Tuesday, September 8, 2015

The Dark Knight (2008, PG-13)




The second film in The Dark Knight trilogy builds on the good will earned by the first installment and delivers on pretty much every level.  It’s cool, it’s engrossing, it has impressive action, and the characters positively crackle.  On rewatch, you really feel the two-and-a-half-hour run time, but overall, this film improves on an already-strong debut outing.

Now that his origin story is out of the way, Batman is fully in the public eye, and that means a lot of cons thrown in with the pros.  Bruce is serving up numerous lowlifes to be put away by Gotham’s one honest cop, but at the same time, copycat vigilantes are getting in his way, endangering themselves and muddying the waters of what he’s trying to do in the process.  Public opinion as to whether the caped crusader is a hero or a menace is divided, with some thinking Batman needs to be locked up alongside the criminals he’s caught.  And most significantly, his S.O.P., with its high theatrics and flashy technology, has led to escalation among Gotham’s seedy underbelly.  The presence of a superhero begs a super villain, and the Joker is eager to fill that post.  As his volatile new foe begins to wreak sadistic havoc on the city, Bruce’s limits – physical, mental, and moral – are tested to the utmost.

When this film came out, the big news was the late Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker, and, since it’s every bit as good today, I’ll start there.  Ledger is chameleonic in the role – twisted, flippant, manic, dangerous, and mercurial.  Truly, one for the ages.  And generally, I like that the Joker is portrayed as an intelligent wildcard, a force of chaos without a lot of discernible goals or desires.  That seems like a weird thing to praise in a character, but for the Joker, it really works.  He’s not a criminal mastermind, and even though he’s obviously a bad guy, he’s not really with the bad guys.  He’ll do some dirty work for them, but he doesn’t strictly ally with them – the man is an object lesson in the phrase “no honor among thieves.”

This unstable element makes for some fine storytelling, audacious stuff that keeps you on your toes.  I like seeing Bruce try to cope with being so thoroughly messed with.  In a way, as an adversary, the Joker reminds of the Master at his/her best:  someone who yanks the hero around and makes him question himself.  Bale does a fine job playing off of Ledger and the tumult the Joker creates.  New cast members Aaron Eckhart (as Harvey Dent, prospective white knight of Gotham) and Maggie Gyllenhaal (replacing Katie Holmes as Rachel) are also effective.  With Rachel, it’s hard for me to tell how much of it is writing vs. acting, but I definitely like her better here than in Batman Begins.  I think a lot of it is down to Gyllenhaal, who seems to spark in a way that Holmes didn’t for me.

The action is good, although it’s different from the first movie.  It’s a bit more standard comic-book fare, more fighting and less reliance on fear and misdirection.  Overall, I think the cloak-and-dagger stuff from Batman Begins feels a little more original, but some of the stunts (and gadgets!) here are cooler, so it’s a tossup. 

Warnings

Heavy comic book violence (including some grisly images,) thematic elements, and drinking.

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