Countdown to “The Dark Knight Rises”: Part 10 of 11 – “The Dark Knight”

If you missed it here is Part 1 of 11: Introduction to Batman “The Gift”

And here is Part 2 of 11: A look Back at Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’

And Part 3: ‘Batman Returns’

And Part 4: ‘Batman Forever’

And Part 5 ‘Batman and Robin’

Part 6: ‘Batman: The Animated Series’

Part 7: ‘Batman: Arkham Asylum’

Part 8: ‘Batman: Arkham City’

Part 9: ‘Batman Begins’

Making friends has never been the easiest thing for me to do. Not because I’m difficult to get along with, but I find that trait in almost everyone. My worldview has been easily summed up by Jean-Paul Sartre (“Hell is other people”) and Elaine Benes & Jerry Seinfeld (“I will never understand people.” “They’re the worst.”) Things changed in 2008. I consider it to be the best year of my life. I’d recently fled the job that would literally induce nightmares into my subconscious for something vastly more stress-free and gratifying. It granted me true independence that college had never really provided due to relying on my parents’ money. I also found a room in a house with two people that would quickly become my best friends.

My new housemates and I would do everything together. We’d get up early – relative to what might be our first urge after a night of partying – to watch football on Sundays. The three of us would grab dinner at any one of the number of quickly-prepared-food restaurants surrounding our pad to bring back and park in front of the TV. And we’d go out to see movies.

Movies were the main reason the three of us got together in the first place. One of them put a room-for-rent ad on Facebook talking about his massive movie collection and behemoth of a TV and I was sold. I had to make sure he didn’t come by his material goods by way of any illegal means, but once I met them, I knew it was kismet.

The fondest memory I have from that period of my life came in the summer of that year. It was a Sunday morning when we trekked a good hour west to take in a showing of The Dark Knight at the Metreon in San Francisco, the closest real IMAX theater playing the movie. We got there three hours before the show, as there were no assigned seats. There was a small line already, but we came prepared to sit with card games and conversation, never fully knowing how our minds would be blown in just a few hours’ time when we walked back through that same spot in the lobby.

Much like whenever the Bane/airplane scene shows up in The Dark Knight Rises due to its inclusion on IMAX prints of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol a few months ago, I was already familiar with the opening bank robbery scene in The Dark Knight. It was included as a preview on the Batman Begins Blu-ray which was released shortly before its sequel. We watched this as a precursor the day or two before making the trip to San Francisco to see the whole film and while I enjoyed it just fine on the small-ish screen (it was a 60-incher), a new dimension of clarity was provided in the theater.

Two Face's gingivitis got the better of him. Don't forget to brush in every night everyone!

The opening scene of The Dark Knight was shot entirely with IMAX cameras. This was the motivation for seeing the movie in a real IMAX theater. We wanted to feel the full visual impact only a 7-story screen could provide. The expansive view gives an immersive entry into the bank heist carried out by Joker and his band of merry henchmen in a way that makes you feel either like a participant that should be wielding a gun or a teller that should be cowering in the corner, depending on which side of the good guy/bad guy nature-of-self you fall down on. If you don’t know, a good litmus test can be conducted by recalling which character you’d always select in an X-Men fighting game.

The visual scope offered by Chris Nolan’s decision to shoot a number of the film’s scenes in IMAX format magnifies an already epic and sprawling story. Never does this feel too outsized for the film’s events, but makes for a perfect combination of narrative and presentation (or fabula and syuzhet for all you film theorists). All of the film’s big set pieces are filmed in the large-frame format, from the bank heist opening, to the kidnapping of Lau in Hong Kong, to the transportation of Harvey Dent through the streets of Gotham, and they all carry a heavier weight than normal, making the film all that much more impactful on the viewer.

Reportedly, close to an hour of The Dark Knight Rises will be projected in full IMAX. Nolan’s clear love of the format is a big win for viewers and certainly gives a hint for the scope of the story he intends to tell in the wrap-up for his take on the character, as if there were any question. Though it won’t be a Batman film, perhaps we’ll be treated to a 100% IMAX- shot movie in his next trip behind the camera.

