The Dark Knight 2008
There is a ton of hype over this movie and I tried to avoid hearing too much about the plot. You definitely want to stay in the dark as much as possible because there is a very strong plot here and very good characters, the most acclaimed (deservedly so) being Heath Ledger’s Joker. Whereas Tim Burton and Jack Nicholson teamed up to give us a campy Joker amid an intensely gloomy Gotham, here you have a much darker Joker amid a cleaner and brighter Gotham. Ledger is nearly unrecognizable, but he shines as he bounces around from menacing to smart to funny to crazy. It is a great acting achievement that he can bring such a nuanced character to life, especially with the clown makeup on the whole time. Christian Bale is good, but he’s the straight man surrounded by strong characters and very good performances from an amazing cast featuring Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Gary Oldman (playing it straight for once). Aaron Eckhart doesn’t have the credentials of the others, but is good in a serious role.
This is like Lord of the Rings or something. It is a very big movie executed very well. Director Christopher Nolan throws everything he’s got into this. The action elements are all there: car crashes, fist fights, shoot ‘em ups, explosions, and all of Batman’s gadgetry which instead of showpieces are just tools this time around. But the dramatic plot and characters are what make this such a great film and I think that is what has critics going crazy for this (in addition to some not so happy endings that critics eat up like candy).
My main complaint is that I felt overloaded and there was still about an hour to go. My attention span was strained and yet I had to sit through increasingly more intense action and further gut-wrenching drama. That may be my personal hangup more than a flaw in the movie, but I think that a little less would have been more in this case. I was also disappointed in one character’s turnaround which I won’t reveal, but which I had a hard time buying. Also due to the intense action, sometimes I just didn’t understand what was going on and whether someone was hurt or how they ended up where they did. Repeat viewings might be helpful for some of that. Other things are very nit-picky. If a policeman has his gun drawn and has a bad guy cornered and all the bad guy has is a knife to the throat of a hostage, why don’t they just shoot the bad guy?
A last warning is that this movie, unfortunately, is being marketed to little kids. I got a Joker action figure in a box of Lucky Charms this week. But this is not a movie for kids. It is essentially an R rated movie where they edited out a few seconds of the actual violence and splatter you would normally have in order to get a PG-13. I could see kids having nightmares about the Joker for years to come. Even with parental guidance, I’m not sure that kids below 13 should attend.
Although the first hour easily warrants an A, I feel like the last half of the movie brings it down just a small notch to an A- overall.
Written: 20 Jul 2007
Owned on: Blu-ray, Digital