SNEAK PEEK REVIEW: The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight (Rated PG-13)

Running time: 2 hrs 24 mins

Cast:

Christian Bale
Heath Ledger
Aaron Eckhart
Gary Oldman
Maggie Gylllenhaal
Michael Caine
Morgan Freeman

Critical consensus:

****1/2 out of *****

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating:

***** out of *****

The premise:

Batman and James Gordon join forces with Gotham's new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, to take on a psychotic bank robber known as The Joker, whilst other forces plot against them, and Joker's crimes grow more and more deadly.

MY REVIEW *I saw this film 2 days before it's release*

The Story and Screenplay: The Dark Knight may very well be one of the best films of 2008. It may very well be one of the most perfectly crafted films of 2008. This film deserves a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars this year. The Dark Knight is without a doubt a beautiful, stunning, epic masterpiece. Starting with a magnificant screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan (the man behind such films as Memento and The Prestige) Christopher Nolan may be one of the most talented and slightly underrated filmakers today. The story they have come up with for these new Batman films is sinister and dark. This is by no means a cliched and standarized superhero story.

The Batman character is almost a supporting character in his own film. You see so many superhero movies where it's a guy in a suit going after one bad guy creating havoc all over the city. That seems to have changed this year. With films like Iron Man and now The Dark Knight, we have superheroes fighting crime but also there own personal demons. More so with The Dark Knight. Batman isn't widely accepted by the citizens of Gotham, he is called a vigilate by the very people he is trying to protect. They see him almost as the villian, claiming he's only brought more destruction and death to the city. As his Bruce Wayne persona, he has to deal with his business and a man threatening to reveal Wayne as Batman. On top of this, you have the actual criminals: the Mob, Two Face and of course, The Joker. More on him later. These villians aren't super human. Neither is Batman. They are all regular human beings who cloak themselves as the good guys and bad guys. The Joker raids the city like a mad men straight from hell itself and kills tons of people with no remorse. Again, more on him later. Two Face is one of the creepiest and most complex villians in superhero history. I won't say anymore to prevent spoilers.

With all this combined, we have one of the best crime stories in recent memory. A story full of evil, corruption, damsels in distress, heroes who are being cast out by their city, etc. We've seen a lot of stories like this in the cinematic past but none have been shown to us in the degree the Nolan brothers have done. No crime story has ever made my heart race. The Dark Knight did. I can't tell you how many moments there were in this film where I felt so tense and honestly had no clue what was going to happen. This is an extremely intense story unlike any superhero movie ever imagined. We don't know if Batman will be alive at the end of this movie. Most superhero movies, you just know that no matter what peril these heroes get into, they will be OK in the end; you don't feel that with Batman. I loved that. This story does have twists and turns. Not just in story arch, but in character arch. These characters are so complex and true to life, even with their glorified film character layer. Listen, just see this movie, it is dark, haunting and even beautiful. It is one the best Superhero movies ever made, and one of the greatest and unique crime stories ever told.

The Story and Screenplay Rating: ***** out of *****


The Performances: We will start with Christian Bale (Batman Begins, 3:10 to Yuma). Personally I think he is the only actor to play Batman right. I never read the comics, so I don't have "inside knowledge" of the character, but I've seen the previous films. I believe Bale is perfect. He is a great actor and has become big name in recent years and now only escalting his name into top billing roles. Deservedly so. My only issue is that Batman voice. I understand the character has to alter his voice to hide his true identity, Bruce Wayne, but still, it's a little wacky. His voice gets very deep and raspy and it honestly throws me a little, it's kind of distracting. Especially from Bale, because you can see in his eyes and mouth (all we can see of him when dawning the Batman mask) that he struggles with this voice. It's OK though, its a very, very minor thing and isn't that bothersome in the long run. Basically, Bale is pretty perfect as Batman/Bruce Wayne, and IF they do more, I hope he continues.

