It's not exactly unknown that I like Batman. Batman is awesome. Batman comics, movies, cartoons, whatever can be everything from campy fun, to serious looks into the flaws of humanity.
But what about other superheroes? Well of course, I like those too! Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Spider-Man, The X-Men, Wonder Woman, and so on and so forth, I like those too. They're pretty cool.
But there is one Superhero that everyone loves. Superman. The Superhero to end all Superheroes.
Of course I too, like Superman. He's Superman. Arguably, without him, there wouldn't even be a Superhero Genre. But there is one fatal flaw with Superman. He's too perfect.
Invincible, super strong, able to fly, able to melt things JUST BY LOOKING AT THEM.... Let's not kid ourselves here, Superman is basically a god.
Selin Fireheart wishes he were Superman.
The problem with Superman is that in order to have any sort of drama, you either need to have plots which
1. Exploit one of his two weaknesses, kryptonite or magic. 2. Deal with absurdly high stakes.
If you exploit his weaknesses EVERY SINGLE STORY, it gets repetitive. And redundant. And repetitive. And redundant. I mean seriously, I'm pretty sure enough kryptonite fell to earth to rebuild the planet krypton 3 times.
And dealing with absurdly high stakes can only work so often. You can't battle for the stake of the entire universe every other day, or it gets a bit... Ridiculous.
I mean, when you have Batman comics, you have a city, the city of Gotham, which is completely controlled by evil. No matter how much Batman does, he's still just one man. That's one of the greatest things about Batman. Is that he's just one man. The streets of Gotham are still incredibly dangerous, even with the equivalent of Ninja Chuck Norris running around in a bat suit every night.
But Metropolis is a safe place. A boring place.
And then there's his villains. There's Lex Luthor, who's awesome, and interesting. There's Brainiac who's cool. There's Darkseid who, if Superman is a god, is the devil. And then there's... Toyman?
I can't possibly take Toyman seriously. Sorry.
And no, Doomsday does not count. Doomsday is just a deus ex machina with arms and legs. The only thing Doomsday was created for, and has ever REALLY done, is kill Superman. Doomsday isn't a villain, he's a plot device.
Lex Luthor is a cool villain because he's basically an ordinary man fighting (and sometimes winning) against Superman, but that can only go so far, Brainiac can be cool depending on the story he's in... I guess Darkseid is the only villain that can be any real threat to Superman... He's pretty cool I guess. The only graphic novel I've read with him in it is "Superman: The Dark Side" which doesn't really count since it's an Elseworld about evil superman.
The problem with Superman becomes even more apparant in the first Superman movie right about when there are two missles and... Well...
So what really baffles me is that ANYONE thinks the "Superman Vs. Batman" movie that's been floating around hollywood for AGES is a good idea. I just... Why? Why would you do that?
Let me allow a video explain why this is the worst idea ever. *Caution strong language*
*Warning, the following contains major majors spoilers for "The Dark Knight". Do not read this post unless you have seen the movie. Also, several of the sites and or videos I link to may contain harsh language. Be advised.*
Guess what? IlikeBatman. A lot. I've said this before, but what I'm not sure if I've said is the fact that The Dark Knight is my all-time favorite movie. That's right, The Dark Knight, is my favorite movie. Ever.
Now, I suppose many of you find it odd that the blog post is titled "Defending The Dark Knight" when the film was both a critical, and box office success, which is like saying that World War II was a minor scuffle. The movie made a billion dollars. That is a metric crapton of money. The film has a 93% rating on IMDB, and a 96% rating from the users of the site. The film is one of the biggest film success stories ever.
So why would the film need defending? Because, some people have criticized the film, pointing at a few supposed weak points, and claiming that the film is an overrated disaster because of it. Well y'know what, no. I am going to tell you exactly why this is my favorite film of all time and why most (though not necessarily all) of these criticisms are invalid. Why? Because I can darn it. I will do this by justifying and explaining my opinion to the most important elements, and common criticisms of the film.
1. The Plot This is the biggest one, so let's get it right off the bat. (No pun intended.)
Some people have claimed that the plot is non coherent, and has major plot holes in it. Many people have said that while the dark tone is good, the writers left a few ridiculous plot holes in it. The most pointed to plot holes are conveniently given in song form in the following video.
*Caution, some harsh language*
Sigh.... Alright, let me start by saying I love this video. I really do think this video is a quite funny. But, I also think it completely misses the point of the ENTIRE FILM.
