THERE ARE NO SPOILERS. I will not spoil anything because this is a movie that everyone must see by themselves. But Christopher Nolan's revisited take on Batman has been rattling around my head since the night I watched it, and I need to jot down a few thoughts. If you haven’t seen this movie (meaning, if you live on another planet), then there’s the more reason why you NEED to read further.

It is everything that a movie fan like me ever hope for in a movie. It has a great plot, superb performances, and outstanding action sequences. Before this, the best Batman movie for me is Batman Returns because it is dark and sinister and it has a "twisted" and ironic love story between Batman/Bruce and Catwoman/Selina. Not to overstate it, but The Dark Knight is arguably not only the best comic book movie to date, but one of the best movie movies to date. I enjoyed it, and my boyfriend enjoyed it (not that his opinion really matter in the 1st place. Kidding :P).

What makes it good?

Well, first, there is the story making the nearly 3 hours just fly by in an exhausting rush. There are at least two points where the film seems to be escalating to its climax, only to build on that moment and raise the intensity up, yet again. The sub-plots don’t disturb the movie’s spine. Unlike Spider-Man 3, all of the baddies showing up in this film don’t get lost amidst each other and at the same time reintroduces the world to The Joker.

Chris and Jonathan Nolan really peer into the soul of humanity and find interesting — sometimes even biblical — allusions to paint their story. Joker’s repeated schemes that force others to kill or be killed; Batman’s fear that he has inadvertently “raised the bar” of criminality in Gotham; the many allusions to the corruption of power, most notably in Bruce Wayne’s “sonar experiment” that allows him to find anyone by using cell phone signals (a quick nudge-nudge at the Bush administration, I would imagine); and finally the power of terrorism and the panic that it brings, and how that can be exploited by someone strange enough to wield it.

I'm a fan of those too-few films showing "The Clean Win is a Lie.". The short version is this: Big stuff, important stuff, comes at a cost. There are people who are heroes, and they make sacrifices. Likewise, if there was a world with super heroes, they make would super-sacrifices.

Secondly, of course, there’s the acting.

Christian Bale. There’s something about the way he talks that I find interferes with my empathy for Bruce Wayne. And the image of him as a womanizer Bruce is not believable. I remain impressed by Michael Keaton’s portrayal above all others, even though I was — I’ll admit it — initially aghast at the casting choice.

The magnificent trio: Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman are all so comfortable in their recurring roles, it is hard to think of them as acting. They are simply "become" those characters and support Christian Bale to the finish line. Although, there is a fine line between being a support to the hero and driving his agenda and I think Alfred kinda crossed that line in this movie.

I am so happy that Maggie Gyllenhall replaces Katie Holmes. She doesn’t have Bond-girl beauty but she portrays a strong woman MUCH better than Mrs. Cruise. In a movie where almost all of the stars are men, I think Maggie does a good job in standing on her ground.

Aaron Eckhart, D.A. and more, with a storied career of his own, has perhaps his defining moments within this film. Gripping and tragic.

And that brings us to the greatest and most tragic part of the movie.
Heath Ledger redefines the Joker, bringing the insane brutality to the big screen. He was fantastic. I was completely wrong to think that the talk of Oscars was simply 'saying nice things about the dead'. Like Michael Caine said, it was simply the best performance of a villain I’ve seen.

He oozes menace. He dangles perfectly on the edge of sanity and insanity, and for me captures the Joker's menace and deliberate choice of insanity and chaos pretty much perfectly. With all due respect to Jack Nicholson, this is the Joker, and Ledger's performance will either keep everyone away from ever touching the role, or elevate it as the role to beat, and provides a tragic exclamation point to the senselessness of Ledger's death.

The Joker's story of his 'scars' (his Chelsea smile) changes in the story: he gives two different versions of how his face got cut.

“Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another… If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!” The Joker (Batman: The Killing Joke)

Everyone else in the film — and I include Batman in that — is simply reduced to an extra, as Heath Ledger’s character powers through the entire film. What a fantastic performance.

So, by all means make your own decision about whether or not to take children to see it (The Joker is magnificent but also brutal and sadistic), but if you are an adult, go and see this film.

Got that? Go and see this film. You will be blown away by Ledger’s performance — and I fully agree he deserves a posthumous Oscar for this. Go on, what are you waiting for?

Labels: movies, review