“Iron Man 2” debuted this weekend with a $140M box office pull, helping Paramount Pictures score its best film debut of all time.
Yes, of ALL TIME.
But Robert Downey Jr. and his repulsor ray were unable to take down the “The Dark Knight” for the biggest movie opening ever ($158M). The only way that would have happened is if (God forbid) Downey croaked before the premiere. [Read more…]
Dark Knight score won’t get nominated for Oscars
The Dark Knight’s attempt to get Oscar nominations has hit a little snag.
The score for the movie has been disqualified by the executive committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from Oscar contention. Apparently, the score for Batman Begins was also disqualified in 2005.
The issue the committee had with the Batman score was that five names were listed as the composers on the music sheet. But according to Hans Zimmer the names were only put in the sheet as a way of financially rewarding some of the music team who helped make the overall work. The primary composers are Zimmer and James Newton Howard. The rest of the team have already issued an affidavit stating that the two composers are the main work of the two.
But it looks like even an affidavit is not enough.
The Dark Knight sets new record anew
The Dark Knight may have broken its last record this week. The highly successful movie has surpassed the $500 million mark in the US box office this weekend. Its total take domestically now stands at $502.4 million. Titanic, which still holds the top spot, has a domestic haul of $600.8 million.
TDK is only the second movie after Titanic to break the 500 million mark and now has the record for the fastest to reach that mark by doing it in 45 days, compared to Titanic, which reached it in 98 days. Another piece of interesting information is that Titanic reached the 600 million mark in 252 days. This means that if TDK could actually last that long, it has a big chance of beating Titanic.
Movie Review: The Dark Knight
The world of Batman is one that I love to revisit time and time again. To say that I am a fan is an understatement. Obsessive is more like it. I have a modest toy collection that is solely based on Batman figures. I have started collecting collectible statues of Batman and I have been reading Batman comics since I’ve learned to, well, read.
Like many Batman fans, I was eagerly anticipating the newest Batman movie, The Dark Knight. Forget about Heath Ledger (and I respectfully say that), I was looking forward to another live action excursion to Batman’s world. Anyone who has read my reviews know that I can be extremely critical but the child in me was quite excited about the buzz the film was getting. I kept reading accounts of how great it was—that it is the best Batman movie ever made, the best crime drama ever. The superlatives were just so much that I was beginning to buy into the hype. So I fixed my schedule last week in order to catch the movie in a theater near my home. And I left… deflated.
Don’t get me wrong. I liked the movie, it was quite entertaining and I can safely say it was one of the better Batman movies I’ve seen. But the greatest? I’ll have to disagree.
First, the good things. Christopher Nolan has grown as a filmmaker. The maturity is evident in how he conveyed atmosphere and emotion in well placed shots and camera angles. The first few minutes of the movie can be considered as one of the best first 15 minutes that I can think of in recent years. There was a kinetic fluidity there that reminds me of Michael Mann in Heat. And it was really great start. The acting was superlative across the board. Yes, Heath Ledger managed to turn in a very disturbing, psychopathic performance of the Joker that really went near the edge but never fell into the world of parody. I think that was the ultimate power of Ledger’s performance, the level of abandon that he brought to the role but with still a conscious restraint that prevented his portrayal from getting too cheesy. I have to say though that Aaron Eckhart may have stolen the show from all of the other actors. His Harvey Dent was a driven character who sees everything in black and white, much like Batman. But his strength, and unfortunately also his weakness, is his love for Rachel and his determination to rid Gotham of crime no matter what.
Technically, I have to give props to the cinematography, the whole thing is amazing to look at. It was a great interpretation of how Gotham would’ve have looked like in an actual real-world city.
Christian Bale is a consistently good actor but in this movie, he has acquired for exaggerating his mouth movements that is, frankly, too distracting. Another complain is Nolan’s ability to direct an action sequence. For the life of him, he still cannot direct a proper fight scene. It’s too bad because the film would have been elevated to a higher plane with properly shot fight sequences. The script was also quite cliché-ridden. There were just too many lines that you’ve heard before and the psycho-babble is just not written with any kind of credibility.
So is The Dark Knight a good movie? Yes it is, unequivocally. Is it a great movie? Definitely not.
Rating: B
The Dark Knight sets new record
The newest Batman movie is out to prove that it could also be the best.
The Dark Knight has reportedly earned $155.34 million on its opening weekend, making it the biggest opening weekend at the box office, beating Spider-Man 3’s performance a year ago. In fact, it bested Spider-man 3’s record by $4 million. The movie also broke another record set by the Spidey flick–the best debut in IMAX theaters with a gross of $6.2 million spread over 94 locations.
Couple this news with a growing buzz for a posthumous nomination for Heath Ledger for his critic-wowing performance as The Joker and it is getting more and more certain that we’ll see another outing for Bats in the movies in the future.