Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Dark Knight Reviews and Speculations About a Sequel

Here's an interesting review at First Things, which explores many of the same aspects of the film that I did, but in greater depth (minor spoiler warning for this and the next review):

Nolan focuses in The Dark Knight on the “idea of escalation,” the way Batman’s dramatic persona, with its violent heroism, calls forth a greater, more creative response from the criminal element. It would be hard to imagine a more compelling embodiment of the escalation of evil in Gotham than what Nolan and actor Heath Ledger have created in the character of The Joker, whose insouciant embrace of chaos eclipses the malevolence of Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs and John Doe from Se7en. What makes Nolan’s latest film such a success is not, however, Ledger’s compelling presentation of evil, on which critics have focused their attention, but the way in which he uses that character to bring out the depth and complex goodness of the other characters in the film, including Batman.
Next, John Carney, perhaps taking the films a bit too seriously, asks if Bruce Wayne's business dealings in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight might actually make him that "better class of criminal" the Joker claims to want (HT Peter Chattaway):
He seems to be a white-collar criminal, engaging in the kind of corporate crimes that attract our real-life two-faced prosecutors. He takes corporate resources to pursue his own interests, uses underhanded means to acquire a majority stake in Wayne Enterprises after encouraging an initial public offering, and intimidates a potential whistle-blower.
Finally, since Warner Brothers surely wont be able to pass up a cash-cow of a sequel (since everyone knows the third film in a trilogy is always the best!), check out MTV.com's brief interview with Dark Knight writer David Goyer, who claims he and the Nolan brothers already have a theme and a villain in mind. He's not saying who, but there are plenty of possibilities (but watch out for spoilers if you haven't seen The Dark Knight yet).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just so you know - I didn't read this post - and I didn't read your last one about TDK either.

Are you gonna post spoiler warnings or spoiler-free tags at the beginning or what?

;-)

Ken Brown said...

I'll always give a warning if I'm gonna include spoilers, but I don't normally post a "spoiler-free" tag. Since you ask though: my review is as spoiler-free as it can be; the others I link in this post are mostly spoiler-free, except for the ones about a potential Batman 3, for which I had already given a spoiler warning.

Just so you know, I would never include a significant spoiler without warning, I hate it when people do that!

:)

Anonymous said...

Ok I read it.

You know, Batman and Robin (which shall from now on be referred to as that movie for absolutely crapping on all that is Batman) never really did justice to Bane - in fact they turned him into a stooge of Poison Ivy.

The msn article didn't mention Bane but surely this is the guy for the third movie.

They could even introduce Azrael as a semi-villian (starts off helping Batman but eventually needs to be taken down).

Ken Brown said...

So after all that you read the article with spoilers anyway? LOL

Anyway, I don't know much about Bane (I've tried to wipe all memory of Batman and Robin from my mind!), but I think Talia al Ghul might make a nice tie-in with the first film (since she is the daughter of the villian from Batman Begins), and could be interesting if Batman doesn't recognize her as a villain at first, and falls for her. Still, I'm not sure how anyone will be able to top the Joker. With how good The Dark Knight was, it would take a miracle for Nolan to avoid the usual third-part disappointment.