The Dark Knight

(Movie Review)

(Once again, because of my geographical location I'm reviewing this half a year late. Bear with me.)

When I was a kid, Batman was my favorite comic book character.

Well, no surprise there, right? Batman was a lot of people's favorite comic book character. That's why DC comics and Time Warner have made so much money off of him the past 20 years.

But which Batman? The dark Tim Burton Batman? The borderline psychotic Frank Miller Batman? The king of camp Adam West Batman?

Well, for my generation Super-Friends was our first encounter with Batman. And if you would have asked me at the time why Batman was my favorite character, I wouldn't have told you it was because he was extremely dark and disturbed. I would have said that he was the only superhero without any super powers. When the Batman took down supervillains he wasn't relying on a bullet proof chest or super strength. He was just a normal guy slugging it out against the villains with his own two fists (okay, and sometimes some bat gadgets).

And I think most Batman fans will give you the same answer if you ask them. At least that's been my experience.

Oddly enough, the comic book industry never really seemed to catch onto this. Over the years they've created very few super heroes without incredible powers.

The movie industry as well seems to have mis-interpreted Batman's popularity to mean that the public wants more dark and disturbed superheroes.

All that being said, this is the best Batman movie so far.

When the original Tim Burton Batman came out 20 years ago, I was surprised at how little action sequences there actually were in the movie. I was 12 years old, and I was hoping for more good old fashioned fist fights and swashbuckling.
While the Tim Burton movie may not have delivered on action scenes, it did create a very tense atmosphere. You watched the whole thing on pins and needles. You were relatively sure that Batman himself wasn't going to die, but no one else in Tim Burton's world was safe.

Watched today though, the 1989 Batman doesn't seem to have the same effect. I don't know if times have changed, or if it's just that I'm 20 years older, but if you pop Tim Burton's Batman into the VCR today, it seems incredibly cheesy.

This movie, on the other hand, is obviously going to be the new standard by which all future Batman movies will be judged.

3 years ago when Batman Begins came out, I jotted down a few thoughts here.
But it is with the sequel that the franchise comes into its own.

As a kid, the tragic story of Harvey Dent always fascinated me. (Much like the story of Harry Osborn did. When you're a kid, these comic book stories of good guys who have a fatal character flaw that turns them into bad guys seems downright Shakespearean).

But up until now, no Batman movie has ever really done justice to this story. The previous Batman franchised really dropped the ball on the whole Harvey Dent thing. When "Two-Face" was the villain in "Batman Forever", his entire back story was summed up in a 10 second news clip.

By contrast, "The Dark Knight" not only shows us how the transformation from Harvey Dent into Two-Face could take place, but, gives him plausible motivation.

Heath Ledger is also brilliant as the Joker. I know I'm not the first person to say this, but he really becomes the role. Watching him, it's difficult to believe he was a 28 year old actor at the time. He seems to embody a character much older, someone who has been knocked about by the world for a long time.

The action scenes seem to be the biggest weak link in this movie. Maybe it was just my small screen TV, but I felt like I had a hard time following everything, especially since almost all of the action took place at night.

But the action scenes were secondary to the drama (and it's rare in a comic book movie that you get to say that). As many critics have pointed out, this movie had all the drama and tension of a good mob movie like "GoodFellas" or "The Godfather".
The only thing that seemed a little cheesy was Batman himself.
As I mentioned in my review of "Batman Begins" (see above link), the idea of a guy running around in a bat suit seems perfectly natural in the world of cartoons and comic books. But the more serious and realistic Batman's surroundings get, the more he himself seems not to fit in with his own movie.
I especially thought Christian Bale's husky "Batman voice" was a bit over the top.

But all in all, a brilliant film, and no doubt, the best Batman yet.
Update: Whisky Prajer's thoughts here.

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The Dark Knight: Movie Review (Scripted)