The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman
Time: 2 hr 30 min
Rating: PG-13
Plot: Batman (Bale) is back and with the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Eckhart), Batman sets out to destroy organized crime in Gotham for good. A new criminal known as the Joker (Ledger) is out to make sure that doesn’t happen at any price.
Who’s It For? Not kids. This is dark and scary and almost deserves an R rating. Everyone else should see it, especially fans of Chicago since the city looks amazing as the fictitious Gotham.
Expectations: I don’t watch previews (as much as possible). Doesn’t make sense since I want to go in fresh and previews have a way of simply showing me everything that will happen. I say this because this is the film I was most excited to see this summer. Absolutely giddy. Batman Begins is a great film and is only missing an amazing villain.
SCORECARD (1-10)
Actors:
Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman: Bale is perfect as the fake drunk with excessive bravado Bruce Wayne. The dead growl of a voice that Batman has always takes a hint of getting used to, but after two films, I can easily say Bale is the best of the Batmen. Sorry Adam West and George Clooney.
Score: 9
Heath Ledger as The Joker: It’s done. Best. Superhero. Villain. Ever. I can’t believe we have been given another great evil character this closely after Anton Chigurh and Billy Mitchell. Once the Joker makes a pencil disappear he’s got you entertained in his clutches. There are tiny moments, like when he grabs a drink at Dent’s fundraiser, that every actor should study. Without a doubt, Ledger will win Best Supporting Actor for the Oscars.
Score: 10
Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent: I can finally but Tommy Lee Jones’ performance from Batman Forever out of my mind. Harvey is the perfect motivation for Bruce to realize his way out of the superhero lifestyle. I didn’t fully understand the motivations of Two-Face, but as Harvey, Eckhart truly shines as the potential white knight of Gotham.
Score: 8
Gary Oldman as Lieutenant Jim Gordon: Oldman is a great chameleon actor and here he’s the everyman who we are lucky enough to see the Gotham world through. Filled with surprises this time around.
Score: 9
Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel: Yes, she’s better than what has become of Katie Holmes, but not by the landslide I was hoping for. Rachel is oddly cocky and doesn’t seem to know what she wants even though it becomes obvious later. It’s always tough to be the damsel-in-distress, and since Gyllenhaal is one of my favorites, I wanted to be more emotionally connected than I was.
Score: 6
Rest of Cast: Michael Caine is my favorite butler, Morgan Freeman continues to be a perfect side-sidekick, Eric Roberts is as slimy as ever, Cillian Murphy puts The Scarecrow to rest … dear lord there is a lot going on.
Score: 9
Talking: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stranger.” Just typing that line gives me chills all over again. Batman Begins had just a few too many one-liners, that isn’t a problem this time around. This movie completes me, just like Joker borrowing that line from Jerry Maguire.
Score: 9
Sights & Sounds: The Bat Pod is better than the Batmobile mainly because it puts Batman out in plan view. Ledger’s makeup is as creepy as possible. Two-Face looks good. But all of that pales in comparison to the outstanding score. It’s constantly intense. And since I am from Chicago where most of this was filmed…
Score: 10
PLOT SPOILERS
Best Scene: The semi against the Bat Pod, the Bat Pod against The Joker, there was just so much going on while trying to transfer Harvey on the wide open streets of Gotham.
Ending: There were many nice twists and turns to get to the end. In the first film they teased us with the Joker. Not this time. There is a definitive ending, this time heavier, with Batman headed in a new direction … there’s going to be more, right? Please!
Questions: Why was Two-Face so upset with Gordon? Just because of crooked cops? They definitely borrowed from other superhero movies, with Superman choosing to become Clark Kent, with Spider-Man having to choose between the bus and his girl, the difference here is that Batman does it better. I was insanely interested in the twist involving Harvey and Rachel, but I wasn’t emotionally connected. And can you imagine being the other actors who will be nominated for Best Supporting Actor? Awful. Who wants to be the actor remembered for “stealing” Ledger’s last best chance to win an Oscar?
Rewatchability: Can’t wait. At 2.5 hours, normally I would say there are longs parts, but not this time. At 1 hour and 45 minutes a new plot begins, almost like a sequel, and it works. Earlier this summer, I gave Wall*E a 10, but I have a hunch, after a couple more viewing The Dark Knight has a chance of being remembered more fondly.
OVERALL
The Dark Knight is the best adult superhero film of all time. This is heavy, violent and evil with the Joker proving to be the perfect anarchist villain to Batman’s dark knight. For such a fantasy, it is amazing how director Christopher Nolan can make it feel real. The opening with the pounding score and a bank heist is more out of action movie like Heat instead of a superhero flick. There were hints of under-explained storylines but that is the only thing keeping this film away from perfection. They didn’t run into too many villains and normally with a longer film you think there is too much. I say this with a smile from ear to ear, there is too much of a good thing.
