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Batman the Dark Knight Review · Aug 20, 08:22 PM
The Dark Knight
I can do this, and I’m not even high. I dont need to be high to write about or watch this 2 1/2 hour thrill ride: the second installment of the new Batman trilogy: The Dark Knight. This one deserved a review to say the least. I’m not going to do what everyone thinks I’m gonna do and freak out! In fact, you may be surprised about more than a few things I say about this movie, the first “thing” being that this movie is alot too long for my taste. Even If you aren’t a big fan of comic books, Batman, Heath Ledger, splosions, all that doesn’t matter. The Dark Knight brings to you to the very basics of DC brand, Biblical style storytelling: Hero vs. Villain. While the medium and mode remains true to the first installment, Batman Begins, a fresh new perspective on the Gotham Police Department introduces engrossing new elements and characters inaccessible by its predecessor. In addition: as the movie title indicates, The Dark Knight holds true to the stereotypical 2nd act of traditional theater, in which the condundrum reaches its absolute pinnacle, leaving audiences biting their nails in anticipation for the finale. It is certainly Dark, dark like Dikembe Mutumbo dark. As district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) succinctly puts it “The night is darkest just before the dawn.” Lets examine.
If you didn’t already know. Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is a rich tycoon, the heir of Wayne Enterprises, who carts around ballin hot babes in his Maserati by day, but at night he uses his wealth and influence in a very different way: he fights crime. How does he do it? With his alter-ego: the Batman. When Bruce was a young boy he was playing in the garden behind his father’s mansion and fell down a sinkhole and into an underground cave. There he was the unfortunate witness to a cavalcade of frightened bats, who in turn: seriously frightened him. His parents were killed shortly by a robber named Joe Chill in an unfortunate mugging gone awry (or did it?), and Bruce Wayne swore to use his inherited power and influence to avenge their death. With his surly British butler Alfred (Michael Cane) and his resourceful inventor Luscious Fox (Morgan Freeman), and a powerful conglomerate corporation at his fingertips, Batman/Bruce Wayne sets out for justice in Gotham City, mothafuckin vigilante style. WHAM!
The story begins at a sea change in Gotham. An evil crime syndicate led by gangster Salvatore Maroni (Eric Roberts) finally seems to be within the reach of the legal system. The gung-ho district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) has such a strangle hold on Moroni’s gang there’s more than a few upstart zoot suits after his scalp. Batman cant just sit this one out. Even though he and everyone else knows Dent’s got this one covered, there’s what we call a “Mole” or two or twenty or fifty within the Gotham PD. Just as detective Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), in a bold co-op with Harvey Dent, is about to seal the deal: someone tips off Maroni. His accountant flies the coop out of the country with all that dirty skrilla these G’s use to make their evil little world’s go round. So Batman sets out on a little vacation to bring back this dirty accountant and bring down Maroni’s little corner store crime syndicate for good.
Sounds pretty cut and dry right? No Mr. Clean, theres a twist. Aha! Suddenly a “new” character emerges. One of Maroni’s biggest enemies offers him a truce and an incredible deal. Not just any deal: he offers to kill the Batman, who every Hat in Gotham knows will inevitably bring down everything Maroni has worked so hard to achieve. This “new” character is The Joker (Heath Ledger) a truly twisted, obsessive, psychopath who seems to absorb pleasure from any and all chaos which happens around him. His name comes not only from his cavalier demeanor and jolly existence in the face of death and destruction, but also because a smile has somehow been permanently sliced into his face, leaving disfiguring scars which he decorates with clown makeup.
With both sides of the board set, the battle for Gotham city begins, and The Joker immediately puts the Batman in check. Wanna-be vigilantes who dress like Batman (wearing spraypainted hockey pads) begin to fear for their lives first, then the small fish mobsters and mormons (including Maroni and his thugs). Before long, no citizen of Gotham is safe, not even the police force can protect them. Hell, even the police are afraid to leave their homes. The finger inevitably points back at Batman himself, after all: he brought this whole god awful mess about to begin with when he started this war of the masked crazy people, right? Will the people of Gotham give in to this psychotic terrorists demands? Can the Batman really protect them in this seemingly endless war against an invisible opposition? You will be shocked and genuinely entertained when these and more questions are answered. But I’m not going to answer them here, you’ll have to see it yourself.
