Happy New Year!
Netflix has given us the best New Year's gift of all by putting Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight up for streaming and as I sat in my dorm room on this chilly Thursday night I decided to treat myself by rewatching it.
I've seen this movie a great many times now and although it came out almost 11 years ago (holy shit), I still vividly remember going to see it for the first time in the theater. The hype was crazy. Critics we're raving about the film especially Heath Ledger's (RIP) performance as the Joker. I couldn't have been more excited. I remember hearing rumors on the news before the release that it would be R-rated and 7-year old me was pumped to see my first R-rated film. Even though it ended up being PG-13, The Dark Knight remains a wild ride from start to finish.
Obviously, this movie is a sequel to Batman Begins and if you haven't seen either of these movies stop what you're doing and watch... Anyway, what makes this movie so great is that its not your prototypical superhero movie; anybody can watch this as it serves primarily as a top-of-the-line action/thriller. All of the performances in this film are great (well except for Maggie Gyllenhaal). Bale delivers once again despite his sometimes laughable Batman voice and Gary Oldman gets it done as Jim Gordon. As for the newcomers, Aaron Eckhart gives probably the most underrated performance as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, while obviously Heath Ledger gives what some call the best performance in a movie ever. Heath's Joker drives this film and one can argue that this movie is more about him than Batman. What makes this Joker so great aside from the performance is the writing of the character. The Nolan brothers took a psycho-maniac killer and turned him into a smart and calculating agent of chaos. The Joker's lines in this movie are so good that sometimes you wonder if he has a point (Thanos before Thanos). The phrase "a hero is only as good as its villain" is proven here as the Joker proves to be Batman's greatest foe, exploiting his weaknesses and morals. It's brilliant, but I could talk all day about Ledger's Joker so let's move on.
The plot of this film is pretty straight-forward but also very smart. The way Nolan weaves every little detail together is a reason the movie works so much. The pacing is off the charts as no minute is wasted and action sequences are intense and gritty. If I had one complaint about Nolan's Batman it would be his fighting style as its often times slow and clunky unlike his combat in the Arkham video games, but Nolan's objective is not the action, its the character. This is the perfect middle part of a trilogy as the main protagonist is challenged to the point where he questions every decision he's made and every decision he will make in the future. The supporting cast of Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman work so well as Bruce Wayne's assistants, emotional grounding, and moral compasses. As for Maggie Gyllenhaal, I'm just not a fan of her recasting but her character plays a vital role in the film serving as the centerpiece of a love triangle between Bruce and Harvey. Even as I'm writing this I keep finding more and more little things that make this movie so great such as the relationship between Harvey and Bruce and how it contrasts with that of Harvey and Batman.
As I said before, the action sequences are awesome and wouldn't be the same without Hans Zimmer's fantastic score. From the opening bank robbery to the chase scene, it's just good shit. My favorite sequence in the whole film takes place after the Joker is apprehended; it starts with the iconic interrogation scene between Batman and the Joker and then spirals out of control when the Joker sets his plan in motion making Batman choose whose life to save, Harvey's or Rachel's. Just the editing of scene combined with the music is unreal.
Almost 11 years later, The Dark Knight stands the test of time as not only one of the greatest superhero films of all-time, but also one of the greatest films of all-time. I fully expect that I will watch this movie an embarrassing amount of times over the next 11 years also.
My Score: A+