YouSeenThat.com: Film Review
The Dark Knight
by Jamie - July 27th 2008
“How about a magic trick?”
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Let’s face it, if you haven’t already been swept-up in the hype generated by The Dark Knight marketing machine, chances are you’ve spent the last couple of years hiding in a batcave with Osama Bin Laden and that douche bag Vanilla Ice. Via a few sketchy back-of-a-cocktail-napkin calculations, I’ve concluded that these two guys must be the only people on the planet who haven’t already had a whiff of the sweet Batman poontang. Yes, I know what you’re thinking - I’m utterly insane, so I can make that call with absolute confidence. I know for a fact that there’s a distinct lack quality cinemas in the Tora Bora Mountains… and I doubt that Osama would have finished pulling down a BitTorrent cam of The Dark Knight on his patchy dial-up connection - especially when he’s got Akmed in the next cave uploading anti-Western-cum-Jihad propaganda films at full tilt. Here’s a tip Osama: failing to upload really kills your share ratio… allegedly. Oh, and as far as Mr Ice goes, well, given that no one has bothered to mow that prick down in a drive-by shooting - a fate only being reserved for rappers with an ounce of 'talent' - I figure he must be hanging with someone even more despised than himself. Osama and Vanilla Ice… the original Odd Couple.
Wait... scratch that. A CIA buddy of mine just told me that they intercepted some radio chatter of Osama and Vanilla Ice engaged a heated rap battle about ho’s, keeping ones pimp hand strong, and Heath Ledger’s chances of a posthumous Oscar nod. Sorry chief, it looks like you’re shit out of luck. Apparently Osama has already given The Dark Knight 10 out of 10 on IMDB. You’re the odd one out. You’re Charlton Heston on a planet full of monkeys. It looks like everyone has been swallowed-up by the Dark Knight hype… well, almost everyone.
So? How about that magic trick I promised?
Here it is… I’m going to make all the hype disappear.
*Slams a fanboys head into the desk*
TADA!!
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Directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Prestige) and penned in conjunction with his brother Jonathan Nolan, this powerhouse collaborative team brings us The Dark Knight, the highly anticipated sequel to Batman Begins. While the 2005 reboot of the Batman franchise dealt primarily with his origins, The Dark Knight sees Batman (Christian Bale) and Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) join forces with Gotham's new District Attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), to take on a deranged bank robber known only as The Joker (Heath Ledger). Of course it’s never quite as simple as battling just the one villain, after some shady underworld business dealings go wrong, just about every criminal scumbag in Gotham is now gunning for both Batman and The Joker.
The Dark Knight picks up where Batman Begins left off – as soon as the audience spotted that joker card at the end of Begins, we all knew exactly what, or more accurately who, was coming next. From the opening scene, an intricate bank robbery that harks back to some of the great old black and white noir films of the fifties and sixties, it becomes apparent that we are once again in the safe hands of director Christopher Nolan. Gotham is still as gritty and as dangerous as ever. Actually, it's probably even more dangerous than ever. Gotham City now has The Batman, and aside from District Attorney Harvey Dent, he seems to be the only other individual willing to stand against corruption and villainy. The only problem is that the populace aren’t entirely sure how to take this guy. Do they fear The Batman, or do they rally behind him? Even Lieutenant Jim Gordon and the Gotham Police aren’t sure what to make of this crime fighter, but he's taking down the bad guys, so it's got to be worth forming an alliance with this caped crusader. Even if it is a shaky alliance.
Cue 152 minutes of action, suspense and absolute chaos.
From the opening scene through to the inevitable conclusion, Nolan grabs you firmly by the shirt collar, like Batman dangling a Gotham hoodlum from a rooftop. You expect him to grow tired, to falter and let you splat on to the vicious street below. But he never does. If you thought that Batman Begins was dark, gritty and action-packed, think again - The Dark Knight turns the intensity up to eleven, and once it has you in its grip, it never lets go. The fights. The car chases. The vicious cat-and-mouse game between Batman and The Joker. The twists and turns.
For me, watching The Dark Knight was akin to running an emotional marathon. It had nothing to do with the films length - I'm toilet trained and older than five years old, so I've got no issue with longish films - it was the fact that after all was said and done, I came out the other side with a feeling of being completely wrecked. Maybe that's the sign of a good film? Maybe that's the sign of a film that tried to cram too much into it? I suspect it's a little from column A, and a little from column B. Like just about every comic book film floating around on the screen of late, there’s always the propensity to try and give the audience ultimate bang-for-their-buck - too much exposition and intricacy in the story. Sure, the WTF-quotient wasn't exactly registering anywhere near David Lynch levels, but at times it felt like there were so many twists and deviations that the story became a little difficult to follow. Maybe it's my old age, or the fact that I chose the wrong day to stop sniffing glue, but it took me a while to figure out the point of Bruce Wayne's ludicrous CSI: Gotham attempt to pull a fingerprint from a shattered bullet. From what I hear, I was one of the lucky ones - not everyone made the apparently obvious connection.
On a similar note, it was probably a bad choice to go to the toilet when Bruce Wayne was explaining the sonar device.
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Oh, and why is it that one villain is never enough for modern audiences? Apparently we need at least two. Christ, sometimes even three. I can certainly see how the two villain setup is useful for moving the story along, but generally more villains equals more backstories, more subplots and ultimately at least one or two villains that are never truly developed to their full potential. Well, that's assuming you don't want to push the running time past the two and a half hour mark. Frankly I found the second villain, Two Face, to be utterly pointless - if you are going to completely underuse a villain, then you should have made The Dark Knight solely about The Joker. I'm pretty certain Ledger's character could have easily carried the entire film.
