Comments
There are currently no comments for this entry.
Comment Form
Original Entry
The Dark Knight
I'll begin by saying that if you haven't seen Batman Begins, go rent or buy it before you see this movie. The Batman revisitation is way better than the originals and needs to be seen in its entirety.
Now, if you saw Batman Begins and thought the original Batman movies were better, you might want to skip this one (and see someone about your questionable taste in movies). The Dark Knight takes Batman to a whole new level. Batman Begins was a lot of fun to watch; this movie is so dark that I just can’t say the same. Don’t get me wrong; this movie is a powerhouse of cinematic goodness. Just when you think everything is going to work out, something goes wrong. I’m not talking about goofy plot twists here, I’m talking about things happening. This style of storytelling had me on the edge of my seat throughout most of the movie and at no point did I figure out what was going to happen until it did. There were maybe two instances where they foreshadowed an event and I got it, but it never was a big giveaway.
A review of The Dark Knight would be remiss without talking about Heath Ledger. His portrayal as the Joker was absolutely flawless. Karrie read somewhere that he could be the first actor to receive an Academy Award posthumously; he would certainly be deserving of it if he did. None of the characters in the movie ever quite figure the Joker out in the movie, and Ledger did a good job of making sure the audience never quite figures the character out, either. The movie’s producers memorialized Ledger’s untimely death early on in the credits, which allows most people to easily see it before they leave the theater if they like. No post-credits scene, by the way.
The technology in The Dark Knight is pretty cool. The Tumbler makes a return, and a new Bat Bike is employed (although I’m not impressed with how it was introduced). Batman’s suit gets some upgrades, and he and Fox get to use some far-out gadgets. The technology used by the villains in the film is rudimentary in comparison, but the way it is used is sometimes as impressive as Batman’s gear (impressive meaning leaving an impression on your mind). Story-wise, most of the famliar characters are back. Gary Oldman reprises his role as Gordon, and even Cillian Murphy makes an appearance as Scarecrow. Katie Holmes is replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal for the role of Rachel. I always despise roles being filled by new actors, but it worked well enough in this case. It just breaks the consistency of the two films a bit.
Hans Zimmer and James Newton-Howard returned to score this film. The music from the first one was fantastic, and those themes are mostly freshened and re-used for this film. I was disappointed to hear a couple of Zimmer’s older themes re-purposed for this film (Gladiator comes to mind). He has been doing this all too often as of late, making me wonder if he is losing his touch. The visual effects (done by several different effects houses) were amazing and supported the film’s feeling of reality. The cinematography was also breathtaking, especially the aerial shots.
Overall, this movie is a tour de force of storytelling power. The movie is fairly long at over two and a half hours, but there might as well be two movies in one they packed so much in. The typical story arc of intro, buildup, and climax are done away with in this film; there were at least three scenes in the movie that could have been climaxes in any other movie. This is part of what kept me guessing and it really made the movie feel real. I know I’m overusing that word, but more than other movies I truly felt a part of the story and I found myself caring about what happened to the characters. Unless you really despise dark films, I highly recommend this movie.
Rating (out of 4):
Posted by: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) in Reviews and Movies on July 21, 2008 at 8:15 AM