This past Sunday, as I mentioned previously, Marcia and I saw “The Dark Knight” starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman.
Here is a brief description thanks to IMDB and someone that goes by the name Peteagassi:
Batman (Bale) raises the stakes in his war on crime. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Eckhart), Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the city streets. The partnership proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a rising criminal mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham as The Joker (Ledger).
Most of these actors reprise their roles (Caine as Alfred and Freeman as Lucious Fox) from “Batman Begins” from a few years ago. The only exception is Gyllenhall playing Rachel Dawes who was played by Katie Holmes the first time around. The events in this movie take place about a year after the first.
Again, I have never read the original comic books of Batman. Though he always was a favorite of mine from the cartoons (I know … how embarrassing, right?). And I did watch the Adam West TV version often. I liked the fact though that Batman didn’t have any superpowers. He was just a guy that was fed up with crime. I also was a big fan, at first , of the movie versions that started with Michael Keaton playing Batman. I thought they were so much more realistic. Then Christopher Nolan came along with the first movie of this series. I loved “Batman Begins”, and really enjoyed this one, too.
Of course, most of the talk regarding this movie is on Heath Ledger, being the last full performance he has on screen (though hopefully Terry Gilliam will be able to finish “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” without Ledger and it gets shown). And many have said that this performance could net Ledger another, though posthumous, Oscar nomination. Well, I don’t see that really happening. Now before anyone starts slamming my opinion, I want to make clear that Ledger was great. And probably better said, f***ing great! I thought Nicholson put on a great show as The Joker in the first of the “other” Batman movies. Ledger made Nicholson’s great performance look like a bad comedy routine. It’s unfortunate, but this performance, though not Oscar worthy in my mind, would have shown the world what a great actor Ledger really is/was. Hard to believe it’s the same guy that played Ennis Del Mar in “Brokeback Mountain”.
As for the rest of the cast, all good as well. This movie helped strengthen the case that Bale was a great choice as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Who else could play Alfred other then Michael Caine? And Maggie Gyllenhaal would have been a much better choice to play Rachel Dawes from the start. She’s more talented that Katie Holmes, and though not as “cute”, still stunning in her own right.
Never was a fan of Aaron Eckhart, but this movie solidified a good opinion of him. Not to say that I didn’t like Eckhart, just never really had an opinion of his work.
The movie was long. Very long. And at times seemed to take a while to get to key points. But it also didn’t seem to drag, at least to me. There was always something going on that kept the action and/or plot moving quite well.
The ending had a surprise, at least to me. It was a bit disappointing, and maybe that’s why it was more of a surprise. (See below for more information, if you don’t mind spoilers.) And from what I read this movie was based on the first comics where The Joker showed up. Part of this disappointed me because of a certain issue, but I would rather it be more true to the book then please me. (Again, see below.)
As I said, I really enjoyed this one, and hope that the same crew gets together again and does a third movie.
SPOILER WARNING
I was surprised that Dent/Two-Face wasn’t around very long. It took a long time to get to the point that turned him into it, and then he meets his demise soon after. I thought it could have been someone that shows up in any possible later movies.
I was also surprised to not see any background on The Joker. I know the story that was followed in the first Batman movie with Keaton and Nicholson about the origins of The Joker were part of the books (the vat of chemicals disfiguring him) and partly made up by the writers of the movie (Jack Napier being his “real” name and that he was the one that killed Bruce Wayne’s parents). Though disappointed by the lack of background, it was probably much better without it.
SPOILER WARNING
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