9. Batman Out Of Breath - The Dark Knight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzx9OpDH8HY&t=1m4s After a thrilling battle between The Joker and Batman, Bats has The Joker suspended upside down, and retorts to him, in the now-signature snarl, "This city...just showed you...that it's full...of people...ready to believe in good". The problem is that when Batman speaks in the growl, he should keep it to extremely short sentences; if he has to take breaths between words, it ends up sounding incredibly forced, and even though I was instantly in love with the film, I recall having a cringe spasm during this moment. It wasn't quite enough to derail the film's momentum, but I wince every time this line is spat out. Couldn't he have just said it normally? The hesitation between "full...of people..." just makes Bale's acting seem really ropey, especially compared to Heath Ledger's sublime, Oscar-winning performance.
Shaun Munro
Contributor
Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.
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