The Dark Knight (2008)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman
Language: English
Runtime: 152 Minutes approx.
Age Rating: 12A
Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime
Reviewed by Ross Miller
It must be at least 18 months since the hype machine was started up for The Dark Knight. It may not have appeared on the average movie goer’s radar until a couple of months before the movie was actually released but for people who spend half their life on the Internet this was followed meticulously from photograph to photograph, new trailer to new trailer, and it got to a point where it seemed no matter how good the movie was, it wouldn’t live up to the hype and expectations.
Well, I’m here to tell you, like so many others before me, that The Dark Knight lives up to all of that, delivering the quality that everyone wanted and a plethora of unexpected aspects thrown in for good measure. This is expansive yet meticulous filmmaking; an epic, all-enveloping crime tale hidden under the disguise of a comic book movie.
Carrying directly on from Batman Begins, The Dark Knight sees Batman and Lieutenant Gordon join forces with newly appointed DA Harvey Dent to take on a psychopathic criminal known as The Joker. Simultaneously they have to combat other forces, such as the mob, which are still persisting as the core problem within Gotham City, whilst The Joker’s crimes grow more and more deadly.
With Batman Begins, director Christopher Nolan took a pretty much dead franchise and breathed fresh life into it. He managed to make people forgive the movie making industry for the atrocity that was Batman & Robin and we were free to have faith in the character and all it has to offer once again. It was gritty, realistic, and showed the true, dark nature of the character with none of the colourful candy layered on top that some of the previous films had. However, Nolan and company have done what I didn’t think was possible — they have surpassed the quality set by the predecessor and made not only the best comic book movie ever made, but a film that transcends the genre and could more accurately be described as an epic, expansive crime story that just happens to have a comic book character in it.
The Dark Knight could be compared to Ang Lee’s take on the Hulk; it disguises itself as a regular comic book movie but it heads in such directions that it doesn’t feel at all like one. It is so much more than that, there’s so much detail in there, so much going on and just so many unexpected elements working simultaneously that it’s surprising it’s been welcomed as much as it has. It doesn’t function as expected — it’s almost as if it takes the expectations of the audience and twists and contorts them into only a mild resemblance of what they formerly were. But the key to this gamble is that what we get, although it’s different from what we might have expected, is all so good that it’s not just accepted but completely embraced. This is an example of the fact that you can take risks and do something different with a well-trodden genre and still make the fans feel satisfied with the result.
The cast are all back for Nolan’s second go at the character, with the exception of Maggie Gyllenhaal replacing Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. And it’s most definitely a step up in every way; Holmes was probably the biggest problem with Batman Begins, dragging the scenes she was in down more than a few rungs on the ladder with her woodenness but this time around the very talented Gyllenhaal gives the character that much needed believability and compassion. Christian Bale is again excellent as the caped crusader and Gary Oldman (in an expanded role from the one in the previous film), Aaron Eckhart, and Morgan Freeman are all predictably impressive in their respective roles.
However there’s one actor who is a psychopathic head above the rest, and I don’t really need to say who it is as you will already know. Heath Ledger is stunning, mesmerising, astonishing, and utterly astounding as Batman’s arch nemesis, The Joker. The way he gets every mannerism, every facial expression, and of course the infamous high-pitched laugh absolutely spot-on is a testament to how deep he dove into the character. No matter how good the rest of the cast are, Ledger is untouchable here and most definitely deserves that Oscar nomination people have been saying he’ll get. And when he does get nominated come next year it won’t be out of sympathy but because he truly deserves it, he really is that damn good. And anyone who states otherwise is wrong; it’s not often I say that flat out but this warrants such a brash statement. Ledger’s performance will go down in the movie villain history books alongside the likes of Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates.
Very often in films of this genre, no matter what happens, no matter the dangers our hero has to face, we know he won’t die because he’s the hero of the tale, right? Well, The Dark Knight is one of those rare cases where you genuinely fear for the life of the main character and the (innocent) people around him. It’s one of the key strengths of the film that no one is safe, no matter how established they may be within the story or in the hearts of the comic book fans; you just never know what will happen next and to whom. There’s a certain unpredictability at play here, the likes of which we’ve rarely seen in modern movies, especially those based on comic books.
Aside from The Joker, who I can’t say enough amazing things about, the biggest addition is Aaron Eckhart as “Gotham’s white knight” Harvey Dent. This goes to prove that you can have multiple storylines, or more specifically multiple villains, in the same film and make it work. It could be argued that they should have had the whole film about The Joker and left the character of Two-Face for the next one but I would argue that the two go hand in hand, at least in the way the story is handled here. Some very detailed problems with the conclusion of the two characters' stories aside, as a fan of the characters and the whole mythology I was in utter heaven experiencing a film that includes three of the comic book universe’s best characters.
One of the complaints about Batman Begins was that the fight sequences weren’t done as coherently as people would have liked. Even as a fan I still can admit that there was a bit of the annoying shaky cam going on and it did draw you out of the experience of the scene rather than involve you as it should have. Well Nolan has successfully remedied that flaw here as the fight sequences are very much coherent, in full view and more engaging than you could hope for. It reminds us of the fact that Batman is supposed to be one of the best hand-to-hand combat fighters in the world and boy, does he show it here. It’s not only got all of these elements which are a lot more unique than you’d expect but there are also just the kick-ass action sequences to fall back on to.
Like 99% of films out there, The Dark Knight has its flaws. But they’re very specific and very easy to overlook in lieu of everything else. The ending isn’t handled as well as it could have been and there are a few moments where you have to suspend your disbelief but they amount to nowhere near the level needed to weigh the film down as a whole.
The Dark Knight is a wonderful piece of filmmaking; it works on a purely entertainment level where you can just sit back and enjoy the kick-ass action sequences and the bringing to life of some famous characters. And it also works as much more than that; the magnificent performance of Ledger as The Joker coupled with this all-encompassing crime element gives it those extra layers of creative complexity. For me this sits comfortably not only as one of the best of 2008 so far but as a testament to just how good a film can be when the maximum amount of effort, passion, and determination gets thrown at it. The hype may have been magnanimous but The Dark Knight lives up to it; and that, my friend, is no joke.
