The Dark Knight (2008) - 4K Review

Review:

*Originally written September 9th, 2018*

Oh, boy. There is a lot to take in here. I've seen The Dark Knight at least a dozen times since its release a decade ago (A decade ago? What the fuck?), it's a film I'd always loved and was easily my favourite comic-book film up until Logan was released last year. That said, upon this rewatch, this just jumped back up to my numero uno superhero film and it still has a place in the my top 10 of all-time.

It's just such a huge improvement all around coming of Batman Begins. It opens to one of the best and most inventive bank heists in film. It truly is one hell of a way to open things off, yet they still manage to top things from there. Every set-piece is a feast for the eyes and insanely impressive on a technical and visual level. It never goes over the top and it all feels real, much like Fury Road or Mission Impossible: Fallout. I'm always consistently impressed when directors go for practical effects or CGI, it always shows and pays off.

Nolan's decision to use IMAX cameras for some scenes was a great choice and really shows off the impressive scale of what he outs on the screen. Also helped by just how much better visually those scenes look quality wise. The 4K disc is a 5 star ride all the way, but the IMAX scenes shine in particular.

This would all be for nothing though if the story wasn't good, but it is. The Dark Knight is still the defining Batman experience. We dig deeper into Bruce Wayne's psychology than we've ever seen before and Christian Bale seems far more comfortable in his role than he last time, fully embracing his role as Batman while his time as Bruce Wayne takes a backseat. I always forget how fast The Dark Knight moves about, it's 2 and a half hours, but goes by like it's nothing. It's one of those rare films that defies the law of diminishing returns.

I've obviously got to talk about the late Heath Ledger and yes, despite the "We live in a society" and Gang Weed memes nearly derailing the character into cringe, he still holds as one of the best film villains of all-time. I hadn't rewatched this since seeing Suicide Squad, and while I didn't mind Leto's Joker. Ledger's Joker just makes a complete embarrassment of him. Ledger completely embodies the role, giving The Joker an array of small ticks and moments that I'm still only noticing today. One of the smaller things I'd never noticed is that he never looks at someone in the face when he kills them, he's always looking off in a different direction or with his back turned to the person he's murdering.

He's the ultimate challenge for Batman and his plan, or lack of a real plan is what makes The Dark Knight's plot far more interesting than most. It's villain isn't motivated by money or power, he's simply interested in bringing out the worst in people and proving that deep down, everyone is just as crazy or bad as each other. It creates far more interesting tension and motivation for Batman compared to a nuclear bomb going off in the city (Oh, I'll get to Dark Knight Rises, don't you worry).

As incredible as this all is, there are just some things that Christopher Nolan just can't seem to get right and have only been made worse since they've been brought up by the internet. 90% of the dialogue from the police and extras are just awful. Everything a cop says is just a cliche line that is painful to here, made worse by some truly awful delivery. A character genuinely says "I didn't sign up for this"...

While everyone talks about Heath Ledger's Joker as the main talking point for The Dark Knight, it's disappointing how underappreciated Aaron Eckhart is as Harvey Dent. His arc is tragic and compelling. I always forget about him before every watch, but when I'm watching it I'm always pleasantly surprised at how good he is. His chemistry with Rachel (A much better Maggie Gyllenhaal) works and creates an interesting dynamic that goes to horrible places towards the end.

I always remember this getting a lot of people riled up for how dark and violent it was for a superhero film aimed at kids, but while this is a comic-book film, it is so different in tone to what we've seen before, it feels more like a Michael Mann crime-epic than a costumed fluff piece. It's brooding and really violent, it pushes that 12 rating as far as it can go, but isn't without the odd bit of editing that is a little confusing. especially in the scene where The Joker cuts Gumble's throat, but is done in such an awkward manner that it looks like he cut his cheeks open.


I just wish Christopher Nolan was able to keep up the quality of The Dark Knight, as it still holds up. It's not just the best comic-book film ever made, it's one of the best action or crime thrillers, full stop. on a technical level and performance level, everyone is on top form here. It's an unforgettable 150 minutes and one I'll continue watching till I die.

