The Dark Hype.
After months of waiting, and of hype that seemed to get whipped up even further after the death of Heath Ledger in January, I toddled along on Thursday night to catch The Dark Knight. Along with, seemingly, half of Belfast. It was hoachin’.
Did I enjoy it? Oh yes. Was it “the best movie, like, ever“? No, not really, but a pretty fine show all the same.
The obvious question: Heath Ledger as the Joker? He was great. Folks have asked me how he compared to Jack Nicholson in the Burton version — actually, I think the whole internet was asking that before the film opened. I felt that Ledger’s unhinged nihilist (ooh, look at me) was much more menacing — and Joker-like — than Nicholson’s self-assured… Jack Nicholson standard character.
I know others will disagree, but I was also completely onboard with the handling of Harvey Dent/Two-Face.
The film belonged to Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart and Gary Oldman (an actor who we’ve never really seen enough of). It almost seemed to me like Batman was the white space around these three that let them do their thing, and do it in spades.
Criticisms? The Bat-voice, so comical as to be distracting, is one of the beats where the Nolans lost some of their intended realism. That, and some of the daft Bat-gadgetry, just didn’t seem to fit. Casting wise, I wish Maggie Gyllenhaal had had something to do other than [SPOILER]. She was wasted. If only Ms Gyllenhaal had been there last time round, then Katie Holmes could’ve handled the character’s three or four lines for this one.
I approached this one as energetic popcorn entertainment and left most of my analytical brain at home, but Glenn offers a some deeper thoughts. Batman has always been the hero who will never get an easy ride. His lack of any ’superpower’, his difficult past and his blunter-than-normal vigilante status see to that.
It’s a characterization that lends itself to the darker, grittier kind of movie that Batman Begins and The Dark Knight have been. Batman works because he’s just that little bit closer to what might be possible, but he makes us uncomfortable because he shows us the consequences that neither Superman, Spider-Man nor the X-Men ever did. We can read life onto him much more easily. He’s a bit of white space that allows us to fantasize and moralize and perhaps question what justice might be, here in the real world.
Unfortunately, in this one, Bruce Wayne and Batman were almost (Rachel Dawes) the thinnest characters there, and it was left to Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent to hold the line.
It’s still the best movie I’ve seen this year, I think, and probably due a second viewing sometime soon.
July 29th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
I’ve spoken to several people about this show and subsequently been criticised for wanting a perfect movie.
WARNING: spoilers ahoy!
A few thoughts… first the bad.
1. Yeah, the Batman voice. It makes me cringe quite a lot of the time through both movies. Puts me in mind of little Christian Bale being 11 and walking into an off-license to try and buy some cider in his bestest deepest graveliest most grown-upest voice ever.
2. Very minor gripe on a teeny tiny flaw that can be interpreted with the writing of Joker. During his appearance at the big meeting of Gotham’s bad guys he appears to get offended at Gambol calling him crazy.
That can be either seen as in or out of character. On one side the Joker wouldn’t be offended because he sees being crazy as being free so its hardly an insult. On the other side, giving benefit of the doubt to the movie, perhaps he was offended because the Joker also sees everyone else as crazy in a way since in his opinion/experience, the only sane reaction to life and its crap is to go insane. Going from the comics either interpretation is possible and although my knee jerk reaction while watching was towards the first, considering how well the Joker was brought across on every single other point I’ll give the benefit of the doubt. Bad case of nit-picking anyway…
3. Batman was, as you say, a bit of a weak character in this one. Upon his return from Hong Kong it went a bit downhill for him and he just sat about for a good bit of the next hour having a bit of a whinge before he decided to go and drop Moroni of a building (yay!)
This guy’s meant to be the greatest detective in the world, and ok they want to put across how jarring the Joker is to him and everyone else, but got the feeling he could be a bit more active. In Batman Begins he was all jumping about buildings with periscopes and finding drugs and interrogating people and stuff. Here he does a bit, cries a bit, and then wraps up the movie with an improbable mobile ‘i bet the government can do that in real life, oh sh*t, conspiracy’ phone sonar thing.
Yeah Batman is meant to be conflicted. But so vocally whiney about it? I guess this is Year One finding his feet stuff, but he was a little too impotent for my liking.
Need a second watch, but felt, as you say, he got overshadowed by Dent and Gordon.
And now the good…! (which I’ll keep shorter since we all know what’s good about it already)
1. The Joker. I’m not talking about Heath Ledger here (who was great - see point 2). The writing of the Joker was fantastic. It was jaw-droppingly well translated from the comics in parts. Example: the way his story kept changing whenever he told different people how he got his scars. Brilliant. Not something I’d expect the movie to do and not explain, and all the more impressed because they didn’t. Obvious inspiration from The Killing Joke (go read if you haven’t) which is noted as one of the major influences, in which the Joker describes his history as “multiple-choice”. Heard some people read this that the Joker remembers fragments of his past and interprets them differently each time he recalls them. So good to see touches like this in the movie which aren’t explained in terms of their comic book origins.
On a whole the writing of the character was brilliant and pretty much perfect from what little I’ve read of the comics. Not just the above example but others like the “need” for batman, the disregard for money, basically allowing himself to be caught again at the end, his underlying motives for turning Harvey Dent mad beyond screwing Gotham/Batman (again mirroring his motives with Gordon in The Killing Joke - to show one bad day can drive even the best man insane - demonstrating he has the power to do this and far more importantly, validating his own past as this is what happened to him)
2. The Joker. I’m talking about Heath Ledger here. I admit being a doubter when I heard the casting 2 years ago but he’s as good as the hype. Not much else to say as everyone knows the hype. No one’s ever looked so dangerously mental in a nurses uniform. The mannerisms, laugh, comedy, menace were all unique to, and infinitely better than Jack Nicholson’s Joker (which was, as I’m reading you as saying - Jack Nicholson with a white face slapped on).
Every time he was on screen he stole the show, and every time he wasn’t you were looking forward to him being back. Not just because of Ledger’s death, but when people look back at Nolan’s Batman, I get the feeling that this Joker will be the thing people talk most excitedly about.
3. Harvey Dent. Eckhart was great both before and after his transformation. And I loved the completely unnerving reliance on the coin following the birth of Two-Face - so much better than Tommy Lee-Jones cackling sham while throwing it around in Batman Forever.
Could say a lot more on him but so tired of typing now. Just glad to see more depth to the character than the last appearance on the big-screen afforded him.
4. Jim Gordon. Maybe I missed something here and got the rank wrong but… Thought the jump from lieutenant to commissioner was a bit quick for this movie. Especially considering from the last movie he’s leaped from sergeant to top of the GCPD pops in The Dark Knight in less time than it takes to rebuild Wayne Manor. I’ll bet there was a few pissed of captains about Gotham that day looking to smack their mascara wearing mayor.
Otherwise great. I’m not someone who goes ga ga over Oldman but the character was far stronger than the first movie and Oldman did well with it. So well I forgot I was watching Oldman. Heath Ledger was probably the only other person to achieve that for me in this movie. But I suppose the trade off is as you highlighted, with Dent and Gordon being so strong, Batman was a little weak in the triumvirate they’d got together.
July 29th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
I didn’t keep the good shorter after all… Sitting on a toilet is conducive to me wasting more time than I should :-)
July 29th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Man, my grammar stinks.
August 10th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Nothing quite so wordy to say except I think I’ll have to go and see the movie again - why do young teenage boys insist on sitting behind you chatting to each other (and on their mobiles) the whole way through a good movie?! Clearly they hadn’t paid the cinema ticket themselves!! Enjoyed batman though….