(no subject)

[mercat]

You know the most annoying thing about The Dark Knight? And I think I said this after I saw it the first time, too--it's not "New York" Gotham. It's so distinctly "Chicago" Gotham, and it really bothers me. The city is too spread out, too clean. I don't know if that's supposed to signify what Dent has done or if they were just trying to make the movie less dark since the storyline is so much moreso; but it really bothers me. There is too much space everywhere... too much newness. Not enough hustle and bustle, though I did notice in the chase scene that the batpod drives past its share of yellow taxis.

I can see, from a story point of view, why they want to pull in that mob feel. And I love the Blues Bros. "chase scene through the mall" tribute. But it just feels wrong compared to NY Gotham. I think it's just that NY is one of the largest cities in the world, population-wise, and that is distinctly the opposite feel of Chicago. Too many people, not enough space in NY. Chicago, structurally, seems to be all space and light and that sort of thing.

...Maybe I'm just an anal-retentive eye-for-architecture, who knows. (Also? What happened to the Narrows? I mean, I know they consciously made the decision to make this one Chicago and not NY Gotham, but you'd think they'd at least throw it in one city-scape shot.)

Worst part of this movie: the batpod going up the wall and then flipping around and stopping. Just no. On what level did someone deem that even remotely possible?

Best part of this movie, other than "THE WHOLE DAMN THING": the use of silence in the scoring.

Holy.

Fucking.

Shit.


So amazing.

Comments

[smwance.livejournal.com]

I like that they filmed it in Chicago. If you recall in Batman Begins, the city is more established as a "New York City" type setting. I don't think they really abandoned that concept, it just wasn't needed for the story they told (besides, Chicago's modern architecture nicely frames the Joker's point about how easy it is to "give a little push" to upset a developed, modern society back to humanity's base bahavior).

[mercat.livejournal.com]

I don't hate the Chicago setting (I love going to Chicago), I just hate that they weren't really consistent about it. It just gave it a weird feel.

[smwance.livejournal.com]

I watched Batman Begins a few weeks ago to compare to The Dark Knight and I think what's throwing off the feel of the city in both is that BB has at least a few shots of Gotham from the air (i.e., CGI generated) that encourage the grittier feel. In TDK, it shares some of the same building shots (e.g., Batman on the top edge of a building). It's a subtle difference, isn't it?

[rcnitro.livejournal.com]

I love how the Joker's "theme music" is just two dissonant cello notes.

[mercat.livejournal.com]

Agreed. The scoring on this is genius.