I just saw "The Dark Knight" for the second time - ask me anything!

[JTG of the PRB]

Seriously. Ask me something or I'll start asking questions for you. Believe me, it'll be easy - I'll leave it all up to chance.

Heads...



...or Tails.

[Teaser]

1. What villain can they possibly use next?

Ras al Ghul is dead. And those in this film are not usable again.

Catwoman is not a threat.

The Riddler?

Please no Penguin...

[JTG of the PRB]

2. Let's see what fate tells us...

Heads, you get lucky and they'll probably decide to use a decent villain - someone without supernatural abilities or powers - maybe The Riddler, maybe Bane, possibly Poison Ivy (if they do it right, that is).

Tails, and we'll see something truly God-awful - the aforementioned Catwoman or the Penguin, or they'll recast the role of the Joker and REALLY disappoint the fans.

Let's give 'er a flip...



Heads. My coin seems to think we might get lucky again next time around...

[Mr. Blonde]

10. I read earlier

that The Penguin is currently an arms dealer in the comics. Might be interesting to have him supplying ever more powerful guns to the mob and Batman tracking him down. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is always interesting. I think it would take someone like him to even hold ground against what I have heard about Ledger's Joker. I haven't seen the movie yet, hopefully next week.

I would be interested in seeing Mr. Freeze redone. His thing is only marinally unrealistic and doesn't really have to venture into superpowers. Not sure who I would have play him. There is one person who is on the definitely not list....

Since Catwoman seems to primarily be a burglar I don't know how that is quite interesting or enough of a threat to Gotham to make it into Nolan's films.

I think Dr. Hugo Strange would be a good choice. Not many people have any preconceived notions about him, and as he deduces Batmans identity that would play well with Batman apparently being a fugitive now.

[Political Heretic]

41. Phillip Seymour Hoffman as an arms-dealer "penguin" would be great

...if the downplayed the silly stuff about the penguin and played up the awesome potential for a dark character to rival (ok.. not rival) Ledger's joker performance.

[Mr. Blonde]

42. Judging by the rest of the series

he certainly won't be half man/half penguin. I would guess it would be more that the mob always sees him in a tux and he doesn't give out his name.

PSH was the only positive from Mission Impossible III. He did pretty well as a villian. I'm sure with what would have to be a better script and director he could really nail it.

I think as an arms dealer he stays pretty well within the world of the movies so far. I'm thinking the mob would have learned their lesson that someone like the Joker is a bad idea, but buying sweet weapons from someone would seem like a good alternative to fight Batman.

An interesting angle for setting up the next movie would be for the Penguin to develop the drug Venom that Bane uses. I think it might require some serious re-writing of the Bane history though.

I'm trying to think of a good actor to play Freeze and none really come to mind. Although I guess nothing says he has to be big. I think Johnny Depp can do no wrong so he might be interesting in that role.

[charlie and algernon]

3. What do you think of Philip Seymour Hoffman as the Penguin?

take it in a completely different direction than Tim Burton's version. Have Hoffman play a ruthless drug or weapons runner called the Penguin who's taking advantage of the new war on Batman to arm the criminals of Gotham.

[cemaphonic]

5. Penguin seems the best of the remaining non-supernatural, non-silly bunch

Problem is he's sort of a colorless organized crime-leader type, which Nolan's Batman movies already have in spades. He'd fit in to the milieu just fine, but he's kinda boring. Though of course, a well-written Penguin played by Hoffman would be a lot less boring.

I wish they hadn't killed Dent. After Joker, he's Batman's best villain. It really looked like they were using this one as his origin story to give him the next movie. Plus the dramatic irony of a fugitive Batman, and a hero Two-Face would have made for an interesting plot generator.

[unpossibles]

11. I don't think Dent is really dead

I think they held that memorial just to preserve Dent's good reputation/name, but Two-Face lives on somewhere.

[JTG of the PRB]

13. That's what I'm thinking.

They held the memorial to allow Dent's good name to live on, while Batman becomes the darkness the city needs so the "true" hero Harvey Dent and his mission can continue in the hearts and minds of the people of Gotham.

I'm thinking that Two Face DID survive the fall, and that Jim Gordon as had him secretly taken to Arkham Asylum - still alive, but out of sight, out of mind.

[Orrex]

30. That's nuts

If Dent (or, god forbid, Rachel) is still alive, it will be a bigger dramatic travesty than Schumacher's Batman and Robin.