Score: 9 out of 10
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Christopher Nolan’s Inception before Batman 3
Director Christopher Nolan to be ‘Superman’s’ “godfather” while scripting third Batman film
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The best superhero adult movie maybe, because the superhero genre implicates anyway that it is for entire families and full of stupid, unrealistic ingredients. So among batmen, squirrelmen, darkmen, spidermen, supermen and those two with Jessica Alba in, this one can be “adult” and “violent”. If u compare it with really adult movies, like the recent Street Kings or the French movie Irreversible etc, this is kids stuff, only pretending to be “dark”, violent and malevolent. After all it is still a guy in a tight suit with two ears sticking out chasing a freak with a clown make up. Oh and one can fly and another can outwit everybody at will and paralyze an entire city at will, and that without money because he despises money. Oh yeah, I forgot that sonar cellular phone that allows to spy on everyone. What a load of bo+++++s, after all. Sinister within the family movies genre maybe, but nothing more.
Really enjoyed the flick, but my companion and I both found it too long. Could have used a little less Bat for our buck…but it won’t stop me from purchasing at DVD time!
Just saw the movie tonight. At about the 1/3 mark I felt like I was ingesting a delicious meal. My eyes were hungry for more Bale, more Nolan, and as much Ledger as I could possibly get. I was a parched sarlacc. Then there was a moment of sadness, despite the handholding I was doing with my date. This moment was one only us eager hungry people get to feel: the realization that like all meals, this meal would end. Open eyes wider.
At the 2/3rd mark I was praying to the cinema gods that this meal would never end. This is filmmaking at its highest caliber– confident, daunting, patient, frantic (at times), trusting, It’s good sex. Eyes fully open. Open the other senses…
You can hear the score. You can touch the streets of Gotham City (AKA Chicago where I live *groan*). You can taste the makeup on The Joker’s lips (but you can’t feel his scars). You can smell the the gunpowder and the fear. And then your bat sense kicks in and you know this giant flat rectangle with its explosions and guns and goons and chases and heists and gadgets and complex plot developments are mere sleeping hay for the Big Badass Baby Jesus that is the complex characters. Batman is fierce and conflicted. Dent is hopeful and doomed. Rachel is beautiful and weary. Joker is inexplicably human.
Not a single top ten list come the end of December will neglect to include this movie.
Finally saw it last night – agree whole heartedly with your review. Thought the Joker was one of my favorite movie characters of all time; found him both disturbing and funny. Only slight negative of the movie, as you pointed out, was the explanation for Two-Face’s anger….I sort of got it, but felt like it didn’t totally work. That aside, the best of the Batman’s and dying to see on DVD. The “jokers” next to me paid good money for the movie only to talk and punch each other the whole time which, while it didn’t ruin the movie for me, made me miss a few scenes. Side note – I wish movie theatres had ejection seats where, if enough theatre goers selected those people to leave, were dropped into a pit of hungy aligators. Just a thought.
I am agree with you. This is an extremely entertaining movie.
The Two-Face’s anger I think is because he was so sure that he can help them both when he and Rachel roped. At that time, he had give Rachel hope by saying something but finally he can’t do anything. He blamed Gordon because it was Gordon’s man that kidnap Rachel and because he had warn Gordon before that he did not trust Gordon’s men and Gordon’s didn’t listen to that.
That was the the source of the anger I think.
Hey i think Harvey Dent deserves much more attention then most people give him. His acting is solid. especially in the end scenes.
Nice review though. haha when the joker does the magic trick, i was in awe for about 1 minute. Ledger should win supporting actor. if he doesnt… Im never watching the oscars again.
The movie is quite good though a bit long as noted. And Heath Ledger does a terrific job. From an acting point of view, he is spot on. He has created a unique and memorable Joker that is as believable as any villian ever in a super hero action movie. HOWEVER, if he hadndt died, we would not be talking about him for best supporting actor. Not at this point in the year anyway. I think a ground swell of sympathy that may just carry him to win the Oscar, but at this point I am uncovinced that he derves it.
Studer – I agree that Ledger is getting tons of attention about a potential Oscar mainly because of his death, after all, no other performance has really drawn a hint of Oscar talk. But that’s also partially because no other performance has been as great. So far for me it’s hard to come up with 4 other potential Best Supporting nominees.
James Franco from Pineapple Express
Ciarán Hinds from Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
John C. Reilly from The Promotion
Colin Firth from Then She Found Me
and I suspect none of them will be nominated come Oscar time.
