I'll be the first to admit that The Dark Knight had a few plotholes. But the difference between it and Batman Begins is that they weren't so glaringly obvious that it detracted from what was a damn entertaining movie (i.e., Batman didn't kill dozens of innocent ninjas to save the live of one criminal -- kind of a odd way to prove his point). Still, I can't begrudge Batman a few of his qualms regarding his latest cinematic escape... although I can I begrudge these guys who made this little video not managing to find a green wig for the Joker. Seriously? You can find a full Batman outfit, but not a green clown wig? Harrumph. Thanks to Matt and everyone else who sent this in. (Via /Film)
P.S. - TANGERINE
57 comments
Comments
Almighty Spock said:
Weird, I didn't know there were any plot holes... Batman took the blame so that Harvey Dents' image as the "White Knight" would be preserved, Lucius Fox only said he would quit if the phone tapping computer remained in use and it was destroyed at the end, and I guess The Joker being able to do all that stuff in such a short time would be because of his connections...?
The Flash III replied to Almighty Spock:
Connections with? The point about his henchmen bothered me from the first time I saw it. I know it's cool to have a villain who will kill his own people, but said recently dead criminals know other criminals and they aren't going to trust or be stupid enough to work for him. Before he lights the giant pile of money, 5 of those baddies shoot him dead and split the cash.
Max Power replied to The Flash III:
Weren't most of the guys working for The Joker borderline insane? I refer to the scene where Dent is questioning the guy who'd been dressed as a guard and wearing a name tag with Rachel's name.
Yup. Also don't forget where one potential henchman beat another to death with a pool cue.
Joker wasn't exactly picking up stable personalities.
... aaaand - although this is sorta bringing in Gotham Knight and the tie-in web stuff, which I'm always loathe to do - there's still a shitload of Arkham escapees running around the city, before anyone else pulls the "but how many crazy criminals are there running loose at any given time?" line, plus who knows how many people actually got doped up with fear toxin.
Glass replied to Geoff:
I was thouroughly disappointed that Gotham Knight didn't tie Batman Begins and The Dark Knight together like they said it would. The Gotham Tonight special was far more informative.
Max Power said:
I assume the Joker had an intern who was doing all of his busy work (rigging boats with explosives, etc.) Also, I'm sure he had some sort of PDA/Day Planner, as I find it hard to believe he wouldn't splurge on something like this before burning that mountain of money.
bav said:
I personally felt that the level of infiltration the Joker and his henchman used was quite implausible and unbelievable. The movie used an amount of coincidences that even Agatha Christie would have thought was in excess. "Do I look like like a man with a plan?" no, but you sure act like it.
Neuronin replied to bav:
Did you miss the part where he's reading to the boat hostages from a SCRIPT? Of COURSE he has a plan...telling Dent he didn't have a plan was PART OF HIS PLAN.
Hairius Maximus said:
Dude, 'innocent' ninjas?
They were violent vigilantes at best, out-and-out terrorists at worst.
(And if you're thinking about the scene that I think you're thinking, it was made pretty explicit that Bruce's life was forfeit if he didn't kill the criminal)
DE12 said:
With regards to blowing up a building full of ninja's, I believe he said, "I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you."
Neuronin replied to DE12:
He was referring to the exploding mountain temple from the end of Bruce's training sequence, not the incredibly lame part at the end.
Glass replied to Neuronin:
I think you got it the wrong way around.
Neuronin replied to Glass:
Blowing up "dozens of innocent ninjas" to save "one criminal" is the mountain temple part. Bats says "I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you" to R'as at the very end, when the railcar smashes into Wayne Enterprises, possibly killing R'as.
Glass said:
Wow. The video doesn't present any actual plot holes.
The Flash III replied to Glass:
So, the Joker sneaking thousands of pounds of explosives onto barges and into that hospital...heck, anywhere he wanted, isn't a plot hole? Nonetheless, an awesome movie.
