The Dark Knight – A

No spoilers!

One word review: Wowza.

Definitely lived up to the hype, and surpassed even my very high expectations. Haha, I’ve already seen it twice tonight, and have plans to see it in theatres at least once more this weekend. And then I’ll probably see it again, in IMAX this time, sometime in the coming week.

It really is that good. (Plus I’m a huge nerd, haha). So ya, I give it an “A” ranking (not quite the rare “A+”, due to my minor issues – see below eventually). But best superhero movie ever, no contest.

Once again, Bale is incredible in his role. Definitely one of my favourite actors. He’s great both as Batman – dark, violent, yet maintaining control of those inner demons – and as Bruce Wayne – alternately douchebag playboy and noble, struggling hero. I really like how the jerk version of Wayne was done. I won’t spoil anything, but ya, highly amusing.

Underwire described Ledger’s version of The Joker as “the most exciting movie villain of the decade”, and I fully agree. He’ll probably get a posthumous Oscar nod for this role. I certainly think he deserves it. One of the most perfect examples of acting I’ve ever seen, he literally becomes the character. It was disturbing, almost terrifying at points, and yet wonderfully villainous. And the hero/villan dichotomy (what is one without the other?) was also extremely well-played.

But I had a few beefs with this movie. Firstly, the facial CGI. You’ll see what I mean. Even really good computer imagery can still look obviously fake, I would have prefered make-up – less disturbing, but more realistic. And secondly, how Gyllenhaal’s character, Rachel, was supposed to be the same person as Holmes from Batman Begins. I realize that Holmes kinda screwed them over by declining the project, but still, I would’ve rather they written Rachel out of the story and introduced a new leading lady. But I guess this would have ruined the plot arc. Still, it just annoys me whenever actor-switches happen to characters.

Plus I find Katie Holmes to be way more attractive than Maggie Gyllenhaal, heh, so I missed her absence. But I really do think Holmes was the perfect casting choice for the role, and I wish she’d have seen it all the way through.

Some of Batman’s abilities/technologies were a bit too deux ex machina, as awesome as they were. But hey, I guess comic books are all about the hero’s powers being exactly what’s required for the given scenario, so I really shouldn’t complain. It’s just because Dark Knight rose so far above the “comic book movie”, to become a genuine crime drama, that such things became really noticeable. This is a movie rising above it’s genre to become something on a whole higher level.

Caine was, once again, an absolutely perfect Alfred. Freeman just seems way too obvious for anything he does, he’s so over-used, but still, he’s good.

There were genuinely-surprising plot twists and random moments throughout that really impressed me, such as a great example of Prisoner’s Dilemma that I was totally expecting to go one way, but instead went another.

Anyhow, you’re going to go see it yourself, because everybody is, so I won’t even bother trying to summarize everything and keep it spoiler-free at this point. Maybe in a week or so I’ll write more of my thoughts, including hopefully a review of the IMAX experience.

In the meantime, do yourself a favour and check out Dark Knight. You will not be disappointed.

(instrumental)