Let’s get this out of the way right off: The Dark Knight is the biggest disappointment of the summer.
There’s no doubt that it will crush everything in its box office path. But that’s due to the mystique of Heath Ledger and the success of Nolan’s first foray into the franchise, Batman Begins. That first attempt was a much more solid film than this sequel. The Dark Knight is much like Pirates of the Caribbean. That movie would have been absolutely nothing without the quirky acting of Johnny Depp. So, too, The Dark Knight would be a pathetic joke if not for Heath Ledger’s bizarre Joker.
It will be nearly impossible to view Ledger’s performance objectively now; thus, it will be virtually impossible to take a truly objective stance on this movie. But, it sure will be fun to read everyone’s opinions.
Premise: The Batman is still trying to clean up Gotham City, with the covert assistance of Gordon, the only decent cop left in the city. They are after the Gotham mob. For some totally unknown reason, the Joker decides to take over the mob, too. He offers to get ol’ Batbrain out of their way for half of their money. He ruthlessly – and, shall we say, magically – convinces them this is in their best interests. Not only must Batman go, but the city’s new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, must fall from grace. And since the Joker was abused as a child and an adult, he must make everyone else suffer.
Strengths: Duh! Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker. Everyone’s babbling about post-humous Oscar’s, of course. It’s not quite that good. He is portraying an anarchist. How hard can that really be? Still, Ledger put his all into the role and it’s a pleasure to watch. Of course, that’s also kind of disturbing. The best part of the movie was the maniacal bad guy. Screw Batman, we all wanna be the Joker. Sick, sick, sick.
Other strengths of the movie are found in Michael Caine and Christian Bale. They both fell back into their respective roles as Alfred and Bruce Wayne/Batman as if they’d never left the set of the first Christopher Nolan Batman movie. The rest of the cast were … not spectacular.
Gotham City looked austere, as it did in Batman Begins, so nice job there. The bat suits were pretty cool. The special effects were, of course, top notch. The “sonar” that Lucius Fox creates was really cool, too.
Parts of the story were well handled. It’s not so much a conflict between good and evil as it is a breakdown of their similarities. Batman and Joker were very much alike: alone, resourceful, freakish. It’s no wonder they can never best each other. This bit of dialogue seems to sum it all up: As Joker has the ol’ Bat pinned down atop some building he asks, “Would you like to know how I got these scars?” (He does that when he’s about to set off in a murderous rage). Batman says, “No, but I know how you got this one.” The lines speak to the everlasting contest between these two, one always trying to outdo the other. They’re like brothers, we just don’t know who’s the older. Well, not true. Joker’s the older brother. He knows who he is and what he wants to accomplish. Batman is still working on that.
Weaknesses: There was no explanation for Joker. This made him more bizarre, of course, but not more sinister. Scarecrow, in Batman Begins, did a better job at terrorizing Gotham than Joker. Speaking of Gotham and its inhabitants, it seems that we learn very little about them. Batman fights to help these people, but why? The city is only full of selfish jerks who want to blow up prisoners, bad cops and mafia fiends.
Harvey Dent came off as cheesy. His heroics in the courtroom, disarming a witness who suddenly pulled out a gun, was just so forced it was pathetic. Eckhart comes across as a putz, not a crusader. He’s in over his head and is too dim to know it. His Two-Face was more pathetic than tragic.
Batman’s inability to run down the Joker was slightly annoying, too. He had no compunction about beating up SWAT members and tossing them off buildings, but hurt the Joker? Oh, no! That would make him just like the Joker. Sure, that’s part of the story. Batman has to decide if he will be hero or villain. But, he had no problem invading that Chinese guy’s building and wiping out his people and taking him hostage.
The film was also full of overused one-liner’s; things like, “Lock and load,” and the oh-so-usual sequence in a big armored vehicle chase: “He’s gonna need something bigger than that (machine gun) to hurt this vehicle” and then, voila, the bad guys pull out a bazooka. Other things were predictable, too. Who didn’t know that Gordon wasn’t dead? Who didn’t figure out that Rachel Dawes would die? Etc, etc.
Batman’s choice at the movie’s end to be the “dark knight” seemed more pathetic than heroic, too. Why not let people see what Joker had done to their heroic D.A.? Oh, the truth isn’t the best weapon? The people of Gotham can make good choices about blowing people up but they can’t handle the fact that their ‘white knight’ was turned into a freak like everyone else in the city? They aren’t smart enough to accept Dent as an example of what can happen to even the mighty among them if they aren’t careful about their choices? (Well, perhaps they are; we never get to know Gothamers very well). Batman doesn’t want to be a hero because he’s too busy feeling sorry for himself? Whatever.
The other annoying fact was that everyone reacted to the things Joker said. After a while, it should have become apparent that he was an anarchist and just likes to set people off. How do you combat that? Don’t get set off! Batman fell for it, that one old cop fell for it (which then led to Joker’s escape), even ol’ Harvey fell for it. It got annoying. Even in the end, Batman couldn’t figure out how to combat the Joker.
Final Thought: Up Yours, Batbrain. Let’s echo the words of the soon-to-be-immortal Joker when thinking about The Dark Knight: “Why so serious?”
(Note for “Final Thought:” My rating system for films is straightforward. Up Yours means the film could have been better; you can watch it if you want, I don’t care. Rock On will signify a film that is definitely worth watching. I might add another category as I go for films that fall somewhere in between, but these should work for now.)
Posted by Gray Hunter 
Posted by Gray Hunter 