its to early to say that we are living through a CGI golden age but nothing lasts forever and this past decade with all of its comic book and sci fiction-films cannot last forever. eventually everyone will reach the point where they say, "been there and done that" and the budgets for these films will have to be cut or eliminated in favor of something new. i think its inevitable though as much as i hate to acknowledge it, that every theme will have been exhausted by 2010. think about it, what hasn't been done that people would be interested in seeing? will these movies just keep going making prequels and sequels and new trilogies until the DVD box sets are 9 deep? sci-fi is definitely on the brink of exhaustion i think. from 2001 to Blade Runner and Alien to Back To The Future to the 5th Element to Star Wars and Star Trek what hasnt been done? what could someone possibly imagine that is original? FPS video games are caught in the same cycle already.(WW2, Swat Team, Apocolypse, Virus, Governement Lab gone wild etc etc) In fact alot of them draw from films like Terminator, Aliens, and Star Wars. Im not even sure how original DooM was, it may have been a simple rehash of cheap zombie movies(which by the way have been exhausted thoroughly) .
at some point maybe like Moores law in computers directors are going to hit a barrior. a writers block of sorts thats made of steel from years of recycling the same ideas until they have popped out in ten different movies, 5 different books, and 15 different video games already. Maybe Electonic Arts (EA) or Blizzard have something brewing for video games. At least Nintendo had the courage to make the Wii, that was genius for sure, and its going to spawn a whole new of intereactive games i think.
Guitar Hero is fairly original but somewhat of spinoff japanese games that have been out for five years already. maybe all the original ideas will come from asia. maybe the US has exhausted its cultural potential or will exhaust it very soon. i just dont think there is anything left imagine that is innovative or oiriginal in film. Batman? great movie but wholly derivative. only the acting by ledger was purely original i think. Terminator? not really sure, they are going on the 4th installment and people are eager to see it but it perform in a mediocre way like Hellboy and Underworld which had huge potential but couldn't capture blockbuster interest. why is that?
i almost walked out of Hellboy 2 it was so boring at points. and Underworld although it cool themes seemed like it was just the Matrix in another form. Was the Matrix original? the first one seemed like it had something going for it. it definitely spawned copycat themes thats for sure. Equilibrium was painfullly unoriginal. Ultraviolet...ugh!! I am Legend was fairly original in its atmosphere i think and in its acting but the zombie virus theme is a top 40 hit played a thousand times. whats new? whats worth seeing? im predicting a major shift in movie going attitudes within the next 5 years and a lot of high budget bombs(like The Hulk, Catwoman and Prince Caspian which were all underperformers to say the least), because movie producers didn't see it coming. the Watchmen movie just might be the first sign of the coming change because i cant imagine people being interested.
like baseball cards there are just to many heroes and end of the world scenarios to actually care about anymore on a wide scale. maybe Batman is ahead of the curve. when you think about it, if everyone has seen everything already what do you have left? ..... plot twists.... acting ..... character development. maybe the future is going to be dramatzing history like the "Titanic" or the "Patriot". or creating hybrids like "shaun of the dead" that realize that its all been done before. thats was the pattern for Mafia films it seems. speaking of which, thats a terribly exhausted genre, the whole gangster theme gets so old becuase you get tired of ending up in the same general area at the end of the film every time - people dead, in jail, betrayed....zzzzzzz credits roll. i think producers are going to have to look deeper as the well runs dry.
After all how did "Meet The Fockers" gross $280 million? "Home Alone" grossed $285 million! and the "Sixth Sense" $ 293 million. The budgets and marketing for these films were miniscule compared to Starwars, IronMan, or Batman. yet somehow they resonated with the audience. i would hate to be the producer of the X-files because i dont think people are in that kind of mood at this point. and the X-men? or the next Underworld? i hear the sounds of blockbuster budget bombs.
