Looking through the chinks in the Dark Knight’s armor

The presumably final trailer for The Dark Knight is now out in very good quality.

Trailers are usually made by marketing departments, not the director, but we know Nolan was responsible for the thematically distinct teasers for Batman Begins. So he is probably in control of the Dark Knight trailers as well, but who knows?

Whomever is responsible, this new trailer shows a lot of leg (though never for too long) including the moment before Harvey’s face becomes scarred (at 1:54), as well as a split-second glimpse of his face post-scarring, barely seen on the away-from-camera side of his face which he’s touching with a revolver (at 2:03).

We also see the Joker tossing Rachel out a window (at 1:56), possibly to her death but — given Batman’s penchant for basejumping and gliding seen at the beginning and end of the trailer — not necessarily.

I am really loving Ledger as the Joker; I think he has more Caesar Romero in him than I had previously realized. One shot in particular reminds me of Romero, right when he says “go” (at 1:39).

For the past three days I’ve been wondering if Iron Man would turn out to be my favorite movie of the year but the Bat has come back with a vengeance in my constantly fluctuating geek leaderboard.

I think Indy 4 is going to be the surprise disappointment of the summer. It’ll still make a bucket of money but I predict that it will, like Spidey 3, make 45% of its total earnings in the opening weekend and have no legs. A bold prediction but I follow my instincts!

IRON MAN

If it is axiomatic that heroes in tights look great on the page but terrible on the screen, then Iron Man was the one exception who was always destined to look better in live action than in ink. Shiny metallic surfaces are difficult to portray in two dimensions without becoming messy, and Iron Man has no supernatural visual elements, like the Hulk, that might strain credulity in live action. Neither does Batman, of course, but his best medium is animation where he can be depicted as a moving shadow, while animation is Iron Man’s worst medium, because the suit not only looks unconvincing but also bends from frame to frame.

Forty-five years after his first appearance, moviemaking technology has finally caught up with the promise inherent in the Iron Man concept. Visually, this is the best comics-to-film translation of a superhero costume yet attempted, and without qualification the best Marvel origin movie ever made — only X2 and Spider-Man 2 can equal it on the Marvel roster.

There was no way Marvel Studios was going to compete with The Dark Knight this summer, but they have managed to do just that by giving us the Anti-Batman: bright and colorful. The origin of Iron Man even follows the same path as Batman Begins, but with the elements slightly shuffled. At the beginning of their journeys, both Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne find themselves themselves imprisoned on the other side of the world but emerged from their ordeals with a newfound purpose that they put into action upon their return home. Both spend lots of time in caves building, with the help of wise older assistants, the first versions of their suits — scenes always absent from superpowered hero movies but apparently crucial for those without powers. Both face the corporate intrigue of attempted takeovers of their companies by rival board members, as well as trusted mentors who may not have been totally honest with them. And of course, both have personal assistants without whom they couldn’t get through the day.

So what’s the crucial difference? Their personalities couldn’t be more different: Stark lives the billionaire playboy lifestyle that everyone believes Wayne does, but Stark enjoys it and, though he also lives in the shadow of his father, does not suffer from an ounce of Wayne’s psychological torment. The star of the show is Downey’s deadpan charisma, without which we might get antsy during the wait for the Red and Gold armor to be finally unveiled. But the movie’s humor is not just doing the job of a warm-up comedian, nor is it the product of on-set afterthoughts.

In this day and age I thought it would be impossible to make a weapons manufacturer a likable character, not to mention a hero. A second-act change of heart would be essential but by then it would be too late for the audience’s sympathy. I never read Iron Man comics because Stark always struck me as too slick and too cool for school (and I never liked his dirty mustache), but by investing the character with a sense of self-irony, Favreau and Downey have made even Stark’s braggadocio endearing and you can’t help but like him from scene one. Even after his personal epiphany, Stark’s refusal to take himself too seriously still does work by neutralizing any direction towards preachiness the script might have taken in other hands — just imagine Arriaga’s Iron Man. Sure, Stark still learns that with great wealth and firepower comes great responsibility, but mercifully nobody articulates it that piously.

