Groundbreaking. Monumental. If there are enough of those sort of words, The Dark Knight deserves every single one of them. From long before the first minutes of the film began to roll, one probably got the sense that this movie would be more than any of us movie fans could have expected.
Sequel to 2005’s Batman Begins, The Dark Knight is a far superior film in every facet. Skimming through old reviews, one may be left to wonder when the day came when critics stopped criticizing art, and instead began to stand in admiration of achievements. Surely there are complaints, however, with those critiques, it far more often seems as though one is reaching for a complaint. Because nothing created of human hands is supposed to be perfect, right? No, likely a lot closer to wrong. The Dark Knight appears on my short list of “perfect” films, which includes the likes of Gladiator, The Last Samurai, and Inception, to name a few. This motion picture, Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus, has become something of legend to the point where, as far as the consensus goes, there will never be another comic book movie to surpass it.
With so many compliments to pay, the first has to go to the performances, especially one in particular. No surprise that this performance is the late Heath Ledger’s Joker, the agent of chaos. The portrayal of this classic and iconic villain, in a way, makes this film, pushes it over the edge of greatness to legendary. During one part, the Joker claims to not really have a plan, and it seems to reflect on how Heath played the roll. In watching, one may never get the feeling that he is operating on a how-to-play-the-Joker manual. Every single scene seems to so widely differentiate itself from the last that it seems as though he is really out of his mind.
Needless to say, the rest of the cast hold their own, with performances to stand up to the groundwork they had lain in Batman Begins. Maggie Gyllenhaal and Aaron Eckhart were newcomers to the the Batman franchise, yet they seamlessly fit right in with the rest of the cast (Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Cain).
The pacing of the movie is another excellent factor. It feels like there is 3 1/2 hours of content here, jam packed into just 2 1/2 hours of screen time. Yet it does not seem rushed. Instead it has a scene-to-scene formula that does not waste an extra second on unneeded stares and overacted performances.
The genius in the scripting of the Joker was that he was not over thought with purposes of why he is evil. As Bruce Wayne’s loyal friend and butler Alfred said, some people just want to see the world burn.
Then there is the closest thing to a mastery of the two-villains-in-one-movie idea that before this movie had yet to be done very well on screen, with Joker/Two Face. The most disappointing facet of that formula in most other previously released comic book movies is that they are always in cahoots together, a part of the same plan, with the same agendas, or one works for the other, etc. Though they have contact, the Joker and Two Face are independent of one another. The mold was broken, with the aforementioned Joker being about the senseless chaos and destruction of Gotham city, while Two Face went on a mean streak, targeting policeman and city officials for their betrayal of justice.
Endless paragraphs could be written to speak of how good The Dark Knight is, but I will stop here, giving this film a perfect rating.
10/10
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