REVIEW: The Dark Knight0

As promised yesterday, here is my review of “The Dark Knight”, the sequel to 2005′s “Batman Begins” starring among others Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman. It’s directed by Christopher Nolan, who also directed “Batman Begins”, “The Prestige” and “Memento”. Review is mostly spoiler-free, as always.

I must say I was pretty hyped to see this film. I loved the trailers and all of the promotional stuff, including some of the awesome posters made for the film. When the first initial impressions from test audiences started to pop up around the web, my interest reached yet another level – and with the fantastic reviews that started to arrive a week before it was released in the U.S. – I seriously couldn’t wait for it. I guess it’s something I pretty much always do with most films I go see in theatres, I get very excited and sometimes the films don’t really live up to the hype. But would and could “The Dark Knight” live up to my pretty insane expectations, and would it be the best comic book film ever made, even topping the brilliant “Iron Man” released earlier this year?

We are thrown into the story straight away with a bang, with an exciting, realistic and very thought-out bank-robbery scene, compliments of the film’s villian, who calls himself “The Joker” (Ledger). Batman, Bruce Wayne (Bale) in real life, struggles to keep his personal life seperate from his night-time job as a “Dark Knight”. “Does Gotham really need a man in a mask to protect them?” is a question raised when up-and-coming DA Harvey Dent (Eckhart) manages to clean up the streets from the mafia in broad daylight without anything to conceal his identity. But can the white knight save Gotham from the corrupted mind of “The Joker”, or will the dark knight have to step in once again to help stop the terror? It’s a very cool story with some great twists and turns. I found myself staring at the screen in disbelief of some of the things that were happening in the film. It’s really cool to see a film that’s so unexpected in the way it takes it’s characters and it’s plot.

I feel I should start out with talking about what is probably the most hyped performance of the decade, Heath Ledger as “The Joker”. As most of you probably know, Ledger died by overdosing on prescription drugs earlier this year, and I wasn’t sure going into the film if the hype was built mostly around the fact that he died just after finishing the film or could his performance just simply be that good? Right after the first real scene featuring The Joker, I knew this was something different. It’s really interesting to see such a young actor pretty much crush what Jack Nicholson did with the same character in Tim Burton’s Batman from 1989. What was in that film a very comedic character that was just crazy for humor’s sake, is now reinvented by Ledger as a complete psycho that has a few comedic moments, but they’re mostly just based on how crazy and in a way, scary, he is. His performance brings what is really a very simple character to a villain which is one of the better ones I’ve seen in recent memory. All the talk about giving Ledger a posthumous Oscar for the part is based in reality. The performance is really that good. Still, I can’t say for sure he deserves the Academy Award just yet, as there are still around 7 months left until the next Oscars show. Still, Ledger definitely deserves an Oscar nomination for his role. Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne is still great, and probably the best actor yet to take on the task of portraying Bruce Wayne. The rest of the cast is equally great, but Aaron Eckhart, of “Thank you for Smoking” fame, shines out from the rest of the cast. His portrayal of Harvey Dent is fantastic, and just gets better and better as his character gets more and more complicated throughout the film. I’d say it’s pretty much a perfectly casted film according to me. Everyone just feels as if they ARE the characters they portray, instead of just acting as them.

I was surprised at the amount of practical effects in the film. Surely it has a few CG sequences, but most of them are somewhat grounded in reality. It just feels more real to have an 18-Wheeler Truck flip over in the middle of a street, and shoot it for real, instead of doing it all in computers. I also like the practical props and costumes they made for the film. The batmobile (or, well, it’s more of a tank) is just, if not even more awesome than in the first film, and later when we are introduced to a new vehicle, it just reaches another level of awesomeness. I also have to compliment some of the make-up effects done in the film. The Joker really doesn’t look as much of a clown as he did in the older film. It’s much more based in reality, and Heath Ledger really doesn’t look anything like himself. Oh, and this film probably features one of the first times (except of Transformers) that CGI is blended in pretty much perfectly with an actor. I can’t say anything more than that right now, but you’ll know what I mean when you see it.

The music was amazing! In some miracle, both Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard collaborated and made the soundtrack together. There are loads of different musical themes throughout the movie, but it’s still the original theme from Batman Begins (albeit with a twist) that shines through in scenes taking place at the end of the film. Very well done.

So, that’s pretty much it. I could go on and on about how cool the set design is, how realistic the sound effects are and how much I wanted it to be even longer (even if it is 2h 40min). Still, as you probably have realised by now it’s good. It’s pretty damn good. It’s probably twice as good as “Iron Man”, the best comic book film ever made, according to me the best action movie ever made, and probably the best film I’ve seen in 4 or 5 years. I don’t need to tell you to see this film which is now in my top 5 of best films ever made, but I will anyway. And if you’ve already seen it, see it again. And again.

Verdict: 10 out of 10