“The Dark Knight” Review: Highly entertaining, not a masterpiece.
Date: July 28, 2008
I really enjoyed this movie, and I would highly recommend anyone who hasn’t seen it to do so. However, I think it should also be made clear that while the overall style of “Batman Begins” is in “The Dark Knight,” this movie is shinier (read: Hollywood eye candy) and less plot-driven than its predecessor. I give it a rating of seven, leaning toward eight, out of ten, but I do not think it deserves anymore than that.
By far, the most amazing performance was Ledger’s as the Joker. He fit the character perfectly, both conforming to old styles and making the character his own. Though it is tragic that Ledger died so young, he truthfully could not have asked for a better acting performance to leave us with. I think Heath Ledger will be remembered most for this role, and while I know some disagree, I think he stole the show a bit with his brilliance.
Christian Bale provides another solid performance as Batman (though his voice as Batman seems to have gotten deeper and lispy all of a sudden!), but I wasn’t impressed that this movie seemed to remove many of the insecurities, fears and concerns that the Batman from “Batman Begins” experienced. Throughout the movie, and even during parts where Batman questions himself, I found him far too sure of himself and his decisions, overall. I liked the realness, the clumsiness that was
explored in the first film. It is mostly gone in this sequel. Along with Katie Holmes as Rachel–not that this was a loss, but still a bit strange/jarring to me.
I was disappointed that so many characters came and went with this movie. They could have been fleshed out and explored more, but instead were introduced and killed off in one very-long movie. I was sad to see that one of my favorite Batman nemeses was given very little airtime ultimately after an awkward introduction.
Without providing a spoiler, I will also say that I found one element of this movie incredibly unrealistic and silly, so much so that I probably removed one or two points from my rating simply because of it. All I will say is that it is a fine example of the deus ex machina (a sudden solution to a seemingly impossible problem), and it is a key element in the movie, at that. Really, when I think back on the movie hard enough, I can see where sudden solutions were found all throughout the film; this was a little annoying to me.
Overall, an excellent film, but the first remains my favorite for a number of reasons.
Here’s the trailer for the handful of you that still haven’t seen it.
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