DARK KNIGHT Thread

[AndyDursin]

The score still sucks (what happened to themes in superhero movies?

No foolin'. If anything this score sounded even more like "ambient noise" than its predecessor as well. A lot of droning, inconsequential musical wallpaper...I mean they could've saved money and hired John Carpenter and Alan Howarth to do this score! lol. (Of course some of their scores had themes!).

[Eric W.]

The score still sucks (what happened to themes in superhero movies?

No foolin'. If anything this score sounded even more like "ambient noise" than its predecessor as well. A lot of droning, inconsequential musical wallpaper...I mean they could've saved money and hired John Carpenter and Alan Howarth to do this score! lol. (Of course some of their scores had themes!).

And how in the hell does it take TWO composers to come up with oh so little? Especially "A list" composers?

[AndyDursin]

Here's hoping they won't ruin a potential trilogy by handing the third movie over to Brett Ratner.

I don't want to see that either, but admittedly, I felt he did a good job with X-MEN 3 -- shorter and less ponderous than Singer's second film, and actually quite entertaining in spite of all the pre-release negativity the web community had gunning for it.

That said Brett Ratner wouldn't be my first choice basically for anything

[Eric W.]

Here's hoping they won't ruin a potential trilogy by handing the third movie over to Brett Ratner.

I don't want to see that either, but admittedly, I felt he did a good job with X-MEN 3 -- shorter and less ponderous than Singer's second film, and actually quite entertaining in spite of all the pre-release negativity the web community had gunning for it.

That said Brett Ratner wouldn't be my first choice basically for anything

If Nolan doesn't return down the road then I hope they just don't bother.

These are clearly Nolan's babies and the vision needs to stay very consistent IMO.

There's just no need at all to rush to get a part 3 off the ground.

[AndyDursin]

Nolan's not going anywhere. They're already talking about another movie.

If Nolan leaves they'll "re-boot" (I hate that term) the series again in a few years, no doubt. But we're a LONG way off from that happening.

I'd expect we'll see at least one more installment from this same crew. And Bale will be involved -- hell if the check is there, he'll be there (how else to explain TERMINATOR SALVATION? lol).

[Monterey Jack]

I'm sure Anthony Michael Hall had to be left on the cutting room floor. He's in probably about 4 total shots (on TV monitors anchoring news coverage), and is also one of the hostages at the end of the film, but unless you were looking for him I can't imagine most audiences would have connected it together.

Indeed. I saw the film with my brother, and he was muttering "Anthony Michael Hall was in this...?" when his name came up in the credits. I didn't see him anywhere.

[Monterey Jack]

The score still sucks (what happened to themes in superhero movies?

No foolin'. If anything this score sounded even more like "ambient noise" than its predecessor as well. A lot of droning, inconsequential musical wallpaper...I mean they could've saved money and hired John Carpenter and Alan Howarth to do this score! lol. (Of course some of their scores had themes!).

I saw Hancock today (cute, but inconsequential), and how sad it is that only superhero spoofs are allowed to have hummable themes these days? How on earth does John Powell write a better superhero score for freakin' Hancock than what was provided for Iron Man and The Dark Knight? Hell, even Kung Fu Panda had a better score!

[Monterey Jack]

Incidentilly, I just listened to the first Danny Elfman Batman score as well as Shirley Walker's Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm again, and man...what has happened to film music? Bruce Broughton hasn't scored a theatrical movie in a FULL DECADE, and yet Steve Jablonsky scores Transformers?!

I'm depressed now...

[Eric W.]

Incidentilly, I just listened to the first Danny Elfman Batman score as well as Shirley Walker's Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm again, and man...what has happened to film music? Bruce Broughton hasn't scored a theatrical movie in a FULL DECADE, and yet Steve Jablonsky scores Transformers?!

I'm depressed now...

I know what you mean all too well. It's sad when even people like Elfman that used to blow me away don't anymore.

[AndyDursin]

Incidentilly, I just listened to the first Danny Elfman Batman score as well as Shirley Walker's Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm again, and man...what has happened to film music? Bruce Broughton hasn't scored a theatrical movie in a FULL DECADE, and yet Steve Jablonsky scores Transformers?!

I'm depressed now...

Yeah as you probably know that's exactly how I feel. And then I get labeled at FSM as "the guy who doesn't write about film music anymore because he doesn't like it." And of course that's half true -- I started concentrating on film reviewing years ago instead because it was more interesting to me personally...and that was partially because film music started (in a general sense) going downhill and has just been going down the dumper now for about a decade if not a little more.

Agreed on HANCOCK as well. I really liked Powell's score for that movie -- which didn't really work, but as you said, it was cute, and as a "misfired movie", at least it was watchable. It's also made its cash too.

[Eric W.]

Incidentilly, I just listened to the first Danny Elfman Batman score as well as Shirley Walker's Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm again, and man...what has happened to film music? Bruce Broughton hasn't scored a theatrical movie in a FULL DECADE, and yet Steve Jablonsky scores Transformers?!

I'm depressed now...

Yeah as you probably know that's exactly how I feel. And then I get labeled at FSM as "the guy who doesn't write about film music anymore because he doesn't like it." And of course that's half true -- I started concentrating on film reviewing years ago instead because it was more interesting to me personally...and that was partially because film music started (in a general sense) going downhill and has just been going down the dumper now for about a decade if not a little more.

