The Dark Knight! A Review
Gotham City has mostly recovered from being nearly stripped down by R’as al Ghul, the Scarecrow and Gotham’s local mob boss, Carmine Falcone, and the city’s inhabitants have settled into a routine of normalcy.
Part of that normalcy is the ever vigilant Batman (Christian Bale) prowling the city at night, rounding up all the escaped patients from Arkham Asylum. He’s given hope back to the people of Gotham and all seems well. Especially with the appointment of Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) as the District Attorney, who promises to end corruption in the government and law enforcement and deter crime in the streets. The time that Bruce Wayne no longer needs to don the Dark Knight’s dress seems to be imminent.
However, with Batman nearly crushing the local crime syndicate, the criminal leaders get some help from the Joker (Heath Ledger) who leads Batman, via a trail of bodies, on a game that will answer the questions: “Can the Joker break the Batman?”, “Will the Joker succeed in destroying good and hope and bring Gotham City down into Chaos?”
All the actors played their parts well from Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox to Maggie Gyllenhaal, who replaced Katie Holmes, as Rachel Dawes, but none so well as Heath Ledger. Of all his roles, this final one is his best. He didn’t just act the part, he lived it. Personality and mannerisms are a given, what he did was bring the Joker to life. Posture, ticks, inflections—every element of the character felt spot on. Great action sequences and a few twists aside, The Dark Knight is well worth the full price of admission just for Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker.
It’s frustrating that this is not a movie for little kids but if you’ve been to a toy store lately, you would see that the place is almost wall-to-wall with Batman & Joker toys that any self-respecting 13 year old wouldn’t be caught dead playing with. Most of it seems to be targeted to kids who are too way young to watch the movie. My boy is 5 and he’s been bombarded with promotions for Batman toys and the movie. The toys promote the movie and visa versa. He simply doesn’t understand why he can play with the toys but can’t go to the movie.
July 27, 2008 at 6:26 pmI see your point. While I think this is one of the best Batman movies, it’s a shame it’s not children-friendly, especially due to the toy line.
July 29, 2008 at 10:31 pm