THE DARK KNIGHT (Christopher Nolan, 2008) ***

Rating: 7/10 (30 July 2008)

Apart from the usual summer blockbuster expectations, this film acquired an instant mythical aura all its own following Heath Ledger's untimely demise (which inevitably borders on overhype). As long-rumored, Ledger's portrayal of The Joker is electrifying and leaves one in no doubt of the late actor's talent and versatility; still, though undeniably creepy – especially given his penchant for macabre TV appearances – he lacks the flamboyance (even if he does get to appear in drag!) and sense of fun that The Joker of Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson and even the animated series possessed! Besides, I don't understand why he's seen constantly recruiting henchmen from the other Gotham gangs when the film-makers chose to depict him as such a manic, trigger-happy thug that he does practically all of the shooting himself – with his anonymous lackeys being there merely to get treacherously shot in the back or hand him weapons! And what's up with leaving him dangling from a stairwell? It's not like he's coming back in the inevitable third entry, no? Incidentally, I feel that all the ongoing talk of posthumously awarding Ledger an Oscar in tribute is premature. By the way, the fact that the film is currently topping the all-time 250 list on IMDb – not that I ever cared for that particular list myself, mind you – is, quite frankly, ridiculous!
While I can't really complain of it ever being slow, the film's 152-minute running-time is definitely excessive and could easily have been thinned down by as much as 45 minutes if some of the less interesting vignettes were dropped altogether: among the many needlessly intricate subplots, the chief offenders were the whole Asian financier segment, the dead-end assault on the Japanese skyscraper full of hostages and the climactic 'confrontation' between the two respective shiploads of evacuated citizens and jailbirds. Personally, I don't understand why the film-makers chose to divide the time between the Scarecrow (albeit a mere cameo from Cillian Murphy but welcome nonetheless), the mobsters, The Joker and Two-Face rather than devote a leaner (if consequently less ambitious) narrative to the most famous of Batman's opponents – as indeed Tim Burton's 1989 revival of the caped crusader had itself done. At the very end, I also didn't get why tolerated vigilante Batman must suddenly become a hunted fugitive from the law for the good of Gotham – what for and on whose authority? Gary Oldman's final monologue was supposed to shed some light on this, I guess, but I didn't catch some of it because of the music drowning out the dialogue!
The returning actors from the first film of this new franchise (Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman) have all grown nicely into their roles – especially Caine and Oldman (so much so that I was disappointed to see him get 'bumped off' half-way through); that said, Batman himself seemed to be merely engaged in action sequences or else make split-second appearances to make his latest report to Gordon; by the way, I too found his scowling demeanor irritating – which his raspy voice sometimes rendered inaudible! On the other hand, the new additions to the fold – Aaron Eckhart (as unlucky D.A. Harvey 'Two-Face' Dent) and his gushing secretary Maggie Gyllenhaal (replacing Katie Holmes) – were less impressive (and their relationship equally dreary and time-consuming), which is just as well since both their characters lose their lives by the end of it (or so we are led to believe); Two-Face was supposed to be another criminal mastermind but, here, all he seems to care about is avenge his lover's death! Incidentally, I never thought I'd say this, but I enjoyed seeing Eric Roberts playing the meaty supporting role of one of Gotham's leading mobsters.
Where special effects are concerned, the spectacular capsizing of the trailer was the film's most breath-taking moment and Two-Face's CGI-animated facial decomposition was not too distracting under the circumstances (reminding one of Griffin Dunne from AN American WEREWOLF IN London [1981]). Those of you who've read thus far may be questioning my eventual *** rating but, seriously, I did enjoy the film and there were certainly several good sequences and performances in it but, overall, in the words of George Harrison, "it's all too much"