after seeing Batman the Dark Knight once ive come to realize that im going to have to see it again just to catch all the philosophical ideas that were touched on in the film. politics, game theory, crime, social darwinism, human nature and being a real leader as opposed to just a hero are some of the topics introduced in this comic book film. but the one concept that has stuck in my mind is the actual character of the Joker. now, its not just that Heath Ledgers performance was a tour de force or that the character was all covered in a sadistic clown makeup that causes him to standout. its that the Joker comes off as a metaphor for all those who oppose civilization, especially western civilization - the bane of the easily offended. if you look at everyone through out history that has opposed those who are good and the civilization that they represent they all have qualities of the Joker. they are irrational, sometimes unpredictable, bitter, envious, emotionally driven, angry(in the Jokers case apparently he had an abusive childhood and family problems is a common theme among the perpetually angry.), frequently isolated, many times narcissistic and in many ways socially dysfunctional. also sometimes they feel left out or cheated by society and therefore seek to exact revenge on those who have caused their pain.
judas was greedy for money, lee harvey oswald was angry about cuba(supposedly anyway), manson was just plain nuts, the washington dc sniper and the seattle synagogue killer were angry muslims, and osama bin laden was offended by the west and its presence in the middle east(among other things). al gore feels betrayed by the bush administration, michael moore is angry at bush about 9/11, john stuart and colbert dont have what it takes to lead or run for office so they engage in childlike anger driven satire. none of the behavior is constructive its all destructive. nothing about democracy, debate, objective journalism, or the lefts dreaded concept - faith. its all about them and their perceived need to get back at all of us - to make us pay.
these Jokers all have the same thing in common they are on the outside, they don't want to participate in society in a constructive way, they want to bring things down and replace them with...better leadership? state control? carnage? anarchy? in many ways the Jokers sidekick clowns are the michael moores, the john stuarts, the colberts. self destructive, bitter, angry, envious, unwilling to participate in the real world all they can do is joke and mock and side with others who do the same. and todays real Joker, the real madman, is Osama Bin Laden - an angry, desperate irrational person who "just wants to see the world burn" who can't be reasoned with, negotiated with, or placated in anyway. remember nick berg i think, who had his head cut off on video? remember those US army soldiers who were captured and tortured by terrorists in iraq? remember daniel pearl? what madness Bin Laden has perpetuated.
no i take that back, Osama is history. his Al Qaeda crime organization has been stopped cold in Iraq. his plans for a caliphate have been thwarted and his desire to acquire nuclear weapons have been foiled. Gotham (AKA the west) will not burn by his command. it will come at the hands of that small man from Iran, mahmoud ahmadinejad, who like Napoleon has an inferiority complex and like hitler he hates the jews and the west. he is the real Joker of our times now and it remains to be seen if the world will burn because of him.
i think its up to us the civilized ones to try to build a society that upholds what is noble and good and gives everyone a fair chance at participating. its up to us who believe in western civ to uphold its values. to protect the weak, educate the ignorant, reform the criminal or punish him, and to maintain the laws that have allowed for free elections, a free economy, freedom of religion, and a free people. its up to us to root out corruption and deny the Jokers of this world an opportunity to strike at our way of life.
The Joker is a metaphor for terrorism(and unresolved anger) and he is very scary to watch. Lets see it as an incentive to do good.
i went to the friday night standing room only showing of Batman and came away satisfied for once that i paid so much for a movie ticket. although i had to put up with the usual goofy mothers bringing their infants and toddlers to a serious movie and the occasional numb nuts who flips his phone up to text his mom to tell her that hes having fun(note to the clueless: a glowing cell phone screen is just as annoying as a ring!!!!) the film was intense enough to make me forget the rest of the crowd was there in the theater - and thats an achievement.
heath ledger was of course brilliant, he definitely puts the crazy-get-back into the jokers character and makes other portrayals of the joker look pathetic and anemic. it really is to bad he had to die because i think he would have explored other roles with great intensity like the jokers and maybe even have wanted to do other characters or villains....but who knows. RIP. Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman(i heard his accent come out at one point i wonder if anyone else caught that), and Maggy Gyllenhaal all do great jobs as well but because of Ledgers performance and death i think most of it will be overshadowed.