[JTG of the PRB]

19. I read an article yesterday that introduced the possibility of the Penguin in the next movie.

The author of the article seemed to think that the Riddler was the likely next major opponent for Batman, and I'm inclined to agree. The Riddler in the comics at this point in time is someone who possess his own agenda, but he often helps the police on a number of important cases. He's a very intelligent person, and he's brilliant at complex riddles and puzzles - a potentially very good counter balance for Batman's detective instincts.

The article also introduced the possibility of showing the mob's fracturing in Gotham's underground, with different fractions being led by the occasional eccentric, villainous characters. The Penguin was one of those mentioned since, as mentioned above in this thread, he's a weapons runner in the DC universe at this point in time. That would fit in perfectly with Christopher Nolan's Batman universe.

[Left Brain]

4. So I take it you've spent your entire life in the light

with the exception of two dark nights, that is?

;)

[rebel with a cause]

6. My son has seen it four times.

He says that Dent (Two Face) will be back. It seems that actor has already agreed to appear in the third sequence. And he thinks that Cat Women will be in it also. He thinks she will not be the villian or hero, but the one in between. I am not sure of all he says, my memory does not retain all the information he gives me over the phone.

Okay a question for you. What did you think about the decision at the end to lie to the people because they couldn't handle the truth about Dent? And the parallal decision by Alfred to protect Bruce by destroying the letter so he would never know that Rachel did not love him?

[JTG of the PRB]

15. They were necessary evils, IMO, in order to preserve the hearts and minds of the people involved.

If the people of Gotham knew that Harvey Dent had become twisted by the Joker's logic, they would lose faith in him, the criminals he put in jail would go free, and the mob would reassert its power over the streets and the people of Gotham. He was the "White Knight," the shining example that rose out of a dark, corrupt cesspool like Gotham. He was the ray of hope for that city - if everyone knew that HE had fallen to the darkness, what hope would Gotham have?

As for Alfred burning the letter, it seems like he did the necessary evil in concealing the truth from Bruce Wayne. If Wayne had known that Rachel had rejected him, it would have been devastating to him, especially in the wake of her death. Alfred clearly cares about Bruce Wayne, and he wanted to spare him the unnecessary anguish in a time when Wayne was already questioning everything in his life.

[rebel with a cause]

33. You see it much the same

as my son does. On the other hand, my daughter feels the people deserve the truth and should not have these decisions made for them. She thinks in the long run, the people will find out the truth and resent the fact that they have been lied to. They do not see eye to eye on this movie!

As for me, I see both sides. I can understand wanting to protect those you love, but then I can also understand how being lied to is harmful because I've had it done to me. I hate being lied too!

It would be a hard decision to make in real life, but fortunately this is only a movie and fiction that can have an ending written any way the author desires. ;)

[JTG of the PRB]

35. I can understand both sides of the question as well.

If Harvey Dent is revealed to have gone against everything he taught before he died, then people could lash out and lose hope in the cause of cleaning up Gotham. However, it could also crystallize the support for Batman in Gotham. If it is revealed that he took the blame for Dent's crimes in order to keep hope alive, he could become the hero the city really needs.

It's a very deep, very interesting movie. As we can see, it's already inspired discussion!

[Writer]

7. Oh! Oh! Oh! I know...

Chris Nolan is going to get DICK CHENEY to play The Penguin, because he will be (shall we say) "available" after January of 2009!

[JTG of the PRB]

16. Hmm... Let's see what my coin thinks about that...

Tails, Dick Cheney WILL appear in the next Batman film. Heads, and he'll be appearing somewhere a little colder - say, the concrete walls and steel bars of a federal prison.



Doesn't look good for Mister Cheney...

[jobycom]

8. Gary Oldman thinks the Riddler will pop up, played by David Tennant

There was an article on it somewhere.

[orleans]

9. how does it end? n/t

[JTG of the PRB]

23. It never ends. The fight continues.

There will always be light, and there will always be darkness. Darkness cannot be allowed to destroy the light. As long as there is light to protect, the darkness will always have fear... and fear is its greatest weakness.

Or something like that?

[orleans]

43. i watched olbermann tonight and apparently fox is saying the movie

is really about/based on george bush.

is batman the freak in the white house in disguise? was fox right?

