The Dark Knight Shines
By Phillip Sayblack
Thursday, August 14, 2008
This summer has been one of the biggest when it comes to movies. It has especially been a big summer for Marvel and DC Comics, and their studios. Fresh off the heels of the Writers’ Strike that temporarily crippled the entertainment industry, Marvel and DC managed to release a trio of movies based on their comic book characters. While Marvel struck gold with Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, DC Comics was the big winner with the long awaited sequel to Christopher Nolan’s hit, Batman Begins. Expectations were extremely high for this movie, especially after the untimely death of Heath Ledger just before the movie finished filming. Thanks to curiosity over Ledger’s role, and the immense build up to the film, The Dark Knight has become one of the most successful movies since Titanic. All the hype over the movie is fully justified too, as the movie more than lived up to expectations. And it is no doubt that when it is pulled from theaters and sent to DVD, it will set new records for sales in that arena as well. For the time being, though, I present to everyone out there my personal thoughts on what is one of the best comic books turned movies in a long time.
Christopher Nolan has done it again. In a summer full of not-so-blockbuster movies, Nolan, his writers, and cast have given audiences a movie that will go down in history as not only THE summer blockbuster of 2008, but as one of the greatest movies in the first decade of the 21st century.
The Dark Knight has been touted in ads, as an action movie. It is definitely this. But it is also a deeply psychological thriller. Heath Ledger’s portrayal as The Joker is amazing to say the least. Ledger took Jack Nicholson’s Joker, and stepped him up ten-fold. Ledger made this joker one of the most sociopathic villains that any movie has ever seen. I should note here that because of this, a lot of parents have complained about how dark the movie is. The fact of the matter is that the MPAA puts ratings in place for a reason. Sometimes the ratings aren’t entirely fair on movie makers. But when a movie receives a PG-13 rating, that means it is not advisable for children under 13 years old to view it, even with a parent or guardian. So to that extent, parents have no room to complain. On the other hand, Hollywood and toy manufacturers are as much to blame, as they have been marketing toys to kids that are linked to the movie. It goes without saying that such marketing strategies are intended solely to get kids to buy the toys and want to see the movie. So to that extent, parents can complain about that connection, but not about how dark and psychological this movie is.
Now, with that sidebar out of the way, what do you say we get back to the movie itself? The work done to create Harvey Dent’s alter ego, Two-Face, was outstanding. At first audiences are teased, and made to wonder if his new persona would be revealed. Much to fans’ delight, Nolan does come through and introduce what will become Two Face in the next movie in the Batman franchise.
There are more than enough twists and turns to make any fanboy happy. But the fact of the matter is that there are perhaps too many twists and turns. There are so many that the movie tends to feel longer than its two-and-a-half hour runtime. The runtime aside, The Dark Knight is still by far one of the best action/thriller movies to come along in a long time. It is one that even fans of general actions movies will enjoy, even if they are not fans of the comic book universe.
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