the movie dives into several deep areas about life that you would think would be reserved for stage theater or a serious novel. how many films can you think of that touch on human nature and all of our competeing plans, terrorism, and game theory decisions? what choices would you make if each choice came with a cost? what do you do when life gets gray and no option looks good? how far do you go when confronting terrorism without sacrificing your own moral integrity?...these are some of the questions that the films raises i think.
i also came away fearful of terrorism, i know the director didnt intend for the film to be statement about the war on terror but there sure are strong parallels to be made, especially with the joker representing the irrationality of radical islam. it makes a person appreciate the sacrifices that have been made to protect our civilization from people who, "just want to see the world burn".
the dark knight was not without a dash of comic relief though. the joker at times is genuinely funny, especially seeing him dressed up like a nurse, man that was hilarious. and when he is being interrogated batman slams his head on the table...that brought chuckles to the whole audience. overall i give the film an A-. it could have earned a plus if it dared to show how dark things could actually get because i thought for sure that someone in the real world would have pushed the button on that detonator on the ferry. i think the director, nolan, was making a statement in that scene which wasn't wrong. there are people who do choose to do right. but on any given day you never know who might just have to make that decision and i guess that what game theory is about. google the 'prisoners dilema' thats a classic that will shed light on the ferry scene.
where on earth do we place this film? its darker than the hulk, deeper than spiderman, and more serious than ironman. its definitely close to the spirit of our times. this film would not have resonated prior to 9/11. i think it would have scared people away. but for some reason it just fits at this time in american history. 10 years from now what will people think of the dark knight? another 'dances with wolves' that people just kind of watch and scratch their heads? who knows, i think it will have a timelessness about it.
its to early to say that we are living through a CGI golden age but nothing lasts forever and this past decade with all of its comic book and sci fiction-films cannot last forever. eventually everyone will reach the point where they say, "been there and done that" and the budgets for these films will have to be cut or eliminated in favor of something new. i think its inevitable though as much as i hate to acknowledge it, that every theme will have been exhausted by 2010. think about it, what hasn't been done that people would be interested in seeing? will these movies just keep going making prequels and sequels and new trilogies until the DVD box sets are 9 deep? sci-fi is definitely on the brink of exhaustion i think. from 2001 to Blade Runner and Alien to Back To The Future to the 5th Element to Star Wars and Star Trek what hasnt been done? what could someone possibly imagine that is original? FPS video games are caught in the same cycle already.(WW2, Swat Team, Apocolypse, Virus, Governement Lab gone wild etc etc) In fact alot of them draw from films like Terminator, Aliens, and Star Wars. Im not even sure how original DooM was, it may have been a simple rehash of cheap zombie movies(which by the way have been exhausted thoroughly) . 
i almost walked out of Hellboy 2 it was so boring at points. and Underworld although it cool themes seemed like it was just the Matrix in another form. Was the Matrix original? the first one seemed like it had something going for it. it definitely spawned copycat themes thats for sure. Equilibrium was painfullly unoriginal. Ultraviolet...ugh!! I am Legend was fairly original in its atmosphere i think and in its acting but the zombie virus theme is a top 40 hit played a thousand times. whats new? whats worth seeing? im predicting a major shift in movie going attitudes within the next 5 years and a lot of high budget bombs(like The Hulk, Catwoman and Prince Caspian which were all underperformers to say the least), because movie producers didn't see it coming. the Watchmen movie just might be the first sign of the coming change because i cant imagine people being interested.
like baseball cards there are just to many heroes and end of the world scenarios to actually care about anymore on a wide scale. maybe Batman is ahead of the curve. when you think about it, if everyone has seen everything already what do you have left? ..... plot twists.... acting ..... character development. maybe the future is going to be dramatzing history like the "Titanic" or the "Patriot". or creating hybrids like "shaun of the dead" that realize that its all been done before. thats was the pattern for Mafia films it seems. speaking of which, thats a terribly exhausted genre, the whole gangster theme gets so old becuase you get tired of ending up in the same general area at the end of the film every time - people dead, in jail, betrayed....zzzzzzz credits roll. i think producers are going to have to look deeper as the well runs dry.
