The Dark Knight
By Zak Edwards
July 18, 2008 - 05:57
Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, and Gary Oldman
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
The Dark Knight
As a warning, I try to divulge as little as possible in terms of plot in this review, but some things will be implied and others outright said. So officially: SPOILER ALERT, but I try to keep things to a minimum.
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Now the rest. This movie is two and a half hours of violence, drama, black comedy, and social insight. The focus on a tortured Bruce Wayne continues to be the focus of director and story maker Chris Nolan, but Wayne’s life is now spilling onto other people. Now the consequences are beyond just Bruce to endure. Nolan shows in vivid detail the consequences of the Batman on Gordon, Rachel Dawes, Gotham City, and finally Harvey Dent. It is through the drama this movie makes for a stunning sequel and a new high standard to which the superhero genre of movie must meet, it’s that good. While other superhero movies let the good guy win and take very little in the way of tragedy, Bruce Wayne is forever becoming worse and worse. Even the end feels like a hollow victory, but in a way which forces the audience to think. Heroic choices are made, but difficult ones with unexpected actions to perform in order to do so. It is Gotham who comes out on top in this film, not Batman and certainly not Bruce Wayne.
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As for the look of the movie, the heavy shadowing and grim scenery only adds to the film’s themes and motifs. What the shadows hide is more than Batman, there are secrets in those dead spaces and one is constantly watching them for those secrets to be revealed. The action is half in these shadows, which obscures what is going on but I believe this to be a benefit, adding to the mystery. This film is perfect almost to a tee. Maybe its just the high from seeing it, but there is little wrong with the film. While there are some pacing issues, the film feels like it’s just getting started for a very long time and similarly seems to be ending for a great deal of time as well. But The Joker is the excuse there, the movie’s timing is in his hands and therefore becomes another tool to display his psychosis.
Stellar acting, amazing stunts, great drama, creepy villains (and that is putting it very lightly), this movie has it all, so go see it and stop reading this.
9.5/10 Seriously, stop reading this and go see it.
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