Geoff replied to The Flash III:
He had sixty-something million dollars and the most corrupt city in America to play in. Methinks getting stuff delivered wasn't an issue.
Like he said, explosives are cheap. Bribing guards isn't that much more expensive.
Glass replied to Geoff:
Exactly.
Lithroe said:
I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but the Joker's hair does have a green tint to it. Or do we just wish that it was bright green?
RobP said:
Weird Al as channeled through Lonely Island? Meh.
Though, the dude's Michael Caine impersonation was spot-on awesomeness. The Heath Ledger/Joker wasn't too bad, either. But this is nowhere near as clever or as funny as that kid Max's (and his Best Parents In The World) video.
MattK said:
But when you think about it, how is this any different from the Joker's plans (or any other supervillains' plans)? Hell, the Clone Saga's retroactive explanation of it being all part of Green Goblin's plan was a mass of plotholes and conveniences. If anything, such "plotholes" and conveniences further cement this film as a great COMIC BOOK movie.
But that doesn't make this video any less funny.
Spud said:
"can I begrudge these guys who made this little video not managing to find a green wig for the Joker. Seriously? You can find a full Batman outfit, but not a green clown wig? "
This was made in front of a green screen. Of COURSE a green wig couldn't be used. However, a blue screen would have been more appropriate.
Kris replied to Spud:
You beat me to it. I noticed the second it looked like a green screen that the Joker's hair would need to be a different color.
Or else you wind up with that "He's Raising McCain" music video from the elections, where the woman wore a green sweater and nobody thought to tell her this. Disembodied head and hands for the win.
lou-bert vs. q-bert said:
TShit, here were less plot holes in Batman & Robin than The Dark Knight.
Glass replied to lou-bert vs. q-bert:
A Bat Credit Card?
1-7 replied to lou-bert vs. q-bert:
That's a false statement.
Evil Monkey Pope said:
I cannot take Nolan's Batman films seriously. There's a LOT of stupid in those movies that people ignore because they're so pretentiously directed. Falcone voluntarily being on site for drug smuggling? A bat-pager that summons thousands of bats instantly? A microwave gun powerful enough to vaporize all the water beneath the city but won't incinerate any citizens? The Joker disappearing from Fox's penthouse offscreen even though Batman and the cops are at the bottom? Gotham not having any bomb squads? The Joker knowing he wouldn't accidentally kill Dent or Batman by shooting rockets at them? Batman somehow putting sonar spy tech into the cellphones of everyone in the city and making a machine to interpret all that data in about a day? Dogs being Batman's only weakness? Wasting Two-Face like Venom instead of saving him for film 3? Gordon and Batman not blaming Dent's spree on the Joker? Had the same scripts been directed by Schumaker, the public wouldn't have any trouble realizing just how silly these films are.
Geoff replied to Evil Monkey Pope:
"A bat-pager that summons thousands of bats instantly?"
Take your gripes up with Frank Miller on that one, it's his idea.
"The Joker disappearing from Fox's penthouse offscreen even though Batman and the cops are at the bottom? Gotham not having any bomb squads?"
Gotham's police are both incompetent and corrupt. That's kind of the whole point of Gordon's ascension to Commissioner.
"Wasting Two-Face like Venom instead of saving him for film 3?"
It's the Bat-Villains. They've got a deeper bench than the Lakers, and that's without Ra's coming back. Plus, they didn't know that Joker wasn't going to be available from that point forward when they wrote the script - the thought was that they'd do the traditional kill one, put the other in jail routine, and kept the more famous bad guy. Then Ledger went and died and, whoops, both villains off the page.
(Not to mention that to a lot of people, 20 minutes of Venom was 15 too many)
Oh, and if all the people were killed by Joker... well, a lot of people were killed by Joker, and he's locked up in jail anyway.
Batman is a more effective symbol, at large, and, most importantly... c'mon, it sets up a heck of a premise for the sequel.
