Maxim’s Movie Reviews and Opinions Blog

By now everyone knows that The Dark Knight (a.k.a. Batman Begins 2) has been a boxoffice record-setting sequel to the 2005′ Batman Begins. This menacing graphic novel made for screen was directed by Christopher Nolan, who also directed the original Batman Begins and written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, the script-writer for Memento (2000) and The Prestige (2006). Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman.

The plot: Batman (Christian Bale) decides that he will have to retire eventually, and he empowers and joins forces with the new Gotham’s District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and his buddy Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman) to catch the psychopathic bank roberer known as The Joker (Heath Ledger), while the mob and The Joker plot against them and Joker’s crimes become more and more deadly.

The good: Fantastic performance by Brokeback Mountain and Knight’s Tale star Heath Ledger who tragically passed away in January of 2008 from overdose of prescription medication. This is his best role ever. From his appearance to his body language to deep voice - a performance that can not be matched by any other actor. Certainly, talented actor passed away at the top of his career. The Joker is probably closest to Hannibal Lector in his menacing creativity and understanding of people’s weaknesses. He would always tell stories of how his face was disfigured to his victims right before he kills them. “People always show their true face in the very moment before their death”. Joker loved to see how people tick when they are pushed to the limit. He had the most elaborate plan to create and destroy a hero that even Batman (or the audience) could not see through. “A hero can turn into a villain quite easily. All you need is a little push.”, said The Joker. And push he did. He managed to outwit the police and Batman, who relied on gizmos and his phisical abilities to catch The Joker or otherwise pursue his vigilanty justice. The joker is pure evil, and Ledger’s performance is going to be legendary. Definitely an Oscar candidate.

Also interesting that the association with Harry Potter movie was mentioned by some people - Harry Potter and Voldemort depend on each other to exist, and likewise Batman and The Joker depend on each other to exist and to fulfill their purpose. One cannot exist without the other.

Christian Bale did a good job, but since his character always hides his face behind the mask he is a typical graphic novel hero in an action role. His character is hanging in the balance between being a freak like Joker and righteous protector of the helpless.

Aaron Eckhart was also very good as Gotham’s District Attorney Harvey Dent. We can see him as a regular guy under enormous pressure from public and his life constantly threatened, but he remains focused and strong. When his hero falls from grace and becomes a villain - that transformation is also fascinating to watch. His twisted coin-tossing routine that justifies his killings and revenge is the same as Javier Bardem’s anti-hero No Country For Old Men.

Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are basically Q of James Bond: subservant to Batman to provide with him friendly advise and gadgets.

Batman’s and Harvey Dent’s love interest Rachel played by Meggie Gyllenhaal was just that - a love interest with no other purpose - a garden flower.

Sophisticated plot is hard to predict and there’s a lot of suspense in it. Throughout the movie, particularly in the scenes shot inside the skyscraper with glass windows from floor to ceiling, I always felt the vulnerability of people inside them, always kept waiting for something bad to happen with them, or something bad coming through the windows. But The Joker was smarter then I - he had better and cleverer plans for entry and for playing with people’s lives.

Great action sequences! The fights, chases, gun fire, jumps from tall buildings - very well executed. Cars were being crashed and blown up, bullets fly and bounce, explosions are loud. The make-up and costumes have also been exceptional.

A bunch of people gets killed, but even sadistic murders perpetrated by The Joker and off-camera and without much gore - explains the PG-13 rating.

Great dramatic musical score by James Newton Howard (The Interpretor, Atlantis, Liar Liar, Dreamcatcher etc.) and Hans Zimmer (Kung Fu Panda, The Da Vinci Code, Batman Begins, Madagascar, The Last Samurai, The Ring, Black Hawk Down etc). Should be Oscar-nominated!

The bad: Reliance of Batman on gadgets that other people had created for him makes him merely a shadow of a superhero like Iron Man. But unlike Iron Man, he is a tragic figure. The Joker was right - people only liked Batman when they needed him. Once he was no longer needed, they began to hate him as a freak - a similarity with Hellboy. A typical for graphic novels cartoon drama. **Spoiler** The conversion of Harvey Dent into Two-Face was cartoonish and not credible enough. I understand his desire to revenge the death of his friends at the hands of corrupt cops, but the “push” The Joker mentioned was not quite enough to turn the hero into villain who would point a gun at small children.

