It's official. Gone are the days of the "zany" Tim Burtonesque superhero adaptations. Waste that kind of cartoon stylization on boys in chocolate factories and bad dreams before Christmas. Things have moved toward a more sober note. The convincing evidence is portrayed in the most recent installment of Batman: The Dark Knight. What an intense, psychological romp! Sure it has all the action you expect in a super hero flick, but director Chris Nolan takes the possibilities of comic book adaptation to a new level in this one. It is the maturation of a genre: the infusing of complexity---humanity (and in some cases, insanity)---into super hero/villain personalities.Yeah, there have been baby steps to this end in the X-Men and Spiderman movies. And unfortunately, in the Fantastic Four movies, we saw the baby plop down on its bottom and regress. But Batman Begins showed the toddler was not down for the count. And now, this summer, we see something coming of age. It began with Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of Tony Stark in Iron Man. Notice I say Tony Stark, not Ironman, because it was almost more entertaining to see TS in scenes as opposed to his metallic persona. Edward Norton's Bruce Banner in Hulk 2 didn't disappoint either, especially considering the hulkish monkey on the film's back following H1. And now we have a new Bat movie where a villain creeps you out in a "I-don't-want-to-look-but-I-have-to-look" sort of way. Christian Bale's Bat takes a back seat to Heath Ledger's Joker in this one. It feels like you're watching a first class action-suspense thriller with a truly riveting psycho in the lead, not a story based on sappy heroes and villains extracted from a pulp tale. A posthumous Oscar on the horizon? I give it Two-Face odds. Anyway, I won't bore you with more blah blah praise of the movie; there's plenty of that online already.
Incidentally, the trailer for Watchmen (based on Alan Moore's formidable graphic novel) previewed just before DK. It looks promising. I'm interested to see where this new child runs.
3 comments:
Maybe not the best movie ever in the history of movie making, but easily one of the better "super hero" films ever made!
I agree - this genre definitely has come of age ... I just hope that all the movies coming out after this one do not take on the somber/grunge tone just because this one was successful at it.
good stuff for sure!
Yeah, I think there is a danger of movie makers mistaking a dark tone (i.e., the somber/grunge stylization you mention) as the key ingredient here. It really is the development of character---complete character (hero/villain/alter ego)---and finding the right actors to portray them. The best examples to date are Heath Ledger, Robert Downey Jr., and Daniel Craig's Bond. Then it doesn't matter if the movie is dark or humorous, the writing and performances will naturally lift it clear of the cartoon.
To be fair to Ang Lee, I think his Hulk 1 had good intentions in this direction. It was beautifully filmed, no doubt, but cinematograhy couldn't carry the movie. I think the effort fell short because 1) the choice for the lead was a misstep, and 2) a major component, namely the "action" we all expect in a good "action film," was in short supply. But, again, I think his intentions were good.
I also believe that this installment of Batman is the darkest "super hero" movie I'v seen.
What I think is interesting is that the Joker is presented to the audience with little or no backstory, which makes him even creepier. He just exists and its inexplicable.
Cool site, nice job.
Post a Comment