In addition to the size of the physical film in which the movie was shot, Nolan made another non-Batman-related decision that related directly to the quality of the film-going experience. That aspect is the film’s tone.

Every Batman film I’ve covered in this series has been rated PG-13. It kept me from seeing the movie in 1989. The elements making up that rating made me cringe when seeing the movie with my Grandma in 1992. The rating meant less in a tamer film in 1995, but by 1997, the rating was almost just for show. Like Principal Skinner asking Groundskeeper Willie to keep watering down the orange drink, there’s only so far you can go before what you had in the first place in unrecognizable. That’s what the PG-13 rating in Batman & Robin seems to me. There’s just no justifiable reason for that rating to be slapped onto it other than to have potentially reached for a slightly more adult crowd.

Luckily for anybody whose age allowed admittance, Nolan stretched the PG-13 rating in The Dark Knight as far as possible in the opposite direction. It’s certainly the darkest and most dismal non-R rated film in existence and is one cuss word or spot of blood away from teetering over the restricted edge.

Heath Ledger gives a haunting and brilliant performance as The Joker in TDK. Top notch stuff.

At the heart of all the darkness, not surprisingly, is The Joker. Every breath he takes and every move he makes is dedicated toward introducing chaos to the world that surrounds him and bringing out the evil tendencies lurking within every person. The police can’t stop him. And Batman is consistently challenged to keep the darker side of his persona from transforming into anger and vengeance, much like in Batman Begins.

I compared Batman Begins to Iron Man last week (actually, it was vice-versa) in the sequences designing the costumes of the title characters. There is another comparison that can easily be made between Jon Favreau’s Marvel film and The Dark Knight and it’s with the casting of its iconic characters. There was so much uproar and befuddlement when Favreau tapped Robert Downey Jr. to play Tony Stark in the same way there was in the choice of Heath Ledger to inhabit The Joker. It seems stupid now, but the Internet was rife with non-believers. The fear was there was no real precedent for Ledger to play such a twisted villain. Maybe there wasn’t, but any concerns were taken out back, shot in the head and buried into oblivion once the film was released.

To focus on Ledger’s acting is unnecessary. Any superlatives I can offer can’t capture what your eyes can see. Despite my love for origin stories, no satisfying beginning for the man in clown makeup could possibly be given and Nolan wisely doesn’t even try. The Joker toys with his and Nolan’s audiences with stories about how he received the smile-like scars on his cheeks. He is indeed the devil come to earth and he sits on both sides of every citizen’s shoulders.

Nolan’s script for the film is as labyrinthine as his story for Inception, except it works on a more linear level. His themes are evident in every scene. Like his use of the Scarecrow in Batman Begins to hammer home the idea of fear, his choice of Joker and Two-Face exemplify the duality of man. These are most readily apparent in Joker’s two big schemes in the film. Each one an excruciating tug-of-war of chaos that could only be more appreciated if they were overseen by Dr. Ian Malcolm.

One of the standout pieces in the movie occurs when Joker sends Batman to make the choice of rescuing the object of his affection in Rachel or saving Gotham’s would-be savior in Harvey Dent. Joker’s patented twist leads to Rachel’s dramatic death and Dent’s transformation into Two-Face. The last of Joker’s plot encapsulates his attempt to turn every citizen of Gotham into a two-faced killer on a boat, facing the possibility of their own extinction. In the end, humanity’s desire for good shines through.

It’s been four years since the release of The Dark Knight and the moment I walked out of the theater, I was counting down the unknown amount of days before the next installment. I wanted part three to be as great as part two. After watching the movie recently, I’m not sure it can even happen. The Dark Knight Rises should take up where The Dark Knight left off. Batman will be viewed as a villain by Gotham, taking responsibility for the crimes carried out by the city’s District Attorney.

