My Dark Knight review. Short review: Best movie made this summer.
Long Review:
Hmmm... where to start? Well let's start with the 400 LB. gorilla in the room, Heath Ledger. Do I think his death helped this film's revenues? Absolutely, but those who came only for that must have been more than satisfied. His performance is without a doubt the stand out performance in a film filled with great performances. Now I'm a little upset that we have yet to see an interpretation of the Joker that syncs up with the comics (the consideration of Willem Dafoe to star in the 1989 Batman is probably as close to that as we may ever see). But Heath Ledger may have pulled a "Blade" here and given us a character that is more interesting than its original incarnation, a rare situation in a comic book adaptation (as implied in my reference, the only instance I've seen that happen in is the movie "Blade"). What he did get correct is that the Joker is supposed to be a grotesque and loathsome creature that is a completely unpredictable force of nature. And that is what matters here.
Christian Bale offers up the most under appreciated performance in the film (as the Batmen usually do in these films). He continues to make both Batman and Bruce Wayne interesting (a hallmark of his last performance) but this time he does it in different ways. While Batman is a compelling action hero, Bruce Wayne is the film's Michael Corleone. He has started on a slippery slope that he hopes one day to abandon, but by the end of the film he realizes that there is no way out. He is fated to do this until either he is dead, or Gotham has burned itself to the ground.
Honorable mentions go out to Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman... but they are generally universally great in whatever they do... seriously it could be a Toxic Avenger remake with those three and it would probably snag some Oscars.
My few problems lie with Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent. Don't get me wrong, this performance was breath taking as well, but the writing of this character just seems somewhat... off. His turn to darkness just seems like a superficial 180 with next to no build up. It felt like there was way more character development in there, but somehow it wound up on the cutting room floor. I'm willing to bet if there's a directors cut on this film, that will be remedied. I'm also a little disappointed with how he became Two-Face. It was well established that Dent's wife was Grace Dent, and she had an interesting story of her own. Plus I like the idea that a mob boss threw acid in his face while testifying. Basically the failed attempt to kill Dent and Maggie Gyllenhall reeked of all that "The Joker killed Batman's parents." horseshit they pulled in the 1989 movie. It felt like they were trying to force a connection to the story.
But thanks to the deft writing/directing of the film by the Nolan Brothers, this film is far more than the sum of it's performances. Now when a writer/director decides the don't want to admit they are doing a super hero movie, they will try to shoehorn it into another genre, generally Sci-fi like X-men or Horror like Blade. That approach is generally pretty effective. Here they have cast the characters of Batman into a crime drama. While not the comic book, this interpretation works very well to bring Batman into the real world. It honestly felt like a Scorsese or DePalma film. I mean is the Joker's outfit that much more outrageous than anything warn by Joe Pesci in Goodfellas or Casino? By casting these cartoon characters as just eccentric figures in a grounded crime drama, Nolan has done something truly incredible.
Overall best film of the summer... hands down.