If you sat through the entirety of Spiderman 3 without killing yourself, then you will know exactly what I mean about multiple villains. Fortunately The Dark Knight shits all over Spiderman 3 - I only watched it for the customary Bruce Campbell cameo. Honest.
What about the performances? Okay, I’m never quite sure what to say when it comes to comic book films – really it’s just a massive suspension of disbelief involving over-the-top characters that roll from one action scene to the next. Then I saw the exception to the rule... Ledger - but I'll leave his special mention until later.
Christian Bale as Batman – I love The Bale, and while he does a good job as the Caped Crusader, I had a couple of issues with his performance. The first was the voice. Christ, I couldn’t stop pissing myself laughing every time Batman opened his mouth: it was almost as if the Dark Knight not only had severe laryngitis, but throat cancer and a penchant for chain-smoking twenty packets of Winnie Blues a day. It was annoying to the point of distraction. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why he does it, and I’m sure he did much the same thing in Batman Begins, but come on, like you can’t tell it’s just Bruce Wayne putting on a dodgy voice. It reminds me of the whole Clarke Kent/Superman thing where he can seemingly fool everyone by simply donning a pair of glasses - christ these people are stupid.
The other issue really isn’t an issue with the Bale, actually it was more of an issue with my twisted mind – every time I see Bruce Wayne strutting around at a social function, I immediately think of Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. I’m expecting him to pull out a 1980’s betamax camcorder and start filming himself banging a couple of hookers to the sweet rhythms of Phil Collins. Okay, maybe that’s just me.
But yeah, the “Batman” voice really shit me.
The rest of the supporting cast were tight. Aaron Eckhart was great as District Attorney Harvey Dent. Michael Caine is always a delight to see on screen, reprising his role as the steadfast and dependable butler, Alfred. The much publicised replacement for Rachel Dawes was Maggie Gyllenhaal, taking over from Katie Holmes – she definitely took a different approach from Holmes, something which may not be to everyone’s liking. Actually while I'm on the topic of Maggie, it seriously pisses me off when I read douchebag reviewers slam Maggie for being ugly. Bullshit. I suspect they are just jealous of Katie Holmes geting to suck on Tom Cruise's Scientologist balls. Go eat a gun - I could bet dollars to donuts that most of these jagoffs probably look like Ron Jeremy on a bad day. Anyway where was I? Oh yeah, Morgan Freeman returns as Lucius Fox as Batman’s Q. Then there’s Gary Oldman as Lieutenant Jim Gordon. Is it just me, or does Gary Oldman’s talent seem to be completely wasted in these Batman films? A guy with so much raw energy in the body of a boring as batshit character like Jim Gordon – the guy does bugger all, and when he’s on screen I feel like going into a terminal sleep. Eh. Maybe I'm missing something.
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And then there's Heath Ledger. Wow. I didn’t want to buy into all of this posthumous Oscar hype, but after seeing Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight, I’ve got to admit that much of that hype was deserved. He absolutely blew the rest of the cast out of the water. Come to think of it, he completely blew Jack Nicholson’s Joker out of the water as well. The mannerisms. The subtle nuances. The onscreen presence. I’ve never really been a big fan of Ledger, but I was completely and utterly captivated by Ledger’s performance as this psychotic agent of chaos. I was hypnotised every second he was on the screen. Although sadly there’s always going to be a niggle in the back of my mind – would I have been so in awe of the performance if Heath Ledger hadn't died tragically before release? It’s a little hard to put into words, but I think you know what I’m getting at. Honestly, I thought he was great, but is it really worthy of an Oscar? I’m not sure. It has to be worth a nomination, I have no doubt of that, but regardless of the outcome I suspect that there’s always going to be a cloud over the result.
Overall, The Dark Knight matches, if not surpasses Batman Begins on just about every level. It's a dark, non-stop thrill ride, and while the story felt a little convoluted at times, it is worth the price of admission for Heath Ledger alone. The Nolan brothers have certainly made a name for themselves in a short space of time: Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige. Not a bad way to start a career by any standard. With Christopher's skill behind the camera, and Jonathan's ability to craft story, the future of Hollywood looks bright. If they can build on the momentum of The Dark Knight, I can't wait to see where the go with the third, and possibly final Batman film with the Nolan brothers at the helm.The A.D.D. Version:
The Dark Knight is a great follow-up to the 2005 reboot, Batman Begins. Is this the best film of the last decade like many are making it out to be? Hell no, what kind of shit are these people usually watching? The Steven Segal boxset? It would be hard to deny The Dark Knight's place in the top echelon of comic book films, and this is unquestionably the best Batman film to date, but the franchise isn’t over just yet - let’s see if Nolan can outdo himself with the third film.
Random Observations:
See This Film If You Like:
The YouSeenThat.Com Popcorn Rating:
The Dark Knight matches, if not surpasses Batman Begins on just about every level - but it will leave you wrecked. Bring on the next Batman film!
How does the YouSeenThat.Com Popcorn Rating work?
Well, it works on the theory that the more you enjoy a film, the less likely you are to be aimlessly shoving salty corn kernels into your gob, and a little more focused on what is happening in front of you on the big screen. Therefore, the more popcorn in our scorers bucket, the better the film. Pretty simple, huh?. Think of it as an inverse scoring system.