What can I say about the Dark Knight?
Well let’s start with the cast: Christian Bale plays the humourless hero, Morgan Freeman plays the moral centre, Michael Caine plays wise experience, Maggie Gyllenhaal replaces Katie Holmes as a more world-weary love interest, Aaron Eckhart has the best hair (for most of the film anyway)… and then there is Heath Ledger.
I had heard huge amounts of hype about his performance, and while I am not going to debate its merits in the grand scheme of acting things, I have to say that in this movie, he is definitely the centrepiece. The film feels emptier without the psychotic presence of his Joker. He outshines some pretty hefty thesping talent (like Gary Oldman) and is able to camp his Joker up on a few occasions without reminding me of one moment of the 1960s Batdancing TV series version. His portrayal is of a psychopath on the edge, adding an unbalanced danger Jack Nicholson’s interpretation never had. He is scary, but a fascinating, alluring way.
The story itself plays brilliantly as well, albeit fairly contrived in the villains favour. But, despite the length, it still keeps the pace up, the action thrilling (rather than overshadowed by CGI) and the people miserable – for the most part anyway.
And what can one say about Gotham? It must be one of the most depressing cities on earth, despite all those who want to rescue it from its depravity. No one swears in it though. Perhaps there is really no point.
At any rate, this film was great. I found my suspension of disbelief sorely tested by the end of it, however much I loved the bad guys, but overall, it was definitely a film to be enjoyed at the cinema, and one I enjoyed seeing there.
Verdict: The Dark Knight was really good. A great cinematic movie that I doubt would be as enjoyable on the small screen. Not sure if I want more from the franchise, as I am not sure they can keep up the quality. But for this film, 8 Batarangs out of 10.
2 comments:
The more I think about it, the more of a problem two-face becomes to the movie. Given the veneer of plausibility that governs this version of the franchise (thank god), Two-face jars in a big clangy way. No-one in his condition would be capable of the things he is, and it upsets the feel of the film for me.
i still wish Katie Holmes had stayed on board as Rachel Dawes for the Dark Knight; it was like the time spent getting familiar with her character in Batman Begins was wasted...
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