11 posts tagged “the dark knight”

It’s awards season and as good a time as any to take a look back over the releases of 2008 and then peek into the future at the coming movies of 2009.

I’ll quickly preface this by saying that unlike most movie audiences, the burden of expectation on critics and movie buffs is equivalent to Atlas with a full bladder and jock itch during mosquito season. Thanks to the trailers, TV spots, script reviews, production art, set photos, test screening reviews, we’ve seen 60% of the movie before its hit the cinema and as you’d expect it almost never matches the one you’ve got playing in your head.

A Knight to Remember….

What a shock then that not only was 2008 an upturn in movies, I’d be surprised if it didn’t warm the hearts of even the most inveterate cynic.

To really credit the comic book film as a genre, it reached its apotheosis this year, but most importantly, in the form of Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’, received much deserved critical acclaim. Building on the promise of the first film, ‘Batman Begins’, that breathed new life into the stale superheroics of the once great ‘X-Men’ and ‘Spiderman’ franchises, Nolan and Warner Bros brought an edgier crime noir feel to the next in the series. Immersing us in a crafty marketing campaign and waking us to the idea of a comic villain, in the form of Heath Ledger’s menacing Joker, snagging Award nominations.

If ‘The Dark Knight’ was the dark, scuffed side of this cinematic coin, John Favreau’s ‘Iron Man’ was the light, irresistibly bright reverse. Coming second only to Bats as the biggest US grossing film of 2008 and giving us yet another wonderfully charismatic performance, this time from the now redeemed actor, Robert Downey Jr.- matched only by the one he gave in ‘Tropic Thunder’.

While some of the other movies in the genre didn’t do quite so well filling the studio coffers, ‘The Incredible Hulk’ at the very least, realised the potential of a 9ft tall Emerald powerhouse that uses cars for sparring practice and puts out a Chinook engine fire with some mild applause. Similarly, while not breaking big at the box office, ‘Hellboy II: The Golden Army’ surpassed its predecessor for breadth of imagination and wit.

I could go on to discuss the relative merits of Angelina Jolie’s tattoos in the absurdly enjoyable ‘Wanted’, the disappointment of ‘Indiana Jones and the Empty Skull’ and ‘Hancock’ or the ridiculously violent fun of Rambo’s return, but besides all that, the other great thing about 2008, is that while the Oscars have become, and almost certainly always will be, a soulless, glad-handing vacuum of a personality contest, this time around we have a raft of movies to actually cheer for.

A number have been critiqued on this very site, and whatever your thoughts on ‘Milk’, ‘The Wrestler’, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, ‘Frost/Nixon’ and ‘Benjamin Button’, you couldn’t call them boring. Each one, a burst of diversity, accomplishment and entertainment. Something that we now have to cross our fingers will be repeated as we move ever further into 2009.

Watchmen will be the movie of the year……

Considering I’ve discussed the success of the superhero in such depth above, it seems necessary now to tear it apart with fine textual scalpels.

Not that I have much work to do as coming in March (and that seems a sure thing now, as I’ll explain in a moment) we have Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s ‘Watchmen’.  A seminal masterwork of the comic medium, as deconstruction of the superhero, a movie version has been gestating for years and recently hit what can only be described as a legal clusterfuck as the production studio Warner Bros came under fire from Fox over rights issues.

I’d very much like to bore you to tears with an overview of what will probably go down as a neat bit of publicity (and quite frankly, I can’t think of a movie more deserving of it) suffice it to say, a suit was filed, a court date booked and thankfully, after much legal wrangling and expensive lunches later, we have a positive result.

In short, ‘Watchmen’ will be the movie of the year. If everything onscreen matches the quality of the stuff drip-fed from the production over the past couple of years, this will be both an astonishing creative accomplishment, vindication for the studio after they bravely took on a property no-one wanted to touch, but most importantly, a movie that combines the depth of thought of a literary novel with the lavish production values of a Golden Age epic.

Set in an alternate America where superheroes have been outlawed and political tensions with Russia have set the Doomsday Clock at 5mins to Midnight, the uncompromising vigilante Rorschach brings together his former teammates over the savage murder of a former colleague, the resulting investigation revealing well kept secrets that could have a catastrophic effect on our world. Alternatively you could call this a movie about a luminous blue penis, attached to an atomic God, but that’s kind of the point. The movie’s got something for everyone. Check it out over at:

http://watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com/

and

http://rss.warnerbros.com/watchmen/

and for the ultimate Watchmen resource, check out this site:

http://www.watchmencomicmovie.com/

Terminate the Transformers? Make it so…..