"And The Joker pulls crimes in such an orderly manner, he must write it down in an evil day planner. His henchmen are Psycho and expendable, and yet they're completely dependable." This is the complaint I hear the very most about the movie. The Joker's plot. By all rights, in order for the plot to work right, he would have to had known how EVERYTHING would unfold from the start, a feat that would require nothing short of clairvoyance.
Now, I honestly would agree with this, and this would take away from my absolute love of this movie if it wasn't for ONE FACT. One line. You can find it in this clip (0:51). It's the one line that ties the entire film together. "Do I look like a guy with a plan?"
The Joker's "plot" seems disjointed, as if he couldn't possibly have been plotting it the whole time, because he WASN'T. He was playing it by ear. He was improvising.
The most plan he ever had, was for one step at a time. He had a plan for the bank robbery. Once he robbed the bank, he decided to go tell the mob he was going to kill Batman. And from that point on, he played it by ear. One. Step. At a time. His plan wasn't to corrupt Harvey from the beginning. His "plan" really was to just kidnap the both of them. He kidnapped Rachel and Harvey, rigged them both up, and decided to see what happened. And guess what? Harvey lived.
So he took advantage of that.
Then he saw what happened.
The Joker is an agent of anarchy. People are completely missing the point of the character to criticize his plot for being too random.
"And why is Morgan Freeman all ****ed at me? He seemed to resign kinda randomly. It's OK to build me an armored tank car, but OH tapping phones, that's going too far."
The difference between building an "armored tank car" as they put it in the song and the Bat-Vision that he uses at the end of the film is an invasion of privacy. The difference between building someone a large powerful vehicle, and a machine that can literally allow you to see everything everywhere is BIG. The Bat-Vision was an invasion of privacy. Morgan Freeman's character, Lucius was disgusted by the fact that Batman would, in his opinion, finally cross the line he's been treading on so closely for so long.
"And what about Ms. Dawes? It's like you forgot her!" I don't get this, I felt they showed Bruce's mourning of Rachel very well, and kept the relationship really well done for the entire film.
"How does Harvey Dent do a total 180? Well he barbecued his face, and he lost his lady." This one actually answers itself, but I want to elaborate on this. The point of the way Harvey changed into Two-Face is because it shows that The Joker has won. After everything they tried to do, The Joker was still the winner. The Joker just wanted to show that his philosophy was true. The Jokers philosophy is that one bad day is enough to turn the best men among us into psychopaths like him. That's the point of his "ahead of the curb" line in the interrogation scene. That's the point of turning Harvey. By turning Harvey he proved that Harvey Dent, Gotham's White Knight, who's entire campaign for the DA position was "I believe in Harvey Dent", could be turned just as crazy as himself, after just one bad day.
"And how did you have time to rig up both of those boats?" The Joker has hundreds of Henchmen, and it's implied that most of the cops in the city are under his payroll. Somehow finding time to put some barrels on a boat doesn't seem so impossible to me.
"Like why the **** did I agree to take the rap, Harvey Dent killed those people, who gives a crap?!"
This is the biggest one. Why would Batman take the blame for all the murders Harvey Dent committed? Simple. Remember how I said The Joker won? They couldn't let the city believe that. Harvey was more than just a public figure, he was seen as Gotham's LAST HOPE that good men still existed in Gotham. Also, remember the line about how all those mobsters wouldn't be convicted any more if Harvey crossed a line? Well, I'd say multiple homicide crossed a few lines, wouldn't you?
So I've defended the films plot. So what makes the film my personal favorite movie?
2. Heath Ledger's The Joker The Joker in this movie, played by the late Heath Ledger, is one of the best performances ever captured on the screen. Heath Ledger gave life to this character unlike anything ever seen. Now don't get me wrong, I love other incarnations of The Joker character, and in fact, Mark Hamil is in my opinion the definitive Joker (his voice acting is incredible in every instance he's done the character.) but Ledgers version of the character is completely DIFFERENT from any other.
It's dark, it's creepy, it's just... So good. In fact, a lot of people say the reason for Ledger's tragic death was partly because of this performance.
