The Dark Knight - Review AND SPOILERS!

[JasonEvans]

First of all... wow. What a powerful film. It is unrelenting. It is almost hard to say watching it is an enjoyable experience because it is so intense. You are utterly captivated by the story and cannot be torn away from it. Christopher Nolan is a bold director to have attempted something this dark and challenging to the audience. I mean, he could have probably come up with a half a dozen other "easy outs" for his story that would have still made gobs of money. But, he chose a path less traveled and we, the moviegoing public, are the better for it.

This is, in many ways, totally unlike other comic book movies because it is so dark. I cannot stress that enough. Comparing it to Spiderman or Iron Man or most other "hero" movies is a difficult task. Even the second XMen film, which was also very dark, does not compare to this film in terms of the ride it takes the audience upon. There is no humor (well, one scene with a pencil is funny, but in a gruesome way). There are barely any light moments. Gotham is a city struggling to be good, but torn apart by its bad side and that is the theme of the movie.



The acting, as you have already heard from other reviews, is very strong. Heath Ledger steals the film and is the dominant character. I am sure they will put him up for Supporting Actor, but he was darn close to being the lead here. Christian Bale doesn't do all that much more with Batman/Bruce Wayne than he did in the first film. He's fine, but nothing too special. Sometimes, his angst seems overblown. The supporting cast is ridiculously talented with "name" actors all over the place, sometimes in tiny roles. I mean, William Fichtner shows up for the first five minutes and then is gone. He has maybe 4 lines. Cillian Murphy is back for a tiny appearance. Aaron Eckhardt as Harvey Dent and Gary Oldman as Lt. Gordon are both very big characters in this film and they do a nice job.

I am going to issue some caveats. The plot is somewhat confusing at times and struggles towards the ending. I am not sure why henchmen working for the Joker would go along with some of his plans. Harvey Dent's character takes a turn that is never explained to my satisfaction. The movie is long (2 hours, 20 minutes) and it feels like it wants to end a couple times before it does. I can't say much more without giving stuff away but there were parts of the final hour of the film that I think could have been done differently. Still, it is a complex and compelling story and one well worth watching. There were a few surprises along the way that I really enjoyed. One scene in particular, involving a pair of ferry boats, really did not turn out how I expected. When all of us who saw the film were discussing it afterwords, we each had a different theory about how the ferry scene would end and we were all wrong. That is kinda cool.



The visual effects are magnificent and the action scenes are wonderfully done -- and they are not overdone, in my opinion... which is a nice change from most summer films. The makeup on Heath Ledger is stunning and one character undergoes a change late in the film that is a masterpiece of visual effects and a fabulous tribute to a comic book icon. You'll know it when you see it.

This is not a "date movie" because it is so uncompromisingly dark. My wife appreciated it and said she was glad to have seen it, but she did not love it. My 11-year-old son really liked it though he found some parts a bit tough to handle and he was confused at times. He and his friend we took really liked the movie and agreed it had some truly memorable scenes that they could nto stop talking about. I think kids younger than 10 or 11 are quite likely to be spooked by this film. We did not take my 8-year-old and I think that was a very wise decision.



It is late and I have to run-- I will likely have more comments in coming days and am eager to see what the rest of you think. I look forward to discussions about the story and why some things happened-- but those are conversations to be had after you have seen the movie yourself so I do not spoil anything.

--Jason "I usually read over my reviews to alter/edit/add/subtract -- too late to do that here. Hope it is ok" Evans

[bjornolf]

Thanks, Jason. Awesome review as usual.

Is it darker than the first two batman movies? Is it darker than, say, Donnie Darko or Dark City or Sin City?

[JasonEvans]

Thanks, Jason. Awesome review as usual.

Is it darker than the first two batman movies? Is it darker than, say, Donnie Darko or Dark City or Sin City?

It has been ages, decade plus, since I saw Dark City or the second Batman film so I am not gonna compare it to either of them.