Somewhat unexpectedly, Iron Man is also the best casted superhero movie since Batman Begins. It’s not Jeff Bridges’ fault that his voice is forever inextricable from The Dude, but his bald/bearded combo does a lot to defamiliarize the actor. I’m not a Gwyneth Paltrow fan but her Pepper Potts surpasses 45 years of accumulated workplace sexual tension generated by Miss Moneypenny. The conflicted emotions in Paltrow’s face during the dance scene, moreso than the subsequent balcony scene, actually made me feel her heartache. Given the audience investment in her character, it is all the more to the filmmakers’ credit that Miss Potts’ relationship with Mr. Stark ends on the perfect note.

Not to say the movie doesn’t push the boundaries of comic book fare. A one-night stand early on is only implied but later on the film’s true “sex scene” provocatively inverts the male/female roles. Stark calls his female assistant to his garage where she finds him shirtless and reclining. At his insistence that he can’t do it without her, she tentatively inserts her hand into Stark’s narrow chest cavity, feeling for a highly sensitive wire that she can’t find without his guidance. The slightest movement of her hand affects his whole body and when she pulls it out her hand is covered in fluid. But rather than out of place, this 25th anniversary nod to the insertion of a VHS tape into James Woods’ abdominal vagina feels entirely appropriate to Iron Man’s Cronenbergian integration of man and machine.

The scene is one of the freshest elements not inspired by Warren Ellis’ updated origin for the character in 2004. It’s literally the only Iron Man story I’ve read in my whole life but I recommend it, thanks largely to the art of Adi Granov whose designs were the basis for the film’s suits. The only shortcoming of the film was the climactic battle which should have lasted a few more minutes.

The best trailer before the movie was Will Smith’s Hancock, which should prove yet again that most original superhero movies are better than adaptations of comic books. Iron Man, however, is one of the few exceptions to that rule. I can’t help wondering if Favreau could have made the Spider-Man franchise even better than Raimi, who marginalized Spidey’s most distinctive comic book trait: his indomitable commitment to wise-cracking. With the only lighthearted superhero adaptations until now being the Fantastic Four, it’s great to see a good movie finally fill that niche.

This Post-Ledger World Is Strange

The post title above is not mine but a statement of my friend Al which I think well expressed the somewhat unexpected feelings prompted by this least expected of all Hollywood deaths.

There are some interesting comments in Variety about how the marketing of TDK, if not the film itself, will be affected by Ledger’s death:

Principal photography on “The Dark Knight” finished in the fall; as of Tuesday, the pic is still skedded for a July 18 bow. The status of the pic’s marketing campaign, however, is uncertain. The first phase is built around the Joker and pics of his character are particularly ghoulish. Warner execs were still grappling with the news on Tuesday and had no comment on how they would proceed. . . .

The “Dark Knight” rollout will present more than a few challenges en route to opening weekend. One poster shows the Joker character drawing a clown’s smile on a mirror with red lipstick and scrawling the words, “Why So Serious?” Tagline was also used to launch a Joker-centric website that the studio used to bow new photos from the pic and a viral scavenger hunt, among other games.

“The Joker character is dealing with chaos and life and death and a lot of dark themes,” one insider with knowledge of the campaign said. “Everyone is going to interpret every line out of his mouth in a different way now.”

I just hope that Nolan & Co. resist the temptation to re-cut the film for sentimental reasons, either to include more Ledger screen time or to make it less disturbing than what was originally intended. But I’m fairly confident Nolan will trust and stand by his pre-Jan. 22 artistic intuition. Hopefully the studio won’t lean on Nolan to exploit Ledger’s death more than the movie is already going to do anyway.

But it sounds like the Joker might not have been too important to a third Batman movie, as Nolan said a couple weeks ago that he doesn’t really have a character arc in TDK:

“Harvey Dent is a tragic figure, and his story is the backbone of this film…. The Joker, he sort of cuts through the film — he’s got no story arc, he’s just a force of nature tearing through. Heath has given an amazing performance in the role, it’s really extraordinary.”