New characters in Bane, the man who broke Batman’s back in the comic books (one of the rare things I ever learned from Batman comics), and Catwoman, the jewel thief that may also steal Bruce Wayne’s heart, will appear. Their portrayal will undoubtedly fit into whatever life-affirming themes Nolan wants to cover. However, it can’t possibly be as dark and ominous as The Dark Knight. It’s the trilogy-capper. We’ll want to end on a bright note. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

The most difficult thing to achieve after reaching greatness is to do it again. It’s also probably unfair of an audience to expect as much.  Even if The Dark Knight Rises isn’t qualitatively “The Dark Knight: Part 2,” I’m okay with that. Things change. I may have moved out of the apartment with my buddies. I may not be seeing it with either of them trying to recreate what we once had. And my buddies may no longer even be friends with each other. But we’ll always have The Dark Knight. Hey, Deep Blue Something, why don’t you write a song about that (http://youtu.be/1ClCpfeIELw)?

Countdown to “The Dark Knight Rises”: Part 4 of 11 – “Batman Forever”

If you missed it here is Part 1 of 11: Introduction to Batman “The Gift”

And here is Part 2 of 11: A look Back at Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’

And Part 3: ‘Batman Returns’

If ever I could have been in my Batman fan prime, it was 1995. I had turned 13, so there was no way a PG-13 rating could possibly keep me away. I was wiser about the world and could understand Batman’s predicaments a little better than I ever could have comprehended when squeezing his plastic legs together seven years prior. I owned two different kinds of Batman Forever cards (Fleer and Fleer Metal). I even owned the novelization of the movie, which my parents probably purchased for me to stop from beating on my younger sister during a long road trip vacation to Canada. Plus, the movie was going to feature Robin, the character closest to what my young mind could ever conceive of growing into: Batman’s partner. In short, I was charged up beyond belief. What I got in return for all my franchise loyalty and constant day-dreaming was Batman Forever.

I don’t believe I felt that was necessarily a bad thing back then. I’m sure I was happy enough with the movie. Jim Carrey undoubtedly made me laugh. I was able to remember certain lines while re-watching it (“It’s never gonna heal if you don’t stop picking”). I’m also certain I bought the soundtrack to it. Seal’s “Kiss from a Rose” was the breakout hit (sampled into excellence recently by Ras Kass on “Heidi Klum” http://youtu.be/myCIhPKAlmg), but can distinctly remember The Flaming Lips’ “Bad Days” as my favorite track on the album. It certainly had some things going for it, but the changes from Tim Burton’s films to this one were made even more glaring by the time Joel Schumacher released Batman & Robin. But that’s coming next week.

What I’d never noticed, or at least had never paid much attention to before, is Tim Burton’s name is on Batman Forever. He’s listed as a producer. Apparently, Warner Bros brass felt Batman Returns was too dark, thus leaving a lot of box office receipts on the table (a tune they’d reverse again ten years later). They then replaced him with Schumacher, but were in enough debt to Burton to let him retain the title of Executive Producer. Comparing Burton’s films to Schumacher’s makes it easy to see the man that kick-started the franchise was given little more than a name-check opening credit.

"I said the name is The Riddler, not Bette Middler."

Schumacher’s films will obviously prove to be the outliers in this series of articles and it doesn’t take Malcolm Gladwell to determine why. They’re lighter. That’s the simple answer. Lighter in tone and even in production design. For Batman Forever, Schumacher wanted Gotham to feel like the city depicted in the ‘30s and ‘40s comic books, with a splash of Tokyo thrown in for good measure. Neon lights shine down upon the city. Things glow. Blacklights are abundant. It’s as if the detested rave scene from The Matrix Reloaded spilled out into Gotham City for the duration of the movie.

As unwelcome as the change to the visual palette of Batman’s world may be, it’s inarguable that it meshes completely with the villains on board for this installment. Since he was supposed to have originally been the only villain in the movie before writer Akiva Goldsman came on board, as well as Two-Face being involved in the Christopher Nolan trilogy, I’d like to look at The Riddler first.

