Wesley's The Dark Knight Review

So I've been trying to do a review of The Dark Knight for days here on YDKS Movies. Honestly, I'm not sure if I can do it. Not only is the movie the best comic book film that I've ever seen but it is also one of the greatest films that I've seen period. It's incredibly complex, emotional, deep, allegorical, and thrilling. It works as a Greek tragedy and as a completely engaging action flick. The direction is mature, well thought-out and captivating. The scope and scale of the film is just plain epic. The acting is superb and goes beyond what was required. The screenplay is jam packed with levels and levels of story, all carefully and skillfully woven together to create one masterful piece of cinema.

Weeks ago, I remember saying that it looked as if Christopher Nolan had created a monster in the form of this film. 

It turns out that I was right.

The Dark Knight is a monster of cinema. It works on every level imaginable and just gets under your skin and just won't go away. I've seen this movie three times since Friday at 12:01 a.m. Each time I have viewed the film has been just as fresh and thrilling as the last. Each time I have viewed the film, I have gotten as emotional as I got on the viewing before. I am going to see the film for a fourth time later this week. In August, I plan on taking a trip to Huntsville, Alabama to see the thing finally on an IMAX screen. In the time between my screenings of the film, it is all I have been able to think about. It has filled my mind and just won't go away. I haven't been able to watch any other movies or even read any books. All I can do is just think about this movie and the images from it that just won't leave my mind.

Never ever have I gone into a film with as ridiculously high expectations as I had going into this movie. And never... never... have those expectations been exceeded.

You know things are going to be good when the movie starts off with one of the most thrilling openings that I have ever seen. Through the use of IMAX cameras (and keep in mind, I have only seen the image on a regular 35 mm digital projection), Chris Nolan is able to put the viewer into a vivid, breathing world that is fast paced and feels real. This movie pulled me in from the first second and I didn't leave until the end credits came rolling over me. The introduction of the Joker was pulled off with some great style and nice demonstration of his character's morals through the act of bank robbery.

Speaking of the Joker, he is the film's most valuable aspect. A lot has been said of Heath Ledger's brilliant performance as the Crown Prince of Crime and, well, let's just say that even more needs to be said. Yes, his performance is more than worthy of an Oscar win, let alone a nomination. In fact, it's not as much of a performance as Ledger becomes the Joker. He is this character. He is completely unrecognizable in every way. Ledger does things with this character that have never been done before and he does it all brilliantly. He makes ever line of dialogue unique and fresh. He manages to make the character funny, sadistic, terrifying, and just fascinating. The scene where he introduces himself to the mobsters of Gotham was just plain hilarious, especially with the inclusion of the "magic trick." When the Joker's not being funny (at mostly inappropriate times), he can be completely horrifying. Every scene where he discusses where he got his scars (and how what he says displays about his sanity and manipulative nature) gave me chills, especially with the inclusion of his "buzzing noise" theme by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. I also found the scene where a video tape that he made is discovered particularly disturbing and scary (especially with Ledger's roar of the line "Look at me"). Overall, Ledger manages to do things with the character that I didn't even think were possible. He does one of the best acting jobs that I've ever seen grace film and, honestly, he is the reason that you should see the movie above anything else. Because, despite all the amazing things that happen in the film, Ledger completely steals the show.

The Dark Knight has one of the greatest story structures that I've seen in a long time. It was immensely complicated but, at the same time, it never got too bloated, confusing or boring. The film was a staggering (and somewhat exhausting) two and half hours but, despite that, I never once felt like it went on for too long. In fact, I would be up for about thirty more minutes of footage. That's how much I enjoyed the film. Still, the structure of the film made me feel like I was reading a six part graphic novel like The Long Halloween. The way all the stories were balanced and interwoven was truly expertly done. I love how you can watch the movie one time and then go back a second time (and third time in my case) and completely catch little things that you missed the first time. They really thought this thing out and man does it show.

Aside from a well structured story, The Dark Knight explores some pretty complex issues and themes. For one, it explores the concept of Batman inspiring more bad than good in Gotham and how he should react to this issue. This occurs not only in the form of more violent vigilantes but in the form of the Joker, a more aggressive and equally theatrical villain. In the case of the Joker, I loved how they explored the relationship between him and Batman and how the two share a kind of strange bond despite the differences in the things that they stand for (something that was explored a lot in the comics and especially in the graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke). The film also explores how someone good and righteous can fall just as far as the common criminal in the case of District Attorney Harvey Dent and his tragic rise and fall. The amount of depth that was put into Dent's story-line was very appreciated and only made his story more realistic and, thus, even more tragic. Lastly, the film explores the humanity of society in general and how we can lose our morals and values in a time of terror or unnatural stress. The sense of terrorism that the Joker creates causes Gotham to literally almost tear itself to pieces and, as the film goes on, Nolan explores how far this can go and whether or not we really have hope as a whole. 

