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The Dark Knight

Posted on July 29, 2008 in the Film, News category

Being the first Batman film to not mention his name in the title, you can automatically expect a very different type of film altogether with Christopher Nolan’s second take featuring the vigilante. And this film indeed does it’s very best to cleanse the memory of Joel Schumacher from the franchise. The film opens with a bank heist so exquisitely shot and directed you know that there is something special going on in this film. Using IMAX cameras to capture the scope of the Joker’s (we’ll come to HIM later) masterplan of double crosses and triple crosses to get the job done, it’s only when Batman shows a good 7 or 8 minutes in that you realise this is indeed a comic book film and not an edgy Heat-esque crime thriller. But I would cite this classic Michael Mann film as an influence on this film, Batman and The Joker being the polar forces that cause chaos and destruction throughout Gotham.

The plot, though relatively simple in essence, does require a fair amount of noodle scratching. A very very very basic outline here follows:

After teaming up with Gotham’s new district attorney Harvey Dent, Batman and Gordon manage to finally get most of the city’s mob behind bars, but not before said mob recruit The Joker to wreak havok in what becomes a very dangerous and lethal game of cat and mouse throughout the city. And yes, you do get Two Face in the mix as well…….

I want to spoil nothing else for you, except the hype surrounding all the performances is entirely justified. Heath’s Joker is absolutely fantastic, however not letting his tragic death overshadow any other performance, it is important to emphasise how brilliant Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent is to this film. He is often referred to in the film as the White Knight to Batman’s Dark Knight, and in the world Christopher Nolan has created, the morality of vigilantism is thoroughly explored, with the line “you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a villain.”

My only criticism of what is pretty much not only an amazing comic book film, but a perfect film in general, is that they do try to cram a wee bit too much into the film. Not in a Spiderman 3 sort of way, but in the way that the plot, simple as i may have outlined it, takes a lot of time and effort to get there. Having the very easy introduction of one major villain (The Joker), and the slow creation of a second (Two Face) takes every second of this two and a half hour epic, and sometimes it takes a few really unnecessary de-tours (Honk Kong for example) which do extend the film to almost bottom aching lengths.

Ok I couldn’t resist. The Joker has been the major selling point of this film, even to talks of posthumous Oscar potential. That all is dependent on how much you can enjoy (in Heath’s words) “a psychopathic, mass-murdering clown with zero empathy.” I fucking loved every second he was on the screen. Nolan has re-wrote the character into being a clever, sadistic, twisted bastard. Regardless if you believe Heath’s portrayal led him to the state of requiring the eventually fatal dose of sleeping pills to sleep (bullshit! *cough*), he clearly put his heart and soul into the nuances and quirkyness which make The Joker a much more believable killer. His obsession with knives and his facial scars all build a character which, to be fair, have no place in a 12A rated film, and a character which will definately be remembered for years and years.

The Dark Knight is the best film of 2008. Go see it immediately.

[OxKing]

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