Tangy Travis

I’ve always mentioned The Dark Knight as my most anticipated film of the year. I expect a lot from this film, mainly because of the director, Christopher Nolan. I love most of his films, such as Batman Begins, The Prestige, and one of my all time favourite, Memento. He doesn’t disappoint me in TDK, in fact it exceeds all my expectation for the film. He just created a masterpiece of films!! He shows the whole world a new way to make a superhero film. He shows everyone that a superhero film doesn’t need fancy CG visual effects or any lame jokes. All you need is a really solid plot, and some crazy super-villains, and I mean really crazy.

I watched the film at Berjaya Times Square’s IMAX theatre, due to the recommendations of certain movie websites that watching TDK at IMAX is the best choice. TDK has certain scenes using IMAX camera, which features better graphics as it uses the bigger 70mm film compared to the standard 35mm film. More explaination about IMAX can be found HERE. The result was a disappointing one, at least for KL’s IMAX theatres. The film was kinda blur and pixelated on the big screen. My eyes were really tired after the film as I concentrate to watch clearly. It’s kinda exhausting. I wonder if it’s the problem of Malaysian IMAX or it’s the same for IMAX all around the world. If this is what I’m gonna see at all IMAX theatres, I can’t believe anyone would say watching TDK in IMAX theatres feels awesome and even better than ordinary theatres. My guess was that the projector here had some problems, thus showing some really poor and dark images (Ends up I was watching The Very Dark Knight). Plus, I don’t know what they’ve done for the seats. The back of the seat is very straight, and I mean really straight, making me extremely uncomfortable throughout the film. I wonder wat da hell IMAX is doing and which genius designer designs these seats. No wonder they always have such poor business. Ends up my first ever experience in IMAX theatre is also my last one. SIGH… I feel like giving them a feedback. To watch such a great film, only to be spoilt by the poor experience provided by IMAX is just unacceptable.

I love the plot of the film. This film is not some ordinary superhero movie where some villains start terrorizing the town and our superhero saves the day. The film doesn’t follow such lame plot (It’s lame in my opinion). Instead, the film starts with a clear line seperating hero and villain, but as the film goes on, the line gets blurer and blurer. The big question in the film is “How can you fight a villain with no rules and sanity on his mind? To what extend the Batman has to go to defeat this enemy?” The reuslt is a really dark and frightening film, something I never expect from a superhero film, even from Christopher Nolan. It just gives you no time to breath throughout the film as waves after waves of terror strike Gotham CIty.

Heath Ledger’s role as Joker is awesome, just superb, I rate him a full 10/10. He exceeds all my expectation for the role, even scarier than Jack Nicholson’s superb role as Joker in 1989’s Batman. He still haunts my mind with his high pitch laugh, and I think the haunting will continue for few more days. His voice undergoes a complete change, from his usual deep and cool voice in Brokeback Mountain to his high pitch laughs in TDK. I start to like him when I watched Brokeback Mountain few months ago. The very last scene when he cries while looking at the jacket was really heartbreaking. Such a big loss to the film industry that he passed away at such a young age of only 28 years old. His career has just begun to climb. Ironically, his last film is also his biggest hit. He surely deserves an Oscar nomination for his role, and I think he deserves the award. That’s not to say other actors deliver a poor job, just that Heath Ledger shines above all.

As usual, Batman film always features a car chasing scene. This time, it just got better!! A new motorcycle called Batpod was used this time instead of the Tumbler. The way Batpod appears and doing its stunts really leave my mouth opened!! This part of the movie is just too exciting to describe in words. You will understand when you watched it. Most of the stunts are done the usual Nolan’s way. He limits CG effects in his Batman films to as low as possible. One obvious example was the scene where a hospital was bombed to pieces. You can clearly see a hospital with the exact size being bomed to pieces!! No CG effects used!! It’s all REAL!!!

Best of all, this is the first time I hear people clapping when the film finishes, something very rare in Malaysia. I don’t think I’ve witnessed this before. I followed and clap as well, YAY!! I just love dis film and can’t wait to watch it again!!

Films