Jody Duncan

Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy is not only my favorite comic book trilogy of all time, it's easily my favorite movie trilogy of all time. When I heard that a book was being released that chronicled the making of all 3 films, I jumped at the chance to get my hands on it.

The book is separated into several sections detailing the stunts, the marketing, visual effects, casting, writing and overall shooting of the films. Hand in hand with the write-ups are beautiful photos showcasing behind the scenes action as well as choice stills from the movies themselves.

The author, Jody Duncan Jesser, really did her research in interviewing a lot of the cast and crew in coming up with more than a few interesting and funny stories. One in particular involving Tom Hardy training and bulking up in an attempt to outshine Christian Bale had me laughing out loud. I'll keep from spoiling it but moments like that are reason enough to pick this up.

If you're a fan of the films, I can't recommend this enough. There's so much information contained within here that I wasn't aware of! Granted, there aren't any groundbreaking stories or mind-blowing revelations but the little things like Ledger's routine of getting into character or the creative process regarding set design as well as the viral marketing techniques really satisfied the Batman geek within me.

A worthy companion piece for completists or anyone who appreciated the work put in by Nolan and friends to create easily the best feature film adaptation of The Dark Knight yet.… (mais)

A great book for fans of DragonHeart, but also a wonderful way for fans of movies in general to understand the process that goes along behind the scenes. The photography is very detailed and the images are simply beautiful, reflecting the beauty of the set and movie itself. There is an art quality to the layout as well, giving an almost scrapbook feel to the pages as you read; textured and occasionally dimensional images and larger, highlighted quotes from within the book are set into pages where the actual text wraps beautifully around to accommodate them.

The only part of this book that was not captivating was that in some parts the "play-by-play" feel of the telling of production or post production took a little away from what had already been written. Suddenly I found myself wanting to move along through the explanation of a scene rather than actually read it. Fans of the movie might find this and the description of scenes they already know well to be a bit tedious.

Overall, this is a very interesting read that actually inspired my own creativity and rekindled my love for the DragonHeart universe.… (mais)