The Dark Knight

Wilsford's Review

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Notable Characters:
Christian Bale – Bruce Wayne/Batman
Heath Ledger - Joker
Aaron Eckhart – Harvey Dent

Plot (contains spoilers): I will try to make this as short as possible. Virtually no time has passed since the end of Batman begins, 6 months maximum, and Batman has inspired the people of Gotham. While the police are “aggressively” looking for Batman they are very willing to include him on investigations. The Joker is committing more crimes but Batman chooses to focus on mob bosses that run the town. In a meeting attended by the mob bosses, the Joker, who has been stealing their money, crashes in to make a deal: join together to kill Batman. Harvey Dent is the fearless new District Attorney for Gotham and his is taking on crime in the city no matter how many enemies he makes. Dent, like Batman, is a hero to the city. He is a symbol of hope to the people that Gotham will get better. Batman views Harvey as his ticket out, Gotham no longer needs Batman because it has its hero, a hero that resides within the law and not above it. The grey area of where Batman stands gets darker when the Joker tells the city that he will begin to kill innocent people until Batman turns himself in. Harvey Dent calls a press conference to address the issue but upon hearing the calls of the people for Batman to turn himself in, Dent, knowing the necessity of Batman, turns himself in claiming to be Batman. This leads to a series of events and some sweet action scenes where the Joker is captured. While in jail, Harvey and Rachel Dawes, the love interest of Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent, are captured and Batman must make a choice on whom to save. He mistakenly rescues Harvey and one side of Harvey’s face is horribly disfigured in the process. Devastated by the loss of Rachel, Harvey is trying to make sense of it all and is paid a visit by the Joker, he got out via an exploding fat man. Fueled by rage, Harvey, now Two-Face, goes after those responsible for Rachel’s death, deciding their fate by a flip of a coin. Ultimately, Two-Face captures Commissioner Gordon and his family and while deciding the fate of each member Batman flies in and knocks Dent to his death. Faced with a difficult choice, Batman tells Gordon to blame the deaths that Harvey caused on him so that Dent will remain the hero he was. We end the movie with Batman fleeing from the police as a criminal. (I apologize for this crappy synopsis. I know I left a lot out but I didn’t want to write that much. I tried to focus on what I thought the movie was about. Besides is you are reading this you most likely saw the movie already.)

Reasons why I didn’t like it:
• The length worked for and against it. The movie is two and a half hours by the end I was squirming in my seat because I really had to go to the bathroom. Let this be a lesson, even if you don’t have to go, buy your ticket, food, and find your seat and go before the movie starts.
• The sonar eyes was dumb. However it was not a dumb as the microwave emitter in “Batman Begins”. What is dumb about a microwave emitter? A machine that emits microwaves to boil an enemy’s water but conveniently doesn’t boil the water that makes up 70% of humans. While the microwave emitter was impossible, the sonar eyes were somewhat believable though still dumb in my book.
• Batman seemed a little weak in this one. If he could own the League of Shadows in the first one, a few street thugs should be a walk in the park. However I remember some fights where Batman wasn’t in complete control. Maybe he just wanted them to feel like they had a chance.
• Maggie Gyllenhaal was not good for this part. Maybe this is offensive but see looks old. The fundraiser scene, she looked like she was 57. Not flattering at all.

Reasons why I liked it:
• Heath Ledger was amazing. A lot of people were saying that he could be nominated for an Oscar for his performance but I thought that people were saying that because he was dead. I stand corrected. If he were alive I would be there with everyone else saying he is Oscar worthy. He played better than I could have hoped. He was truly terrifying.
• The story was great. I hinted earlier in my synopsis what I thought the movie was about and I felt that it was about the line between good and evil/right and wrong. The Joker was obviously evil but we see two sides of good: one with in the law(Harvey Dent) and one above it(Batman). Since this was the main theme of the movie, I think this is why Harvey Dent was such a prominent character. We learn through the eyes of Batman that what is right and good is not always black and white and maybe more importantly that good men are corruptible.
• It was just a sweet-A movie. Good action, good characters, and good story.

Final Notes: Best movie of the summer if not the year. This movie confirmed its place as the best superhero series ever. Also, in my opinion, it confirmed that Christian Bale is the best Batman ever and Heath Ledger was better than Nicholson. I know it was two different ideas about who the Joker should be but Heath’s was more scary, more interesting, and a better villain.