = Good. Amazing, actually. Also sad.

Batman's Voice = Bad. Maybe it would be bad if he sounded like Bruce Wayne, but I kept waiting for Gordon to offer him a lozenge.

Maggie Gyllenhall = Wasted, and in a girlfriend-in-the-refrigerator sort of way. On top of Dr. Horrible I find this very tiring and frustrating.

The Ferry Dilemma = An unaccountably optimistic note in an unrelentingly dark film. Also, is it not usual for, I don't know, ANYONE from the crew to inspect the engine room before launch?

Morgan Freeman = Apparently because he played god in those Almighty movies we are to be reassured that he can play god with universal surveillance. Am still scratching my head over the "Wow this is extremely problematic"/"Yup it is let's go ahead with it" meta-commentary the filmmakers left in.

Beating Up Dogs = Uncool, Chris Sims notwithstanding.

Gary Oldman = Was acting for a different and slightly better film than this one. Best Commissioner Gordon ever.

Car/Van/Motorcycle/Semi Chases = Eh. I did like the convoy delivering Harvey to County lockup, and the mysterious driver -- Is it the Joker? No, it must be Bruce. No . . . oh, I get it.

Aaron Eckhart = Balances Ledger's performance in a very quiet and easy-to-overlook way. Also:

Two-Face Makeup = Incredibly perfect, and creepy, and wrong.

Michael Caine = In some ways he feels like the emotional center of this film, which is saying something. But:

Alfred = Makes less and less sense the more that comics and film writers develop his backstory -- why the hell is this guy serving drinks at cocktail parties?

The Trip to Hong Kong = Probably what tipped the story over into slightly-bloated territory, because it distracted from:

The Joker's Attempts to Turn Gotham's Citizens On Each Other, the City Government, the Cops, the D.A., and Batman = Could have been brilliant, and had some nice moments. But as mentioned above, the ferry bit contradicted it in a rather unbelievable messy and not-that-interesting way, and in the end the film allows Batman and Gordon to embrace:

The Idea That In Order to Protect the Citizenry, We Must Present Attractive Lies To Distract From the Fact That Said Protection Comes At the Expense of Their Civil Liberties = Appalling. Granted that this is Batman all over, but the film endorses it on both overt and symbolic levels (see: Alfred burning Rachel's letter) while only making the most cursory of nods towards the idea that just maybe this is notsogood. Really, ick.

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Date: 2008-07-23 04:20 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] snurri.livejournal.com
What I liked about Ledger was that he was both funny and scary; funny in the way that makes you feel bad for laughing, and also in the way that you laugh when you worry that you may be in trouble. Too often lately, in the comics, the Joker is either scary but not funny or (more often) neither.

I too was waiting to find out that the detonators on the ferries had been switched. And yet I also didn't care all that much, because the movie was beginning to drag by that point.

Alfred is, I think, the part of the Batman mythos that grates on folks who have any sort of class awareness, and hence there's been a rash of rationalization for his role in Bruce's life. It's kind of out of control at this point.

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