Piling On and Blurry Action

July 29, 2008 - The Dark Knight

It was fairly obvious that before it even hit theaters The Dark Knight was going to do record box office. 

I remember The Titanic buzz and this has the same type of chatter.

 

Don’t get me wrong.  I didn’t hate The Dark Knight.  There were several things I really liked.  For example the relationship between Bruce Wayne, his ex girlfriend and her new boyfriend is complex and realistic.  There are no easy answers and it’s a dark movie – a welcome change from the happy happy of most movies. It was good and in some parts even very good. 

The buzz, Oscar and otherwise, is all about Heath Ledger in a flashy role that’s meant to be played with an over the top gusto that few roles are.  He delivers, but the acting throughout is superb, even if the old warhorses Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are just too predictable. 

 

The almost unanimous rave reviews this movie has received puts me at a distinct disadvantage as I begin to dissent.

 

But I’m going to.  This is not a great movie because it has the same two diseases that all the action pictures seem to have these days.

 

The first one is what I call Blurry Action.  They take a camera and jam it up close on a fight and fists go swinging and it has this great look.  But, you really just don’t see anything.  Other examples are the supposedly great fight scene in the Bourne Ultimatum.

Very quick, very dashing – but you don’t really see anything.  Compare The Phantom Menace with the first Star Wars.  In the first picture during the classic light saber fights the camera is pulled back and you see great moves.  In the last movie you see a blur. 

 

I remember walking out of The Phantom Menace next to two enthralled youngsters who were going nuts over what they just thought they saw.  Then one said it best, “I can’t wait to get the DVD for the extras so I can slow all the action down.”  Exactly.

 

Then there is the excessive length.  My first reaction as I left my seat was that I had just seen 2 movies.  They just kept piling on the action, the twists.  Afraid to stop.  Or maybe they just don’t know when to stop.  I guess you can’t make a big budget blockbuster in under 2 hrs and 20 minutes.    I call it lack of restraint and it permeates our society.

And this movie.  Too much.  Enough already.  They just kept piling it on.