The summary: This is an unexpectedly good movie. Sophisticated captivating plot, a lot of action and violence, a typical for graphic novels cartoon drama. May be too menacing and dark for young children. One of the best movies of the year.

p.s.

This is the only Batman movie I have seen so far. This one is very impressive. I will have to watch Batman Begins now - if it’s as good as this movie, I’ll be converted into a Batman fan. I saw parts of Batman and Robin and TV but it was painfully boring.

The cast: Bruce Wayne / Batman - Christian Bale | The Joker - Heath Ledger | Harvey Dent / Two-Face - Aaron Eckhart | Alfred Pennyworth - Michael Caine | Rachel Dawes - Maggie Gyllenhaal | Lt. James Gordon - Gary Oldman | Lucius Fox - Morgan Freeman | Salvatore Maroni - Eric Roberts | The Chechen - Ritchie Coster | Mike Engel - Anthony Michael Hall

The credits: Director - Christopher Nolan | Screenplay writers - Jonathan Nolan & Christopher Nolan | Characters by Bob Kane | Producers - Kevin De La Noy, Benjamin Melniker, Thomas Tull, Michael E. Uslan, Jordan Goldberg, Christopher Nolan, Charles Roven, Emma Thomas | Original Musical Score - James Newton Howard & Hans Zimmer | Cinematography - Wally Pfister

Director of the original 2004 Hellboy, as well as 3-Oscar-winning Pan’s Labyrinth and Blade, Guillermo Del Toro has written and directed this sequel.

The plot: Everything is “business as usual” at The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. Hellboy (Ron Perlman) married his pyrokinetic girlfriend Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), and they are going through everything most married couples go through. But a new conflict is brewing in the paranormal world - a war is about to be waged on humankind by Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), who was rejected by both worlds for violating the truce, to reclaim the world. Hellboy and his team, Liz, aquatic empath Abe (Doug Jones), and the newest BPRD member protoplasmic mystic Johann Kraus (James Dodd), must stop Prince Nuada before he awakens the unstoppable Golden Army.

The good: It’s very loud and entertaining. The sets, cinematography, CGIs and costumes are awesome. Quite funny jokes about love and marriage (they go together like a horse and carriage, as we know) and “male bonding” between Abe Sapien and Hellboy. Physical humor is not bad either: Hellboy kicks ass! Pretty cool action sequences too. Guillermo Del Toro clearly enjoyed making this sequel, from writing script to directing it. Better then the original Hellboy!

The bad: Biggest problem with this movie is there’s nothing original. We have a disgruntled superhero (like Hancock), who is misunderstood and hated by humankind. He can only be loved by other monsters who are bound to the secret life and don’t see the point in continuing to save humans from trouble, especially since humans are so good and destroying themselves through war and abuse of Earth and its resources. Exactly why Prince Nuada is declaring the war on them - humans failed to uphold their end of the truce. Monster love we have seen so many times before - from Frankenstein to Shrek. The underworld characters that Del Toro brings into the movie look like they had been taken from Pan’s Labirynth - though creatively designed, one can’t just reuse characters from one movie in another and pass them as original. The entrance to the underworld (Troll Market) under Brooklyn Bridge looks like entrances to the witch world in Harry Potter. Tooth-fairies too looked like pixes in HP. The raising of Golden Army looked like raising of the Mummy army by Imhotep. The business-as-usual at BPRD is straight out of Men in Black. Looks like del Toro saw too many Hobbit movies before he made the scene where Prince Nuada declares war on humankind - the whole set and costumes and the fight sequence are so alike to one in LOTR. And finally, the German geist-guy Johann Kraus in early 20th century aqualung had a horrible German accent - he probably had never met a German before and just tried to emulate Dr Strangelove. The story is not great at all.

