The Dark Knight (2008)
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The Dark Knight is director Christopher Nolan's second Batman film. You might not even know right away as it starts with no Batman or Bruce Wayne. He doesn't even get a mention until we're six and a half minutes in, and doesn't appear until almost ten minutes in. This worried me because I still have ill will towards Batman Returns , which really didn't have much Batman in it at all. In this case, it's really the Joker's movie, with Batman as the foil for most of it.
I have a weird feeling that this is going to be one of those movies that people will look at every damn nuance like films students do with Citizen Kane, looking for hidden meanings, and you know, what, they're everywhere, from the Payday sign in the fist moment of this. Okay, I'll try not to here.
We start off with a Joker bank heist straight out of Heat. You kinda get the idea that Batman has already sort of influenced people. They're not quite as scared as they should be. This happens throughout the movie, lots of times where people would ordinarily be completely losing their minds. The ferry scene at the end is a good example. Nobody's going “Oh my Godddddd we're all gonna dieee!!!”, when likely, um, they're all going to die. There are chunky faux Batmen vigilantes running around in hockey pads and shotguns. Bankers are shooting robbers. Gotham City 's definitely grown a pair since the first film.
This is good because Batman (Christian Bale) is a crappy crime fighter. There, I've said it. In his first appearance, against two-bit drug dealers, Bats (trained by ninjas, remember?) gets owned by a dog. A dog?! His armor can stop bullets, but not Benji. He gets beaten so bad and so often on his nightly misadventures he's taken to doing his own surgery, a la Metal Gear 3 . “Okay, now apply the styptic…”
Oh no. Please stop talking Batman. Or at least have a lozenge? Ugh, his voice is even more annoying in IMAX... it's like there are marbles and pumas rolling around inside his larynx. I don't as much hear him as feel him reverberate in my sternum. I can't understand you, robble robble Joker something? And why are you making a face that looks like an opossum? Are you angry? Upset? Constipated?
As Bruce Wayne, his character seems to have lost a lot of the complexity he had in the first movie. He has one expression: vaguely contemplative, which is one emotion short of a George Clooney, who at least had “wry grin” in his portfolio.
At least the other characters more than fill the void. Certainly Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) has improved his role from the first movie. In The Dark Knight he's less Q, and more Otacon, providing tech support and background information for Batman instead of just making his wonderful toys.
Maggie Gyllenhaal, as Rachel Dawes, is a serious upgrade from the spunky but diabetes-inducing Katie Holmes. She's more realistic as an Assistant District Attorney, and even gets a hit in on the Joker. Unfortunately, she later becomes a damsel in distress, but I can't help but wonder if the Secretary in her wasn't totally, totally into it.
Aaron Eckhart is very believable as Harvey Dent, D.A. and apparently canonized wunderkind. Not only does he put people behind bars, but he casually disarms them in court in doing so. Gotham freaking loves Dent as if he ejaculates rainbows. It seems that the whole city's entire psychological profile is dependent on his reputation. New York had a mayor who decided to show up one day in drag. Nothing changed.
As Two-face, thankfully he doesn't have the annoying multiple personality disorder that caused Tommy Lee Jones to refer to himself in the royal “we”. Instead, he's kind of one-dimensional. I guess you really can't blame him for going apesh*t loco. If you lost his fiancée and half his face in one really bad day, you'd be kinda ticked off too. But for someone of his supposedly high moral fiber, it comes across as hard to swallow that he'd suddenly become a menace.
Cillian Murphy is back as the Scarecrow, albeit briefly. Also, he's been severely nerfed since Batman Begins. He wasn't particularly scary then, and here, he's a two-bit drug dealer with 5 minutes of film time, tops.
And this brings me to the Joker (Heath Ledger). I have a gripe with one-dimensional villains, ones that are evil for evil's sake. They're the kind of villain you find in Disney films. They're fine for secondary characters, as the movie just doesn't have the time to flesh them out. This guy is all sorts of disturbing and screwy, complete with an assortment of nervous tics and crazy logic. He actually sounds like he's from Chicago (they don't bother disguising Gotham City's identity anymore).You can't help but like him in the way that people like Eric Cartman from South Park , because he's by far the most interesting character. He didn't even need a theme... just hearing that little whine was enough to let the audience know things were about to get really bad.
Of course, people compare his performance to Jack Nicholson's Joker, which, frankly, was Jack Nicholson playing Jack Nicholson. Heath Ledger's Joker is wonderfully old school D&D chaotic evil, like he's supposed to be. A psychotic.
Spoilers below, wait, what am I worried about? Didn't everyone see this?
I like movies that where you think it's over, there's a whole other plot waiting for you. I thought the movie was done 90 minutes in when they caught the Joker. Little did I know there was still an hour left to go. And that's when things get weird. The ferry plot with the pretty big hole in it. How did Batman know the ferries weren't rigged to blow on a timer? Why weren't the people on the boat jumping off at the last minute, expecting it to blow? Sure, the boat was allegedly rigged to explode if people jumped off, but it was also to do so at midnight . Instead, people are just sitting around looking bored. Also, the Bat cell phone radar plot device, rather a heavy handed nod to Homeland Security's questionable tactics, IMHO.
Still, there is plenty of awesome in this movie to go around: The pencil trick. Batman BASE-jumping Ghost in the Shell -style off the tallest building in Hong Kong . The Sky Hook egress from said skyscraper. Another chase scene on Lower Wacker Drive . Gordon's assassination. The only action scene that left a bad taste in my mouth was in the club where Batman confronts mob boss Sal Maroni for it's strobe lit, Joel Schumacher-vibe. If it was a nod to Joel, then okay, at least it was brief. There's enough awesome for 3 movies here.