Why So Serious? When You Can Smile Because The Dark Knight Is Here And Because It Is Fantastic

Rating: 10/10 (18 July 2008)

When I was a kid I taped the first Tim Burton's Batman from TV and I have truly great memories with that film (and with that tape), a 1989 film that I haven't watch since long time ago. I felt and I still feel an enormous admiration for Jack Nicholson and I think his joker was great but since I saw for the very first time Heath Ledger with the joker makeup and suit, I just loved the new joker. Yesterday I read again (now in a newspaper) the declarations of Jack Nicholson about the "new" joker and his words are even kind of ridiculous, maybe he was joking when he said that he should have been playing this joker since he can be easily the father or even the grandfather of Bruce Wayne. Today I saw The Dark Knight, on a midnight "special" screening just for the record, and even I still have those great memories of Nicholson's joker, I really don't remember feeling in the same way that when I saw Ledger's joker on the screen; he is absolutely fantastic just like this second take on Christopher Nolan's Batman, the second take and definitely my favourite of all the Batman films. Ledger's joker is the kind of villain, or better, the kind of character that you are just waiting for his next appearance, just to enjoy his presence on the screen and to enjoy the great character that is the joker. Of course as the joker becomes a character that itself makes a film worthwhile, he becomes the puppeteer of Gotham City, playing with the mob as if they were little kids and making a brilliant movement after a brilliant movement (the opening sequence is more than fantastic). This time Batman is not the protagonist but he is for sure the only one in who the joker feels respect or at least some excitement and the joker knows that Batman changed forever Gotham City but at the same time he knows how to play with him by making that Gotham City itself put the pressure on the hero and in this way Harvey Dent (a terrific performance of Aaron Eckhart and for me it was a surprise to see him on this film since I only remember him from Thank You for Smoking) will play a very important role since he is the real and new hero of Gotham City but he will live a situation that will mark him forever and that makes the film works in another level. And the joker likes to play on that level and is intelligence is simply amazing. The are some situations that are memorable in the film; I loved that the joker's origin is never explain and it seems that he arrives just to pull the strings and maybe it was because of his father or maybe because of his wife (I loved at both dialogs), who knows and actually it is not very relevant. But all of this comes back when the joker tries to put on his level "regular" persons and he succeeded for example with a cop who is full of anger when the joker ask him how many of his friends have died because of his acts but his most important success is on Dent who will try to put James Gordon in his same previous situation. On this level The Dark Knight is great with a story involving the classic corruption, the hopeless madness, the honesty and the meaning of the word hero yet the action is also great and exciting, starting with a memorable sequence, as I write before, just to grab your attention and it takes Batman, in a strange move, even to Hong Kong! But as I write before too, the joker's movements are just to follow and even we you don't expect anything he puts to the civilians the clown masks, tied guns in their hands and leaves everything for a civilian massacre. To talk about Ledger himself is kind of unnecessary since just after his suicide his joker became a cult character and also because we can resume all the performances in this film with only one word: great (I didn't missed Holmes and I'm glad that Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman and, specially, Gary Oldman are here again).
The hype was huge and actually this is the first and probably the unique summer film that has that mentioned special midnight screening, you know to start watching The Dark Knight in the first minute of the day of its release (for the record, this is the first time that I went to one of this midnight screenings and I found some curiosities like that people likes them, the cinema was full which was really awaited, and that there are no trailers, you know to start exactly at 00:00), and that was my strongest card for this 2008 summer. I'm more than glad to say that I really loved The Dark Knight and on a personal level, this is my favourite Batman film ever. Tim Burton gave us two great films but now, well actually back in 2005 Nolan re- bird Batman and that was truly fantastic but The Dark Knight is even more fantastic. Don't miss the chance to see this one on the big screen!