Dark Knight breaks BO record!

[teako170]

$155,340,000!!

That breaks the old record for the biggest grossing weekend of all time (domestic US sales) - held by Spidey 3.

Factoring in another $40M for overseas and you've got $195,340,000.

That's a lot of greenbacks folks. I bet Bob Kane (http://www.teako170.com/kane.html) would have been proud. RIP Kane...

[Morgoth Bauglir]

This movie is showing on more screens than any movie ever made. It's way overhyped, but still good.

[GwaiLoMoFo]

The moive was tremendous. I was expecting to be mildly disappointed becasue of the hype, but it was better than I hoped. All the hype about Ledger's Joker was also WELL deserved. Strong performances by all the actors, Bale was money as usual. My only complaint was with Maggie Gyllenhaal. Ive never liked her much as an actress, and her performance was very BLAH.

The trailer for "The Watchmen" was pretty dope, and my man Bale is the new John Connor in the next "Terminator" flick!!

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Heath Ledger lives up to the hype, no doubt. I just wish he had a better movie surrounding him. And that Terminator trailer did look sweet. All 10 seconds of it:p And speaking of Terminator, I thought that Two Face looked like a skinless terminator. Except not as cool looking. Kind of a cheap and plastic looking Terminator.

[Tosh]

Just watched this yesterday in one of the nicest theaters/bars I've ever been in, I didn't care for the last one though I thought it was better than the last couple (It started out great but went downhill from there imo), but I have to say Dark Knight delivered for the adults, my only problem was the running time, I also don't care for Maggie Gyllenhaal. Best movie I've seen so far this year.

[Markgway]

Dark Knight breaks BO record!

Hasn't he ever heard of deodorant?

[daTOAD]

Overhyped? Nah , it is a rarity in that it actually lives up to the hype. I first thought the Oscar talk was because of Heath Ledgers death, but after seeing his performance i feel he deserves it. Hes now in my Top 5 movie villians. Terminator trailer sucked[just keeping it real]. You could tell they havent really shot anything yet, but i guess just having an official announcement was cool. dark Knight WAS a little long , but that doesnt hurt a great movie. Plus love that it wasnt CG driven[love the Hulk and Iron man, but...]. the whole time i was thinking ,i cant wait for the DVD. Will see this again if i can get tickets.Next stop...IMAX.

[daTOAD]

Anybody else feel Maggie Gyllenhaal is BUSTED.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Hasn't he ever heard of deodorant?

DAMMIT Mark... you beat me to that joke:D

[Markgway]

Anybody else feel Maggie Gyllenhaal is BUSTED.

What does that mean?

[daTOAD]

"What does that mean?"

Ugly as hell[sorry Maggy].

[doug maverick]

$155,340,000!!

That breaks the old record for the biggest grossing weekend of all time (domestic US sales) - held by Spidey 3.

Factoring in another $40M for overseas and you've got $195,340,000.

That's a lot of greenbacks folks. I bet Bob Kane (http://www.teako170.com/kane.html) would have been proud. RIP Kane...

its actually 158mil not 155 the real numbers came out yesterday.

[AlbertV]

And the movie broke the fastest record for $200 million...in only 5 days it made 203 million!!!

[Milkyway]

I loved everything in the movie, especially the story and buildup. maybe without too much Two-Face and more Joker would've perfected the balance but at the same time that's what made the movie so epic and exciting. no complaints here.

[robgrob]

seen the dark knight yesterday and man was I blown away heath ledgers
Joker is going to be one of greatest movie villians of all time.

[Markgway]

Saw this today. Though it was quite good, not brilliant. Yes, definately overhyped. I thought Ledger did some great work as the Joker, but surprisingly was left off screen too often. I never felt the intensity between him and Batman reached full potential, and the psychological games got lost a bit in the desire to please the blockbuster crowd with bigger and better explosions. The realism of the drama was at odds with some of the gimmicks (sonar monitoring, anyone?) and whilst techie types and kids might drool, that kind of thing leaves me a touch cold. I prefer a more visceral, personalised kind of action. Eg. the stunt where Rachel slides off the roof. That's more exciting to me than Batman flying around the sky on a cable like a, well, bat! The combat was better shot than in BEGINS, but amazingly unimaginative in its choreography. Some of the violence and threat was too strong for a 12 rating (in the UK, natch) - that bit with the pencil got quite a few gasps in my audience. Bale was alright as Batman, same as before, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine add a little old school charm. I thought Maggie was an improvement over Katie Holmes (and, despite some of the negative comment, quite hot). I like the character of Harvey Dent, not so sure about Two-Face though I didn't buy the burnt-face equals psycho act. He lets the Joker go, but intends on killing Gordon's child? Bollocks. That kind of thing lets the otherwise interesting story down for me. In fact, the whole ending was a disappointment. After two plus hrs I was waiting for a momentous confrontation between the Joker and Batman... and it just didn't happen. I felt a bit like: is that it? He just hangs there? Despite my grumbles I was mostly entertained, but I just had to put some cap on the overpraise. I've heard the term "masterpiece" bandied about(!) Must mention the dreadful soundtrack - everything was LOUD except the dialogue, a lot of which I couldn't hear. Gary Oldman could've been reciting his shopping list for all I knew.

