Um, wow!
The second installment of Chris Nolan's Batman franchise hit the screens this weekend with
The Dark Knight. In
Batman Begins, Nolan told the story of his protagonist's origins as the caped crusader combating crime in Gotham. The story continues by examining the consequences of having someone fight crime in this way. It's a continuation of a conversation Batman and Gordon had at the end of
Begins about escalation.
Bruce Wayne is tired of being Batman. The vigilante hero has given rise to a wave of imitation vigilantes taking justice into their own hands. Batman has to take down his own imitators alongside the criminals he is supposed to be fighting. Rather than bringing light to the city, he is just bringing more chaos. But when Wayne meets the new DA Harvey Dent, he is impressed. Dent is taking on the mob in Gotham bravely in the face of constant threats to his own safety. And he does so without a mask. Wayne decides Dent is the hero Gotham needs, and sees with relief the beginning of the end for Batman.
As Gordon prophesied in
Begins, the mob do not take kindly to Batman's interference. When they find themselves unable to get rid of Batman, they decide to give the Joker a shot. This Joker, unlike Tim Burton's Joker from
Batman, is an agent of pure chaos. He's not out for the money or power. He's a pure psychotic who wants to see the world writhe in agony. As such, he sees something of a kinship between himself and Batman, since Batman is inadvertently giving rise to chaos as well.
In addition to, or perhaps as part of, causing chaos the Joker makes a game of trying to corrupt the seemingly incorruptible Dark Knight (Batman) and White Knight (Dent) and bring them down to his level. He ultimately succeeds in Dent's case (not really a spoiler, because anyone who saw
Batman Returns or has read the comics knows who Dent is).
The two are emblematic of Joker's ultimate goal of corrupting everyone, prompting people to do things to others that they would otherwise find horrifying to even contemplate. One great sequence involves two captive groups of people, each with a detonator that will kill the other group. Joker gives them the choice of either using the detonator, which will kill the other group but spare their own lives, or don't use the detonator and wait for either the other group to kill them or, if neither group uses its detonator, Joker will kill both groups. Are we the kind of the people who would kill the others to save themselves or are we the kind of people who would stick to their values and not kill innocent people?
The film is masterful in every respect. Visually it is stunning, from the very opening image of a fireball the final image of Batman speeding off on his Bat-bot. The writing is sharp and intelligent. Nolan is not afraid to shock the audience, and shows it by having at least one major character killed off in the film.
The acting is superb almost all around. The late Heath Ledger has already garnered a lot of word of mouth for his performance, and deserves every bit of it. As in Burton's
Batman, the Joker ends up outshining Batman. Aaron Eckhart is also solid as Dent, and fairly scary as Two Face, admittedly that is in no small part due to the makeup. Christian Bale is as good as he was in the first film. The only complaint I would have is with Maggie Gyllenhaal who takes over the role of Rachel Dawes from Katie Holmes, and is definitely not of the same caliber.
One note for parents. I know that Batman is a character in Saturday morning cartoons that your kids probably watch. I know that he's a comic book character that your kids may read. This is a movie, not a Saturday morning cartoon show. This is a movie with some very frightening images that tells a quite adult story. This is not a movie to take your kids to. I couldn't believe how many 5, 6, 7 year olds were trotting of the theater after the show. Parents, show some sense.
Labels: movies, reviews
