Daniel’s review
Although I really enjoy this new Batman genre, The Dark Knight is very dark and filled with psychotic violence. Ledger’s own death around the movie indicates how twisted it was. Definitely not a movie for kids. Even with all of the violence, the movie was greatly lacking in foul language. The sexual content was limited to some minor innuendo and a brief hint of something having happened without showing it. Personally, I think Katie Holmes was a better Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins than Maggie Gyllenhaal was in this sequel. It’s sad to see the recent trend of movies where evil triumphs through the majority of the film, and disappointing to see heroes fall to revenge. However, The Dark Knight was still a fun movie that brought up several points of discussion without trying to push a message down our throats.
Eve’s review
I don’t recall any bad language in this movie, even in scenes that had rough characters, and there didn’t seem to be any jabs at religion. While the movie was extremely violent, the sexual content was very low and the bodies (even the many dead ones) pretty much stayed clothed. The realistic feel to the movie didn’t in anyway make it feel like it was presented as factual, so there was no misleading faux historical or scientific content. I wasn’t fond of the female lead, and the movie was long and felt long, but it had very good special effects. Overall, the movie had a message about the heart of man that was definitely thought provoking. I wasn’t fond of the justification of lying at the end, but didn’t see it as having an obvious agenda. Good movie!
The scorecard
| Use of Language
Rate from 1 to 10 with 1 representing minimal use |
Daniel | Eve | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foul language: Use of “bad” words or language used in such a tone as to indicate “bad” words | 2 | 2 | |||
| Educated jargon: Use of educated-sounding arguments presented to support agendas, arguments from authority | 6 | 1 | |||
| Insulting speech: References to religious people (particularly Christians) in an insulting or demeaning way | 2 | 1 | |||
| Subtotal | 10 | 4 | |||
| Visuals
Rate from 1 to 10 with 1 representing minimal use |
Daniel | Eve | |||
| Sexual conduct: on screen sexual interaction, promiscuity, immodesty, nudity | 2 | 1 | |||
| Violence: on screen assaults, fighting, killing, blood and gore | 8 | 10 | |||
| Fallacies: obvious historical and/or scientific misrepresentations, visual anachronisms | 1 | 1 | |||
| Subtotal | 11 | 12 | |||
| Entertainment value
Rated from 1 to 10 with 1 representing strongly agree |
Daniel | Eve | |||
| Acting: Actors were believable in their roles | 2 | 3 | |||
| Direction/editing: Movie was paced well, flowed smoothly | 2 | 3 | |||
| Effects: Movie effects were well done, and appropriate to the content (taking the year of production into account) | 1 | 3 | |||
| Subtotal | 5 | 9 | |||
| Conclusions
Rated from 1 to 10 with 1 representing strongly agree |
Daniel | Eve | |||
| Redeeming message: Movie has a good message and/or presents valid social commentary | 6 | 5 | |||
| Thought-provoking: Movie encourages further thought or lends itself to literary critique | 3 | 2 | |||
| Unbiased: Movie did not attempt to indoctrinate, propagandize or pursue an obvious agenda | 4 | 2 | |||
| Subtotal | 13 | 9 | |||
| Total score
Add up the scores and divide by 4 to get a final rating |
13 | 8 | |||
|
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| Final score: 2 Open Eyes | |||||
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I just started listening to this podcast today. I’ve only heard part one of the Dark Night bits, but I really like the concept of the podcast.
I have some thoughts, but I’ll see if you cover them in part two before I take the time to type them all out.