The Dark Knight is Back!

Rating: 10/10 (21 December 2007)

This movie outstripped even my wildest expectations. Having grown up with the slightly campier Joel Schumacher films and the dark, brooding but nevertheless slightly desensitized Tim Burton films, my view of Batman coming into the movie theater was mixed. I saw Batman as the crazy dude with a grappling bat gun and a cool car who fought crime without guns and I also saw him as the serious, traumatized man who fought fire with fire. Now that I've seen this film, I think of Batman as nothing less than the paradigm of legend - indescribable, enigmatic, but one that gives hope.
In my case, this film rejuvenated my hope for the superhero franchise. Spiderman so far had been a disappointment to me, I enjoyed the CGI of those films, but it failed to enthrall me or even allow me to take it seriously. Christian Bale's Batman, devised in the shrewdest possible way by Christopher Nolan, is uniquely human and has grown up learning the meaning of justice and truth. It wasn't an epiphany which struck him as a child in the streets of Gotham, crying over the body of his father and mother, but rather a sort of sacred mission that he undertook, traveling the world, learning martial arts and becoming well acquainted with the human psyche and learning what makes a criminal. His alter ego as Bruce Wayne doesn't disappoint either - he manages to balance the stereotypical rich playboy lifestyle with a shrewd business acumen only vaguely alluded to throughout the film but one which is readily apparent by the end.
The villains are no less powerful. Ra's al Ghul, the Demon's Head, is played in a striking performance and with no less striking of a twist. Being one of DC's lesser known villains but perhaps one of its most sophisticated, he is recast in a light appropriate for the medium of Nolan's story. The Scarecrow endures a similar fate, going from the rather ridiculous, insane, jack-o-lantern throwing DC version of the Green Goblin to a still insane, but less ridiculously psychopathic murderous doctor who takes pleasure in extracting pain from his victims. Wilkinson's role as mob boss Falcone may set the role for later, more prolific mob bosses, such as the prolific Sal Maroni and later on, Two Face.
The story is brilliantly told, and the dialog tends to work its way into the story without slowing it down or plodding along. Michael Caine's Alfred is a perfect expository character and a great foil for both Bruce Wayne and for Batman, as he was intended to be in the comics. His humor brings a human side to the characters in the movie while nevertheless supporting the simple fact that in addition to his father, Bruce's main inspiration for justice was his old butler. Rachel Dawes, the female lead played by Katie Holmes, is no less well done (even if Holmes' acting could have been slightly mediated by control over her facial expressions), and manages to bring out Bruce Wayne's "third" side - the man behind the mask but the face not seen in public.
Any movie which can make a man in a suit turn into a figure of legend is worth watching over and over again. I have no reservations in saying this is possibly the single best superhero movie of all time.