The Dark Knight
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Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine,
Morgan Freeman.
Directed by Christopher Nolan.
Story: Batman Continues.
Running Time: 2hrs 32 minutes.
UK Certificate 12A. |
The Dark Knight is currently IMDB's Number 1 movie of all time,
as voted by its users. It'll drop once the hubbub dies down, nevertheless you can't ignore an accolade like that.
Three years ago, when Batman Begins revived everyone's favourite
chiropteran franchise,
I predicted that its sequel, when it arrived, would be an all-action mindless episode, a la Matrix Reloaded. Well, I'm
happy to say it hasn't turned out like that. It has its action quota, sure, but it reverses the trend by being more
intelligent than its already sharp predecessor. It only takes a relatively short leap of faith to start believing in
bats, which isn't something you can easily say about the others. I was all ready to give it a solid 4/5 until the ending
arrived, which totally surprised me with its creativity and was just enough, along with a darkness not usually found in a
a 12A movie, to tip it into the 5/5 bucket.
Heath Ledger's sad and unexpected demise has done wonders for the movie's publicity. At the time, movie gossip said that
they'd hired other actors to finish his scenes, and that they would employ a "magic mirror" that Ledger would walk into and
the new actor would emerge from. Fortunately that was horse shit. You wouldn't know he wasn't there until the end,
heaven knows how they did that. There's some dodgy editing, but that's not restricted to the Joker's scenes, so that
must be down to incompetence rather than enforced absence. Ledger's performance
itself is superb - totally appropriate to the role - but I wouldn't say it's fair to judge it as "better" than Jack
Nicholson's in the 1989 Batman. Grittier, certainly. The standout performance of the movie?
Definitely. Better than Nicholson's? No. Despite this, I wouldn't
be at all surprised if Ledger collected a posthumous Oscar, though I think it would be wrong. Everyone will think he only
won it because he died, so it would be devalued - surely it's better to give the award to someone who's around to enjoy it.
I do think he deserves some kind of recognition, because he genuinely was a superb actor, but the Oscar isn't the right
way to go.
Whatever you expect from The Dark Knight, you're going to get it and more. It's unusually intelligent for a superhero
movie, but still satisfies the action fans. Marvellous.
I enjoyed this film: 5/5
I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: 5/5
Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 4/5 - very dark for a 12A.
To enjoy this film you should: like movies.
The Dark Knight was released in the UK on 24th July 2008.
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