case: (Default)
Case ([personal profile] case) wrote in [community profile] fandomsecrets2015-05-31 03:49 pm

[ SECRET POST #3070 ]


⌈ Secret Post #3070 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 072 secrets from Secret Submission Post #439.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

(Anonymous) 2015-05-31 09:58 pm (UTC)(link)
My problem with The Dark Knight is that it's basically a film about ideas rather than characters but they're not really ideas I can get behind.

I'd say the Marvel films are very character-driven. At least for me. I watch them because I want to see the protagonists overcome difficulties but I don't really care that much about the overall plot/villain -- just how it affects the main character.

The Dark Knight is different for me. One thing I liked about Batman Begins was seeing Bruce Wayne's transition into Batman, of taking that fear and loss and using it to fuel himself as a symbol.

But The Dark Knight doesn't really use that. Instead, it builds itself up with big ideas. Like the Joker -- Ledger's performance is great, don't get me wrong, but he's not a character so much as he is a force of nature. He's anarchy, he's chaos, he's Hobbes state of nature. While Batman, in a lot of ways, is the man in the shadow -- the person who does what needs to be done so that the rest of us can live in peace. And Harvey is the white knight. With Rachel being, in a lot of ways, the prize/normalcy. And Alfred being a fountain of wisdom.

But none of them come across as real PEOPLE to me. And I find the clash of ideas profoundly problematic. In particular, I have very real issues with how Nolan writes women -- Rachel Dawes has never felt like a person for me, more like something Bruce was reaching for and an ideal.

With Harvey, his "fall" isn't tragic to me because it seems like the Joker simply drove him insane. It's not a story of corruption or a man going to far. It's just trauma. And thus the whole issue with Gotham not finding out how their "white knight" fell doesn't ring true to me.

And there's the general ideas behind the film -- The Dark Knight seems to advocate that the reason evil and corruption persists is because no one is willing to stand up to it, that people fall into complacency. But I disagree with that notion on a fundamental level -- I do not think that evil thrives due to lack of action on the part of law enforcement, but rather because of poverty, inequality, lack of education, and lack of opportunity. None of which Batman really does anything to tackle.

And this doesn't even touch upon how much I dislike the whole notion of "well, we can use this super invasive technology ONCE and then it's okay if we destroy it!" It just seems so arbitrary. Why was the Bat sonar okay to use in this instance that would have made it wrong to use subsequently (such as when Bane takes over)?

And for an idea-driven film, this just does not work for me. At all.

As for Man of Steel, my issues there were more technical -- I found some of the acting to be laugh out loud ridiculous and some scenes were just over the top.
dethtoll: (Default)

[personal profile] dethtoll 2015-05-31 11:05 pm (UTC)(link)
I agree with a lot of the points you make, but I like TDK anyway.