Fantastic Film

Rating: 9/10 (12 August 2008)

Oh, where to begin? This film was absolutely incredible. I have almost zero complaints about it. Of the few that I do is the set direction. A commenter before me mentioned that Gotham felt like any average American city, rather than the Gothic, dark style that was presented to us in the comics. Heck, even the first film gave us more of a sense of darkness than this one did. The city was a dark, dirty, gritty mess, with extremely dark lighting, long shadows, and buildings that looked decades old. In this one, all we got were clean modern skyscrapers with a few dark warehouses and docks thrown in there. Why the sudden change in set decoration between the two films? Other than that though, this film was fantastic. Heath Ledger did an absolutely brilliant job as the Joker. So brilliant, in fact, that I didn't even notice it the first time I watched the film. I spent the whole movie just being absolutely captivated and pulled in by his performance that I just thought, "Yes, that's Joker. That's just who he is." It wasn't until I exited the theater that I really thought, "Wait, that wasn't Joker. That was Heath Ledger playing the Joker!" Truly phenomenal. I completely agree with those who think he should be awarded an Oscar posthumously. Granted I haven't seen every film of the year, but it's hard to imagine somebody doing better than what he did with this role.
As for the complaints about Joker's "purpose" in the film, or his "motivation": I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm pretty sure that his motivation was purely insanity. Alfred even makes mention of it when he says, "Some men just want to see the world burn." Of course, this led into the great line later when Bruce asks Alfred how they eventually caught the bandit he was talking about at the time and Alfred tells him that they had to burn the forest. Essentially telling Bruce that he would have to become the very thing he wanted to fight, if he wanted to stop Joker. And yet, despite all this, Batman overcomes Joker's attempts to make him break his one rule, and still manages to catch him.
As for Harvey Dent, I loved him. His transition from the White Knight of Gotham to the deranged, vengeful, chance-using Two Face was both believable and tragic. Having to tell Rachel, his love, that it would be alright, even though he knew that he would be thought of as more important and probably chosen over her to be saved was just tear-jerking. The only part of Two Face that I was disappointed with was his death. He is truly my favorite Batman villain. Thinking of chance as the only unbiased reasoning, the only incorruptible, is just a truly brilliant character and plot device. I am sad that we won't get to see it again in another film. On the other hand, Joker's psychotic devotion to chaos will hopefully make up for it in future films, though having to recast Joker may detract from the role detrimentally.