Friday, April 20, 2007

Probably fake, but still cool, Dark Knight poster


13 comments:

Octopunk said...

That's hecka better than the pic of Heath Ledger from earlier today, although I could also stand a touch less goth.

And yes, that looks pretty fake.

Did they even have posters of the various characters from Batman Begins? I just remember lots of bats.

Jordan said...

Begins had a poster of Batman carrying Katie Holmes.

I'm SO GLAD that they did the Joker correctly; e.g. the Joker's smile is not built into his face because of an accident involving Batman's grappling cables, as was the case with Jack Nicholson.

My God, that was stupid. The Joker's smile is actually a "disfigurement" (bad makeup job). But everyone just put up with it and praised the movie's brilliance.

Batman is just such a strange movie. It's got tons of attitude and atmosphere, but it's incredibly badly done and almost all the creative decisions (casting, plot, costumes, etc.) are totally wrong.

Octopunk said...

Ultimately I'll give Batman a pass because the ending kind of works, with that fight in the appropriately epic setting of the big cathedral. But I have to agree with almost all of what you said.

I nearly got into a bad car accident right before seeing that movie the first time. Remember that, JPX?

Jordan said...

I give it a pass because it finally got the goddamned movie going public to recognize that comic books are cool and that those of us who like comics and superhero stories are actually not crazy or stupid. This was an important achievement: scraping all the "camp" off the concept (even the "camp" implicit in some of the Reeve/Superman stuff, just because the tone is so damn bright and sunny).

But the movie itself is a big mess and I've never really warmed to its "Dr. Seuss" approach to everything. All the Batman movies (except Begins) have kindergarten-level stories with idiotic Gotham City crowds; "criminal conspiracies" involving confetti and penguins and hair spray; and bat costumes that are big clunky rubber suits of armor that nobody could even move around in, let alone fight.

The Danny Elfman music is great, though. And some of those Gotham vistas are beautiful. I guess the weirdness of the movie is what makes it work despite all of my complaints. It's hard to get absolutely everything wrong and still kind of work, but Batman kind of does it.

JPX said...

I worked at Showcase Cinemas when Batman opened and it was the busiest night I ever worked. People almosr rioted when it was sold out. I agree with what you guys say, however at the time I loved it because I had been craving something like it for a long time. I don't think it's aged well and, as Jordan noted,all Burton's films since have had that Dr. Seuss thing going on. The Burton Batman films just look stupid to me now when they once seemed cool. Sad.

Batman Begins got it right for the most part.

Jordan said...

This is an interesting conversation!

(I mean, they all are, but this one's got a certain wistful quality. We seem to be struggling with the big issues of geekdom here.)

Jordan said...

I don't watch BEGINS very often because you have to sit through all that fucking around before he's Batman.

Octopunk said...

Well, as far as that goes, remember the thrill invoked by the posters, with that Batman logo on the plain black background? So sweet.

Every DC comic at the time had that ad on the back, no words at all. What a triumph for the concept of branding.

Jordan said...

Yes, and yet even that 1989 painted graphic of the batman logo (which, by the way, does not come close to matching the emblem on Batman's chest in the movie) looks dated today.

Octopunk said...

My "Well, as far as that goes" was referring to Jordan's "big issues of geekdom ."

I LOVE the pre-Batman parts of Begins. Not all of them, no, but Wayne is written incredibly well. Completely engaging.

JPX said...

The pre-Batman stuff in begins worked for me, but just as I now start my Peter Jackson King Kong DVD when they first hit the island, I envision starting my Begins DVD when he first dons the cowl.

Man, I can't stand the Joker dancing to Prince music in Batman!

Johnny Sweatpants said...

I guess I'm the minority here. I submit that the first Batman holds up damn well, much better than Begins. Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton, the Batmobile, the music,the mimes, the tone - all great. Most super hero movies learned everything they know from Burton's world. They may still have made the X-Men & Spiderman movies but they would most certainly have been inferior.

How many times could you honestly watch Batman Begins before hitting the fast forward button? It's all talkie-talk this, look at me train that, blah blah. And the batmobile took great liberties, there I said it.

I don't mind being the minority as long as I'm right.

Johnny Sweatpants said...

As far as this poster goes, it looks like James Vanderbeak on smack.

Malevolent

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