- Just to get this out of the way, Heath Ledger was pretty great in this. It took me a while to warm up to him because all the obnoxious Oscar buzz was in my head and that’s all I could think of, but the one-on-one scene with Batman in the interrogation room convinced me of the brilliance of Ledger’s Joker. My only complaint is that I didn’t find him to be terribly frightening. Psychotic, yes, and one would think that being a madman who wants nothing and has nothing to lose would make him an even scarier adversary, but no. Maybe I’m just really desensitized to movie villains.
- This movie really, really meandered in places. It was slow going for the first third, got really awesome in the middle third, and then unfortunately decided to wrap up with lame-oid Harvey Dent and his drama that no one cared about. Batman’s brief jaunt to Hong Kong was completely unnecessary and a total time waster. The return of obnoxious Dr. Crane and his stupid burlap sack was also pointless.
- NURSE!JOKER FTW, OMG. Harvey Dent really must be a colossal idiot if he didn’t realise that it was Joker and not an actual nurse until Joker removed his mask. The way Joker sat down and said “Hi” just about fucking killed me, holy crap. So hilarious.
- You may have guessed, but I didn’t particularly care for Harvey Dent. Also, every time he talked about making his own luck, I kept thinking of Billy Zane in Titanic. And Dwight Schrute.
- Second best line in the entire film (after Joker’s “Hi”) was Gordon saying to Dent, “They tell me you’re in horrendous pain…”
- Something that was great about Batman Begins was that Gotham had a very distinct aesthetic; it was an extension of the rot and grime of the city’s inhabitants and it had a personality of its own. Gotham wasn’t just a fictionalized New York City, it was a supporting character in the story that could be any major urban centre without being any city in particular. Gotham has completely lost this in The Dark Knight: while I appreciate that the expanses of glass and the bluish sheen on shiny surfaces are symbolic of the city cleaning itself up and finding the good again, Gotham is now specifically Chicago in a way that it wasn’t in Batman Begins. Gotham doesn’t grow out of the surface of the sets and locations anymore.
- I can’t say that Maggie Gyllenhaal was any better as Rachel Dawes than Katie Holmes was, to be completely honest. It must be the character and not the actress, so I guess we should all be lucky they killed her off.
- I like Christian Bale in this role because he’s the only one I feel really pulls off Bruce Wayne and Batman (the Batman voice notwithstanding). What I love about his Bruce Wayne is that he’s the very best of Patrick Bateman and there is some great comedy to be had in the scenes where Bruce gets to be the obnoxious playboy version of himself. I think in the next one they should have him feed a cat to an ATM.
- Does anyone else feel like they forgot about Morgan Freeman for a really long time and then were like “Oops, sorry, dude, we’ll write you back into the script now”?
- I liked how there was very little (if any) music during some of the big action sequences. It was a nice change.
- I really liked Gordon’s sidekick, Ramirez, until they decided to make her a traitor. Awesome. Not.
- They keep telling Harvey Dent that he’s the best, most good man out of the Dent-Gordon-Batman trio. Here’s the thing, though: he’s not, and not by a long shot, because who is? Jim Gordon. Gordon stands heads and shoulders above the rest in these movies. He always knows what’s right, he always does what’s right, he steps up to the occasion when no one else will, he takes charge, he’s quick thinking, he’s completely incorruptible, and he’s unwavering in his loyalty to the city he serves, no matter how disloyal it may be to him. Gordon is the moral centre of these movies.
- Speaking of which, guys. GUYS. The thing about all the hype surrounding this movie and specifically Heath Ledger’s role in it is that Gary Oldman’s supreme awesomeness in this is getting overshadowed. I complained that Gordon was severely underutilized in Batman Begins and I was overjoyed to find that not only does he get more screen time in this one, but he is also kicking ass and taking names like nobody’s business. They really beefed up the role and Gary is just totally pwning it left, right, and centre. Also, on a more superficial level, has he ever been hotter? I have a fetish for yelling!Gary (which is why Air Force One is my favourite Gary Oldman movie) and he’s all “RESPECT MAH AUTHORITY!” with guns blazing and with awesome hair. Then he’s also simultaneously the sensitive family man who FAKES HIS DEATH TO PROTECT HIS FAMILY and I was all “I know he clearly lives through this because he’s not the commissioner yet but HOLY GOD THEY JUST KILLED GARY OLDMAN” and I was so upset. How it is possible he rocks so fucking much? It’s not possible and yet… it is. If you don’t like him in this, you’re never going to like him, and I’m afraid we just can’t be friends anymore.
- I liked this better than Batman Begins, I liked it more than I like most comic book movies, and I liked it loads better than most other stuff I’ve seen this year, but I’m not feeling the OMGWOW on it yet. I’ve got OMG and WOW separately, just not as one super entity.
Categories: 4 Stars
Oh, so nice to know I’m not the only one who just didn’t give a rat’s about Rachel or Harvey. They were boring, I’m not a fan of either actor, and it just reeeeallly added more time to the plot than was necessary.