He took the character and made it his own. This version of The Joker just stole the screen, in a way that is rare for a character to do. The Joker is already such a great villain, and Ledger both completely changed him, and kept him true to his roots. Part of this is in the way his backstory is explained multiple times, in conflicting ways. Part of it is just the insanity of Ledger's performance. Part of it is from that magic trick. Thankfully he did get best actor for this performance, despite the film getting snubbed even so much as a best picture nomination it most certainly deserved. Either Way, Ledger's Joker is one of the main reasons this film is so great.
3. Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent
It's almost a shame Ledger was so good, because he completely overshadows a fantastic performance by Aaron Eckhart, an actor I had not heard of before The Dark Knight. Eckhart's performance as Harvey Dent, the DA of Gotham was not only perfect for the character (in my mind, he owns this role now) but he tied the plot together perfectly. Some people have complained that Two-Face was only in the movie briefly, but that was partly the point. Two-Face wasn't the villain of the movie, Dent was one of the heroes. And to see him changed into a villain over the course of the film was great. I loved the line in the beginning about either dying a hero, or living long enough to see yourself become the villain. It was a really good line.
Plus you could really feel his pain when Rachel dies, and totally understand why he became Two-Face. I loved his performance in the film, and I really think he could have been strong enough to carry the movie if it had focused on just him instead of Ledger's Joker as well. 4. Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne
Note that I say his "Bruce Wayne" and not his "Batman". This is because while he was a FANTASTIC Bruce Wayne, he was only an adequate Batman. I mean, he wasn't BAD as Batman, although he did go a tad overboard on the rasping, but man, he blew Bruce Wayne out of the park in my opinion. Honestly, if he hadn't been as good a Bruce Wayne I would've disliked the casting, but as it is, he's a great Bruce Wayne, and an... Ok, Batman. 5. The Setting
The Dark, edgy setting of the film really helps knock this movie out of the park, and make it my personal favorite. It was mostly shot in Chicago, and man, the city looks amazing. You can just see the dark crime side seeping out of every facet of the city. Even the jails manage to look corrupt and evil.
Overall, because of these reasons, and just because of some really strong writing, and directing, I consider The Dark Knight to be my personal favorite film. Why? Because it's freakin' awesome. That's why.
I've mentioned the The Dark Knight is my favorite movie before. The Dark Knight is a masterpiece. I don't however, necessarily consider it the best superhero movie of all time, because there's nothing super about it. It's based in a world firmly grounded in reality. It was a crime drama in tights.
Iron Man, which released a few months before hand, however, is what I would call the best "Superhero movie" in the traditional sense. Iron Man was a blast to watch. You watched the character of Tony Stark progress, but it never feels like he changes persay. He's still the same guy, but his near death experience has made him more responsible. It was a great movie. I loved it.
I guess I'm a little disappointed in the fact that Iron Man 2 just isn't as good. Don't get me wrong, it's a good movie... But I couldn't help thinking during it, "The first one was better."
One of the biggest problems is, in my opinion, the fact that Whiplash, the villain of the movie just isn't very interesting. I just couldn't care less about Whiplash. He was uninteresting. He was boring! For one thing, his accent was waaaay too thick. I couldn't understand anything he said. At several points I wasn't sure if he was speaking russian, or english.
In a superhero movie, the villain is as important- No! More important than the hero. Let me use The Dark Knight as an example. I'm of the opinion that Christian Bale is not a very good Batman. He's a great Bruce Wayne, but not a very good Batman. But The Joker and Two-Face are really great villains, and make it my favorite movie.
Better yet, let's look at another one of the greatest Superhero movies ever... The Incredibles. Syndrome, the villain of The Incredibles is a really great character. The interesting thing about him is the fact that you kind of feel bad for him! He was Mr. Incredible's biggest fan, and Mr. Incredible just pushed him aside! You understand his motivation!
On the commentary track for The Incredibles, Brad Bird (Director of that movie as well as another great movie The Iron Giant) said something that really applies, in my opinion, to Iron Man 2.
"A good villain can be funny. You can laugh at a good villain. But there's one thing you have to make sure: You have to make sure your villain is always a threat." Syndrome even says something similar in the film. "(Speaking to Mr. Incredible, who tries to reason with him) Now you respect me, because I'm a threat."
Whiplash never really felt like a threat to me in this movie. In Iron Man, Ironmonger was always a threat, but Tony never really knew until the end. In this, Whiplash spends most of the movie sitting in a lab. It's really rather boring. In fact, without giving too much away, the final battle at the end of the movie was really anti-climatic.