10/10 Dans

The Dark Knight is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:

Follow us:
Twitter: @FigmentReviews
Instagram: @thesurprisingadventuresofdanb
YouTube: Figment Reviews 
Letterboxd: Dan
Facebook

Batman Begins (2005) - 4K Review

Review:

*Originally written September 1st, 2018*

It always feels weird going back to Batman Begins, the reboot of the Batman franchise after Batman & Robin murdered it for 7 years. It paved the way for so many superhero films today, with many directors also trying to apply the vibe of this to many different genres. It's not perfect, and it doesn't hold up as well as I'd like, but Batman Begins is still an excellent comic-book film that delves into the character more than anyone of the films before it.

A big problem with Batman Begins isn't even the film's fault, but the fact is, it is completely overshadowed by The Dark Knight. While obviously that wouldn't exist without Batman Begins and this paves the way for the greatness to come, you just know potential Christopher Nolan has under his sleeve that he wasn't able to unleash until the sequel.

Part of me wants to call Batman Begins safe, which is it by today's standard of comic-book films. It captures a wonderfully dark and gritty tone, delving more towards crime-drama that cartoony superhero flick. Gotham is Chicago, but a dark, fully realised and hellish version of the city that feels real and alive. Much more so than Burton's take on the city.

Christian Bale does get a lot of flack for his "Bat voice", which is understandable, but I forgot how restrained it felt in this, compared to the borderline parody it becomes in The Dark Knight Rises. He carries the role extremely well, especially in the moments as Bruce Wayne, but part of me feels the character would have benefited greatly from him playing it as Patrick Bateman. 

After the stream of Marvel films I've been watching lately, this did feel like a breath of fresh air. It actually feels and looks like a film. It retains the grain and doesn't feel overly polished and shiny. I'd always found the Blu-ray release of this to be ugly too, but the 4K is absolutely gorgeous, the amount of detail retained in all the darkest scenes is damn impressive and my god, those oily blacks look great in UHD. 

Superhero films suffer a lot from the villain problem, which is something DC has always been able to top Marvel over. It's been 13 years now, so it's not a spoiler, but Liam Neeson's Ra's al Ghul is great. His plan is very comic-book, but it's just not silly enough to break away  from tone. A lot of people have a problem with his death scene and how it breaks Batman's rules on killing, but it worked for me and I always found his no-killing policy utterly nonsensical anyway.

Batman's no killing rule also creates a very problematic and overlooked scene early on. In which he refuses to kill a thief in front of the League of Shadows, but then goes on to accidentally kill all of them and the thief... I'm still trying to wrap my head around that scene. Was it a moment showing how under trained Bruce was and was just winging it with disastrous? Or was it a severe oversight in the screenplay? Either way, Bruce does not seem to care he'd murdered a dozen men by mistake and it is never mentioned again. Weird.

I'm also surprised at the lack of action there is in this. The only real highlight being the Batmobile chase. I do always appreciate the amount of practical stuff that went into the making of this trilogy, keeping CGI to a minimum. Everything feels natural, unlike the later Batman antics shown in the Snyder films. I also kinda like the clunkiness of Batman's combat. He doesn't feel smooth like he does in say the Arkham games, it feels messy. 

My biggest gripe with Batman Begins is Katie Holmes who is absolutely awful as Rachel Dawes, thank god she was replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal. I feel bad picking on one actress out of a cast of people who did universally excellent, but my god, she sticks out badly.


Batman Begins might hit a few beats we are massively familiar with now, but it still holds up for the most part, paving way for all the dark and gritty superhero films we could ask for. A pretty excellent start to this trilogy.

8/10 Dans

Batman Begins is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:

Follow us:
Twitter: @FigmentReviews
Instagram: @thesurprisingadventuresofdanb
YouTube: Figment Reviews 
Letterboxd: Dan
Facebook