I consider this far darker than Sin City, which had a lot of humor and was so over-the-top noir that it did not feel anything like reality. I also think it is darker than the original Batman film, which also had more than a few moments of comic relief and absurdity from Nicholson's Joker. Health Ledger's Joker is far more evil, it ain't even close. Also, that film did not provide nearly as much tragedy and angst for its Batman lead. In this movie, Batman is very troubled, almost tortured, as he tries to figure out how to stop the Joker. The ending of this film is much, much darker than anything in any of the earlier Batman films.

As for Donnie Darko, whew, that is a tough one. Darko ends with its main character choosing death for himself rather than hurting so many others, which is a very dark ending. Still, Donnie Darko has more light moments along the way and is not nearly as intense as this film.

--Jason "eager to see what others think starting tonight!" Evans

[bjornolf]

Here's a good one. I thought Black Dahlia was pretty good and dark at the same time.

Sorry, I'm done

[darthur]

Well I won't get a chance to see Batman for a few days probably, but I did check out the Watchmen trailer that goes with it. It looked pretty solid to me too. Not sure how many of you guys know the book, but it is often considered to be both the darkest and the most thought-provoking graphic novel ever written. I will be very interested to see how it ends up getting received. Anyone who finds the Dark Knight too serious for a comic book movie will probably choke on Watchmen!

So now I have two superhero movies to look forward to. The more the merrier!

[DukeDude]

17 out of 35 reviewers gave it a 100 on metacritic, but the film is only rated an 82 overall. I'd say that it is polarizing. I can't wait to see it.

[JasonEvans]

Oh, seeing as some folks asked about this a while back, my estimate for its opening weekend is a $119 million, which would be a huge number (though not quite at Spiderman or Pirates level) especially for a non-holiday weekend.

-Jason "so, who went to one of the 3am or 5am showings last night?" Evans

[Clipsfan]

Oh, seeing as some folks asked about this a while back, my estimate for its opening weekend is a $119 million, which would be a huge number (though not quite at Spiderman or Pirates level) especially for a non-holiday weekend.

-Jason "so, who went to one of the 3am or 5am showings last night?" Evans

I didn't, but one of my coworkers was at the theater until around 3:30 (1 AM showing). I don't expect her to get much done today.

[blublood]

Mr. blublood and I are going to night - so excited! *And* we have a babysitter.
I'll post my view of it probably Monday. Since the "darker" a film is, the more I generally hate it, I'll be interested to see if the innate coolness of Batman and Christian Bale can overcome this.

[Udaman]

Just saw it.

Yes, it might have been a bit too long. No, it wasn't 100% perfect - the transformation of ... was a bit sudden, at times the dialogue was hard to follow, it had really three separate endings....

But those are minor points distracting from the best movie of the summer, which is what this movie was. Heath Ledger is simply amazing in this. He IS The Joker. He manifested all that was evil in The Dark Knight Returns version of the Joker, and still added his own personal touch. He should be an absolute lock to be nominated for an Academy Award, and really, his character was better than Bardin's winning role in No Country. Every scene he is in he dominates. You literally can't take your eyes off of him.

Major props as well to the screenplay, because the speeches from The Joker really are the window into the soul of this movie (and Gotham). Also, there were numerous scenes where things did not happen according to plan - one of which made sense afterwards (with Harvey and Rachel in the warehouses), and the other was just really cool (with the boats).

The action scenes were great. The acting was great. Just a powerful, powerful film. It should be nominated for Best Picture (but likely won't be). I will definitely see it again.

[Olympic Fan]

Oh, seeing as some folks asked about this a while back, my estimate for its opening weekend is a $119 million, which would be a huge number (though not quite at Spiderman or Pirates level) especially for a non-holiday weekend.

-Jason "so, who went to one of the 3am or 5am showings last night?" Evans

Just saw a CNN update on the movie opening ... it's apparently breaking sales records for a first day film everywhere. Theaters are adding special showings at 6 a.m. and at 1 a.m (they didn't mention 5 a.m. or 3 a.m.). Not sure, but I think they said its opening at more threaters than any film in history (something like 4,600 screens).

Fandango, the largest on-line ticket seller, has already declared the Dark Knight as its highest selling opening -- they have no on-line tickets unsold before Monday.

