johng Blog

Can’t sleep.

It was hard to avoid the hype on this one. Especially after it came out a week earlier in the US and then I had to wait slightly longer to get a chance to catch it on IMAX. But nether the less I managed my expectations (after being burned before) and walked out completely blown away by the movie. Its strange walking into a movie you know is good before you have seen it.

IMAX is incredible. The improvement in the definition and clarity of the image in IMAX shots is staggering and really gives it a completely unique feel. There’s so much to look at and its all so clear - it really proved to me that IMAX can be used effectively in Hollywood films and not just be relegated to crappy educational movies. The switching between IMAX film and regular film was not a problem either. You have to see this movie in IMAX.

Great pacing, constant tension and epic scale. The pieces were all in place before the movie began so we get straight into the action and story without having to set everything up again. The whole goal of the joker being to prove that everyone is just like him shown and then being proven wrong in ferry scene was very different and climaxed brilliantly. The engrossing final scene with Dent, Batman and Gordon coming back together just proved the joker right in the end, even if he did have to drive Harvey mad. The swerve that led to the death of Rachel was genius. With Dent’s face in the fuel I all but expected him to get incinerated and Batman to rescue Rachel. Unexpectedly Batman goes for Dent, Rachel gets blown up and Dent’s face still gets burned off during the escape!

Which brings me to Heath Ledger. Great job but I think the post death hype got the better of this area of the film. I was expecting him to be darker and even more messed up, but that could just be my reaction to the people around me laughing at the joker cause he made a funny face when he’s actually a fucked up sociopathic mass murderer. Maybe the creepiness didn’t cross over that well here? I don’t know, I enjoyed his performance but I feel it was in a different way to others in the audience.

Can’t think of anything else but I will be seeing it again soon.