Movie Review: The Dark Knight

This is a good opportunity to practice reviewing without too many spoilers!

Your first question about films may well be "Is it worth spending money to go the cinema" and in this case...

YEEEEESSSS!!!!

Lets get the Heath Ledger question out of the way first.

Yes, he is great. Yes his performance is creepy and easily the equal of the great Jack Nicholson's performance - his Joker has no back story, is infinitely creepier and immeasurably scarier than old Jacky's performance. It's the perfect Joker for this new set of Batman films and it is the performance that would have shot young Ledger into the Hollywood stratosphere if not for his untimely death.

Now the obvious is out of the way, is there anything else to this film or is it just the Joker Show?

There is so much going on in this film, and the makers should be applauded for limiting the Jokers screentime (however much you may regret with hindsight the loss of more of this performance) and concentrating equally on the characters of Harvey Dent and even of Batman, a trick which Tim Burton just didn't bother with. We are in moral ambiguity territyory here, to put it mildly, and the issues facing the masked vigilante are described really well, without getting all awkward and preachy with the dialogue.

Christian Bale is superb again and again in almost everything he does, and here, where his Batman could be extinguished against the crazed enemies he faces (like Val Kilmer was) the quality of this actor means that he has kept himself at the centre of proceedings. He also gets some new gadgets, though these are never allowed to overshadow the real story.

Aaron Eckhart (The Core, anyone?) redeems himsef by also being genius. It is testament to the stroy's popularity that I can refer to his fate without being accused of being a spoiler. Oh, and by the way, I read that Billy Dee Williams only agreed to play Harvey Dent in the Tim Burton Batman on the understanding he would get to return as Two-Face. Only problem was that Joel Schumacher didn;t want him, so paid the penalty clause in his contract so he could cast Tommy Lee Jones instead. So Billy Dee Williams was about the only person who benefitted from Batman Forever!

And we lose Katie Holmes, the squeaky voiced chump, in favour of favourite of the indie scene Maggie Gyllenhall who promptly makes you wish she'd been in the first film as well. This is crucial since a massive part of the films plot requires you to like this character, so good job on recasting, Chris Nolan!

Despite the fact that the film is filmed in less sepia a tone than Batman Begins, and that theres a lot more daytime stuff going on, this is a much darker film than its predecessor and this is where the very small problem I have with it arises. It's a 12A film, but is really a 15 with some early edits on scenes to avoid this rating. This means that the tone is srt of undermined by a lack of extreme violence, not a huge problem (since I give this film 10/10) but a little sour note amongst the great fun I had. Plus, I don't work for the BBFC but surely the appearance of Two Face is too nasty for a 12A?

In short - go and see this film. It is bloody brilliant, despite the sterilisation of some of its action scenes. There's not a crap part, and since Heath Ledger is lost to us now, it represents the penultimate chance to see him in action (the other being his last film, The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus) and judge for yourselves how close he came to being a really premier league Hollywood star.

I have plenty of commentary on the plot itself, but I think I've done a really good job of avoiding spoilers so far, so won't go that far. Cheers!

A