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- First reviewJuly 19, 2008
- Last reviewJuly 19, 2008
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kingmfreak's Reviews
Overall rating
5
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5
The night is darkest just before the dawn...
PostedJuly 19, 2008
kingmfreak
from Seattle, WA
In one short day, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight has already replaced The Godfather as IMDb's best movies, as rated by frequent users. I haven't been surfing IMDb for very long (only a couple of years), but I have never seen any movie take the number one spot (LOTR 3 only made it to number 2, and is down to number 14 now). So does this movie live up to it's hype?
The critical hype, yes. The IMDb hype, no. I would not put this movie as number one, nor in my top 10, though I could reserve a spot in my top 50. But let's not start out on a negative note, for The Dark Knight is truly one of the great masterpieces of cinema this year, and the first movie to really prove to me that this could be a great year for movies.
The story is massive, with so many intertwining storylines that you have to admire Nolan for holding it all together and making it make sense on one viewing. Essentially, The Joker (Heath Ledger) rallies the mob to strike back against Batman (Christian Bale), while a new District Attorney (Aaron Eckhart) crusades to clean up the streets and offers Batman a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe he won't have to continue doing this much longer.
Those who are fans of Batman know Dent's fate, but that still doesn't make the transition to Two-Face any easier for us. Eckhart quickly goes from being the White Knight to a twisted, broken soul bent on revenge against everyone. Gone is the stupid purple make-up that inhabited Tommy Lee Jones' face in Batman Forever, replaced by black charred skin, a gaping cheek, and an eye that roles in it's socket.
But really, this movie is all Ledger's. As the Joker, he is terrifying, yet funny, and crudely sets up a number of perilous situations for Batman, Dent, Rachel Dawes (replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal) and the citizens of Gotham. Introduced in one of the coldest and most effective bank heists in history, he immediately establishes himself as one of the great villains of the film, and of all film history.
And it's not just the puzzles he establishes that make him threatening, it's also his whole demeanor. The Joker seems impervious to pain, a masochist and sadist relishing in all the damage he is inflicted and that he inflicts upon others. His tongue continuously darts in and out of his mouth, as if he's licking his chops for the next bit of chaos he is about to cause. But what makes him so twisted is how he cackles throughout everything he does, acting without a hint of remorse to what he is doing.
Probably the saddest thing about this movie is Ledger's death. I'm not really giving anything away when I say the Joker is allowed to live at the end. He is the iconic Batman villain, like Lex Luthor to Superman or Magneto to the X-Men. He points out an interesting paradox to Batman late in the film: Batman won't kill him because it's against his principles, and the Joker won't kill him because, well, Batman's too much fun. More would have happened in the third movie, but we won't get that now, because sadly Ledger has passed on, and it would be a crime to recast the role, no matter how great the actor.
Really, you don't think much about Christian Bale or Michael Caine or Maggie Gyllenhaal when you remember this movie: you focus on the villains: The Joker, a twisted maniacal person who causes chaos with no rhyme or reason, only because he can. And Two-Face, who starts with the best intentions, and ends scarred and broken by the Jokers plans.
And Batman makes a crucial decision at the end that changes everything. Really, there could be no other way, and again, kudos the Chris and Jonathan Nolan for constructing such a tight screenplay. Everything that happens makes sense, and the choices that characters must make ring with a truth of the consequences.
Now all I can hope for is that this movie doesn't follow the trend of Spider-Man to the end. So far it has: a solid first film that established (or reestablished) the franchise, and a second film that redefined the standards for comic book movies. The Nolans are smart enough filmmakers that they shouldn't go down this path, but I trusted Sam Raimi too.
A final note: this movie is already setting a number of records. It set the record for midnight release ($18.5 million), beating Revenge of the Sith ($16.5 million) and set the opening day record ($66.4 million), beating Spider-Man 3 ($59.8 million). Now all this movie has to do is break the weekend record, set by Spider-Man 3 ($151.1 million). And the difference between this movie and every other movie that's come out this year: I want to see it again, right now.
Yes, I recommend this movie.
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