A subtle but, for me, spine tingling effect was the single musical note that opened the movie and sounds again and again later as a prelude to an imminent penetration into the next layer of the movie. It sounded like a electrical violin note, or an extremely fine toothed buzz saw. You get chills once it starts and you know what’s coming is going to shock. So cool!
On first viewing, I was a little puzzled by dent’s anger at Gordon. But I noticed that throughout the film, Dent is sparring with Gordon about the cops in the MCU. He’s frustrated that Gordon seems unwilling to clean house, the subtext being that Dent believes it’s a cops-stick-together thing. On the rooftop, Dent angrily accuses Gordon’s men of being dirty. He even names Wirst and Ramirez as being crooked, the very two cops that end up giving up Rachel and Dent. Dent reasons that, had Gordon listened to him and cleaned house, Rachel would be alive.
What puzzles me now though, is why Dent was so angry with Batman at the end that he would shoot him. He couldn’t have blamed Batman for Rachel’s death, because he states at the end that “Joker chose ME”, so he must realise that the Joker tricked Batman with the addresses. So why the hate for Batman?
I think that Dent was never mad at Bats but merely Judging him. I think that Bats says something to the effect of “Judge the people that started all this”. Dent replies “Fair enough” and goes about it. Also remember Gordon, Dent, and Bats were the reason for the joker gaining all that power and the full resources of the mob; they capture Lao. If they did not capture Lao, the mob would have never turned to jokes. They thought he was just some nut trying to scam them, but after all their money is in danger they get desperate and turn to a man as Alfred puts it “They did not fully understand”. So the short answer, is that Dent was not mad but merely judged himself Batman and was in the process of Gordon.
This movie was so disappointing on so many levels. I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person with decent taste in movies. Usually I agree with the critics for the most part. But sorry. I just don’t get it at all. What is so entertaining about watching some crazed psychopath kill innocent people for 2 1/2 hours? I definitely enjoyed the first scene of Joker. But after that, come on! It was just the same schtick over and over. No depth. No explanation of why he does what he does. How does the Joker ever get anyone to work for him when he just kills them. Jack Nicholson’s portrayal blew away this one.
I HATED this movie. I could not wait for it to end. I felt like I not only wasted my money, but 2 1/2 hours of my life.
How people could actually pay to see this movie more than once amazes me.
The previous Batman movie was way, way better than this.
The Best SuperHero Movie of all time? Are you kidding me? Not even close.
Surely you jest, Phil. The previous Batman was an atrociously bad joke, possibly the worst “superhero” movie of all time.
And what do you mean by “No explanation of why he does what he does”? Do you not understand the concept of nihilism? Of anarchy? Did you miss the scene where the Joker tells Harvey Dent he has no plan, he just likes to “do things”? The themes in this movie are not necessarily complex, but perhaps beyond your grasp. You don’t have to like the film, but your objections are moronic.
i agree with Vincent, Phil’s objections are moronic. I can’t fathom why the storyline cause and effects wasn’t clear enough for him. Coffee? Maybe Phil needs exercise.
The Joker comes to Gotham at this perfect time as far as he’s concerned, where the Mob is just starting to crumble under the Batman’s street justice. He sees that noone else is doing it right. He realizes that no other villain will do. His back story is pretty much incedental. We know he must have SOME reason for being the sick, twisted, nihilistic individual he is. And for a time, it was cool for a superhero movie to explain that story (i.e. the Spider-Man films.) But in this instance, it’s NOT knowing–it’s wondering which explanation of the scars was the truth–that makes The Joker so frightening and unpredictable. While you’re analyzing what drives him, he’s already thought of what drives you, and he’s probably come up with a sadistic moral puzzle for you to solve in the process. The Joker knows very well that he is the polar opposite to the Batman. He feels as though he must be the villain, just because he knows he’s the best candidate. The way he manipulated the mob, and all of Gotham, for that matter, shows that no matter how anarchist he may claim to be, he’s brilliant as well, capable of constructing a masterfull scheme to draw the worst out of Batman, Dent, Gordon, and whomever else he chooses. He knows that Batman could never kill him, and that as long as they remain archnemeses, he can bask in the glory of being the greatest villain. Therein lies his genius. He recognizes the “unwritten rules” of the superhero-villain contimuum, and exploits them. He knows that he is the bad guy. he doesn’t do it with any attempt at justifying his evil with excuses. He just wants to watch the world burn.
HAHA just saw you had “Billy Mitchell” amongst “great evil characters”.
viva la King of Kong
This is my favorite movie. I watch this with my family a lot.