Bohemia Bunny

White Knight, Dark Knight, who will save Gotham tonight?

July 22nd, 2008 by lynnylchan under Comments and Leisure

AS*spoiler alert for Batman: The Dark Knight*

Brain blown. Movie too awesome. Cannot be coherent. Here have many bullet points instead.

• Much symbolism. I like symbolism. Harvey Dent’s lucky coin. The references to him as Gotham’s “white knight”. The use of Joker cards.
• Nolan brothers totally rock. What’s a director without a good screenplay, so it’s just as well that the director co-wrote the screenplay with his brother. The mind-blowingness should come as no surprise, being that these are the guys who did “The Prestige” and that left me speechless.
• The Batbike is sex on two wheels.
• Michael Caine again gets snappy one-liners, by virtue of being British. “The Lamborghini? Much more subtle.”
• Batman is not perfect, and Lucius Fox does not serve him blindly.
• Public opinion can be a real bitch.
• The Joker is a criminal mastermind. So is he sane or insane? I have no idea.
• The 2 ferries each holding the other’s fate: brilliant storytelling. I did see it coming, but I didn’t know how it would play out. In this case, the true heroes are the people of Gotham.
• The hero is imperfect, the villain is without malice, and suffering warps a good man into an evil one. Such is humanity. There are no heroes, only people doing what they can.
• The antagonistic balance between hero and villain, as old as language and still unresolved. For how does one exist without the other?
• The Joker makes some good points about gravity and anarchy.
• The overarching point of the film, according to me: We are all haunted by shadows in our heart. Misguided intentions, faulty motivations, love… all these lead us to decisions we regret, and which will stay with us forever. There is no evil blackness or noble whiteness - we are only human, and have both.
• Explosions +sound effects of THX movie theatre = nerdgasm.
• The Joker tells 2 different stories regarding his scars. Which is real, and does it even matter?
• Are police forces so corrupt that even Gotham’s cops can be bought? And do all forces have an Internal Affairs department?
• The subtitles are funny. Onscreen says “balls”, subs say “LP”. Hahahaha! (LP = lam par)
• How do you continue being, when the forces that made you are now striving to unmake you?
• When given two choices: Yes or No, remember that there is a third way: “F87k it.”

So that makes 3 movies in 2 weeks. You know you’ve been to the cinema too often when the ads are stale and even the trailers aren’t exciting anymore  - it’s the 2nd time I’ve seen the trailer for the new Mummy movie. I enjoyed the trailer for the upcoming “Clone Wars”, though. With a female Sith Lord, that would make the Dark Side more progressive than the American presidency.