The Dark Knight Review
July 22nd, 2008Well, we went to the theater to see Heath Ledger’s last performance that has fully been captured on camera, and I must say, his character the Joker was the main excitement of the movie. His portrayal of this tortured soul and maniacal chaos seeker was nothing short of brilliant, and you couldn’t wait for the next time he would appear on the screen.
Not to take anything away from Christian Bale, who always turns in a solid performance, and whose acting I really fell for starting with his first major motion picture as an adult, the dark comedy American Psycho, but Heath’s performance is what it making this movie such a success. It may also be partly due to the fact that a lot of people are curious to see his last performance, since sadly he’s not with us anymore, but my feelings are that he still would have been the main draw, even if he were still alive today.
The movie rang in at a staggering 2 hours and 45 minutes, which is pretty long for anyone to sit through, including me, and I have to admit that I thought the movie could have been about twenty to thirty minutes shorter and still been good, but by and large it was ok as an “almost 3 hour” movie.
Now, for the weak points of the Dark Knight. First of all, some of the dialogue at the end was a little hokie. Maggie Gyllenhal was in my opinion outclassed by all the other terrific performances by Erin Eckhart as Two Face/Harvey Dent, the ambitious District Attorney who is also Maggie/Rachel’s love interest, Gary Oldman as the commissioner Gordon, and Michael Caine as Bruce Wayne’s loyal butler.
The Dark Knight had ample action scenes, and this second time around, Bale was in his costume more than last time, and his voice seems to have changed (his disguised voice), which I didn’t care for this time - it was a little corny this time around, and I have a feeling Bale himself may cringe when he sees some of the scenes where he has to use it. Bale is solid otherwise though, playing the ladies man by day, Batman by night, in a role reminiscent of his Patrick Bateman character in American Psycho.
The special effects are great. SPOILER ALERT. The batmobile and batcycle are, in particular, some of the most interesting pieces of equipment ever seen in a film, and everything comes off as super real, even Erin Eckhart’s face after he becomes Two Face.
All in all, you will walk out of the theater very pleased and feeling like you got your money’s worth with Dark Knight. Most of all, you’ll be bowled over by Heath Ledger’s genius performance, and perhaps get a glimpse into why this young actor had trouble sleeping while filming the role, because you can see he obviously completely submersed himself in this character, as great actors so often do.