I got news for you. Dark Knight will never be mentioned in the same breath as Seventh Seal or Cries and Whispers.

Neva evah, neva evah, neva evah ?

Neva evah.

If you think it's average, then you're not watching enough shit films.

To JV - Very possibly not, That doesn't mean its exploration of moral issues and questions is in any way inferior.

Don't get me wrong, if I want existential problems, it's all about Bergman. Dark Knight isn't even on the radar. Kurosawa's great, and thoroughly epic, but really only has application to real-world morality by generous analogy. Like Homer, or the Shakespeare he borrows so much from, it's work of great moral complexity, but which is concerned with the moral standards and concerns of vanished ways of life, ones largely alien to us now. The Dark Knight brings the same complexity and depth, but it's entirely and utterly of its time.

Well, Kurosawa was completely of his time. He could do Samurais, Shakespeare, or post-war jabronis.

But point taken about modern life. Maybe this guy was way ahead of his time, but Memento is still his strongest film. In terms of all of the above.

I actually think Guy Pearce would have been a better Batman/Bruce Wayne.

What keeps throwing me off is Bales ridiculous voice as Batman, and the fact that he is playing Bruce Wayne as American Psycho.

Yep, jv is right, Memento is still the film by which to remember Christopher Nolan. The Dark Knight was just Heath Ledger away from being just another (good) superhero movie.

Memento? Really? I thought that was rather tedious. I'll have to give it another go.

The My Family skit of Memento was far funnier than any My Family episode has a right to be, although it must've been lost on 90% of the audience and it certainly wouldn't have been funny unless you'd seen the film.

Films/TV shows that pose moral questions more interestingly than The Dark Knight, part 312.

My Darling Clementine
The Searchers
The Conversation
Genesis of the Daleks
Any episode of The Wire

Fuck right off with your artificially contrived nonzero sum scenarios.

When did I mention artificially contrived nonzero sum scenarios, Wyatt? And, like, fucking chill.

Memento is great, but there's not a great deal to it beyond the structural pyrotechnics, superb as they are.

Toro De France wrote:

QUOTE:
When did I mention artificially contrived nonzero sum scenarios, Wyatt? And, like, fucking chill.

No no, I mean "Fuck right off, makers of the latest Batman movie, with your..."

QUOTE:
My Darling Clementine
The Searchers
The Conversation
Genesis of the Daleks
Any episode of The Wire

But none - not ONE - of those films have Batman in them, so I'm less interested.

I got news for you. Dark Knight will never be mentioned in the same breath as Seventh Seal or Cries and Whispers.

It's a completely different kind of cabbage though. Given the numbers of fingers in the pudding, no Hollywood production is ever going to produce as personal a vision as Bergman's or most of Kurosawa's did. It's like comparing a small press book of poetry with the latest Robert Ludlum novel. I mean if you must make those comparisons it'd be fairer to contrast The Dark Knight with Tora, Tora, Tora! Kurosawa's disastrous brush with Hollywood.

QUOTE:
Memento is great, but there's not a great deal to it beyond the structural pyrotechnics, superb as they are.

Oh I dunno, the fact that rather than memory keeping him in the past (as is traditionally perceived), lack thereof was keeping him in the past, was quite an interesting idea to explore. (He could never move on because he couldn't remember having moved on.) Memento got my mind working far more than anything posed by The Dark Knight.

I don't think the ethical dillemas in the film are supposed to be especially vexing. I think the point is to creat interesting characters by showing how different characters respond to the challenge that face them.

My favorite movie ever is Fargo. Certainly, what is right and what is wrong is very clear in that story, but I don't think that makes the characters or their choices less interesting.