[teako170]

Saw this today. Though it was quite good, not brilliant. ...

My man Mark - you got to use that spoiler tag brother. ;)

A sad note about this film. My Chi-town bud who died of cancer a few months back had asked me (his dying request unfortunately) to secure a copy of this flick before he passed. I still haven't seen the movie but when I do, he'll be right by my side.

Sorry all - didn't mean to be a downer...

[Markgway]

My man Mark - you got to use that spoiler tag brother. ;)

Oh ****. I thought I did. I copied and pasted from another forum where my spoiler tags worked. What are tags for here and I'll fix them?

EDIT. I've made the text white so you have to scroll over it.

All the spoiler tags appear to have done is create new paragraphs(!)

[radioraheem]

I was very impressed w/ the movie Ledger was phenominal. I couldnt help, but feel a little upset during the movie though, knowing the whole time that we would never see Ledger back for the return of joker and I doubt anyone will be able to live up to the job he did

[daisho2004]

OK just to back from seeing this Movie and I thought it was Excellent! Heath Ledger was Awesome as the Joker very Dark & Morbid, I really hope that the are making a 3rd. movie in this series, Christian Bale is the perfect Batman.

[Biozombie]

I seem to be in the minority with this, but, I thought it was pretty rubbish. It was nowhere near as dark and atmospheric as the first. Heath Ledger's Joker was totally unmenacing, all he did was lick his lips and swallow a lot. If he was still alive, I believe he would be getting slated for his performance. All they seemed to do was up was the number of explosions. It reminded me of a straight to video sequel that has nothing to do with the original. I actually fell asleep in the cinema and I've never done that before.

[shaolindogpaw]

Its hard for people to come out and say they didn't like the movie because you have a mass of people, who for some reason, think its the greatest thing since the sewer system. I didn't care for it myself, i thought it was 1 hour too long. The pyrotechnics were lame, the plot took itself way too seriously, batman was a drag and really needed a cough drop. It's probably the most over rated movie in the history of all movies. It was allright at points where i wasn't falling asleep, but the best ever? I liked Batman begins better.

And i absolutely don't mean to put anyone down who likes the movie. This is just my take on it. I have an ex-friend who won't talk to me now because he thinks The Dark Knight is masterpiece and i dis-agreed... yeah, he's that much into the movie.

[Chinatown Kid]

I gotta see this! Can anyone elaborate on the fight scenes, are they shot tight and fast edited or can we see them better and tell more of what's going on than in Batman Begins?

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Luckily Dark Knight doesn't have the crackhead editing that Batman Begins had. I liked the first fight scene, but then it seems like every fight has the same choreography, and BAtman looks pretty robotic in his movements. So overall I didn't think the fight were too good. But the non fighting action scenes, those are really good.

[Chinatown Kid]

Thanks for the info Morgoth, a shame that the choreography is unimaginative and boring. At least maybe I can get a better view of what's happening in the fights in this film.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Unfortunately there is darkness that comes into play, but IMO you do get a better view of the fights in Dark Knight. But yeah, it is unimaginative, though not totally boring. I don't think I even saw a single kick. It doesn't have to be some cool spinning kick, just a straight kick with some contact would do.

[Chinatown Kid]

Man I hate to hear that being a big fan of kicking. Guess the fights are basically punching/boxing? I did see a pic on youtube of The Joker and it looked like he was front kicking Batman while someone held him, maybe that got cut out?

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Sorry I meant to point out that I didn't see a single kick from Batman. Like I said I found his movements robotic. The fights aren't bad, but I was just expecting something exciting, maybe something like the main fight in Bourne Ultimatum.

[Chinatown Kid]

Oh I see, well you still want to see the hero throw some badass kicks though, that is a shame he doesn't. Thanks for the info on the film, much appreciated.

[kungfusamurai]

When I saw the subject header, for a second there I was going to suggest a better deodorant for the caped crusader! :)

I haven't seen the movie yet, and I'm not buying into the hype. I'll check it out in a few weeks. Everyone I know who's seen it said they liked it. But then again, a lot of people said the same thing about Iron Man, but I thought it was okay.

