Gizmo

So in every thread here on HD Talk on a movie no one has EVER made a comment on the film itself?

Face it, you're made because not everyone loves this film. If this was anything else you wouldn't care.

Supermallet

Mod Note: Correct. The release threads are for discussing releases. If someone wants to collect 15 copies or 1500, they're welcome to do so and post about it here. There's no need to get on someone for indulging in something they're passionate about.

Travis McClain

Yeah, that was announced a while back and it's one reason why I'm not in much of a rush to get TDKR at all right now. Plus, I was just disappointed by it. Eventually, I'll get it, but I don't mind waiting another year and hoping that the Ultimate Trilogy box set includes interesting, enticing bonus content. Even if the UT should prove unappealing, at the very least by then the current regular edition should drop in price.

I don't even know what kind of content I'd like to see in a box set, honestly. Batman: Gotham Knight ought to at least be considered for inclusion, but as I already own that I don't much care if it is or isn't. Commentary tracks would be a big draw for me, especially if Nolan focused more on the storytelling and less on the production. That is, I'd be interested to hear him comment on some of the symbolism of the films, that kind of thing, rather than how cold it was on the day they shot this location scene.

Travis McClain

Wrong again. I was so disappointed by TDKR that I actually prefer Batman & Robin. That has nothing to do with the fact that your trolling iNCREDiPiNOY about his collection was distasteful.

Gizmo

You liked Batman and Robin?

You win.

Travis McClain

I've developed this really bizarre Stockholm Syndrome thing with that movie.

Mr. Salty

There are thread craps in lots of threads, and they usually get called out. As we learned in kindergarten, two wrongs don't make a right.

Wrong again. I didn't love TDKR. But I'll save my opinions for the reviews threads. Here, I'm more interested in reading about the quality of the transfer, bonus content, and store exclusives.

RocShemp

I was gonna hold out but the $17.96 price tage enticed me. Besides, I'll probably give this disc to my dad if the UT is worth my while (a properly remastered TDK). Heck, I might give it to him regardless (this was the only Nolan Batflick that I didn't feel compelled to watch multiple tikmes in the theater so this was really just an impulse buy).

I love Batman & Robin as a comedy. It is one fo the most quotable bad movies ever made.

gp1086

What are everyone's thoughts on The Dark Knight Reborn Best Buy documentary? I just finished up watching the all the special features, including this one. Thought the doc was pretty decent, although it used a lot of the same quotes/footage from the other TDKR (and BB, TDK) special features.

E Unit

Well, Reborn was covering all 3 movies, so it made sense they rehashed some footage from the first 2. I liked it okay, it's kind of a summary of the making of footage for the trilogy. I'm really hoping for some kind of feature length documentary on the Ultimate edition next year that's a comprehensive version of Reborn.

MisterHowie

I thought it was pretty good, particularly because I watched Reborn before watching any of the other supplements. I was a tad disappointed, however, when I saw much of the same footage in the other features. I, too, am hoping for a more comprehensive feature in the future, maybe one that explores the history of Batman, the other cinematic and television incarnations, and the legacy of the Nolan series. In short, something like "Look Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman" would be a dream.

jmu878

Still waiting on a Ledger Joker doc as well.

TheMovieman

Along with a commentary, but even less likely to happen if Nolan has his way (which he probably will), I'd like to see the deleted scenes which I know exist for both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight as I've seen production stills online for a couple.

Travis McClain

You need to take the Schwarzenegger on Ice quiz on Sporcle, then!

For four year now, I've failed to understand why this is so important to people. No one asks for a Heath Ledger documentary to be produced on its own, and no one asks for such a thing to be added to a reissue of any of his other work. Yet for some reason, there's this compulsion for a TDK disc release to include something about Ledger. I really just don't get it.

Yep; this would be bait for me, too!

E Unit

If I recall, I believe Ledger played the Joker...perhaps The biggest iconic bad guy in the Batman universe. At minimum, I'd love to see something about that.

Travis McClain

He did, but so what? Suppose he hadn't died. Would it still seem important to have some kind of tribute to his performance? Does it bother you that there's no doc on Casablanca about Bogart or The Bridge on the River Kwai about Guinness? Why does Ledger's performance as The Joker warrant such a doc when no one else's screen performance has?

I'm not trying to argue that such a doc is a bad idea, nor do I want you to think I'm bashing you or anyone else for wanting it. I just honestly don't understand the insistence so many people online have had for such a feature on a TDK disc release. It just seems unnecessary and borderline obsessive to me.

gp1086

Couple of thoughts...

(1) Heath Ledger did die for this role.

(2) For many of us younger film fans, Ledger's performance is what got us into movies. I'm in my mid-20's and whenever I talk to someone about great performances, Ledger's is always at the top of the list. I have friends/family close to me who became actors after they were inspired by his performance. It's irrelevant if a tribute has been made to x, y, z actor or not - that's another point in itself, and not what we're arguing. We're saying it would be great to see something about what is the highlight of this franchise to many of us.

