Archive for July 18th, 2008
Google buys another contextual ad firm. It’s out of Russia. AMD in the news as the company gets rid of CEO. Symantec screws its distributors. Interesting strategy. Cold fusion results rigged. Psystar selling HQ. PC shipments on the increase. Microsoft online keeps losing money. Web ad business rocky. Sun hopes to do well in Africa. gPhone back in the news. A new worm transcodes MP3’s in an effort to infect PC’s Computer mouse heading for extinction.
Click to listen:
As initially irritated as I was to see that there was going to be a prequel Star Trek movie made… the press that has been coming through the interwebs have successfully gotten me more and more excited for its release.
Now the Trek movie poster has found its way online …. Awesome!
Today marks the release of the quite possibly the best sequel ever made, The Dark Knight, starring [ Christian Bale ], [ Heath Ledger ], [ Aaron Eckhart ], and [ Maggie Gyllenhaal ]. In this updated version of the Batman Story, Batman and Lt. / Commissioner Gordon join forces with Gotham’s new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, to take on a psychotic criminal known as The Joker, who enlists all of the Mob families in Gotham to wreak havoc on the city, and Batman personally. Spoilers abound after the jump.
The movie starts with a bang and keeps rolling almost non-stop for the entire 2 and a half hour runtime. The best part of this movie is the choice in casting.
Heath Ledger provides a portrayal of The Joker that is simply amazing. You truly get the sense of how insane he really is, as he executes his crime without an agenda beyond the sheer joy of chaos, and watching the city burn. There is already rumor that Ledger will be nominated for the Oscar, posthumously, for this role and frankly he deserves it. So many comparisons are being made between Ledger’s Joker and Nicholson’s Joker, and personally I am not sure you can do that. Nicholson’s Joker was certainly more based on the TV series Joker which was more camp then insanity, while Ledger’s was much darker and chilling.
This movie makes us miss Heath all the more, and the movie is dedicated to the memory of Heath Ledger which was awesome, and I would love to see him win the Oscar because had he lived, he certainly would have.
Christian Bale, once again, proves that there is no other person who can adequately play the dark knight. He shows us a convincing depiction of a man who struggles with his place in Gotham. Watching him come to the realization that Harvey Dent is the true hero that Gotham needs, and recognizing that his time has come to an end works in this movie. Seeing the disappointment of the transition of Harvey Dent into Two-Face, and the near pleading case he makes to Harvey to come back from the brink was chilling. Finally, his acceptance that the city needs a scapegoat, someone that they can focus their frustrations on while at the same time he provides the kind of protection that no one else can. Bale is amazing actor, and in this film, he brings all his skill to the screen to dazzle us.
Aaron Eckhart, who until know has had little in the way of memorable roles, skillfully creates a Harvey Dent that we love, trust and eventually fear and pity. Throughout the movie, The Joker creates situations that force Dent to make impossibly difficult moral decisions, and we, as the audience, learn to trust his moral sense and are able to buy into his motto “I believe in Harvey Dent”. As fate transforms Dent into Two-Face, a bitter monster who seeks revenge for the death of Rachel Dawes, we fear and pity him at the same time.
The supporting cast, [ Morgan Freeman ] and [ Michael Caine ], also give a flawless characterization of the only two people that Bruce Wayne is willing to trust. Throughout the movie, both provide a role model for Bruce to latch onto, and keep is moral center true.
The special effects are also amazing for this movie. While providing spectacular eye-candy, they are not so pervasive that they overshadow the human element of the movie. Most amazing, perhaps, is the facial construction of Two-Face. Disturbing, disgusting, emotionally heart wrenching, and certainly not suitable for children.
The Dark Knight, is certainly the best superhero movie ever made, but beyond that, it is also one of the best crime dramas I have ever seen. In this “Comic Book” movie, you forget that is comes from a comic book. It slips past the normal distance that comic movies keep from the audience and engages us from the first scene and doesn’t let go until the end.
The Dark Knight is not a just a simple tale of good and evil. Batman poses a more complex puzzle than usual: The citizens of Gotham City struggle with despising Batman, calling him a vigilante and blaming him for the deaths of policemen and others, while at the same time realizing that without him the city would fall into even more chaos. And the Joker is more than just a villain. He’s a master manipulator who has no agenda other then chaos and the creation of moral dilemmas for his enemies.
This movie clearly defines what potential the comic genre of movies has and creates a model for all other comic movies to follow.
Run, don’t walk, to see this movie.