2008 July 20 Archive at iconogeek

This might be the most difficult review/commentary I’ve had to write in my time as an iconogeek poster. The Dark Knight was cast into movie history on early Friday morning, amid hype bigger then Jack Nicholson’s shit-eating grin way back in 1989. I’ll admit that I had enormous expectations for this flick for several reasons, including the immense Batman Begins, my love for all things Batman (minus a little misstep known dearly as “the nipple suit”), Christian Bale, and oh by the way, Heath Ledger tragically and unexpectedly passed away right after his filming and post-production. Needless to say there was a minute amount of mystique and anticipation surrounding TDK.

Now that the weekend is over, Bale and Co. have broken the records for Midnight Opening Gross (over Revenge of the Sith), Opening Day and Weekend Gross (over Spider-Man 3). So the fans liked it….which, is a good thing, I think.

As far as what I thought about the movie is difficult to describe. In recent weeks I suppose I’ve been labeled as a rather stringent critic, which I have no problem with. Maybe you’ll hear more of my side on the next podcast. But to discuss how I would score The Dark Knight feels near impossible. Entertainment Weekly touted the flick by saying “This is what you call raising the bar.” In a way I both agree and disagree with that statement. The bar for comic book movies was certainly raised in a sense, but I feel more inclined to describe the bar as being broken down into little pieces and upgraded to a newer, shinier, nipple-less bar.

The Dark Knight is less a comic book movie and more an investigation into the human condition and the emotions shrouded behind a bad-ass bat suit, and psychotically applied white make-up. This summer has now seen three phenomenal comic book-based films in which the first 2 started the trend and the 3rd and most spectacular broke the mold. It seems that The Dark Knight has ushered in the era of Oscar-buzz worthy chatter amongst previously lighter fare.

It took me 2 days to finally post because the movie had so many story arcs that it took that long for me to process. That’s not to say that there were too many plot lines, its just an observation that no comic book movie has ever bitten off more than its ADHD riddled fanboys can chew at once (hence all the sequels). Where Batman Begins revitalized a tired franchise, The Dark Knight revitalized a tiring genre.

It’s an understatement to say Heath Ledger was superb as the Joker. Once the final credits rolled, and the Joker had already exited stage left, it was apparent that all the other players including a solid Bale, Aaron Eckhardt, Maggie Gyllenhall, and Gary Oldman among others, were simply a big name supporting cast to true work of acting genius. Ledger clearly had a vision in mind of what the Joker is and why he is that way. If for nothing else, this movie soared because of what Ledger added to it. Jack Nicholson…stick to Boston-based mob movies…because you just got out played.

The two scenes that stood out most were when Ledger and Bale are face to face in rather quiet and alone situations. I started to forget that the Joker was wearing ridiculous face paint and began to see him as a deranged criminal, with an ominous past, which I couldn’t even imagine, that would set him off the straight and narrow so far. He became a psychotic murderer the likes of which hasn’t been seen on the big screen since the aforementioned Nicholson in the Shining.