SUPER HAPPY FUN MOVIE TIME #16: The Dark Knight

By Mr.Death (Let’s Put A Smile On That Face)

Without a doubt the most anticipated movie of the year (for geeks, at least) has been The Dark Knight. The brilliant viral marketing campaign, Heath Ledger’s tragic passing, and just the fact that it’s the goddamn Batman have sent the internet ablaze. Well, the first reviews have come in and they have been stellar. Great crime thriller, in the league with The Godfather, and talks of Heath getting the first posthumous Oscar since Peter Finch have all been mentioned. Well, I’m here to tell you they are wrong. The Dark Knight was grossly overrated and one of the worst movies of the year so far.

Naw, I’m just screwing with you. It was fantastic.

The synopsis is with just one year passed after taking out Ra’s Al Ghul’s plan to have Gotham eliminated and the mysterious disappearance of Dr. Jonathan Crane AKA the Scarecrow, after the city was nearly plundered with his toxins, Bruce Wayne and his vigilante alter-ego the Batman, continue the seemingly-endless effort to bring order to Gotham, with the help of Lt. James Gordon and newly appointed District Attorney Harvey Dent, but a new threat has now emerged into the streets. The Dark Knight faces a rising psychopathic criminal called The Joker, who’s eerie grin, laughter, and inhuman morality makes him more dangerous than what he has yet to unleash. It becomes an agenda to the Batman to stop the mysterious Joker at all cost, knowing that the both of them are in the opposite line. One with no method at all and seeks to see the world plunge into the fire he has yet to lit. One who represents the symbol of hope and uses his own shadow to bring the peace and order he has yet to accomplish on doing. (Lovingly stolen from IMDB)

First things first. Heath Ledger was fucking brilliant. Absolutely stellar. When you hear people talking about Oscar nominations and such, they aren’t fucking around. He puts such intensity in the role like it has never been done before. This isn’t Jack Nicholson pulling a gigantic gun out of his pants or even the comic book Joker, who plans out ridiculous schemes in an attempt to kill Batman or whatever. This Joker is total anarchy. He doesn’t care what happens, who wins or dies. He doesn’t plan these things out. He just does what he wants to do. If a few people get killed, so be it. He just wants the world to burn. It’s a shame Heath won’t be able to portray this character again.

Now lets focus on some negatives. Yes, there were some, so lets get them out of the way so I can talk about how brilliant this movie was. First of all, this is a comic book movie. Like the first one, there are a couple of moments that just defy all logic. (e.g. Bruce Wayne’s Lamborghini is crushed between a semi and an armoured van, yet he gets out completely unscathed) I didn’t really mind them too much, but in a movie of this stature they are really noticeable. Jesus Christ, Maggie Gyllenhaal was horrible. I liked her in other movies she’s been in, but my friends and I all agreed that she really brought this movie down. It’s a shame, as I was hoping she’d be a lot better than Katie Holmes. Also, Scarecrow, who almost destroyed Gotham in the first movie, is brought down to a petty criminal who deals drugs for literally 3 minutes in the begging. Come on, I love Scarecrow! If your going to show him, at least give him a little more dignaty.

Ok, that’s it for that! Now lets see, where to begin? The cast (with the exception of Ms. Gyllenhall) was awesome. I already ranted on Heath, but Aaron Eckhart, who played Harvy Dent, did a really good job also. It’s a shame he never really got a moment to shine because he was overshadowed by The Joker, but the scenes he is in he carries and he manages to be really sympathetic while at the same time unforgivable. Two-Face looks sweet. If you’ve seen the pictures online, you have no idea how cool they look on film! Christian Bale is great again as the caped crusader, but he is much better as Bruce Wayne. Like Christopher Reeves as Superman, his alter ego is almost more fun to watch than his super persona. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are, suprise surprise, awesome in their roles. Lucius Fox gets much more screentime in this movie and I for one am down with that. Morgan Freeman is one of those people who could read the phonebook and get an Oscar for it.

The action scenes are presented better in this one than the first. Gone are the shaky camera motions, in are you seeing whats actually going on. I loved watching the intense car chase (which morphs into a bike chase) best. It’s so well done and gives a sense of real danger. And to those fans worried that they have seen too much in the trailers, don’t worry. There’s two and a half hours worth of stuff, most which you havn’t seen a bit of. Even with the long running time, the movie never felt like it was dragging or was too long, it was always “What’s gonna happen next?”

It’s hard for me to rate movies I really like in first, second and third. I like a lot of movies and all for different reasons, so I can’t compare movies like Toy Story and Lord of the Rings up against each other. That being said, The Dark Knight is one of the top three films of the year, along with WALL-E and Iron Man. It was that good, a real masterpiece for director Christopher Nolan. Totally makes up for last year’s dissapointment that was Spiderman 3. Run, don’t walk. Get to a theater to see this movie ASAP.

Why so serious? hAHaHAhaHAhAH

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