| Overall Grade: |
A+ |
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| Story: |
A+ |
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| Acting: |
A+ |
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| Direction: |
A+ |
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| Visuals: |
A |
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Christopher Nolan Creates Masterpiece
by Danny M (movies profile)
Jul 17, 2008
813
of
883 people found this review helpful
NO SPOILERS. I saw an advanced showing of this 2 nights before it came out. Let me start out with this: Batman Begins was an excellent interpretation of Batman. It was dark, with Batman being the only glimmer of hope in a desolate world. It was Christopher Nolan's finest moment thus far, in his young but illustrious career. He has outdone himself with The Dark Knight. This movie was much darker psychologically. With a murderous psychopath emerging, a failed relationship continuing, and a sinister tale of revenge budding, this movie is very dark. In order to do this movie justice, I must go into each aspect available to me.
The story was awesome. The emergence of Batman into Gotham has forced all of Gotham's scum to meet during the day and stay off the streets at night so as to not fall victim to Batman's scourge of the city's evil. This has led to the emergence of a new villain to take the streets: one who calls himself the Joker. The Joker tries to strike a deal with the mafia; saying that the only way the mafia can have their former power is Batman's death. He makes a bold promise that he can kill Batman. Batman has never had to deal with anything like this villain before, but he does have help in the form of the new DA of Gotham, Harvey Dent, who has an extreme commitment to solving the crime problem in Gotham. While that is the basic plot line (I don't want to give anything away), the movie takes you on many twists and turns that definitely gave me a wild ride. It instills a sense of terror in you when the Joker is on the screen later in the movie. It wows you with some of the moves that Batman pulls. The story was just so flawlessly crafted that I didn't notice how long the movie was. I was enthralled the whole time with the twists and turns that you are put on.
The acting is a huge highlight of this movie. Everyone knows all the speculation about Heath Ledger's death after playing the Joker, and even the speculation of him being chosen in the first place, but there's one thing that there should be no speculation about: his performance. He puts on the best acting performance I've seen in years. To realize that this is the same man from A Knight's Tale puts the greatness of his performance into perspective. The Joker is an absolute psychopath. He has no inhibitions. He describes himself perfectly as "a dog chasing a car...[he] wouldn't know what to do when he caught it." He just chases the car. That's the Joker in a nutshell. He has no plan in mind; he just does things. He looks disturbing, and he laughs when he feels pain. He is a very frightening villain who has no problem at all killing any random person, and who has no weakness. Life is one big joke to him...a joke where fear and chaos are the natural punch line. He makes things into little games that involve people's survival, that are put together with lies. He has no problem seeing human suffering. This is the deepest I have seen anyone venture into the heart of pure insanity. It is frightening to see. Heath Ledger does an unbelievable job playing this character. He makes you laugh, but then turns right around and does something extremely sinister, which just leaves you in shock that a human being could do that. After seeing it, there is nobody who could've played this role better. When his name came up in the credits, the whole theater broke out into cheers and applause. RIP Heath Ledger.
Christian Bale of course does a great job playing Batman, like he did in the first one, and Michael Caine does his usual great performance in the form of Alfred. Morgan Freeman does not see too much screen time, but when he is in it, he is great as always. Maggie Gyllenhaal is also very good as Rachel, but Aaron Eckhart, who plays Harvey Dent, gave the real unsung performance. The "White Knight" of Gotham is the new District Attorney who is extremely committed to wiping out the crime in Gotham. The people love him, and he is seen as the hope and future of Gotham. He is the tragic character in the movie, and he plays his role flawlessly. I will not give anything away...I will merely say that he gives an amazing performance that is overlooked by many people.
The direction is fabulous. Nolan has given his finest performance ever. He pulled out all the stops and dove right into the heart of insanity. He also dives right into the source of revenge. His manifestations of the villains in this movie are excellent. He is a real master, and this is his masterpiece. It makes me excited about what this man could do for movies, but at the same time, I wonder how he will ever outdo this performance. The movie is pretty much flawless, and it is a fitting memorial to the two people involved that lost their life during or shortly after the movie was in production.
The visuals were good. They really added to the dark aura of the movie. There's not much I can say about them. When I say visuals, I mean how it was filmed. As far as CGI, there was just about none. They don't need it. They have hardcore emotions swirling around throughout the whole movie. They don't need anything else added.
Overall, this movie is breathtaking, and it is the best movie of the year. It was everything that I wanted and more. I highly recommend it but do not go see it expecting a lighthearted movie. As my friend said, "When the Joker appears on screen, you just feel about 50 pounds of weight thrown on top of you." It is an intense movie. The acting is done so well that you feel all sorts of emotion: anger, sadness, fear, and even a certain sense of camaraderie with Batman. There are images and thoughts in this movie that will not settle well with little kids, and in all honesty, it would be quite irresponsible to bring them. Towards the end, things unravel extremely quickly, and very little of it would be suitable for children. The best summation of this movie I can give is the reaction of the crowd when the last line of the movie was spoken and the credits appeared: cheers and applause. They were well deserved. Thanks for reading. |
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