KFS

[Chinatown Kid]

I saw on one of those entertaiment shows last week where they were trying to say there was some kind of curse for the people involved with The Dark Knight because of Ledger's death, Bale's recent trouble with the law and Morgan flipping his car. The media sure loves to hype stuff up, they did the same thing when Brandon Lee died young like his father.

[kungfusamurai]

I saw on one of those entertaiment shows last week where they were trying to say there was some kind of curse for the people involved with The Dark Knight because of Ledger's death, Bale's recent trouble with the law and Morgan flipping his car. The media sure loves to hype stuff up, they did the same thing when Brandon Lee died young like his father.

Some movies that deal with dark topics have had unusual deaths occur around them. Brandon Lee was the most recent. Then there are the people who died who were in the Poltergeist movies (one was the sister in the first film, the second was the preacher in the second film, and lastly was Heather O'Roarke, the girl who starred in all three). And I think people connected to the original Omen film and The Exorcist died or strange things happened during the making. I know at least one of the screen actors in The Exorcist died (the man who plays Ellen Burstyn's director).

KFS

[Markgway]

Accidents happen, people die.

It's sad, but there's no curse or any nonsense like that.


See my earlier post for my comments on the action and overpraise.

[Chinatown Kid]

Yeah I'm not much for superstition myself although I know some people do love to speculate.

[Markgway]

I think it's disrespectful to the dead.

[daTOAD]

The more i watch this, Im convinced it should ve been cut into two parts[like Kill Bill]. Just a little more Two face footage needed to be shot.

[daisho2004]

daTOAD: I agree it should've stuck with the Joker as the Main Villain and worked its way into a 3rd. movie with 2Face.

[KLSADAKO]

I thought it delivered very well for a sequel. The fights were certainly better filmed than Batman Begins but I was so into the movie it didn't really bother me how the fights were. Maybe the movie was alittle too long but it was never boring.

[kungfusamurai]

I didn't watch Batman Begins in the theatre, and I only saw pieces of it when it was on TV. So I didn't go into Dark Knight with the desire to see another movie like the first.

I have to say that in spite of all the hype, which for me usually means a movie might not be as enjoyable, I really really enjoyed this film! I decided to watch it in IMAX because I figured since certain scenes were filmed in that format, it was the way to watch the flick. Unfortunately, the IMAX moments are few and far between. Chris Nolan wished he could have filmed the whole thing in IMAX, but I think that would have been a waste on scenes like people sitting around talking. It would have been better if all the action scenes were IMAX, though.

My overall sense of this film is that while the title is about Batman, the main character in the film, I found his presence in the film almost nill. I know he was in most of the main scenes, but it was his Bruce Wayne persona that seemed to be the focus of this film. Even so, I don't feel like that was a bad thing.

I feel the three characters of Batman, Harvey Dent and The Joker, were like an Unholy Trinity. Perhaps even Freudian psychology, where the The Joker represented the Id, Harvey Dent was the Ego, and Bruce Wayne/Batman, the Super Ego. I might be reading that wrong, or reading too much into it.

I didn't find the film overly long, or that Harvey Dent's two face should have been left for a sequel. All of the three main characters played important parts of the film. Even though we expect a sequel, I think Nolan was trying to make this a 'complete film', which I think was a better approach. Cliffhangers, where a new bad guy is left for another film, are just too cliche, and I think Nolan is a smarter director than that.

Heath Ledger's performance was awesome. I don't think he should receive an Oscar nod for it. Perhaps he should win something like a Golden Globe, though. It was really well done. While The Joker was an all-round Evil guy, he did invoke some kind of sympathy at certain moments, which Ledger carried of brilliantly. I found Aaron Eckhart's Two Faced characterization a bit too over the top, though. He did a great job as the idealist Harvey Dent, but his transition into insanity just didn't feel right. That's probably the only character mis-step I can think of. I also didn't care for the Rachel character. I don't know if Katie Holmes did a spectacular job in the first one. I didn't sense any chemistry between Bale and Maggie G. If they were former lovers, it didn't feel like it.

Only one annoying thing: How come the Mayor of Gotham had so much eye-liner?!! I just found it a little distracting that he had more eye-liner than women in the film.

Overall, this film is a 9/10 for me. One point deducted for the transition of the Harvey Dent character, and the annoying SWAT guy riding shotgun, played by Nicky Katt. What was up with that? Strangely, with all the yapping he did, he didn't receive any acting credit (according to IMDB).

KFS