Originally posted by: TimstonGalvitron
1. What happened to the Joker and the Crew after they burst into Bruce's fund raising party for Dent? Did they just leave peacefully? Come on! That was pure nonsense just cutting to the next scene. Is this explained outside of the IMAX viewing? Also, why did Bruce have to Choke Hold Dent to get him out of harms way? That seemed unnecessary but I can understand how it lends a tone of seriousness to the whole scene.
I wondered the same thing. I suspect that something went wrong when the film was edited (the director does not have complete control over that when a big studio owns the movie). But I was willing to let it slide.
Originally posted by: TimstonGalvitron
2. WTF was with Rachel's note? So Bruce really thought that she would wait around for him?! No Way...
Rachel knew that Bruce had taken her previous words to heart when she had told him that "maybe someday" if the man she loved "came back", she would still be in love with him. I'll be repeating this when I respond to your next question, but did you notice that throughout the whole movie, it was clear that Bruce Wayne wanted to hang up his cape and let someone else take over for him so he could retire and be with Rachel? When she decided to marry Harvey, she wanted to let him know that she would not be available if he retired and came looking for her. She wasn't breaking her word because she never actually made any promises to Bruce. She made it clear that she couldn't live with a man who wore a "mask" (she said that "Bruce" was not his real face; his
real face "is the one the criminals now fear"), and she was merely saying that maybe the man she loved would "come back" someday. But she didn't really promise anything.
Anyway, the note she gave to Alfred also served another purpose in the movie: Alfred destroyed it after she died because he wanted to let Bruce go on believing that Rachel never stopped loved him. It proves how much Alfred cares about Bruce, and how well Alfred understands Bruce. It was very, very touching.
Originally posted by: TimstonGalvitron
3. Two face did not really seem that crazy, great make-up, but did he really seem that good before? How was he a "White Knight? for locking up criminals? I get it, but it still seemed very rushed and poorly explained why Batman chose to trust him.
As I said above, Bruce was anxious to let Batman retire so that he could be with Rachel. The way he mooned over her was kind of subtle, but the fact that he was so anxious to find someone to "take his place" (even against his better judgment) just goes to show how much he wanted to be with Rachel. (The Joker noticed how dynamically Batman "threw himself after her" when she fell out the window, so the Joker could tell that Batman loved her.) Later on, Batman believed more strongly than ever that Gotham as a whole needed for Harvey to be their hero, even when it was painfully obvious that Harvey was NOT a "white knight" at all. I think that says more about Batman than it does about Harvey.
Originally posted by: TimstonGalvitron
4. The Joker was fucking incredible. LOVED EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM. Especially the way when the three black thugs were on their knees in the pool hall and he seemed to forget where he was completely and said "why so serious?" Not in a mocking way, but in a completely innocent way a child would ask a dying person why they are upset. That line totally made me believe he was truly crazy and not just a sadist.
The Joker claimed that his father said "Why so serious" (along with "Let's put a smile on that face") when his father allegedly, uh, "widened" the Joker's mouth. The Joker was repeating the same line to the black guys before
he did something terrible to
them in order to echo the alleged cruelty of his father. It was partly a way for the Joker to show that what his father supposedly did to him didn't bother him at all, and in a similar fashion, he didn't feel bad at all about inflicting pain on other people. You can't get much colder than that. (I say "alleged" and "supposedly" because the Joker probably made that story up--we don't really know how the Joker got his scars.)
By the way, after the Joker made those guys "audition" to be one of his new henchmen, did the movie ever show which one of them survived the death match? In other words, did one of them show up as one of his new henchmen? I might have missed it.
I wonder if that's the scene that's going to be shown at the Oscars when Heath Ledger is nominated (posthumously) for Best Actor. (It's PG-13, so they can do that, right?)
Originally posted by: TimstonGalvitron
6. Joker burning the money didn't seem right.... He still needs money to buy stuff (even though he explained gun powder is cheap.... etc.) he could upgrade to nukes or biological weapons.... I don't recall Joker ever destroying money from heists in the comics...but I can let it slide, it was a cool scene.
Burning the money was a symbolic act that was directly related to the story that Alfred told about the guy who stole the jewels and threw them away. The Joker wasn't motivated by things that normal people can understand, such as money. (Notice how much it bothers you to think that all that money went to waste?) The Joker is one of those people who simply want to watch the world burn. That kind of person is terrifying.
Throughout the movie, there was supposed to be a contrast between the Joker and "ordinary" bad guys like the gangsters. The gangsters committed crimes and hurt people when they wanted things like money (that is, things we could understand). But even the gangsters were repulsed by the Joker's viciousness. The gangsters were still human, and they could have true friends and love other people in spite of their criminal nature. They were appalled by pure madness. In contrast, the Joker is capable of killing even someone he loves (that is, if he ever actually loved anyone). He has no compunction. He thrives on chaos, and the only thing he cares about is having "fun". He won't kill Batman, because as he says, Batman is too much fun to kill. No ordinary criminal would ever say something like that.
By the way, I assume that the Chinese accountant was on top of the money when the Joker set it on fire. In other words, the Joker burned him alive (but the movie didn't show it). That's just plain...chilling. In a fiery way.