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| Dark Knight, The |
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  (7/10)
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Runtime: 152 |
| Public Rating: 8.79 (19 votes) |
Director: Christopher Nolan |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: action, crime, mystery, thrille |
Year: 2008 |
| Writer(s): Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan (screenplay), Christopher Nolan and David S, Goyer (story), Bob Kane (characters) |
| Distributor: Warner Bros |
| Reviewed by: Avril Carruthers |
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Produced by Christopher Nolan, Charles Roven, Emma Thomas
Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart,
Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Monique Curnen, Ron Dean, Chin Han, Cillian
Murphy.
Brilliant special effects, explosive action and breath-takingly beautiful cityscapes deliver an impressive movie, as expected from Christopher Nolan, the director responsible for Batman Begins, Insomnia and Memento. In addition, complex characters and committed acting from the leads expand the theme of masks vs. exposure and the true nature of good vs. evil in mankind in the best comic book tradition.
In this sequel, Batman (Christian Bale) is disenchanted with his role as the symbol he thought Gotham City needed in the fight against criminal domination. In particular, the new DA Harvey Dent seems the White Knight to Batman’s Dark. Aaron Eckhart plays Dent with exactly the chiselled chin, swept blond hair and slot blue eyes of a comic book hero (but not superhero). What’s more, he seems to have snaffled the affections of Bruce’s childhood sweetheart Rachel Dawes, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal in the place of Katie Holmes. Maybe Batman can retire and marry Rachel before she gives up on waiting for Bruce.
Of course, the thing about being a superhero who can fly, deflect bullets and disappear and reappear with baffling speed while fighting crime and injustice, is that you need a fitting opponent, a supervillain. Having driven The Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy) into a psychotic fugue in the first film, and dealing with business-as-usual ordinary criminal Mob bosses, the one to step into the supervillain role is The Joker. He doesn’t want to destroy Batman. In fact he needs him to match wits and force against. ‘You complete me,’ he says, grinning that awful grimace. Batman’s righteousness in restoring order allows The Joker to personify Chaos.
And he does. Heath Ledger is a phenomenon. The Joker laughs delightedly at all attempts of others to hurt or stop him, enjoying pain whether he’s giving or receiving it. His orchestrated explosions rip up a hospital behind him as he Charlie-Chaplin-walks away in a bizarre nurse’s uniform with a satisfied shrug. He’s perplexed with puerile pique when a plan for two boatloads of people to blow the other up doesn’t go as expected. Despite the melted-icing makeup, the panda eyes and bleeding red-scarred mouth, Ledger’s tongue as it traverses his lips for the hundredth time seem the maddest feature of The Joker, because the most banal. And Bale is darker too, appropriately, as Batman. His eyes glitter ferociously behind the mask and as Bruce Wayne he’s brooding when he sees Rachel with Dent. And he realises that with The Joker about, and certain outcomes involving the unmasking of the White Knight, that retirement is not an option, yet.
If you get the chance to see The Dark Knight at an IMAX theatre, go. It’s the first feature movie with some sequences filmed with IMAX technology and the effect is mind-blowing. In particular, the opening six minutes – of a city nightscape from Batman’s vertiginous sky-scraper perspective - drew a long collective gasp from the audience. Interspersed with traditional 35mm sequences in letterbox format which were digitally remastered with IMAX technology at 10 times the size of usual 35mm, the film’s impressive special effects and rapid action scenes are displayed to best advantage. The resolution is unbelievable at 120 million pixels, as opposed to the 15 million pixels of a normal screen and the contrast shows up the latter, perhaps unfairly.
That being said, and stunning as the film is, at 152 minutes it’s at least half an hour overlong. At nearly the two hour mark I found my attention wandering, the action too complex to follow and my eyes and brain simply too overwhelmed to take it all in. Nevertheless, watching Batman fly makes up for a lot, especially when it feels like you’re just behind him, hurtling at blinding speed towards the ground or the glass face of a building. Hang on to your armrests.
© Avril Carruthers 15th July 2008
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