The follow-up to the action hit Batman Begins, The Dark Knight reunites director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale, who reprises the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and the committed new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to destroy organized crime in Gotham City for good. The triumvirate initially proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a rising criminal mastermind known as The Joker, who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces The Dark Knight ever closer to crossing the fine line between hero and vigilante. Academy Award nominee Heath Ledger portrays arch-villain The Joker, and Aaron Eckhart plays District Attorney Harvey Dent. Maggie Gyllenhaal joins the cast in the role of Rachel Dawes. Returning from Batman Begins are Gary Oldman as Lieutenant Jim Gordon; Oscar winner Michael Caine as Alfred; and Oscar winner Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox.
I feel I should start this by saying, "Believe the god damn hype." Nolan has made the best superhero film, and Batman film hands down. You know nothing about how deep, intense, shocking, awe-inspiring, and beautiful this movie is.
What hasn't already been said about Ledger's performance I sure as hell couldn't think of something. The best performance in a comic book film. No one comes even close. He is a completely soulless "mad dog" as Harvey Dent calls him who has been let loose on Gotham. There is no empathy for this man. You laugh at some of what he says, but it makes you go "What the hell is wrong with me", afterwards. Remember in Batman: The Animated Series episodes with the Joker when he would be 5 steps ahead of everyone, and when you find out what he's been planning the whole time it makes you go, "Ah fuck"? Well think of that, but all the time. He is always ahead of everyone, yet he draws in the audience in every scene he steals. It is impossible to remember that the man underneath this cackling maniac is a deep voiced Australian man who was in 10 Thing I Hate About You. Ledger is the Joker. It would be a crime to not give a nomination of Supporting Actor to Ledger.
But to only give credit to Ledger would be a disservice to the ridiculous amount of talent that this film holds.
Christian Bale takes the screen with his three characters (Batman, Bruce Wayne: Playboy, and Bruce Wayne: Person) and flows through each of them perfectly. He is the hero that Gotham deserves, a battered, tortured hero, who has found his limits. Bale brings the audience into the ethical and moral questions that must be posed when it comes to his role as a hero. He does so expertly.
Maggie Gyllenhaal is a huge step forward from Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. She is much more real and down to earth with the character, making her more interesting and likable, whereas Holmes portrayed the character as holier than thou, unsympathetic, and plain unlikable.
Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine come back with their usual of being really good. Gary Oldman surprised me by bringing A LOT out of Jim Gordan that was not there in Batman Begins. It will be interesting where Nolan takes the character from this film.
And finally is Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent. I wrote on a message board a month ago that when Dent falls (not a spoiler really, in other news water is wet) it is going to rip the hearts out of everyone in the theater. Eckhart brilliantly plays Dent, showing a side that I have never seen from him in his other films. When Two Face is in the car with Maroni and he flips the coin for Maroni's life and then goes to flip it again I thought, "Oh god please don't repeat Batman Forever." And then it was for the driver's and it made that scene really awesome.
In the same vein we also have some fantastic and beautiful cinematography and a fresh and bright screenplay that brings out the best of everyone.
It's very hard to talk specifics without giving tons of spoilers, but to give an excellent example of what Nolan has created: As the first third of the film that establishes our characters, their current situations, and setting up the basic structure of the plot, things go about in a very Batman Begins style with very quick editing, steady pacing, constant music, and jump cutting. This is almost to show a Batman that has grown accustomed to a Gotham that is steady, albeit slowly escalating. But once the Joker is arrested everything changed drastically. The cuts are much longer, the music is many times non existent, the pacing is much more drawn out, and the edits are fewer. This is a Gotham that no one has chartered before, and things are about to get extremely hairy.
I feel that I have to end by saying that all of the preview footage: the 12 clips, 20 tv spots, 3 trailers, HBO special, interviews, and a partridge in a pear tree, barely cover a fourth of this film. Even the scenes that you might have seen with the footage are not what you expect, and I have to applaud the marketing people for really going out of their way to catch us by surprise.
I'll be seeing this again tomorrow probably. I have been waiting for 2 years for this film and it blew away all of my very high expectations. See this movie for the love of God.
I cannot do this right now with any objectivity. I am total geek at this point.
Rating: 10/10
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