Travis McClain

That's a myth. He'd already finished his work on the film and was already onto another at the time of his death. It's romantic to think that he went so far into character as The Joker that that's what killed him, but it's simply untrue.

Now this is an interesting point. This makes some sense to me, and for an Ultimate Trilogy edition I could see something making sense about the legacy of his performance.

This doesn't, however, explain why so many people in 2008 insisted that such a doc be made, when clearly there hadn't been any passage of time to even get a sense of what, if any, impact Ledger's performance had beyond making a ton of money for Hot Topic.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I liked it too. I mean, it's not great by any means but it was consistent with the direction the series was plummeting to.

stingermck

I look at Ledger the same way I do Brandon Lee. Both were on the edge of huge stardom with their roles, and unfortunately never got to see how big they were. I can't even see an ounce of Heath in that performance. It is all Joker, unlike some such as Tom Cruise always playing Cruise with another name.

Nick Martin

Umm...see below:

Bingo.

Ledger didn't die for any role. He was shooting "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus", got sick and overdosed on medication. People will (foolishly) believe he was too far into Joker but really, it's not like he was the character on and off the set which would've sent up all kinds of mental stability signals for everyone around him. He wasn't THAT much of a method actor, in fact was he even a method actor to begin with?

Whenever I see someone make that kind of comment about Ledger and Joker, I'll just keep laughing at it, because it's just silly. It adds a false sense of mystique and darkness over the film that isn't real. Beyond that it's just insulting to Ledger's intelligence and capabilities.

Travis McClain

I loved Batman Forever when it opened in 1995 and I love it just as much today. It's more satisfying than Batman Returns and I'll have words with anyone who says otherwise.

This brings me to a question I should have already asked and that's, "Why does no one ever insist that there ought to be a tribute to Ledger as a bonus feature on The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, since that was his actual last work?" Indeed, the Blu-ray Disc release includes his wardrobe test (2:01), "Heath Ledger and Friends" (5:44) and an interview with Ledger (3:07). Why isn't that sufficient?

It seems to me that the fixation is on The Joker, not Heath Ledger. There's no tasteful way to make a big deal out of Ledger for a TDK bonus feature. Even if there's a tasteful way, there's certainly no mature way to do it. It would amount to "ZOMG LEDGER WAS AMAZEBALLS Y DID HE HAVE TO DIE SO YOUNG".

What do you even want discussed in such a feature? His life story? His filmography? The box office take of his entire filmography prior to The Dark Knight makes it pretty clear that about the only audience that consistently saw his movies were his own family and friends. The general public didn't care a single bit about him until he died prior to TDK opening. If he hadn't been cast in TDK and instead went on to Imaginarium, no one would have said anything other than "Oh, that's sad." But because he was The Joker (in an admittedly terrific performance), all of a sudden his death was some kind of tragedy that needs to be chronicled?

It feels like the most disingenuous level of fandom, for so many people who clearly didn't give a damn about him before he died to act as though the world has yet to pay him proper tribute because there's no documentary about him on a Dark Knight DVD.

Nick Martin

I will never watch Batman and Robin again as long as I live.

Not just because it's all-around terrible, but it was the last movie I watched (I was watching the extras about it, listened to the commentary for it, and then decided to just watch it on its own) before my mother left and died not even a week later, so it's more about the circumstances of my last viewiing than the film itself.

However I still love Batman Forever and always will. I don't lump it in with that last one. Even Akiva Goldsman (who co-wrote Forever and solely wrote Batman and Robin) was correct when he said in the extras that Forever has been lumped in with that last one even though at the time it was very well received. I remember 1995 and the Forever phenomenon very well.

I don't want any documentary on Ledger, but I'd like to see more of him in the behind-the-scenes video since it's mostly just stills taken. There's lots of photos of him on the set, a few posing with other actors, and so on. Spectator-shot video of him skateboarding in costume in Chicago, etc. Hardly the kind of thing a truly "method" actor would do on set.

Travis McClain

I may be fifteen years late in saying so, but you have my condolences. That's a very difficult connotation to have with anything.

I've been saying the same thing for years now. They can retroactively downgrade Batman Forever all they want, but in 1995 it was the savior of the entire Batman movie franchise after the mixed reactions to Batman Returns and the entirely negligible box office performance of Mask of the Phantasm.

Now yer talkin'!

Nick Martin

Not 15 years late.

Not even quite a year, actually. This happened last January.

I'll never watch "Back To The Future" again for similar reasons - I was watching that at home alone when I heard the news the morning after.

So: Batman and Robin - last movie seen while we were together in the same place, alive.

Back To The Future - last movie seen within hours of hearing of her passing.