<![CDATA[Gawker: defamer, batlash]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: defamer, batlash]]> http://gawker.com/tag/defamer/batlash http://gawker.com/tag/defamer/batlash <![CDATA[Biff! Bam! Pow! The 'Dark Knight' Backlash Hits Full Swing]]> Undeterred by a signal on the moonlit sky shaped like a persnickety film critic hanging from a noose, a few courageous media voices are rising up in opposition to The Dark Knight, daring to suggest that the greatest movie ever made might actually, y'know, not be. First came the AP, which devoted a whole article to Christian Bale's throaty Batman voice, asking, "Why so sonorous?" Now, in a scene that recalls The Dark Knight's ferry-set climax, even more brave souls are daring to speak up, suggesting continuity goofs and asking important questions like, "No, seriously: what was up with that Scarecrow cameo?" The Detroit News breaks down ten of The Dark Knight's biggest head-scratchers, excerpted after the jump:

The clumsy action sequences. "The Dark Knight" is best when it's blowing stuff up, and in the film, warehouses, hospitals, and cars all go boom real good. The other action scenes aren't quite as coherent. Batman's hand-to-hand combat scenes are something of a mess: He's there, punching people, but it's hard to quite make out what's going on on-screen... Look, I don't expect to understand everything Batman does — he's Batman, for chrissakes — but I feel it's the director's job to at least attempt to make sense of some of what's going on, and I feel like Christopher Nolan has a real problem bringing narrative clarity to his action sequences.

...The guy threatening to expose Batman's identity. A Wayne Enterprises worker bee figures out that Batman and Bruce Wayne are one in the same, and after getting smacked down by Morgan Freeman's Lucius Fox for trying to extort Wayne Enterprises for millions, he goes on TV to expose Batman's identity on a "Larry King"-type show hosted by Anthony Michael Hall (which is a whole can of worms I'm not even going to get into). The interview is on TV for several minutes, and the whistle-blower still hasn't given up the goods, and then the Joker ends up interrupting the show before the secret gets out. So... what did they discuss the first few minutes of the show? Was this interview like "American Idol," where they weren't going to get to the good stuff until the final minutes of the show?

In response, Bat director Christopher Nolan clapped his hands, immediately dispatching a legion of fanboys to blow up the Detroit News. Finished with such trifling matters, Nolan turned his attention to that most serious of questions: Clayface or Killer Croc for Batman 3?

]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5032716&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[First Negative 'The Dark Knight' Reviews Ding Impenetrable Bat-Armor]]> It's arguably the most anticipated movie of the last five summers—the second installment of a rare franchise resuscitation, helmed by a maverick suspense master with nary a misfire to a short but stellar career. Weak links would be replaced. Tragedy would strike. And then a lucky few got to see it, instantly dislodging an avalanche of superlatives. The Dark Knight has, until now, been enjoying the best advance word-of-mouth of any release in a surprisingly bountiful mind-candy season that included Iron Man and Wall-E. In fact, it's until only recently been coasting at an astonishing 100% Rotten Tomatoes score. What changed? Two Daves of note filed their pans: The New Yorker's David Denby (who just lavished his highest praise upon Hancock, so take that for what it's worth), and New York's Dave Edelstein. The cumulative effect of the Dave-naysaying? A sizable dent in the dark armor, with the movie's RT score tumbling to 88% at post time. As for our worst fears—that Ledger isn't posthumously Oscar-worthy, just hammy from the grave—Edelstein confirms every last one of them after the jump. We're seeing it tomorrow, after which we'll try to get our Defamer Instant Review up as quickly as possible, for those who are just dying to know how categorically good this movie is, in easy-to-digest IM format.

He bugs his eyes and licks compulsively at the gashes that extend his mouth. He tries on different voices. First he sounds like Cagney in White Heat, then slides into a prissy singsong like Al Franken's Stuart Smalley, then throws in some fruity Brando flourishes and a dash of Hannibal Lecter...I couldn't take my eyes off him, but in truth, I found the performance painful to watch. Scarier than what the Joker does to anyone onscreen is what Ledger must have been doing to himself—trying to find the center of a character without a dream of one.
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