05 Aug 08
The Dark Knight Film
Some 4.7 million people have already paid to see The Dark Knight in the UK, and I am happy to say I'm one of them. Following on from the fantastic Batman Begins, this is the second in the 'relaunched' Batman series.
Spoilers beneath the picture.
Obviously the death of Heath Ledger in January, amplified the hype and buzz and it was never going to be easy for the film to match the expectation. Personally, I thought it was a good film, not as good as its predecessor, but compared to other super hero franchises this one is the gold standard.
As already noted, I didn't get to the film in the best possible way. However despite picture quality issues, it really is worth two and a half hours of your life.
The film is not without flaws. The dark and brooding Gotham City is gone, Batman Begins really built the city giving you the impression of a life going on outside the edges of the screen, but in The Dark Knight I was left with little doubt that this was "just another city".
The standout performance though was Gary Oldman as Lieutenant, (later Commissioner), Gordon. He is the only 'hero' of the film who is never corrupted, and unlike Batman is the character that takes a risk by standing up to the underworld of Gotham 'unmasked'. In some ways, I wish the film had been more character driving with Gordon fighting to do his job whilst protecting his family, and losing the whole 'boat' story strand.
What I dislike about the other comic-book films is that they take complete leave of reality, which is why the 'sonar vision' was really disappointing. Using mobile phones to create a visual map of the world? Heading into 'Die Another Day' invisible car world. To be honest, I'm not sure what the point of it was except maybe to make a point about CCTV Big Brother world? Either way, I could have lived without it.
A brief point on James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer's score. Simply put, it is one of the best film scores I have heard for a long time, unnerving and chaotic in places and really straddles the boundaries between score and sound design.
Why So Serious?
So Heath Ledger as The Joker. An Oscar winning performance? I don't know, probably not. He make the character his own though as Jack Nicholson's Joker was a comical character, Heath Ledger's is a truly dark character that does comical things. Thoroughly insane and creepy but manages to retain humour, particularly as the hospital nurse. Like the rest of the elements under the new relaunched Batman series The Joker is grounded in some kind of reality. This is why the new Batman is so great, and despite the faults is the best comic book series to date. There is not an over reliance in CGI characters, and the film is as 'real' as it can be given the subject matter.
It was really well paced, and didn't deviate from the core premise. Despite all the problems, you are unlikely to find a better comic-book film for a while.