The summary: better then the original Hellboy (2004). Very entertaining. Not particularly memorable. Would not watch it second time. No originality. 

The cast: Hellboy - Ron Perlman | Liz Sherman - Selma Blair | Abe Sapien, The Chamberlain, The Angel Of Death - Doug Jones | Johann Kraus - James Dodd voiced by Seth McFarlane | Prince Nuada - Luke Goss | Princess Nuala - Anna Walton | Tom Manning - Jeffrey Tambor | Professor Bruttenholm - John Hurt

The credits: Director - Guillermo Del Toro | Comic Book - Mike Mignola | Story - Mike Mignola & Guillermo Del Toro | Screenplay - Guillermo Del Toro | Producers - Chris Symes, Joe Roth, Mike Richardson, Mike Mignola, Lloyd Levin, Lawrence Gordon | Original Music - Denny Elfman | Cinematography - Guillermo Navarro | Universal Pictures

This dramatic western starring Johnny Depp was written and directed by Jim Jarmusch.

The plot: After death of his parents, William Blake, an accountant from Cleveland, takes a job offer and moves to the Town of Machine at the end of the train line. However he arrived about two months late. Penniless, he’s picked up by a woman on the street. When her husband Charlie Dickenson (Gabriel Byrne), son of the metal factory owner John Dickenson (Robert Mitchum) discovers both of them in bed, the married couple ends up shot and William Blake, now a wanted criminal, on the run. Wounded, he is helped by a lone Indian named Nobody, who believes the accountant is dead English poet and painter with the same name. As they travel through wilderness more people get killed. While the rumors about William Blake take on their own life, William slowly fades away from existence. ”Nobody” prepares him for the journey into the spiritual world.

The good: The decision to make this movie in black and white is quite brilliant. First of all, it adds a dream quality to the story (most people dream in black and white) - a color of memory or hallucination, or rather a color of something forgotten. Secondly, B&W film creates perception of being in Hell and may symbolize fight of light and darkness, good and evil. Thirdly, it may be interpreted as color of print on paper - like in graphic novels. Sin City used the same device. And finally, judging by the “special effects” used in the early movies, the director wanted to create a feeling of a movie actually made in 1920s. The dialogs, on the other hand, are quite contemporary. The electric guitar theme helps to establish this connection of time.

The movie is extremely slow - a technique used by masters like Andrei Tarkovski to make viewers focus on one aspect of a scene. Like Tarkovski’s movies, Dead Man if full of metaphor and symbolism. At the same time, subtle actions of characters or something they say, even if a single word, tell a story of their own - very thoughtful movie. The story grasps you and never lets go.

The film won Palm d’Or at 1995 Cannes Film Festival and New York Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography in 1996.

Great cast. Amazing directing and photography.

Town of Machine at the end of the line? “You are taking a job in Hell”, a train passenger advises Blake. Could this mean Purgatory? Everyone Blake meats on his journey shows some sort of human fallibility and dies as the result.

A baby deer shot in the neck, just like another victim.

“Nobody”. Could it mean something from the spiritual world, as in “no body”? A ghost of an exterminated race of people? A spiritual guide?

The bad: Very moody. Very slow, even gun fights. No action. It’s a frightening movie showing a man fading away.

The summary: this movie is fantastic. It’s absolutely unique. An almost surreal story of a man’s demise.

p.s.
Pretty scary how white men were ruling the new world. Killing a million of buffalo in one year, killing buffalo for fun and to starve remaining Native Americans - all part of the genocide.

The cast: William Blake - Johnny Depp | Nobody - Gary Farmer | Nobody’s Gilfriend - Michelle Thrush | Train Fireman - Crispin Glover | John Dickenson - Robert Mitchum | Charlie Dickenson - Gabriel Byrne | Thel Russel - Mili Avital | Benmont Tench - Jared Harris | Outpost Trader - Alfred Molina

The crew: Director - Jim Jarmusch | Writer - Jim Jarmusch | Producers - Demetra J. MacBride, Karen Koch | Photography - Robby Müller