Was The Dark Knight snubbed?
The overhyping must stop.
The Dark Night was good for what it was but by no means the best picture of the year. I’m not taking this position because it’s a comic book movie exclusively but that has a little to do with it. Despite an Oscar worthy performance by Heath Ledger, the movie fails in a lot of areas.
The Harvey Two-Face character is only in the film for a hot minute, plus his ultimate fate was confusing. There were several elements in the film that were either pointless or just plain boring. The whole danger to his secret ID was silly and the car wreck scene was a waste.
Like I said before the ending was highly confusing and really rushed (and I saw the movie twice!). Now I know what this is, you finally got a great comic book movie and the only way you’ll feel validated is if the rest of the mainstream culture pats it on the back. I suggest you be happy with the nominations you did get and stop all the internet bitching.
The Dark Knight may be a comic book movie but it’s something else in simpler terms: an action movie. Action movies don’t tend to fair very well come Oscar time and with good reason, they are formulaic. Batman is an action movie that is better than most, but the best… hardly. Unforgiven is the kind of action movie that wins best picture (I know it’s a western technically but let’s call a spade a spade), was The Dark Knight better than that, not even close.
The character development in The Dark Knight isn’t anything near a story like Unforgiven or Gangs of New York. Movies that rely heavily on a formula, especially an action one just don’t win best picture nor should they. I don’t want to take anything away from Dark Knight, they made some considerable improvements in the series. They finally nailed down a costume that works, and have a stellar cast in place. But they don’t give best picture awards for good costumes, and a cast is only as good as the dialogue which is where this movie is hampered.
After all, this is still a comic book movie which means that its filled with two things: comic book dialogue, and comic book situations. Both things bring down the quality of the movie in ways that are completely unavoidable. Comic book dialogue was meant for comic books and just doesn’t translate convincingly to the big screen, talk about the suspension of disbelief being truly tested. Plus certain scenes are just horribly ‘comic booky’ like the interrogation scene between Batman and the Joker, could Christian Bale be more unclear if not almost laughable, and you want to give this film BEST PICTURE?
The Best Picture of the year has to be a transcendent movie going experience that almost anybody can enjoy. I know that a lot of people enjoyed The Dark Knight, but I wouldn’t call it a transcendent film going experience, maybe just a highly enjoyable one. It fits too well into the action movie niche to be best picture.
But I digress, after all if Rocky can win best picture, then its fair game. Good luck in 2012 when Eddie Murphy stars as the Riddler!