It seems bizarre to me that a franchise with a character named The Joker would choose one named The Riddler to be the one whose primary instinct is to rattle off jokes. Alas, this is the direction in which the film wanted to take him. I wonder how the pre-Akiva Goldsman, pre-Two-Face script depicted him. Would the studio still have sprung for a comedian to inhabit the role? We’ll never know. Either way, it certainly appears the filmmakers set out to make this version of Batman into a comedy and The Riddler was their centerpiece.

As much as I may dislike the tonal road the film chose to take, Jim Carrey is fantastic playing the role he is given. Edward Nygma is a high-IQ egocentric, hell-bent in his pursuit of manipulating brainwaves with an invention he develops under Wayne Enterprises, called The Box. When Bruce denies him in a hurry and Nygma has his project shut down, he cranks up his already over-the-top personality to 11 (“one louder”). He discovers The Box does more than for what it was intended, namely absorbing the IQ of anyone near it. Nygma’s brain plays the role of the sponge and soon his artificially enhanced brainpower decides it’d be a good idea to show his former boss, just who’s the smartest of them all.

Carrey plays Nygma like Ace Ventura with intelligence. He’s already maniacal before he ever encounters Wayne to have his heart broken and his sense of vengeance seethes within him, boiling to the surface. He rattles off one-liners with ease, calming down Two-Face with a quick, “Patience, o bifurcated one.” His mannerisms are all elongated and theatrical. It’s very easy to see how the movie could be sold on his shoulders alone and how the character couldn’t possibly exist, at least in this incarnation, in Nolan’s world. He’s completely developed in the hyper-real world of the movie. Two-Face is another story.

Schumacher directs: "Now, seductively flirt with the camera. Flirt with the camera."

How do you turn a district attorney into a pimp? Throw a little acid into his face. At least that was apparently the thinking behind the journey for Harvey Dent to go from city defender to creature of chaos. Unlike Nygma, his backstory is glossed over in a five-second news clip flashback. He was in a courtroom. Some mobster throws acid in his face. He covers half his face with a manila envelope. Batman swings into action a hair too late. Who does Dent blame? Batman. Sounds reasonable.

It’s no wonder Chris Nolan chose to resurrect Two-Face for his series. It was impossible to screw up. No logical backstory had ever been established in the movie world and he’s given no distinct personality. Tommy Lee Jones plays Two-Face with the same mania Carrey gives to Riddler. The only difference between them is Two-Face has a partly pink face and half a suit made by Zubaz. Jones supposedly only took the role because his son’s favorite character was Two-Face. After the film came out, his son no doubt chose a different character and/or father.

There may be no better juxtaposition between pre-Nolan and post-Nolan franchise takeover to help one understand the difference in quality between the two than in the treatment of Harvey Dent. Burton had actually cast Dent in Batman. He was played by Billy Dee Williams in hopes that he’d get to portray the villainous version in the future. Instead, Jones was saddled with that role. Though it appears I am, I don’t blame Jones for his version of Two-Face. That fault belongs to higher ups. He just now has to live with embodying a particularly ineffectual version of a character that Aaron Eckhart would later own.

The film no doubt took a large step down from Batman Returns and pales in comparison to either of Nolan’s tries. However, there’s one aspect it’s able to dangle above Nolan’s head – the love interest. Nicole Kidman plays the part of Chase Meridian, attention-getter to both Bruce Wayne and Batman this trip to the plate and she’s far superior to Katie Holmes or Maggie Gyllenhaal. Certainly not in character development, and not necessarily in acting talent. I’m speaking superficially. Even with Anne Hathaway, a woman who once sat atop My Top Three, stepping up in The Dark Knight Rises, Kidman dominates all competition like a Bat-punch to the temple. Outside of perhaps Eyes Wide Shut (come on, look at this photo) or To Die For, both of which were released later, Kidman has never looked better. After all, in Schumacher’s world, looks are all that matter. Might as well let him win something.

Next Week: Someone involved with Batman & Robin kills Batman on film and it’s not shown in the movie.