After gushing for far too long over that movie, I’ll get right into the next couple of picks, sidestepping, with a neat dismissal, another big movie hitting in June. Michael Bay’s ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ or ‘Transformer 2: Because You Mugs Paid For the Last One’ will hopefully fail big time in the action department, bringing an end to this rape of our respective childhoods. It’s the only way this won’t drag millions into the cinemas to see another round of shallow characterisation, lame jokes, and non-existent story. Just because it vaguely resembles the vehicle/robot couplings we zoomed across our living room floors as kids doesn’t make it Transformers. Avoid.

Instead, get your fix of hyperactive camerawork, glossy visuals and gung ho patriotism from the far less obnoxious, though dumber sounding McG and ‘Terminator: Salvation’ (subtitles are for morons). Not only is this a continuation of one of the most beloved science fiction franchises of all time. Not only does this have Batman himself, Christian Bale, as one of the most recognisable names in cinema. Get this; it also has a load of new, and Transformer-resembling, machines for you to rush out to the shops and buy in toy form on the movie’s release. The footage looks promising too, albeit with a rather unnecessary reprisal of the classic line, ‘Come with me if you want to live’, voiced by what looks like a prepubescent (Anton Yelchin) playing the legendary, Kyle Reese.

Jumping from Kyle Reese to yet another beloved genre character, Mr Yelchin is also playing the vowel mangling security officer Chekov in J.J. Abrams reboot of the Star Trek franchise in May. Long overdue would be the best way to describe this, and based on the trailer, that both grounds the story and then sends it rocketing into a new frontier, it looks set to appeal to both old and new fans alike. There’s also that cameo that’s sure to send the partisans into paroxysms of geekgasms.   

Sam Worthington, another face from ‘Terminator: Salvation’, stars in the new James Cameron epic out in December. The sci-fi ‘Avatar’ sees him in the lead role as a paraplegic marine forced into a mission of exploration and exploitation on an alien world. Looking set to push the boundaries of cinema far beyond anything we’ve seen before, it’s sure to be a breathtaking mix of pioneering 3-D action and memorable characters. A ‘Blade Runner’ for the new Millennium?

From Wizards to Weepies…..

Powering down for just the sake of word count rather than quality, we have a raft of other releases to pique your interest.

After being pushed back from its usual Autumn slot, the next entry in the Harry Potter series, the Half Blood Prince, is released in July, and based on the almost exponential growth in both maturity, level of performance and effects work; this too will prove to be a smash hit.

Two films that might never have hit the cinemas: ‘The Wolf Man’, the reimagining of the Lon Chaney classic (November) and the perennial childhood favourite, ’Where the Wild Things Are’ (December). The former due to a director walk-out over creative differences. The latter down to bizarre studio pressures. Fan favourites, it looks like both will do their source material proud.

Moving into edgier genre territory we have Vampire myth revision in the shape of already cult Swedish horror, ‘Let the Right One In’ (April) and the surprise return of Quentin Tarantino (surprising only because he seems more interested in collecting projects than actually filming them) with the knowingly misspelled WWII Men on a Mission flick ‘Inglourious Basterds’ (August).

With trepidation I include ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’, slashing through cinemas in May. While it has the talented Gavin Hood at the helm, it has had a very troubled production history, including reports of the infamous Fox Studio head, Tom Rothman, getting involved. And while the recent trailer shows some potential, it looks a little too bargain basement. Adamantium claws crossed for this one.   

Other than that, it’s a burst of bare knuckle boxing sleuthing, as Robert Downey Jr. returns to this preview in Guy Ritchie’s, no doubt, cockneyfied ‘Sherlock Holmes’ (November); a no doubt heartbreaking take on loss in Peter Jackson’s adaptation of  Alice Sebold’s excellent ‘The Lovely Bones’ and finally the Heath Ledger’s last film, ‘The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus’ (TBC). Directed by the legendary Terry Gilliam, it also stars Verne Troyer so Big Brother fans are catered for. In fact, if there’s not a movie for everyone this year, I’ll eat Michael Bay’s hat.

Please note that some of these release dates are TBC in the UK and subject to change.
 

Absolute tragic news.

According to various sources, including the NY police, actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his apartment today at around 2pm. He leaves his wife, Michelle Williams, and a 2 year old daughter behind.

Best not to dwell on the whys, but just mourn the passing of what I believe was a real acting talent, something that according to all reports would have been finally confirmed by his performance as The Joker in the new Batman film, The Dark Knight. He was fantastic in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, giving a controlled, subtle performance that belied his age and relative experience, and judging by his choices could have had a career that would have entertained as well as surprised his audiences long into the future.

