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- Review count1
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- First reviewJuly 21, 2008
- Last reviewJuly 21, 2008
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dAtkRaK's Reviews
Overall rating
5
/
5
Rich, complex and thrilling
PostedJuly 21, 2008
dAtkRaK
from Tampa, FL
It's a shame that the Academy is given over to the formulaic and often terribly shallow world of "drama" and "romantic comedy". It's a shame that, in spite of reviews just like this one, from critics taken much more seriously than myself, The Dark Knight will be overlooked by the Academy.
I say this without shame and without the fervor of your typical comic book fanboy: The Dark Knight deserves an Oscar. Heath Ledger deserves an Oscar (and not just because he has passed; I am not prone to hero worship, certainly not for an actor who got his start with A Knight's Tale and 10 Things I Hate About You). Christopher Nolan deserves an Oscar.
This truly was one of the best movies of the year. The plot was full and complete, told with such gripping tension that my wife and I found ourselves biting nails and worrying for the fates of Dent, Wayne and Dawes. Speaking of Dawes, Gyllenhall was a welcome change, even though her character was less a full person and more a plot device.
But then, that was almost the point of the movie---or the point that The Joker spent two and a half hours trying to get across---that everyone was a device, everyone was a pawn, either to their own motives, the motives of those who had power or to the twist of fate. The Joker reprimands Wayne for questioning why Batman should die, "I don't want to kill you... you... complete me."
And The Joker. My, my, my. I'm a realist, folks. I expected Ledger's performance to be hyped, mostly because I passed on Brokeback Mountain in deference to the terrible movies he did before. But this was... The Joker was everything he needed to be. Sickeningly insane. You spent the entire movie repulsed and compelled to watch him, like a train wreck you can't take your eyes off of. The only catharsis comes in the form of Dent's physical destruction, where we see the grotesqueness of The Joker's mind given form and substance. Eckhart said, in interviews leading up to the film that "when you see Two Face, you're supposed to be sick to the stomach." And we were not disappointed.
I could go on forever. This movie was one of the greats and its truly sad that the Academy will pan it because they see it as a comic book movie and not what it is: a deeply compelling, rich glimpse into the human psyche. Gotham isn't a city that exists, it is the city of the mind, where two terrible forces do battle for our souls.
I say this without shame and without the fervor of your typical comic book fanboy: The Dark Knight deserves an Oscar. Heath Ledger deserves an Oscar (and not just because he has passed; I am not prone to hero worship, certainly not for an actor who got his start with A Knight's Tale and 10 Things I Hate About You). Christopher Nolan deserves an Oscar.
This truly was one of the best movies of the year. The plot was full and complete, told with such gripping tension that my wife and I found ourselves biting nails and worrying for the fates of Dent, Wayne and Dawes. Speaking of Dawes, Gyllenhall was a welcome change, even though her character was less a full person and more a plot device.
But then, that was almost the point of the movie---or the point that The Joker spent two and a half hours trying to get across---that everyone was a device, everyone was a pawn, either to their own motives, the motives of those who had power or to the twist of fate. The Joker reprimands Wayne for questioning why Batman should die, "I don't want to kill you... you... complete me."
And The Joker. My, my, my. I'm a realist, folks. I expected Ledger's performance to be hyped, mostly because I passed on Brokeback Mountain in deference to the terrible movies he did before. But this was... The Joker was everything he needed to be. Sickeningly insane. You spent the entire movie repulsed and compelled to watch him, like a train wreck you can't take your eyes off of. The only catharsis comes in the form of Dent's physical destruction, where we see the grotesqueness of The Joker's mind given form and substance. Eckhart said, in interviews leading up to the film that "when you see Two Face, you're supposed to be sick to the stomach." And we were not disappointed.
I could go on forever. This movie was one of the greats and its truly sad that the Academy will pan it because they see it as a comic book movie and not what it is: a deeply compelling, rich glimpse into the human psyche. Gotham isn't a city that exists, it is the city of the mind, where two terrible forces do battle for our souls.
Yes, I recommend this movie.
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