Strong Movie

Rating: 8/10 (25 July 2008)

I believe that I grew up watching one of the best series of Batman made, Batman: The Animated Series. I do not know if everyone would agree with that, but I feel as though that particular stretch of Batman established the criminals and it also established who Batman was. Having seen that series in its entirety, and the Animated movie "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm," I think I know who Batman should be portrayed as.
The Joker was done perfectly, and to every individual who claims that this shouldn't be regarded as the best, you are positively wrong. The animated series and the comic books could only go so far as to illustrating the sheer destruction the Joker is capable of, but where they stopped, Heath Ledger continued. I think that his performance was amazing; I'm not saying this because he died after the filming of the movie, I'm saying this because I know character work. I do improv, I know how difficult it is to maintain and create a completely separate and individual character. Ledger remade The Joker. To not recognize this feat is to be ignorant of fantastic character creation.
The Batman was not any better, I will admit. I cannot blame Bale for this, but instead I think the Director should take the blame. Nolan dropped the ball when it came to making the Batman again. There was no spectacular notion of the hard work or diligence that Wayne put into finding and stopping the Joker, instead, it just seemed as though Batman was going along for the wild ride with the Joker. I do not know if this was intended, or if it was the way it worked in previous works of Batman, but I do not think it helped make the Batman as strong as the Joker.
Two-Face did a substantial job of distracting and removing the focus away from Joker's destruction in the end. I understood his purpose in the film, but I do not think that he added much. IN fact, I would have liked it more if the audience was left to guess what happened to Two-Face when the Joker talked to him. This could have led to another film with Two-Face as a villain, etc, etc. This is not the point, Two-Face was slightly obnoxious in the end because he stole away from the real battle.
Overall, I feel as though this film was great. There were indeed some annoyances with the direction and the placement of philosophical sentiments in dialogue, but nonetheless, it was a fantastic ride.
"Does anybody want to see a magic trick?...HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"