REVIEW - The Dark Knight

Note: It’s nearly impossible to discuss this film without at least SOME spoilers. If you haven’t seen the film, please stop reading now and go to the theater at your earliest opportunity. It's that good. Seriously.

So people have been foaming at the mouth to see this film for it seems like forever, and now that The Dark Knight has finally been released, the question everyone is asking is, “How well does Maggie Gyllenhaal do in replacing Katie Holmes?”

Okay, so that’s the question nobody’s really asking going in, or, if they are, it’s pretty far down the list. Really, everybody wants to know if it’s as awesome as everyone is saying it is. The hype factory has gone crazy with this particular film, mostly due to the untimely demise of one of its best performers, but even if Heath Ledger were still alive today I think he’d get every bit of the accolades that are being bestowed upon him posthumously. Such is his performance that I will not mention his shuffling off his mortal coil again, as I feel it does a disservice to his performance by harping on it, lamenting it, and otherwise drawing attention to it as much as the media vultures seem to.

Escalation. Everyone’s talking about it. Crazy guy in a bat costume taking out criminals; there’s gonna be some crazier guys willing to raise the stakes. It’s as much a plot point as it is a mission statement for this reset Batman franchise; in one fell swoop, director Christopher Nolan raised the stakes for comic book films in every possible way. We’re seeing the results of that now with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and the upcoming Watchmen, but the days of mediocre stuff like the Fantastic Four as directed by the director of Barbershop and Bryan Singer’s Superman Has A Kid And He Creepily Stalks The Boy are, I think, a distant memory. At least they should be. Even the X-Men films, which were pretty darn good in my opinion, are heavily outclassed. And Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man series looks like an exercise in retardation compared with even the trailer for Batman Begins. So, with Batman at the top of the superhero heap, what is there left to do?

Raise the stakes again.

If we recall the final scene of Batman Begins, Batman and Jim Gordon discuss the concept of escalation, and how crazy costumed people are going to be gunning for the Batman. The Dark Knight picks up with these exact themes. As the film begins, Batman is dealing with the following: organized crime on the brink of extinction thanks to the combined efforts of himself, the police, and crusading district attorney Harvey Dent; an easily dispatched Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy in a great cameo appearance, returning to the role); novice vigilantes in hockey pads pretending to be Batman; and dogs.

Predictably, Batman deals with these issues easily (though the dogs give him pause), but the combined efforts of justice to bring down the mob gets all messed up when one crazy guy decides to stroll in and change the rules entirely.

Heath Ledger’s work as the Joker is pretty amazing. To say that he steals the show is an understatement made grander by the company he shares the screen with. When was the last time someone stole a film out from under the feet of Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman or Gary Oldman? Seriously.

Inevitable Joker Comparisons: Ledger’s Joker isn’t even in the same weight class as Nicholson’s; Nicholson’s Joker was an amped-up Cesar Romero Joker. Ledger’s is cut from a completely different cloth than any previous incarnation and shares more in common with Hannibal Lecter or Alex DeLarge than anyone else in film. His pencil trick alone is worth the price of admission, and forces the audience into the uncomfortable realization that they too are at the mercy of a madman. This Joker is a cunning strategist and a master manipulator, despite his claims to the contrary. Frequently, I found myself laughing at the horrible things the Joker was doing despite feeling horrified at the same time. I haven’t had so much fun watching a bad guy since Ian McDiarmid threw Samuel L. Jackson out a window, and even that pales in comparison to anything the Joker does in this film. This incarnation of the Joker is tailored specifically for the times we live in, and has raised the bar for film villains going forward. The performance will be much imitated, but I doubt anyone could improve upon it, since they don't have the benefit of the Nolan Brothers' highly quotable dialogue.

Leaving the Joker aside for a moment, probably the biggest surprise of the film is Harvey Dent. Aaron Eckhart is by no means an unknown actor (if you haven’t seen his awesome performance in Jason Reitman’s Thank You For Smoking, check it out), but I think it’s safe to say that this is his first big Hollywood blockbuster, and he does not disappoint. I was a bit surprised at the mostly-subdued nature of his Two Face, but I think they were going more for a brooding intensity than a raving madman, since they already had enough overtly crazy people in the film.

