Say It Ain't So - One Critic Actually Doesn't Like 'The Dark Knight?'
David Edelstein, the influential film critic for New York Magazine is the first soul brave enough to actually say anything negative about the next Batman installment, The Dark Knight! It's been all champagne and caviar buzz over the last several weeks, which you'd know if you've been reading this blog.Here are some of his thoughts:
- The novelty wears off and the lack of imagination, visual and otherwise, turns into a drag. The Dark Knight is noisy, jumbled, and sadistic. Even its most wondrous vision—Batman’s plunges from skyscrapers, bat-wings snapping open as he glides through the night like a human kite—can’t keep the movie airborne. There’s an anvil attached to that cape.
- The tumult is spectacularly incoherent. Nolan appears to have no clue how to stage or shoot action. He got away with the chopped-up fights in Batman Begins because his hero was a barely glimpsed ninja, coming at villains from all angles in stroboscopic flashes. There are more variables here, which means more opportunities to say “What the f--- just happened?” I defy you to make spatial sense of the early scene in which Batman battles faux Batmen, gangsters, and the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy in a cameo that comes to nothing).
Of course, keep in mind this is the same dude who liked You Don't Mess With The Zohan!
Read the rest of his review here: EDELSTEIN ON DARK KNIGHT
Zohan? Say THAT ain't so!
This was never on my 'must see' list but all I've heard so far is people gushing over Heath Ledger's performance and not much (ready 'nothing') about the actual film...
So maybe the film really is a bit of a turkey and this guy is the only one who's man enough to say it.