Lets get down to brass tacks. Was this a good movie? Yes I think it was. There’s very few things the creators of this amazing film (Johnathan and Christopher Nolan) did wrong, but so many wonderful things they did right. As far as comic book interpretations go: this movie hits closer to the mark than any other comic book movie in existence. Ie. The Joker: his entire body was not white like the comic book version, he didn’t utilize the same green hair and eyebrows the original did, he didn’t even swing a cane or necessarily even stand or move like the comic book version. So why do I call this a perfect interpretation? Because the designers of this character looked into what the original designer intended when they created the joker. A disturbing, scary clown devoid entirely of fear and remorse. Thats the part Heath Ledger played, he was able to instill those same emotions into the audience that the original character did in the comic books, using scarcely similar methods. His insanity is so admirably powerful, it becomes his strength. He doesn’t even need the kindof muscle power and skills Batman has because he has no fucking conscience whatsoever. As soon as he is left alone with a man or woman of weaker demeanor he instantly enslaves their mind like a juggernaut prison inmate enslaves a new arrival’s but thole.
Lets shift focus off the Joker and go to Two Face aka Harvey Dent. Another true embodiment of the comic book archetype. A character so cleverly played and well written he may as well been the star of the fucking movie, I shit you not. According to Jim Gordon, the boys down at the precinct called Dent “Two Face” because of the way he was able to sweet talk the citizens, then in his next breath brutally pursue his enemies by any means necessary. This is all before he becomes his alter ego with the face that looks so gross and so cool that its really hard to even look at. One point in the movie Dent is so desperate for answers he pulls a suspect aside and points a gun to his head, flips a coin “heads: you die, tails: you live.” Mind you, this is the same man the newspaper call “Gotham’s White Knight.” You, the audience eventually realize that Dent was actually Two Face all along, but it required him to lose everything, to fall completely from grace and into the depths of emotional hell to finally realize his purpose in life: To live or die at any moment based entirely on chance. Like the Joker, his uncontrollable nature and sheer insanity alone gives him his power.
You dont really have to love the comic book to love this movie either. Batman brings along his usual array of new gadgetry, which is his trademark. The writing is so full of miniature story arcs which run in and out of each other so categorically and thoughtfully its almost beyond the level of graphic novel, and into the realm of novel novel. Some of these miniature stories within the stories are a bit repetitive and dry, almost inserted as some sort of novelty or tribute. And while the movie as a whole is grossly entertaining and packed with the perfect mix of love, hatred, combat, technical jargon, sympathy, ambiguity, helplessness and hope, the delicate balance of that mix hinges more and more on the reaction of its less important characters to the actions of our more important characters. Ie. the citizens of Gotham are a little too easily manipulated at times by the Joker to be believable, but thats just necessary for the story to come full circle, and its well worth it! For example: The police officers themselves so quickly turn on their once honored protector: The Batman, and its almost like a 5 minute turnaround from “love him” to “fuck him!” Its entirely necessary to the plot, but entirely unbelievable at the same time. Even Batman at one point crosses the line between “protector” and “big brother” then jumps back into his ethical jammies as quickly as he got out of the pool. These things kindof sucked, but were easy to overlook when you look at the movie as a whole.
The next Batman movie will be under incredible pressure not to suck. The first two movies have been so impressive, and created such an amazing buzz that I’m almost positive it will go in a negative direction. At some points during this movie I even LOL’d, it was written so well. There still were some fight scenes in this movie but not as many and not as cool as the ones in Batman Begins. Its like the first one was Ninja Turtles and this one was Law and Order on speed. The Rachael Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) character really sucked and SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT I’m glad the bitch is dead SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT. Sorry I had to do that but you know we take pride here in ruining some, but not all, of the good parts for you.
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