I don't know what that will translate to for the first weekend ... it will be interesting to see Monday's numbers. But with this kind of start, it's pretty certain that it will push Iron Man and Indiana Jones (in a virtual dead heat) for this summer's top box office hit.

[rockymtn devil]

Just saw it. Some thoughts.

The movie is excellent. It is the best comic book movie I can recall, but framing it as such isn't fair to the movie. It doesn't strive to be a comic book movie and, ultimately, it isn't. If you take away the comic book elements of X-Men, you're left with a boring movie about social acceptance of the "others". If you take away the comic book elements of Spiderman, you're left with a bad movie about a geeky kid trying to score with a girl out of his league. If you take the comic book out of The Dark Knight, you're left with The Departed, LA Confidential, Heat, or whatever great crime drama you want to insert.

The Joker character is great both because Ledger is fantastic (he is Alex from A Clockwork Orange) and because of the writing. The Joker is both sadistic and brilliant. He's also funny, but in a very uncomfortable sort of way. Every scene of the movie--no matter if he's in it--is driven by Ledger's Joker. Without going into too much detail, I'll just say that I loved that the script allowed The Joker to be defined solely by his actions on the screen.

I'll also give the obligatory--if not reductive--idea that this movie presents Gotham City as post 9/11 America (sometimes subtly; sometimes not). The theme can be boiled down to what we're willing to let fear drive us to do. Now, before groaning that it's a "message" movie, know that the film doesn't take sides, and the question of who is who in the post 9/11 analogy isn't clear.

Go see it very soon. It's that good.

p.s. There is one scene in this movie that truly stole the show and will, IMO, go down as the definitive scene from it. I'll be interested to see if others felt the same way, but I'll wait to discuss it until more have seen the movie.

[Matches]

p.s. There is one scene in this movie that truly stole the show and will, IMO, go down as the definitive scene from it. I'll be interested to see if others felt the same way, but I'll wait to discuss it until more have seen the movie.

Hiding the pencil?

[mph]

I just got back from the movie and it was excellent. Jason's review is dead-on with the very minor exception that I didn't find the plot confusing. I do, however, agree that the plot gets lost in the action near the end. Still, the action sequences were good enough to keep me from minding too much.

I approached the movie with a small dose of skepticism regarding the hype over Ledger's performance, thinking that at least some of the praise was sentimentality. I was wrong. As others have posted, he absolutely made the film and I would be surprised if he's not nominated for supporting actor.

[bbar7502]

too many great scenes to talk about, but def. best comic movie ever. I am the biggest batman fan and even I was skeptical of all the hype but it exceeded it. plus got excited for the other bale movie....Terminator 4! just hearing the music gets me pumped.

[JasonEvans]

Now that people have seen it... which is better:

1. The pencil magic trick
2. What the big black convict on the ferry did
3. What Batman said/did after Salvatore (Eric Roberts) said, "you're not going to kill me"
4. The joker's plan to escape the prison
5. Other

--Jason "I vote for the pencil" Evans

[mph]

--Jason "I vote for the pencil" Evans

Me too.

[watzone]

Holy Bat Bucks!

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b147...t_madness.html

[rockymtn devil]

Now that people have seen it... which is better:

1. The pencil magic trick
2. What the big black convict on the ferry did
3. What Batman said/did after Salvatore (Eric Roberts) said, "you're not going to kill me"
4. The joker's plan to escape the prison
5. Other

--Jason "I vote for the pencil" Evans

I loved the line after "you're not going to kill me" (ultimate bad pottymouth!pottymouth!pottymouth! line) but I have to go with other. Perhaps I over-estimated the impact of the scene, but I thought the interrogation was the best scene in the movie. The interplay between Batman and the Joker was great and it had me at the edge of my seat more than any other.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Now that people have seen it... which is better:

1. The pencil magic trick
2. What the big black convict on the ferry did
3. What Batman said/did after Salvatore (Eric Roberts) said, "you're not going to kill me"
4. The joker's plan to escape the prison
5. Other

--Jason "I vote for the pencil" Evans

typing with my eyes closed, not everyone has seen it