Gary Oldman is one of my favorite actors ever, and he continues to impress in the role of Jim Gordon. When you look at his other roles, particularly Stansfield in Leon (The Professional) or the Russian bad guy in Air Force One, or Zorg in The Fifth Element or whatever, and then you say, “This is the guy who’s going to play Commissioner Gordon,” my brain esplode. But Oldman turns in yet another excellent performance, carrying his share of the storyline and honestly, I don’t mind admitting that not only did I buy it hook line and sinker when they killed him off, I was pretty annoyed, which I’m sure was their intent. LOOK AT ME I’M CHRIS NOLAN I CAN KILL OFF ANYBODY I WANT I CARE NOT FOR YOUR CONTINUITY SNIVELING FANBOYS but thankfully this situation was resolved with Nolan’s typically deft magician’s hand.

Speaking of character mortality, did anyone really expect Rachel Dawes to get all blowed up, especially after her character was so carefully recast? Maggie Gyllenhaal did a great job of making Ms. Dawes a grown up human being and not some fish-eyed woman-child play acting. Holmes got blown off the screen every time she appeared in Batman Begins; Gyllenhaal actually manages to hold her own against all the heavy-hitting actors in the cast.

I actually think I preferred Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne to his Batman. Wayne was hilarious, especially when stealing away with the entire Russian Ballet or crashing his Lamborghini. The humor was never at the expense of his character, however; we can always tell that Bruce is only acting like an idiot, and maybe even allowing himself to enjoy it just a little. Batman, as a character, is typical (though it seems like it's really not even his film), but Bale’s hoarse growl when donning the cape becomes a bit tiresome and even slightly ridiculous after a while. This is the probably biggest problem with the film, and it’s a reeeeally nitpicky one.

While Rutger Hauer does not return (more’s the pity), the old guys are well represented by the incredible Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine. It was cool to see Alfred get at least a bit of a backstory that hints that maybe he hasn’t been a butler at stately Wayne Manor his whole life, though the story he tells about some jewel thief in the jungle is a bit tedious. At least it has a point, and a valid one. Also, I loved the scene where Lucius Fox stares down a potential blackmailer (who, surprisingly, has a larger role than one would expect).

One would expect a certain amount of action in a superhero film, and The Dark Knight does not disappoint. There is an action sequence in the middle of the film involving an armored truck and an 18 wheeler that may actually be better than the sequence that I’ve always held as the gold standard for such things, the Truck Chase in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Don’t quote me on it yet, though; I’d like to watch The Dark Knight again to make sure. Seriously though, it is pretty much the greatest thing to happen in filmed action all year. I think it was at that point of the film when I realized that I had no idea how long I’d been there, and that this could be the climax of the film - a similar feeling as when I was somewhere in the middle of No Country For Old Men. And just like No Country, I was very wrong and pleased to be so.

The film ends in an interesting place. Rather than allowing Batman to kill the Joker, he lives (this is a common occurence in the comics). Two Face is killed, though somewhat unintentionally. I was kind of hoping this film would be a setup for the next film to be a Two Face film, but apparently that isn’t going to happen unless they cheese out and bring him back from the dead, but Nolan seems to want to keep the comic book cheese to a minimum. No, it looks like we’ll probably be seeing some new villains in the next one, though who it could be we can only speculate.

Names have been thrown around like Philip Seymour Hoffman as the Penguin or Johnny Depp stepping in to play the Joker. These are good actors, and I think Depp could definitely do some interesting things with the Joker, but putting them aside I just question the real-world sensibilities of Batman’s remaining rogues’ gallery. I guess they could do the Penguin, but what is the Penguin without his umbrellas and waddling and “waah waah waah” all the time? And how cheesy would that be? Are people going to buy a realistic Riddler? Some could possibly work as side villains, like maybe Poison Ivy or Killer Croc. I’d like to see a Patrick Stewart or Ben Kingsley take on Mr. Freeze, if people can get past that whole Schwarzenegger debacle. Bane could also work, I guess. Catwoman has been done to death, but I fully expect her to show up in the next one in some fashion since they blew up the only lady character this time around. Hush is too recent to register with the general audience. If you even bring up the Mad Hatter I will kill you.

The Dark Knight is indeed comparable to The Godfather Part II or The Empire Strikes Back, in the sense that they are superior sequels to also-awesome, genre-defining films which have had a lasting impact on the medium. It is better than any comic book film has a right to be (if that statement makes any sense to begin with), and transcends genre completely and is simply a great film. It’s going to take something pretty amazing to come out of nowhere and supplant The Dark Knight as the best film of the year.