It will be impossible ever to enjoy this performance on its own terms now. His role, and the movie itself, will now be so overshadowed by everything outside the film, that it will be difficult not only to evaluate the movie sensibly but even to experience it without thinking about the actor instead of the character whenever Ledger is on screen.

However, Ledger is an extraodinary actor — his was the only good male performance in Brokeback Mountain, I remind you — and he may just be good enough to make us momentarily forget about his own death during his farewell performance.

Heath Ledger on Ambien

I found the source of the actual quotation everyone has been citing in reference to Ledger and sleeping pills, even as the quote gets further and further from its source. It’s from a New York Times interview on November 4th:

He is here in London filming the latest episode of the “Batman” franchise, “The Dark Knight.” … It is a physically and mentally draining role — his Joker is a “psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy” he said cheerfully — and, as often happens when he throws himself into a part, he is not sleeping much.

“Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night,” he said. “I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.” One night he took an Ambien, which failed to work. He took a second one and fell into a stupor, only to wake up an hour later, his mind still racing.

What those who blame his insomnia on the aftermath of the Joker role are leaving out is the “as often happens” part of the quote. He had just been filming a Terry Gilliam movie in London before he died, so he was in the middle of a role again and thus having trouble sleeping.

The NYT story also has this ominous comparison from the director of I’m Not There:

“Dylan was completely inspired by James Dean, and Heath has a little bit of James Dean in him, even physically, a kind of precocious seriousness,” Mr. Haynes went on.

But I suppose you could find lots of “prescient quotations” about anyone after they die. Forunately most such comments never have the chance to become prescient.

Dobkin and Berlanti Green Lighted in a Flash

According to the MTV Movies Blog, the director of Shanghai Knights, Wedding Crashers, and Fred Claus has been hired to direct The Flash. According to David Dobkin:

“It’s designed to work as a spin-off from [‘JLA’], so we’re honoring the story and we’re working in tandem with the storytelling,” he said. “I think we’ll just have to see how the movie does and how it works off it, but it certainly would be a movie that comes after ‘Justice League.’”

Speaking of JLA, Ain’t It Cool News posted some major plot points from a recent(ish) incarnation of the script. If you speak DCese, it sounds to me like the story is largely based on the OMAC Project miniseries and the Sacrifice storyline that crossed over the Superman titles and Wonder Woman in the summer of 2005.

Meanwhile, TV writer and producer Greg Berlanti has been hired to direct Green Lantern, but unlike The Flash this one looks like it might not spin off from JLA because the Hollywood Reporter claims he pitched a Hal Jordan origin story, while the details on AICN list John Stewart as the Green Lantern in JLA. The JLA Lantern could have changed to Hal Jordan but I doubt it because that would make the team all white (not counting the green-skinned Martian Manhunter for whom a black actor may be cast in any case).

I don’t know what’s going on with these director signings. I haven’t seen his Everwood series but Berlanti’s only directorial credit in either TV or film is 2000’s The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy. After getting Chris Nolan and Bryan Singer I thought Warner Bros. was on a roll attracting established talent to DC franchises. Then again, maybe Berlanti will be the next Francis Lawrence.

Everybody Can Breathe a Sigh of Relief

The impending expiry of the WGA contract at the end of October is threatening production of the Justice League of America movie intended to be directed by George Miller of Happy Feet fame/notoriety. Admittedly he also directed the Mad Max trilogy so he might not have been completely inept, but the last news we heard was that Jessica Biel was in, then out, as Wonder Woman.

I actually think she wouldn’t be such a bad choice for the role, but I still think the movie is just a bad idea in general before Singer’s second Superman film or Nolan’s (hopeful) third if last Batman picture. Even though Superman and Batman would most likely not be played by Brandon Routh and Christian Bale in a Justice League movie — which I think is a good idea whether it were made next year or after the conclusions of the individual franchises — I think it makes most sense not to have the characters appear concurrently in separate continuities.