Of course, the movie does have some high notes too. The humor in this movie is still very similar to the first movie. The first time you see the character of Rhodey (who was recast in this movie. Don Cheadle now plays him, instead of Terrance Howard.) Tony says "I didn't think I'd see you here!" And Rhodey replies "Yeah well it's me. I'm here. Get over it." Unfortunately, I never really warmed up to Cheadle, and he and Robert Downy Jr. didn't have the same chemistry as he and Howard did.
Robert Downy Jr. did a good job as Tony Stark, just like in the first movie. I wasn't super partial to Scarlett Johansson in the movie though. She was ok I guess.
And that's the problem with a lot of the movie. The action sequences, the explosions, the plot... It all just end with me having a feeling of "Yeah, ok I guess." It just doesn't seem to have quite the same charm as the first movie did.
For all its faults though, Iron Man 2 is still worth seeing. I give it a recommendation, just... Don't expect it to be as good as the first movie. Because it isn't. That's all there is too it.
Oh, and without giving away too much... Make sure you stick around for the Easter egg after the end credits. It's basically a teaser for the next Marvel movie... Just watch it.
I know this will shock a lot of people, but I like Batman. A lot. Batman is my favorite superhero, and is pretty darn awesome.
But most people don't understand Batman. I'm not talking about in context of the comics/movies/whatever, I'm talking about real people don't understand what's so great about Batman. Most people see Batman and see a superhero in a bat suit beating guys faces in. But believe it or not, the character of Batman is rather deep, and some interesting parallels are raised by his enemies, Joker, Riddler, Bane, Scarecrow, even lesser known ones.
Of course everyone knows the story of Batman. There's quite a few different tellings of exactly what happened, but the basic story is always the same:
A young Bruce Wayne is at the theater with his parents. As they leave, a man mugs them, and his parents are killed. Sure, we can get caught up in semantics here, in some versions Bruce made them leave the theater early, Bruce was angry at his parents, the man who shot them turned out to be The Joker later on, but really, that's the basics of it.
After his parents are killed he is raised by his butler, Alfred (former spy). Eventually, when he was grown, he used his parents fortune to build gadgets and gizmos, and physically trained himself to become Batman. It's a simple enough story... Right?
Well, no. There's actually a lot more to it than that. You see, Batman isn't like a lot of superheros. Let's use Spider-Man as an example:
Peter Parker puts on his mask and is Spider-Man. Spider-Man is Peter Parker, and Peter Parker is Spider-Man. All Spider-Man is, is Peter Parker with a mask on. Same person, in disguise.
Batman and Bruce Wayne aren't the same person though. You see, Batman has multiple personalities disorder. In fact, like many of his villains, he's not exactly mentally stable. Bruce Wayne is a millionaire playboy. But when he puts on his mask he become someone else entirely, he becomes Batman. He's crazy, but his craziness saves lives, and protects Gotham. Which is why they put up with Batman.
And then you have The Joker. Now, The Joker is the polar opposite of this. The Joker is crazy, but also evil. The Joker's origins change around depending on the version, in some he fell into a vat of chemicals, in some he wears makeup. One thing is for sure: He finds murder really funny. He's a clown. A psychopathic clown. Now, I'm going to use Mark Hamil's interpretation of The Joker in B:AA and B:TAS more than Heath Ledgers in TDK for the purposes of comparisons here. In my opinion, Heath Ledgers and Mark Hamil's versions are equally awesome, just different.
Joker may be crazy, but he's not stupid. Let me use Batman: Arkham Asylum as an example here: In that game, The Joker has a plan, which, by enacting it, generates a backup plan, and he's also got a third, fake, cover up plan. I'm not going to spoil it, since that's really one of the best games of all time, and everyone should play it, but The Joker is not stupid. He's insane, but not stupid. There's a moment in Batman: Arkham Asylum where Batman has a clear shot at Joker, and could end things once and for all. Joker looks at him, and tells him to end it once and for all... But he knows Batman can't. Batman won't kill. That's all that separates him from his enemies.
And who can forget Joker's and Batman's exchange at the end of The Dark Knight?
"This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You truly are incorruptible aren't you? You won't kill me, out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness... And I won't kill you because you're just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this forever." "You'll be in a padded cell forever." "Maybe we can share one?"
The Joker and Batman are two sides of the same coin. They're both crazy, one is just crazy for justice, the other for chaos.