Evil Monkey Pope replied to Geoff:
I didn't like the bat-pager in Year One either.
It's stupid for Batman and Gordon not to pin Dent's crimes on Joker. It just means that the GCPD needs to waste resources on an anti-Batman squad. That's an extra hassle Batman doesn't need. Gordon knows Bats is innocent, so they'll still have that partnership going. I don't see how Batman is any less effective against crime if thugs know he'll just maim them. It's not a compelling set-up.
Glass replied to Evil Monkey Pope:
Batman can't blame another person for things they didn't do. The Joker did a lot of bad things which he can be blamed for, but he didn't kill the people Dent killed.
But, Batman CAN blame himself, that's his choice. Besides, that's a way sweeter set-up for a third movie than "the Joker did it".
Josh said:
My biggest problem with The Dark Knight is the ending and the way it compares to the ending of Batman Begins.
In Batman Begins, he "kills" Ra's by refusing to save him.
In The Dark Knight, he could have done the same. He didn't intend to throw Joker off the building, but then he decided to save him.
To save Joker, but not Ra's, really doesn't make sense.
No, but doing that to Ra's was a big misread of the Batman character.
He acted like Batman's supposed to in the first movie. Killing Ra's is the problem, not not killing Joker.
ZeroCorpse replied to Geoff:
Well... Is it really "letting him die" if you know he's able to be resurrected, anyway?
Geoff replied to ZeroCorpse:
WE know he can be resurrected, Batman has no idea.
But they obviously left the option open, what with Ra's closing his eyes before the train impact (Jedi trance?).
lewen replied to Geoff:
Ras in BB was BW's father figure and that betrayal cut deep.
in DK he's more hardened and detached those random (and not so random) deaths just didn't affect him as much as that original betrayal.
At least that explained the different reactions to me.
Glass replied to Josh:
Because if The Joker dies then he would have won. Batman didn't have that kind of dynamic with Ra's.
It doesn't matter - Batman doesn't kill. Period, full stop, end of story.
It's not as weird as Burton's Batman having machine guns strapped to his car and plane and nuking a populated factory, admittedly, but it was weird.
Glass replied to Geoff:
And shoving bombs down peoples' pants!
Ranchoth said:
Yeah, I can understand Lucius demanding that the cell phone-tricorder spy network be shut down. That IS way too much power for one man to have access to...it's not like he'd need it to stop ninjas from nerve gassing the entire city, or prevent the love child of John Wayne Gacy and Otto Skorzeny from going on elaborate killing sprees, or any weird crap like THAT in the future, ever again.
Decoy Brian said:
-Why didn't Batman just tell the trigger happy cops who the hostages where?
-Why is there real life logic in my superhero movie?
-Is Batman's throat hurting?
Glass replied to Decoy Brian:
Why are you posting?
AfterGlow said:
My biggest problem with the Dark Knight was Batman's voice.
It sounded normal enough in Batman Begins, but in movie two, Christian Bale suddenly felt the need to talk with such a deep voice that it sounded more like a parody than anything else.
And it actually made me laugh a couple of times during the movie.
Glass replied to AfterGlow:
It didn't sound normal in either movie. I don't even think it was supposed to sound "normal".
lewen replied to AfterGlow:
In BB he didn't talk much so the voice sounded cool.
In DK he had way to much dialogue to maintain the voice credibilty.
Glass replied to lewen:
He maintained voice credibility.
AfterGlow said:
What I meant by "normal" was that it was a dark, growling voice, without turning it into something that sounded like a parody.
Glass replied to AfterGlow:
It was a dark, growling voice in The Dark Knight without sounding like a parody.
1-7 said:
So, where's the plot holes? The video doesn't show any.
Skeletor's Nads said:
Well, no wonder this jackass can't think of any plot-holes in The Dark Knight. That a SCHUMACHER BAT-SUIT!!!*
*Also, there really aren't any. And there's also no implication that anyone died in the temple explosion in Batman Begins either...