Condolences go out to his family, and friends at this difficult time.

Poor old Empire Online. Their slow grind reveal of the new exclusive Joker pic has been spoiled by the inter-web as a leak of the actual cover for the new issue of the magazine has hit various sites. Check out the story here and see the full image below. The non-text version will go live on Empire Online later tomorrow.

Jokerempire

All over Empire Online apparently. Hilarious. Anyway, looks like the web version of Empire magazine is going to have a crystal, spanking, brand new, all exclusive photo of the Joker from The Dark Knight very soon. So soon, you can see a glimpse here, as three playing cards that obscure the full image have already burned away to reveal a pair of shoes, classy socks and the purple troosers we know and love. Keep a look out as more and more cards will disappear until the Joker in all his glory is finally displayed.

JokerFeet

What next? Oh yes, a bloody full trailer maybe?

Such a tenuous, but the rise of viral sites in the cinematic community continues with this interesting selection for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. Check them out here at Joblo.com

Some of them make sense with the nice clash between the Gotham Times and the Joker's vandalised version while others, Remembering Gina, offer up more questions than they provide. Like any good viral should.

Well, after releasing the co-ordinates to a meeting of dangerous minds, the latest 'The Dark Knight' viral revealed its secrets to the net:

FinalPoliceReport

Hundreds of whacked out, made-up individuals hit the location hoping for some sign, a hint at how they could enlist in a maniac's dastardly plan. And from there a clever, marketing stunt unfolded involving this large cast of colourful freaks and ending in the apparent death of the one they call, 'The Joker'.

As they're calling it. And also, do my powers of perception I've come to the conclusion, that, rather than it being a separate entity it's simply the result of the Tumbler (Bats' previous mode of transport) exploding...or possibly appearing to explode.

Will be mostly wearing

Newbatsuit

You know...the new suit looks cool to me and all. But, whenever I look at this, I smell action figure variants. You know: "Deep Sea Batman", "Arctic Fresh Batman", "Jiffy Pop Batman", stuff like that. Makes me a bit uneasy. - Merrick of AICN

While driving

Batpod

Looks Asshat- Nick Da Costa

In all seriousness, as it was for the first film, elements of well integrated technology are offset by ugly lumps of boom making like that bike. When I heard the rumours about The Tumbler from the first film getting blown up I was pleased, but if it's being replaced by this piece of crap, that only serves to emphasise how strange a man in a bat suit is and well, can't say I'm not disappointed. At least the Joker is shaping up to wipe the floor with Nicholson's effort. Oh, and in other news, looks like former Brat Packer and star of the tv version of the Dead Zone, Anthony Michael Hall, is set to play Edward Nigma, The Riddler, himself. With Harvey Dent starring as well, let's hope this doesn't lead to a Forever debacle in the inevitable third film.

Hmmm forgive me for the hesitancy, but after the last hundred or so photoshopped, fan fakes, and what seemed to be a legit pic got canned by the press and the public you'd have to be a fool not to be a bit suspicious when the next 'official' Joker image from The Dark Knight is revealed.

However this seems to be different. Continuing Hollywood's marvellous new trend of clever viral marketing this image comes from the vandalism of the recent 'Harvey Dent for District Attorney' mini-site, the central display of which I posted a day or so ago. It's not clear whether this is the final Joker or part of a steady evolution over the entire film, but colour me impressed. I like how realistic and scruffy it looks. It's a little nod to Nicholson's Joker, but also grungy and a lot darker.

You can read about the viral marketing campain in more depth here and here, but I'm just going to show the steps taken to reveal the image:

Step One:

Dent

Step Two- Vandalised site:

Joker

Step Three:

Joker_tdk_maybe

Step Four:

JokerFinal

It's so good to see Hollywood execs taking the fandom more and more seriously. The internet is an essential tool for any film's marketing campaign and the increasing complexity used to engage the audience is a clear sign that Hollywood realises this. It's now important that Hollywood doesn't simply use this in a random way, and smoothly integrates the online narrative with the film it's marketing. The playing cards and and the vandalism of Dent's campaign poster are nice touches, revealing facets of the Joker's character and it helps build expectation for the film with a little added mystery for those willing to make the effort.

Of course the use of the internet is a doubled edged sword. With audience's understanding of the internet becoming increasingly sophisticated then so too must the marketing campaigns. People won't stand for being patronised and so it'll be a challenge for the marketers to come up with increasingly novel ways of wrapping us up in a mystery. This of course can only be a good thing for film as it becomes far more of an experience.