08.11.2008

The Dark Knight

I broke my own rule yesterday when my wife and I went to go see ‘The Dark Knight’.  I’m not a fan of seeing movies at a theater, but we had free movie and refreshment coupons.  We originally were planning on seeing it with some friends in IMAX format, but they sold out the IMAX show while we were in line so we ended up with a mere mortal presentation of the film.

I have to say that ‘The Dark Knight’ is probably the best Batman treatment I have ever seen.  Many of the fight scenes do a great job of capturing the intensity of Batman as portrayed in the comics and especially recent graphic novels.  I was also very happy to see Bruce Wayne injured, not because I like seeing people get hurt but it shows that Batman isn’t invincible.  And this film also does a great job at looking at how far Bruce Wayne will go to protect the inhabitants of Gothic City.  Lastly, kudos on the decision that Christopher Nolan takes with the Rachel Dawes character.

And Heath Ledger’s Joker.  Wow.  The Joker in this movie isn’t just some goofball with a green/white face that makes bad jokes and puns; the Heath Ledger Joker is a psychopathic badass that is every bit and probably more clever than anybody the good guys throw at him.  Although the Caped Crusader has some nifty tricks up his sleeve, the Joker always seems one step ahead of him and the law.  If nothing else, Heath’s final performance should be viewed as required viewing for aspiring actors looking for an example of batsh*t crazy (sorry for the pun, I couldn’t resist).

The movie isn’t perfect in my mind.  Harvey Dent/Two-Face is wasted on the Nolan Batman franchise with an in and out performance that reminded me of Scarecrow’s screen time in ‘Batman Begins’ (although there is speculation that Dent’s fate may not be so obvious), and the entire Lau angle is an unneeded plot complication and a waste of time.  I also think the Reese blackmail subplot wasn’t well thought out and just added time to an already long movie.  The end result is that the film is more complicated and longer than it really needs to be.

Even with those reservations, I completely understand why people are interested in multiple viewings of this movie.  Nolan has set the bar high with ‘The Dark Knight’ and I think the franchise will do well if he doesn’t keep discarding the villains.  I realize that Nolan was likely counting on using the Joker again, but that isn’t going to be easy to do at the same quality level given Heath Ledger’s death.

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