The Dark Knight (2008)
Grade:B+
It’s all well and good that writer-director Christopher Nolan wants to make a serious superhero film with The Dark Knight, but watching the final product, I can’t help but think that the film suffered from losing some joy and fun in the process of going through all the effort to make it legitimate, realistic, and serious.
I’m not saying that The Dark Knight won’t make shitloads of money, because clearly it will (and already has, raking in nearly $20,000,000 at midnight showings alone), but as pretentious or artsy as my tastes can sometimes lie, I feel that summer superhero action blockbusters need an element of fun in them. Otherwise, especially with this film clocking in at two-and-a-half hours, we’re left spending time with a film that’s joyless.
Essentially, the setup is nearly identical to Iron Man in that we have a billionaire who morphs himself into something grander to solve the world’s evils. Here, it’s Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) turning himself into Batman, a vigilante crime-fighter working to keep the streets of Gotham City free of crime. The problem is that the people of Gotham City are over Batman. With newly-elected D.A. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) also out to fight crime bureaucratically, it’s Super Hard to be Batman. Cue existential crisis.
We’ve seen this all before (Spider-Man 2’s crisis of identity themes, anyone?), so thank God Nolan throws the Joker (Heath Ledger) into the mix. As written and performed (holy posthumous Oscar, Batman!), the Joker is a stunning creation, one of the best villains we’ve seen in all of cinema, simply because we have absolutely no idea what he might do next; he’s like the Anton Chigurh of superhero films. Every entrance he makes into a scene brings an immediate boost in tension and apprehension. Essentially, The Dark Knight is at its best when it lets the Joker run wild and bring mayhem to Gotham City. Bogging down the film with mob-related elements and a romantic subplot concerning Bruce’s childhood friend Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and her relationship with Dent just takes away from what the movie gets so right: the Joker, and the action sequences.
The action is noticeably well-done here, mostly because it doesn’t rely heavily on CGI. When they flip a semi 180ยบ over itself, it’s visceral and has a weight to it that CGI can’t achieve. Plus, the gadgets are pretty nifty, much like Batman Begins (though the cell phone radar was pretty goofy).
At well over two hours, the film is also overlong. Much of the first half is pretty unnecessary, concerning mob money laundering through a Hong Kong banker. Once the Joker takes Harvey and Rachel captive, the outcome of this finally gives the film a little momentum to work with. Before this, though, it seems like Nolan is working overtime to set everything up when really he can just drop us into the middle of the action.
Much like my review for Atonement, I feel I’m shortchanging the film. That B+ isn’t an accident! It was a very solid popcorn film, and certainly entertaining. I guess I’m just a little harder on it because Nolan seems to have such lofty ambitions. He’s so close to being successful with a lot of his visions of making a serious film that also happens to be a summer blockbuster. Trouble is, it’s just not a lot of fun to be Batman. Call me shallow or whatever you want, but when I hear “superhero movie,” I want to have a good time at the theater. Iron Man was as successful as it was because it managed to ground its outlandish story in reality while having fun at the same time. Nolan stumbles where Sam Raimi did with Spider-Man 2 in thinking that realism alone will suffice. It doesn’t quite. Ledger’s Joker is a clear high point of the film, but any time he isn’t on screen, it’s just kind of a drag to be hanging out with Batman.
Bottom Line:
Ledger will certainly get an Oscar nomination next January, and it’s well-deserved. Whenever he isn’t on screen, though, The Dark Knight has a hard time sustaining a sense of interest. It’s not very much fun as a film, but I don’t think Nolan wants it to be. Trouble is, I think it could’ve used a little more fun.
© 2004-2009 Ben Waldorf. Posted July 17, 2008. IMDB
Yeah, I agree… why so serious?
— Stephanie Jul 26, 11:26 AM #“Kill.. the Batman.”
— Ryan McDuffie Jul 29, 05:27 PM #