Film review: The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight @ IMDB

We've had a lot of Comic Book films this year and most have been really good. But all of the review have had a little caveat at the end, normally along the lines of "this film is really good and is the best comic film but The Dark Knight is out later this year".

It's fair to say that the hype for this film has been immense. The reboot of the Batman franchise was a critical success so that was creating a lot of expectations anyway. The viral marketing campaign was drawing them in then you have Heath Ledger's death and everything seems to have gone through the roof.

It's an awful lot of weight to put on one film and when this happens they usually collapse: see Star Wars Prequels, Matrix sequels, Superman Returns, etc.

Luckily, this film has some very broad shoulders.

So, we have Batman continuing his battle against the Gotham Criminal Underworld now helped by the new District Attorney Harvey Dent. Perhaps Harvey can take over the fight and Batman can retire?

Not if The Joker has anything to say about it.

We'll get it out of the way first: Heath Ledger is really good. Really good.

So is everyone else. The returning cast seem very comfortable in their roles and the new members don't let the side down. Aaron Eckhart* as Harvey Dent is great, Maggie Gyllenhall should have been cast in the first film and Heath Ledger is, again, really good.

But it's no point having a great cast if the film itself is rubbish and, thankfully, that is not the case here. Christopher Nolan has crafted a complex, deep film about heroism and what it means and what happens when heroes fall. It is a meaty film with the running time to match. That's not a bad thing because it give the film room to breathe. It's a very measured film, it doesn't have a breakneck pace but it doesn't need to.

So, we have great performances, an excellent story, an amazing score. Perfect film? Pretty much. There is a Bat-Gadget introduced at the end that very nearly destroys the air of realism built over the two films. Some may flinch at the running time. It's still a guy dressed as a bat beating people up so if you don't buy into that then the film doesn't work.

In a word? Dynamic.


* He's not a household name but we like Aaron Eckhart films in the Doyle Household. Well, it's only really The Core, one of the most scientifically incorrect (allegedly) films ever made but great fun.

Holy Bat-Curse!

Let's examine the facts:

1) Heath Ledger dies.

2) Christian Bale beats up several family members

3) Morgan Freeman gets himself into a car crash.

The first and third one do look a bit curse-ish but you can't really justify opening a can of whoop-ass on your Mum by saying you were cursed.

Can you?

Uh-oh

Someone can't let go of the character.

DVD Collections I Need to Get Round to Completing At Some Point

1) John Carpenter

Looking pretty good so far but missing Dark Star, Halloween, Prince of Darkness and Memoirs of An Invisible Man. You may mock that last one but I went to the cinema to see it and I liked it. The music is awesome.

Seriously.

2) Alec Baldwin

I've got The Royal Tennenbaums which has the excellent narration from The World's Greatest Actor, also Glengarry Glen Ross with Baldwin making The World's Greatest Ever Cameo. Not enough. I need to buy a copy of The Departed, rather then keeping my friend Ryan's copy (even though he has had my copy of Army of Darkness for at least 4 years). Also Team America as I'm almost 73% sure he did the voice for his own puppet in that. And The Shadow.

What?

3) Batman

Topical, this one. Haven't a single Batman film. Bit poor that. Roll on the Blu-Ray releases.

4) Kevin Smith

Looking at my shelves, shockingly light on Smith DVDs. I've got the US version of Mallrats with the great commentary, Dogma, Clerks Animated and Clerks 2 but no Chasing Amy, no original Clerks. My geek head is hung in shame.

5) Criterion

For those in the know, Criterion make the best DVDs. The best. And my sole Criterion DVD is the Beastie Boys Video Collection. Hard Boiled and Seven Samurai are two Criterion DVDs that are going to have to go on the list.

But, I hear you ask, why DVD when you have a PS3 that plays Blu-Rays? Simple: not of all these are out on Blu-Ray and they're cheaper on DVD anyway. And the PS3 upscales the DVDs to HD anyway so they look great on my ace new TV.

Not as great as The Fountain on Blu-Ray but great nonetheless.

Suddenly Batman Forever seems a looong time ago.

So a picture of Two-Face from the upcoming Batman Begins sequel has leaked onto the web:



Yeesh. That Joker picture looks like Sunshine and Rainbows compare to that.

Full trailer is now up online as well. Still looking awesome.

I'm not ashamed to admit I nearly cried like a girl

So, Batman Begins = Good. Good enough for a sequel, The Dark Knight, which has got Harvey Dent and (drumroll) The Joker in it.

The pre-hype started to build last week when this site went up. But then, that site got more and more defaced until it was replaced by this:



Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Heath Ledger as The Joker.

That's not your Adam West Joker is it? That's pretty messed up. And if The Joker looks like THAT, what the hell will Two Face look like?

But it gets weirder. This site went up as well. Page not found eh? Highlight that page and you'll find about 12 pages of Ha ha ha's.

Good lord.