Moving on to Aaron Eckhart (Thank You For Smoking). He plays Harvey Dent who, if you know anything about Batman, becomes Harvey Two Face. Dent is the the D.A. of Gotham and his loved by his city. He is an honorable man. A hero to everyone. Gotham city, the police, and even Batman, know that Dent is the man who is destined to play the hero charcter of the city. Eckhart hasn't really been in a lot of huge movies, a lot of people still don't recognize the man. I liked him here. He was an effective choice for Harvey Dent. He displays his persona right, he doens't make him an annoying character. He doesn't play him as the type who tries to be the hero and falls in the end, because we as the audience admire this guys passion; we respect him. I don't want to ruin the movie, but when this character transforms so to speak, is when Eckhard truly shines. He has to play one of those most emotionally scarred charcters in a superhero film ever, and he does it brilliantly. I won't say more, because I don't want to spoil it. The rest of the supporting cast: Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman were all excellent. I was iffy before seeing the film about the change in actresses for the Rachel character (played in Batman Begins by Katie Holmes). However, after seeing it, it was a much needed change. Gyllenhaal actually makes you like this character. That could be because I've never been a fan of Katie Holmes however.


This part needs a few paragraphs. The reason is the man pictured above: Oscar nominee Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain). I want to make it known right now, that my review of this film and of this performance is not biased or altered because of Ledgers tragic death this year. I reviewed this film and this performance as if nothing had happened. With that said, here we go. The Joker has been labled as one of the most disturbing and deeply scarred villians in the history of film and comic storytelling. After seeing this film, there's no doubt in my mind: The Joker is the most disturbing and frightening villians and characters ever brought forth to the silver screen. Never in all my film watching has a character unnnerved me and made me as tense as I was, as The Joker. This guy clearly has a dark past, which he tells us in many scenes; mainly due to a sadistic and abusive father. We never really know the core of most superhero movie villians, but that is not the case for this film. The Joker parades around in clown makeup (no where near as cartoony as Jack Nicholson's version in the original Batman film) that all in itself is scary. To top that off, he kills without looking back. Shooting off guns at innocent civilians, jabbing knives in people's mouths, shooting bazookas at cop cars; I could go on for a while. He walks into a room with confidence and fills that room with fear. He fills the audience watching the film with fear.

I have described to you The Joker, I have not described to you Heath Ledger. Ledger doesn't play The Joker. He is The Joker. This wasn't acting, this was a man literally becoming a character. You do not see a single hint of Heath Ledger in this character, you may never have known it was him if he wasn't in the credits and wasn't receiving all the movie hype. If I'm reviewing this as a performance, this may very well go down as one of the single greatest supporting performances in the history of film. A dark, creepy, sinister and utterly brilliant performance. Every time he was on screen, (which was the right amount of screentime, they didn't over use him) he stole the show. He was the best part of an already phenomenal movie. This was Ledgers finest hour in his short lived film career. Actors should watch this performance and learn a thing or two. Actors play characters, rarely do they become them. We may never know the real reason behind his untimely death, but I do know his Joker character will go down in history. He will and should be remembered for this role, and this role alone. It is his hall of fame performance so to speak, and if he doesn't get an Oscar nomination, I may boycott movies. It would be a travesty to film. Don't watch this film and this performance out of sympathy for Heath Ledger; admire this performance, because you may never see one like it again.

The Performances rating: ***** out of *****

The Direction and Filmaking: When they say "Dark Knight" they aren't kidding. This is an incredibly dark film. A very sleek looking film as well. Christopher Nolan has recreated these characters and the city of Gotham like the Batman saga was his baby. He has made me love the Batman films (I don't like the original movies from years past). He is the perfect director for this film. Everything about it looks so cool. The action scenes are smart and needed, whereas some action moments in film are just there to look awesome. While that works sometimes, here it was a great move on Nolan's behalf to make the action scenes part of the story. They were never seriously over the top, and some of the stunts were unbelievable. In fact, Nolan never uses the action and CGI to impress us, he uses all these moments with class and in good taste. It almost looks like a classic film noir type crime movie. I don't know who this guys does it.

This is an explosive film. A Beautiful looking film. A dark film. It has everything you could want while watching a damn good, entertaining movie. It is a brilliant film. Correction: Not only is it one of the two best motion pictures of the year, this is by far, the best superhero movie ever brought to cinema. I cannot imagine anything overthrowing this film in superhero greatness. It would be impossible to create such a world and story full of a brilliant ensemble cast. Bravo!

The Direction and Filmaking rating: ***** out of *****

To view this films theatrical trailer, click this link: The Dark Knight

*This is the 61st new film I've seen and reviewed this year.