Bryan’s Place

The Dark Knight is the best comic book/superhero movie I have ever seen.

Christopher Nolan’s bleak, almost hopelessly dark re-imagining of the Batman universe really takes off here, in a way he didn’t have time to execute in Batman Begins, between all the back story and character development. This strengthening of tone is spearheaded by the introduction of the Joker, Batman’s iconic antagonist. This performance was already presumed ahead of time to be a classic by eager fans, who devoured up every teaser trailer and spilt crumb of viral marketing. When Heath Ledger suffered an untimely death, this ironically only increased the hype surrounding the movie, as now it was apparently a matter of whether or not the performance would serve as a proper memorial. Cynical movie-goers feared that Ledger could never hope to live up (no pun intended) to the astronomical fan expectations, no matter how great his performance.

Rest assured that, all hype and bias aside, Heath Ledger’s Joker is the best Joker that has ever been. All at once, it’s chilling, darkly funny, and loyal to the original appeal of the source material, while at the same time standing out as a unique performance and character in the history of the franchise. The Dark Knight’s Joker is more stunningly insane, vile, and dangerous than any other, and the entity known as Heath Ledger disappears within the character. The central leading design idea seems to be a re-imagining of the Joker as an elemental force of chaos and evil–the character is given no back story within the film, instead appearing as a complete creature from the get-go, as if it were always there. It’s fair to say that this Joker could well live on as an iconic film villain, of the same caliber as Darth Vader and Hannibal Lecter. Whether or not it lives up to the hype, you couldn’t ask for anything better than this.

However, it’s the script that really enables the movie, not any single performance (though all the key players are excellent). Not only is it unmistakably “Batman” all-around, but it includes a highly intelligent plot and pacing in comparison to other comic book film adaptations (which often treat the viewer as if he were dimwitted), in addition to well-written, engrossing dialogue by all characters.

The script is far more ambitious than Begins, in that it has a lot more going on simultaneously in the story, and everything only seems to pick up more momentum as things move forward. Batman as a character is tested in this film in a level that just didn’t happen the first time around, as are the other characters, and in the end, the city itself. This is the classic “second act” film, “When everything goes to Hell.” Batman and the Joker are the two halves of the film’s centerpiece, as it should be, as the Joker is essentially meant to be Batman’s equal.

The film-making is also superb, over-all; of the same quality as any other expertly-filmed piece of work. In style, it carries the dramatic weight of a suspense film, while also including superb action set-pieces and interesting cinematography. It’s worth noting that the fight sequences are also better than in the first–it’s a huge relief when Batman first returns to battle here, and one can actually see what he is doing. Blurs of black cape and indistinct movement, serving at best as an excuse for said sequences, were a great personal annoyance in Begins.

In addition, while Begins has strong horror elements, The Dark Knight can be a downright scary movie at times. This is the most jarringly violent, intense, and frightening PG-13 movie I have ever seen, and if there’s one complaint I have, it’s that they should have just settled for an R rating to enhance a minority of scenes that could have used the freedom. As it is, I’ll agree with other viewers and say that I would not take children, especially the easily-frightened, to see this.

All in all, I was impressed with the final product, which is basically a Batman for the modern era, a deadly serious and dark universe that leaves behind the cheese that permeates past film efforts in the franchise, replacing it with an all-pervading, epic darkness.

Final Grade: A