The Dark Knight

(2008)

Directed by

Christopher Nolan

Review by Terry Plucknett

A few years ago, it was said that Bryan Singer should make every superhero movie after showing his strength in that genre through the first two X-Men movies and Superman Returns.  I now think another name has replaced Singer’s.  Christopher Nolan, after making the blockbuster Batman Begins, had set the bar extremely high for this sequel.  What added to the draw of this already overly-hyped movie was the death of one of its stars, Heath Ledger, six months before its release.  With all this hype, I did not think it would ever be able to live up to these lofty expectations.  Not only did it meet these expectations, but it did what I thought wasn’t possible; it exceeded them.

What makes these new installments in the Batman saga so strong are their realistic feel, especially in The Dark Knight, which is the first Batman movie not to have the superhero’s name present in the title (maybe this should be tried more often).  At no point in this movie do you feel like this situation could not actually happen in the real world.  It functions much more as a crime drama than a superhero movie.  Batman is almost played down to a supporting character as Heath Ledger’s Joker steals the movie in every way.  His interpretation of the classic Batman villain creates the most haunting and pure evil character since Hannibal Lecter.  He definitely deserves at least a nomination and possibly a win for his performance.  Many have suggested this ever since his death in January.  However, now there is no need to consider this a sympathy vote.  This performance is one of the greatest I have ever seen.  The strength of this performance makes it hard to remember that the rest of the cast provide solid performances as well, including Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne, Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent, Gary Oldman’s Lt. Gordon, and Michael Caine’s Alfred (Tripod sighting).  The only flaw I could find in the movie is one more of comparison.  This is the recasting of Rachel Dawes from Katie Holmes in Batman Begins to Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Dark Knight.  Gyllenhaal did not seem to have the same chemistry with the rest of the cast that Katie Holmes had.  It is not that she did a bad job.  It is just hard to recast one character when the rest return from the last movie.  Again, not much of a flaw, but noticeable to me.

This is the best superhero movie I have seen and one of the best movies of the year.  A must see for all movie goers.

Rating:

#26 on Top 100