The Dark Knight, a review by Jon
The Dark Knight5 out of 5This film deserves all the praise that has been heaped upon it and more. An overhyped movie that lives up to the hype with an ambitious character driven story that goes against comic book movie formula. It's a clever, layered story that gets to the heart of several characters, using The Joker as a centre-point. A straight comic adaptation would rank amongst the best Batman stories, and that never happens; for instance X-Men 2 was fantastic, but the story wouldn't hold up against the originals. Nor would either of the Spider-Man films (what do you mean there were three? I meant "good" Spider-Man films). This could because it's so well balanced amongst the key characters.
If I have a gripe it's that
Two-Face deserves more time. The comic really gets to the tradegy of the relationship between Batman and his old friend. This happens a bit in the film, but I'd like to see him go on and manipulate Batman. It suggests he is dead, which I think is a shame to lose such a conflicted character, and his origin is brilliantly done, focusing on his double-headed coin that gets blackened on one side...
Heath Ledger's Joker is as good as you have heard and probably better. The role will be remembered for years, but the best roles are a part of a film, not the focus, and it's a tribute the quality of this story that he doesn't take it over. The rest of the cast held their own and the story is pretty equally shared, revolving around The Joker's anarchy, not unlike Seven. That isn't a lazy comparision.
He leads Batman and the others through trap after trap, and the ending is pretty bleak. Not as bleak, obviously, but still not a happy ending, involving a sort of sacrifice.
Actually, The Joker is a good enough villain to have worked in a traditional thriller, but then we'd have to do without Christian Bale's Batman. It's still his film and hopefully, his trilogy. There aren't many good part 3s, but Christopher Nolan could pull it off.
One of the very best comic adaptations, cutting straight to the motivation of each well played character, with a solid story to back them up.
(From The Dark Knight on July 27th, 2008)
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May 14, 2024, 09:02:25 AM