Let Nolan and Bale finish their trilogy, then reinvent Batman as a character that would be compatible with superpowered partners for a Justice League adventure. Let Singer and Routh have another try at a movie worthy of Action Comics, then recast Superman with an actor that would be more credible as the leader of a team of superheroes.

The Man in the Iron Mask

Remember this?

Now you can see it too.

“It was not how to get into the Joker but how to get him out of my head”

At Wizard World Chicago there was a Dark Knight panel on Saturday composed of Christopher and Jonah Nolan, David Goyer, Christian Bale, Aaron Eckhart, and Gary Oldman (but not Heath Ledger). They showed a teaser with actual visual footage this time, which I haven’t been able to find online — check out how tight (and sartorially clever) the security was here — but there is a description of the footage contents here (minor but highly gratifying spoilers).

The most interesting comment from the director was this one:

What are the most important aspects of the Joker that you needed to incorporate in this film?

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN: We looked at it the other way around. We found a way of looking at the character and saw what role he would play in the film. The Joker card at the end of the first film created the right kind of feeling. That was the hook that got us thinking about the next one. We were looking through comics and Joker stories and we started writing the treatment before we even wrote “The Prestige.”

Jonah [his brother and screenwriter] called me and said, “Have you read the first two Joker appearances?” I had but not in a really long time. We’ve come around to something that’s eerily close to those first two appearances.

I’ve never read them but now I’m really curious to read the first two issues with the Joker. All I know is that he was based on Conrad Veidt’s character in The Man Who Laughs, the Victor Hugo adaptation of ten years before which was recently featured in The Black Dahlia (another Eckhart film).

I’m also impressed by just how clever and shrewd Christian Bale is. After the filmmakers expressed a lack of interest in a World’s Finest film, Bale threw the fans some red meat without actually making a verbal statement that could be quoted:

On a scale of 1 to 10, is there any interest in a Batman/Superman World’s Finest movie?

DAVID GOYER: For me, after working on this project, it’s zero.

JONAH NOLAN: When I was a teenager, my brother gave me a copy of The Dark Knight Returns, which has a very similar scene in it. I couldn’t put a number on it.

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN: Creatively, I’m burned out so I have no interest.

PAUL LEVITZ: What do you say, Christian? Do you want to wrestle Superman? [Audience roars]

CHRISTIAN BALE: [Nods confirming he’d like to as the audience screams in excitement]

The rest of the panel comments are available here.

The Joker and Chaos Theory

Matthew Rossi has an ingenious story concept for the Joker, moving him away from homicidal monomania towards someone who better perpetuates the randomness and chaos he supposedly personifies:

Why did the Joker steal the costume from a local college team’s mascot and wear it while robbing the Gotham Stock Exchange, and for that matter, why did the Joker break into the Gotham Stock Exchange just to steal three stockbroker’s wallets at gunpoint? Why is he paying street gangs to slash the tires of every Audi 5000 in the city?

The Joker as a practitioner of Chaos Theory would completely confound the Detective who relies on following clues to solve crimes and looks for meaning in details. Villains like the Riddler who deliberately leave clues play to Batman’s strengths, but Batman’s attempt to impose order on an intentionally random series of crimes would necessarily fail if not drive him insane.

I love the thought of Batman insisting on drawing meaning out of clues that turn out to be dead ends. He would inevitably become a pathetic conspiracy theorist, like a Tom Hanks who can find something in anything but discovers at the end of the story that there is no Da Vinci Code after all. Sure, it might be a pessimistic conclusion implying that there is no continuity in the world, but it would at least be an authentically Noir ending for that darkest of private dicks.

The built-in metaphor of randomly shuffled playing cards would also make better use of the Joker’s name than merely his being a clown whose special pathology is telling jokes that aren’t funny.

The Dark Knight, Terrorism, and the Joker Virus

The teaser trailer for The Dark Knight is up at WhySoSerious.com. This must be the first ever audio-only teaser, and only Bale and Caine could pull it off. (Actually Clive Owen and Daniel Craig have the most compelling voices alive and I wouldn’t mind if they did radio for the rest of their careers.)

