Written By JoeRo
Score: 10/10 (Masterpiece!)
Bottom Line: Spend Your Money
To-The-Point: We need to somehow resurrect Heath Ledger.
Complete Truth: In the summer of 02, I remember being swept away by Peter Parker and Mary Jane. I would envision myself slinging webs to the cities skyscrapers, flipping and twisting my way through scuffles, and rescuing redheads from big city back alleys. Now in the summer of 08, in a less expected and quite alarming manner, I want to ignite a large mountain of money, hang my head out of a cop car, swoop my incredibly greasy green hair, and make a pencil disappear. After the Friday midnight showing, At 3:30 in the morning, I was sitting on my couch vocalizing "why so serious?" and "here we go", only failing to hit the same tone and inflection. Never has a villain been so ill intentioned, so compacted with cruelty, social awkwardness, and articulation that it inspired late night and disturbingly-off-the-mark imitations.
And I would bet my life I'm not the only person who was swept away by The Dark Knight, and the most glorious, spectacular character/villain to hit the screen, The Joker.
That being said, I thank my lucky britches Christopher Nolan came along, dirtying up a medium and a genre for which I am mostly underwhelmed. I adore the development between and within the Batman films. The Dark Knight continues story lines from when Batman Began (Scarecrow, Rachel, the Joker Card Cliffhanger), introduces an integral new character (Harvey Dent), and sees PROGRESSIVE development in its antagonists (The Joker, and Harvey Dent/Two-Face), costumes ("you want to be able to turn your head"), and positions (I introduce the new Commissioner Gordon).
One of Nolan's most demonstrable talents is the guy knows how to cast his villains (Cillian Murphy/Scarecrow, Heath Ledger/The Joker, and Aaron Eckhart/Two-face). It probably was not difficult to transform Cillian Murphy into a memorable opposition, because he just has the creepy-from-birth appearance to me (yet he is still sexy, how astonishing). But Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart are bonified studs, and they somehow supplanted memories of historically attractive characters with superbly framed and disturbing fiends.
Heath Ledger does every fan and medium a service, taking a potentially one note madman, an incipient criminal all dolled-up who utilizes Joker cards as business slips, and constructing a criminal whose motive is exposing/provoking evil of those around him, not just padding his bank account. I watched every Joker scene perched on the front of my seat, breathing irregularly til the credits rolled. Ledger's portrayal of the Joker offered visions so enticing that an army of pale skinned, dark haired co-eds donning NIU themed lingerie wouldn't turn my head away. His somewhat limpy gait, that intermittent tendency to open his mouth as if he just downed a spoonful of the creamiest peanut butter, the insidious laughter, and vocal qualities I'm sure reappeared in a multitude of last night's nightmares; I ate it all up. Honestly, I do not know how many awards are given posthumous, but Heath Ledger should win everything this year.
My only predicament was that the Joker was so enthralling for the first 90 minutes that I bottomed out through the third acts' multiple climaxes. Hopefully I will not be so distracted for my next viewing and will be able to focus on something other than the Joker's disposition.
Overall, The Dark Knight sold what Spiderman 3 advertised; A complex plot surrounding the hero's struggle between caped and non-caped living, set in a city where villains were inspired by greed, evil, and vengeance, and a story driven by multiple yet logical twists. Add in a handful of memorable scenes that almost brought me to tears (the most awe inspiring of which was The Joker's introduction where he made the pencil disappear), and you have a movie that not only meets but quite explicitly, sodomizes my expectations of what a good movie ought to be. I would encourage any other comic book movie makers to halt their projects, take a deep breath, and ponder whether or not they can outdo or recreate any component The Dark Knight had to offer.
And yes, I would pose that same idea to Christopher Nolan.
The Dark Knight, a Warner Bros. Pictures release, Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and some menace.
Total running time is 2 Hours 32 minutes.
Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Michael Caine. Directed by Christopher Nolan.
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