As Nolan tells this incredibly complex story, he manages to make it as thrilling as possible with some of the best action set pieces that I have ever seen. Still, the most important part of it is that the action only works to further the story along, constantly building to one of the most emotional and draining climaxes that I've seen in a film. The action pieces vary from a bank heist to an assassination attempt to a high speed chase on the streets of Gotham to intense scenes of hand to hand combat. Each action sequence is unique in its own way, both in the sense of visuals and pacing, and all help make the film one of the most entertaining experiences that you'll ever have at the cinema. 

One thing that really stood out to me during the film was many of the beautifully surreal images that Christopher Nolan was able to create without distracting from the multilayered story he was trying to tell. My favorite surreal image that he was able to create that honestly still moves me and gives me chills every time that I see it was that of the Joker hanging out of a police car like a dog, soaking up the environment that he is moving through at a high speed. Nolan lets the image roll without any sound or music. With the camera mounted on the car itself and the Joker in full focus, the background almost doesn't seem real and the image feels very dreamlike and, for some reason, haunting. I honestly haven't been able to get the image of it out of my head since I first saw it and right now it is just equally as vivid. Another surreal image that Nolan pulls off occurs at the end of the film also with the Joker. I won't describe it due to possible spoilers but it also feels equally as dreamlike and, in my own personal opinion, somewhat hauntingly parallel to Ledger's own fleeting existence in the real world. 

While I've talked about Ledger's amazing performance, everyone else in the film does a great job with their roles as well, even though it may be hard to realize it with Ledger knocking the ball so far out of the park. Christian Bale remains pitch perfect as Bruce Wayne and I honestly felt better about his interpretation of Batman this time around. His "bat-voice" seemed more natural (rather than as forced as it tended to sound at times during Batman Begins). I also liked that we got to see the more viscous side of Batman in scenes such as the interrogation and his little encounter with Maroni. Aaron Eckhart gives a great performance as Harvey Dent, making the rise and fall of the character very believable and even more emotional. Even though I still don't care that much for the character of Rachel Dawes, Maggie Gyllenhaul does a lot better job with the character than Katie Holmes did. She's still "holier than thou" at times, but for the most part, I felt a better emotional connection with her this time than I did the first time around. Michael Caine is still great as Alfred (with some nice scenes of him giving Bruce some sage-like advice) and Morgan Freeman is still good and gets more to do as Lucius Fox (especially towards the end of the film). Last but not least, Gary Oldman is pretty much perfect as Jim Gordon. The guy acts and sounds just like I always have imagined the character being like. I like that he was much more involved in the plot and action of the story this time around and had some truly powerful emotional scenes.

That's another thing: this film has some truly emotionally draining scenes. As I stated earlier, I've seen the film three times and, each time, I've felt an emotional pull with the film. The first time I saw the film on midnight, I felt like a couple of times that I was going to be completely reduced to tears (not only from the emotional sequences but from just the pure filmmaking skill that was being demonstrated before me). Nolan hands these emotional sequences with some masterful direction and some of the most beautifully crafted images that I've seen on film. The ending of the film is probably one of the most emotional things that I've seen in awhile and it is simply poetic due to the way that it crafted together. No comic book movie has ever come close to reaching the emotional level that this film obtains. 

This review cannot be completely without talking about the amazing score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. Although the two talented composers jam pack the score with familiar (and wonderful) soaring themes from Batman Begins, they also create a vastly unique and, at times, obscure score that is almost as complex as the film The Dark Knight tends to be. The theme for the Joker gets under your skin and is almost as effective as the theme for the shark is in Jaws. I also liked how the music for this character was just as chaotic and nonsensical as Joker himself was. Zimmer and Howard truly do some bizarre things with the music for this character and I couldn't help but love it. 

In the end, I don't know if this review remotely does The Dark Knight justice. It's just so rare that I'm completely blown away by a film and, when it does in fact happen, I just don't know how to put into words exactly how I feel. The Dark Knight is a masterpiece of cinema. It's pretty much flawless in every way. Heath Ledger gives one of the greatest performances that I have ever seen in a film in my entire life. Christopher Nolan's writing and directing is well-crafted, engaging, and brilliant. The film covers many complicated themes and concepts, making the movie one of the most intelligent and thought provoking comic book films ever made. The film is dark, frustrating, emotional and, in the end, amazingly satisfying. Christopher Nolan has taken the source material of Batman and completely taken it to it's limits. In the process of doing so, he has made one of the greatest movies ever made.

I don't do this very often, but--

10/10