Movie review: The Dark Knight (2008) by Mike
To butcher a famous line by Jack Nicholson, the original Joker from Batman:
“I have given a name to my Oscar….and it is Batman.”
More specifically, The Dark Knight.
I know there are movies yet to come this year that will be brilliant and amazing. Maybe the Curious Case of Benjamin Button will be a movie that warrants Academy attention.
But if there was ever going to be a time that an action-packed, superhero adventure was to win that coveted Best Picture Oscar…The Dark Knight is it. Hands down. And I wont forget to mention a Best Supporting Actor nod as well.
Now, I don’t want to be THAT guy who oversells a movie, but that would be impossible here.
Let’s look back in time for a second. Batman Begins was amazing. The reinvention of the caped crusader, the darkness, the high quality of production, the writing, all of it. It truly brought Batman back into the spotlight in a way I didn’t think possible.
But that was only the appetizer. Early this morning, I got to enjoy the main course.
I’m not sure how to describe how beautifully dark, scary and masterful this movie was. Perhaps my inflated sense of the greatness of The Dark Knight was due to the IMAX screen, the pristine picture and the unbelievable sound system.
Nope. That was icing on the cake to be sure, but Christopher Nolan deserves heaps of accolades for the world he’s created right there on the big screen.
When Frank Miller wrote the comic book The Dark Knight Returns in 1985, THIS movie is what he had in mind. It’s so awesome to see Nolan and his brother Jonathan (they co-wrote the film) really capture the vision of that graphic novel and the others that followed.
The hardest part of this movie for me personally, was the sadness I felt when I realized that Heath Ledger probably never got to see what he did in all its glory. The movie was in post-production when he passed away, but did he truly get an idea of what he’d done?
Because this movie begins and ends with his performance. Yes, everyone else was amazing. Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal and especially Gary Oldman.
But the heart and evil, evil soul of The Dark Knight was The Joker. Ledger encompassed every bit of the character. In fact, if you didn’t know it was him behind the makeup and scar tissue before you walked into the theater, I’d bet real money that not many could guess his identity.
This isn’t the comedic performance of Jack Nicholson. This is real, gritty, dark, disturbing and yes, scary. The makeup, the greasy hair, the nervous tongue twitches…everything was so spot on, that I can’t even do it justice trying to describe it to you.
You just have to see it.
I’m not going to ruin anything else about The Dark Knight by telling you a single thing other than Ledger. He might have just given us one of the best bad guys to ever dominate the big screen.
And that’s where I’m going to end this review. Go see the movie. Don’t wait for it to come on DVD. I truly believe this will be looked back on as a historic achievement, in terms of performances, production and of course, the box office.
But if I’m right, it will also be the first superhero movie to be nominated for Best Picture.
See it on IMAX if you can. Some of the aerial shots of the city and the action sequences are breathtaking.
One last thing…which you will understand later on:
Magic Pencil Trick.
That’s all I have to say about that.
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pretty big anyways.
It's amazing, but I'm already looking forward to a second viewing...cannot
wait!
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But pumped to see Salvation on the big screen.
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Only thing I'll add here was people were moaning the choice over Ledger being selected to play the Joker and said noway he can touch Nicholsons previous performance. I would love to see every single one of those peoples take on Ledgers undescribable performance and then have them eat crow that Jack was'tn even in the same league as Ledgers performance......
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The Oscars really need a movie like this to bring back the excitement. Can you imagine an Academy Awards with the chance of The Dark Knight and The Joker winning? People WILL tune in for that.
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