Exactly how I feel as well.

Agreed on HANCOCK as well. I really liked Powell's score for that movie -- which didn't really work, but as you said, it was cute, and as a "misfired movie", at least it was watchable. It's also made its cash too.

I'm a pretty big Powell fan. If you haven't heard it yet you should check out his score to Horton Hears a Who. Seriously.

I have the Hancock score and I can't say after two listens that it's left much of an impression on me.

I'd say some of my favorite Powell scores include: Italian Job, Paycheck, Face Off, the Bourne films, and even Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

More often than not, Powell has become someone I know I can look to and count on for some quality and usually a pretty enjoyable CD.



Dark Knight: Worthless score again to an otherwise truly amazing movie. This is easily one of the best action movies in years and arguably the best comic film movie of all time thus far. That's how much I liked it.

Besides the Ledger nomination and win, which he deserves, I'd like to see this thing get some other Oscar nominations along the same lines that the LOTR films did, for obviously completely different reasons.

[AndyDursin]

I'm of the opinion -- and admittedly it's the minority one -- that if Ledger didn't die, there wouldn't be any Oscar talk. There are folks who loved his performance and really do feel it's deserving of an Oscar, but there are others who are just completely wrapped up in the off-camera story and want to write about how great it would be if he got an award after his passing.

To me he WAS great, but I didn't feel it really was an Oscar worthy role. The part basically called for someone to improv and act crazy -- and not really a whole lot more. I disagree the part had a lot of depth to it, if anything there was even less back story of the character than there was in the Nicholson-Burton film.

As far as the movie goes, yeah it didn't work for me nearly as well, but technically it ought to earn noms across the board and wins in the sound/scope/etc. categories.

[Eric W.]

I'm of the opinion -- and admittedly it's the minority one -- that if Ledger didn't die, there wouldn't be any Oscar talk. There are folks who loved his performance and really do feel it's deserving of an Oscar, but there are others who are just completely wrapped up in the off-camera story and want to write about how great it would be if he got an award after his passing.

As good as he is in this thing, I agree with you.

To me he WAS great, but I didn't feel it really was an Oscar worthy role. The part basically called for someone to improv and act crazy -- and not really a whole lot more. I disagree the part had a lot of depth to it, if anything there was even less back story of the character than there was in the Nicholson-Burton film.

Agreed.

As far as the movie goes, yeah it didn't work for me nearly as well, but technically it ought to earn noms across the board and wins in the sound/scope/etc. categories.

See it a second time if you get a chance. Wait a few days or a week or whatever, digest it, come at it fresh and see what you think.

[Monterey Jack]

The score still sucks (what happened to themes in superhero movies?

No foolin'. If anything this score sounded even more like "ambient noise" than its predecessor as well. A lot of droning, inconsequential musical wallpaper...I mean they could've saved money and hired John Carpenter and Alan Howarth to do this score! lol. (Of course some of their scores had themes!).

Sadly, this response on another message board I frequent (from a poster who HATES me for some reason) sums up the stupidest reaction to film music I have EVER heard.

BETTER NOT hear ONE MORE GODDAMN WORD FROM THAT CHEESE-SKINNED WALPOLE VIRGIN about the f-bomb score... THAT F-BOMB SCORE OWNED and to suggest it's lame is to be a F-BOMB DOUCHE B****.... The best thing EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVER in the HISTORY OF F-BOMB FILM SCORES is that ONE CHORD RIFF THAT GETS ALL LOUD AND S*** AND SOUNDS ALL SYNTHED OUT AND DISONANT; The whole score was a f-bombing HOMAGE TO MICHAEL MANN, b****.... The whole f-bombing SOUND DESIGN sounds like HEAT, so Wack if you're gonna run you're dumb-a** bulls*** mouth about s*** you don't know, just clam up and take it up with those old gay men from your film score boards whose opinions you pilfer. THIS SCORE IS AWESOME and the BATMAN THEME IS THE MOST ROUSING S*** EVER I PLAY IT WHEN I JERK OFF NOW BECAUSE IT'S SO F-BOMBING AWESOME F-BOMB YOU WACK YOU BROKE-ASS DOUCHE. BOW TO THAT F-BOMBING SCORE. BOW. Everyone loves it. You're a douchebag. Go see F-BOMBIG SPACE CHIMPS, b****, if you're not giving this s*** FIVE MILLION F-BOMBING PANTS.

[JSWalsh]

I'm of the opinion -- and admittedly it's the minority one -- that if Ledger didn't die, there wouldn't be any Oscar talk.

I think all the evidence you need to prove your point is the tidal wave of sentiment BEFORE anyone had even seen the movie.

I never thought of him as more than an adequate actor whose looks explained his popularlity with many. Precisely the kind of actor who gets kudos for this kind of role, meaning one in which his good looks are covered up. Another example of the same is the Best Actress wins for MONSTER and MONSTER'S BALL--I'm not saying they weren't good, but if the actresses were not so famous for their looks they wouldn't have been SO acclaimed for the "risk" of not looking glamorous in one movie. (The funny thing about MB, to me, was that it's impossible to make Berry look drab.)