The Joker sounds pretty chilling and his line ”I’m a man o’ my word” sounds a bit like Jack Nicholson as well. Ledger seems to be really exaggerating the American accent, with the ‘L’s way back in his throat (in “people will die”) and the hard R in “word”. What’s especially creepy though is his breathing, not only at the end of sentences but in the middle, between “Starting tonight” and “people will die”. He seems very disturbed. 

It sounds like Nolan is continuing the terrorism theme of the last movie, if not making it more explicit, with Caine’s line that “some men aren’t looking for anything logical. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men j ust want to watch the world burn.” But lest anyone think The Dark Knight will offer a simplistic criticism of terrorism, Alfred responds to Wayne’s comment that “this is different, they’ve crossed a line” by suggesting that “you crossed a line first, though. You hammered them. And in their desperation they turned to a man they didn’t fully understand.”

If I had to predict the trajectory of Nolan’s trilogy, the focus of this second movie on Batman’s antithesis, the Joker, will be resolved in the third movie by some variety of moral relativism represented by Two-Face who synthesizes the noble desire for justice with its necessarily destructive means. Whether Nolan emphasizes the conflict in Two-Face or favors the image that his alter egos are ”two sides of the same coin” remains to be seen, but I think the first movie already told us when Wayne defined “the means to fight injustice” as the ability “to turn fear against those who would prey on the fearful.” Unless Nolan manages to transcend ordinary oppositions as Team America: World Police did, the dualities inherent in the Batman mythos will necessarily keep the films locked into the unhelpful binaries that are usually insufficient to explain the world.

UPDATE: The following links are currently obselete as over the past few minutes every page at WhySoSerious.com has been redirected to Rent-A-Clown.com, which shows only the mugshots of the fans participating in the event described below. Luckily I downloaded the trailer before it disappeared!

Also on the site, the “police report” in the lower-right corner links to coverage of the flash-mob and scavenger hunt held outside the San Diego Convention Center on Friday morning that was incited by the same website when it looked like this last week. Anyway there are several links from this page that will let you piece together what happened.

I usually hate gimmicky websites promoting movies in “unique” ways but I love the way Nolan made up for the lack of visuals in the teaser but creating an event for fans to sort of participate in that is no doubt somewhat related to the plot of the movie. I love the concept, combining those online-originating flash-mobs with the disturbing fact that terrorist recruitment videos are disseminated publicly on the web and there’s nothing that can be done it.

I also love the conflation of audience and actor in the Joker’s mob walking around San Diego, their clown faces making them basically unpaid sandwich-board advertisers of the movie. Of course they’re being willingly exploited by Warner Bros. but that doesn’t diminish the fun of running around in Joker paint and pretending you’re part of a criminal gang for an hour. It’s the perfect kind of harmless, wish-fullment fantasy thrill, incorporated ex post facto into the Batman narrative by the website.

I know “viral” is the overused adjective of the moment, and The Dark Knight’s “viral marketing campaign” is a contradiction in terms insofar as it is corporately generated, but a virus is an evocative metaphor for the self-replicating nature of the Joker meme  — another word o’ the mo — as fan(atic)s paint their faces to become increasingly anonymous but also individual, as the hundreds of variations of the Joker makeup in the online mug shots attest.

If nothing else, it’s much more exciting than the Guy Fawkes mask-wearing mob at the end of V for Vendetta, and it’s much more interesting insofar as its a thinly veiled metaphor for terrorism rather than explicitly terroristic as in Vendetta. Besides, the Guy Fawkes masks were just too slick to catch on, while Nolan has broken down the Joker face to three essential parts which are endlessly variable: white face, black eyesockets, and messy red lipstick.

Now we see that the very first image of the Joker online, fuzzy and closely cropped, was not a hastily prepared shot that was rushed online to appease fan interest, but the beginning of a meme intended to spread over the course of a year. What better way to promote a film than by building it up in the audience’s mind, augmented by an audio clip, rather than gratifying them with visual footage. As much as the Iron Man teaser excited me, it has only served to satisfy its audience rather than increase their anticipation as Nolan is doing for The Dark Knight.