The Dark Knight Review
One thing I enjoy doing every so often is reviewing games/ movies. Unfortunately I can never pin it down to a regular basis, nor do it for every movie I see, I have to be in the right frame of mind, but when I feel particularly strongly about a movie, I love writing about it, and so here is my first review: The Dark Knight.
The Dark Knight has probably been one of the most hyped, anticipated films of the summer and I must say, for a film almost being crushed by the huge amount of pressure, it most certainly delivers on almost every level.
Set shortly after “Batman Begins,” TDK picks up more or less where “Begins” left off (teasing the appearance of The Joker), and opens with a bank robbery scene which is merely a taste of things to come. The heist manages to display in one fell swoop the madness, anarchy and destructive nature of The Joker, who leads the operation. The scene which follows is seemingly a parallel with Batman: The first scene setting up The Joker’s unbridled ‘unstoppable force,’ the second setting up Batman as an ‘immovable object.’ The film then goes on to deal with The Batman’s battle against The Joker, Bruce Wayne’s love triangle with attorney Harvey Dent (Gotham’s ‘White Knight’) and Rachel Dawes, as well as questioning whether he should continue to play his role as Batman.
From then on the film only gets bigger and more ambitious in scale, delivering one action set-piece after another. But don’t think that this is just another trashy action movie. To do so would be doing this movie a grave disservice. The major theme of the movie is the tension between order and anarchy, and how far the boundaries of morality can be pushed before breaking. That said, the action is similarly impressive. The variety and pace of the scenes is incredible, the new Batpod (read Batbike) comes into play frequently after a somewhat unexpected, but well executed origin.
The script is sharp with plenty of brilliant dialogue, well delivered by all the main cast members. Christian Bale returns as Bruce Wayne/ Batman, Once again portraying the mix of invincible vigilante and a man torn between his two personas. He still retains the much maligned “bat-rasp” from “Begins” when he speaks in costume, but it isn’t quite as obtrusive as in “Begins”, plus to be honest, I didn’t find it to be a problem either time.
Aaron Eckhart plays Harvey Dent, the new district attorney who is now dating Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal replacing Katie Holmes). His incorruptible nature and “White Knight image is put across as being a “by-the-book” alternative to Batman’s ruthless form of justice. This part of his character makes a twist later on in the film (one the comic fans KNOW is coming) all the more impressive.
The big buzz surrounding this movie has always been was how the late Heath Ledger was to put his take on the Joker and I can firmly say he certainly lives up to the hype. In a turnaround akin to the “Craig-not-Bond” phase a couple of years ago, and fans with complaints about him were instantly quashed as soon as they saw the film. Ledger’s Joker is truly a sight to behold.
His appearance is dishevelled and genuinely weird, and he’s certainly not the clown the cartoon adaptations were. He’s a psychopath first and foremost, any jokes stemming from sadistic joy at his “job” as he calls it. He delivers his lines in a sardonic voice with much lick smacking and twitchy movements. It is a truly incredible performance, one that I believe will endure as long, if not longer, than Johnny Depp’s turn as Jack Sparrow. While I think it is unlikely that Heath will be nominated for a post-humous Oscar (simply because it’s unusual for a film like TDK to be nominated for anything besides special effects or editing etc), if he were, he would definitely deserve to win it.
The supporting cast is rounded out with Gary Oldman as a superb James Gordon, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox (though sadly underused in this film) and Michael Caine returns as Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s butler. Maggie Gyllenhaal is another newcomer to the cast and while she does a better job than Katie Holmes is still nothing particularly special and seems to be phoning in a lot of her lines.
Ultimately “The Dark Knight” manages to be more than a blockbuster piece of entertainment, and is certainly the best film of its kind, darker in tone than almost all other superhero films and delivers a fulfilling story with a pace that doesn’t let up.