[JTG of the PRB]

44. So, FOX was comparing Dubya to the Joker, right?

A madman, bent on as little order as possible with maximized chaos, starting a never-ending war simply because he felt like it, listing to no man but the twisted inner ramblings of his own fractured, psychotic, evil mind?

Hmm... Faux Noise may be on to something here...

[meegbear]

12. ...

If the internal resistance of the 120-volt battery in the circuit shown above is negligible, what is the current in the wire?

[bigwillq]

14. What did you have to eat?

Drink?

:shrug:

[JTG of the PRB]

17. Popcorn, and a root beer.

Nothing like a frosty cold root beer on a hot summer's day! I didn't even have to flip a coin to decide. :P

[bigwillq]

18. Sweet.

I love Root Beer.

Birch Beer too! :)

:hi:






Were there a lot of people there?

[JTG of the PRB]

20. I was surprised how full it was for a Wednesday afternoon.

It wasn't packed, but the theatre - a fairly large one at that - was about 25% full. Maybe 75-100 other people.

[bigwillq]

21. Does Heath Ledger

deserve an Academy Award Nomination?

[JTG of the PRB]

24. No.

He deserves to WIN the Academy Award. The nomination would be nice, but he deserves to win. Right now, I can't think of anybody else even remotely as deserving as he is for the performance he gave.

[bigwillq]

29. Most of the Oscar

hopefuls have still yet to be released. It will be very interesting to see how it all pans out.

Was this the best Batman in the series?

[JTG of the PRB]

31. Absolutely. Easily the best Batman movie ever made.

In fact, it's probably the best comic book movie ever made. It's on an entirely different level from other great movies like Iron Man, Spider-Man 2, X-Men 2. Those movies were great, but The Dark Knight is just something so far beyond them that it's like comparing apples to a really, really, REALLY good movie.

As for the other Oscar hopefuls, you're right... But I still think Ledger deserves the Oscar for his performance. He wasn't playing the Joker, he WAS the Joker. Greatest movie villain ever, and a performance for the ages. If his portrayal of the Joker isn't Oscar-worthy, then I don't know what is anymore.

[bigwillq]

36. Thanks for the analysis.

I have yet to see it. I hope to soon.

I thought Batman Begins was awesome; the best in the series so far.

I can't wait.

[JTG of the PRB]

39. If you liked Batman Begins, I think you'll love this one.

Enjoy it! Films like this don't come around every day!

[bigwillq]

40. I can't wait to see it.

I think I will like it a lot.

:) :hi:

[bigwillq]

22. dupe

Computer gone crazy

[DarkTirade]

25. Was it as good the second time around?

[JTG of the PRB]

26. I actually liked it even more the second time through.

The first time, I was just beyond excited, and the movie was so fresh, so new, and it kept me guessing. There were about four places where it looked like the movie was coming to an end, and it kept going - not a criticism at all because the movie was great.

The second time, I could focus on the nuances of the movie - expressions, backgrounds, the subtle changes in the Joker's voice from one moment to the next. I knew what was coming, so I could get a little deeper into the movie... and there's a LOT in there.

[DarkTirade]

27. I'm debating whether to spend the money to see it a second time.

:P

[JTG of the PRB]

28. Hell, I might go see it a couple more times in theatres.

When I find something I like, it's hard to get me to not see it. :P

[ebdarcy]

32. Did you see it in Imax?

I'm going to see it again this weekend, and I'm debating whether to spend the extra 5 bucks to see it in Imax.

[JTG of the PRB]

34. Not yet, but there has been discussion of seeing it in IMAX down in Denver this weekend.

I guess there's 20 minutes of footage what was filmed with IMAX cameras, so I'm willing to bet the movie looks even more amazing on an IMAX screen.

[ebdarcy]

37. Yeah, I think I'm going to give in and see it in Imax.

I was really looking forward to this movie, and I was so afraid it wouldn't live up to the hype. But it did. IMO, it's definitely the best Batman movie.

[DS1]

38. I can't stop listening to the soundtrack

It's just as good as the movie, without the visuals of course.

[FloridaJudy]

45. What was that weird nonsense with the cell phone

The one that was *really* inside the jail? I mean, I understand that that was how the Joker smuggled the cell phone in, but he also had to plant the...other stuff, so why couldn't he have just placed the cell phone with it? It made for a great visual though.

And why was it impossible to save two people? It looked like they were pretty much in the same place.

And how did they get kidnapped anyway?