I have read some people calling The Dark Knight a masterpiece. It’s not. The achievement of The Dark Knight is not that it elevated the comic book movie to the level of your typical class-A drama. The achievement is in how Christopher Nolan turned going to the movies into a spectacle once again.
The more you watch The Dark Knight the more you begin to recognize its flaws. For all the complaining I did about the logic in Hellboy II, The Dark Knight has so many logic flaws it is astonishing. The ins and outs of almost every scene are virtually impossible if you look at it closely, and considering one of the main appeals to this film is how it is set in some sort of a reality it is shocking so many still consider this one of the great films (myself included, not ashamed). Then again, I guess that just speaks to its greatness. I believe The Dark Knight is too long and the logic at times bothers me, but as much as The Dark Knight is about story it is also about the magic of movies and their ability to engage an audience. That said, a couple of things stand out as the main reasons The Dark Knight is able to excel beyond its flaws; 1) Nolan’s decision to use IMAX and 2) Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s score.
Anyone that has seen The Dark Knight in IMAX knows what I am talking about when I say the opening shot instantly takes your breath away. The sheer size of the picture makes The Dark Knight different from any other movie you saw in 2008 as well as most any mainstream movie you have seen in the last decade and you won’t soon forget that shot even when it’s compressed onto your TV at home. Couple that with the score, which accompanies each and every grand shot and action piece either slowly building to a razor blade crescendo or keeping you on pins and needles until the next bit of action is about to occur and you have a true cinematic experience. It’s truly amazing what an understanding of filmmaking can do to change the way a story is perceived and Nolan certainly tapped into it here. This is movie magic.
P.S. I can’t leave without saying how great Ledger was as The Joker. He’ll be missed.
Darren Aronofsky is one of those filmmakers I would line up to see anything he makes and with The Wrestler he proved he isn’t all about experimental filmmaking and cerebral storytelling. This is an emotional story I never would have expected from Aronofsky even though 2006’s The Fountain was a highly emotional love story that simply delved just as deeply into the cerebral as it did the emotional. The Wrestler, however, is all emotion and it scores big in both its highs and its lows. Mickey Rourke was inspired casting and it was nice to see Evan Rachel Wood in a quality role and no longer hanging off the arm of Marilyn Manson. Wood is one of those actresses with a ton of talent and I began to get worried when I saw her in that soft-core porn of a Marilyn Manson music video and began to wonder if her performance in Thirteen would become the best of her career. She changed that all around here and with a role in Woody Allen’s Whatever Works coming up I think she is back on track.
After seeing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button I was almost certain it would be my number one film of 2008. I absolutely loved the story and got lost inside of it and before even writing my official review it inspired me to write commentaries.
I am a huge fan of both director David Fincher and star Brad Pitt and neither of them disappoint. The score by Alexandre Desplat and cinematography by Claudio Miranda are captivating. The film runs 166 minutes and it felt like it lasted only 90. You can either try to dig deep into the meaning of Benjamin’s reverse aging or you can simply view it as a love story, either way there is so much to take away from this film I ultimately shocked myself when I ended up placing it at number two, but only one film can be my number one…
