How about a magic trick?

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2008)

Directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Prestige) and penned in conjunction with his brother Jonathan Nolan, this powerhouse collaborative team brings us The Dark Knight, the highly anticipated sequel to Batman Begins. While the 2005 reboot of the Batman franchise dealt primarily with his origins, The Dark Knight sees Batman (Christian Bale) and Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) join forces with Gotham's new District Attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), to take on a deranged bank robber known only as The Joker (Heath Ledger). Of course it's never quite as simple as battling just the one villain, after some shady underworld business dealings go wrong, just about every criminal scumbag in Gotham is now gunning for both Batman and The Joker.
From the opening scene through to the inevitable conclusion, Nolan grabs you firmly by the shirt collar, like Batman dangling a Gotham hoodlum from a rooftop. You expect him to grow tired, to falter and let you splat on to the vicious street below. But he never does. If you thought that Batman Begins was dark, gritty and action-packed, think again - The Dark Knight turns the intensity up to eleven, and once it has you in its grip, it never lets go. The fights. The car chases. The vicious cat-and-mouse game between Batman and The Joker. The twists and turns.
For me, watching The Dark Knight was akin to running an emotional marathon. It had nothing to do with the films length - I'm toilet trained and older than five years old, so I've got no issue with longish films - it was the fact that after all was said and done, I came out the other side with a feeling of being completely wrecked. Maybe that's the sign of a good film? Maybe that's the sign of a film that tried to cram too much into it? I suspect it's a little from column A, and a little from column B. Like just about every comic book film floating around on the screen of late, there's always the propensity to try and give the audience ultimate bang-for-their-buck - too much exposition and intricacy in the story. Sure, the WTF-quotient wasn't exactly registering anywhere near David Lynch levels, but at times it felt like there were so many twists and deviations that the story became a little difficult to follow. Maybe it's my old age, or the fact that I chose the wrong day to stop sniffing glue, but it took me a while to figure out the point of Bruce Wayne's ludicrous CSI: Gotham attempt to pull a fingerprint from a shattered bullet.
Oh, and why is it that one villain is never enough for modern audiences? Apparently we need at least two. Christ, sometimes even three. I can certainly see how the two villain setup is useful for moving the story along, but generally more villains equals more backstories, more subplots and ultimately at least one or two villains that are never truly developed to their full potential. Well, that's assuming you don't want to push the running time past the two and a half hour mark. Frankly I found the second villain, Two Face, to be utterly pointless - if you are going to completely underuse a villain, then you should have made The Dark Knight solely about The Joker. I'm pretty certain Ledger's character could have easily carried the entire film.
If you sat through the entirety of Spiderman 3 without killing yourself, then you will know exactly what I mean about multiple villains. Fortunately The Dark Knight shits all over Spiderman 3 - I only watched it for the customary Bruce Campbell cameo. Honest.
What about the performances? Christian Bale as Batman  I love The Bale, and while he does a good job as the Caped Crusader, I had a couple of issues with his performance. The first was the voice. Christ, I couldn't stop pissing myself laughing every time Batman opened his mouth: it was almost as if the Dark Knight not only had severe laryngitis, but throat cancer and a penchant for chain-smoking twenty packets of Winnie Blues a day. It was annoying to the point of distraction. Don't get me wrong, I understand why he does it, and I'm sure he did much the same thing in Batman Begins, but come on, like you can't tell it's just Bruce Wayne putting on a dodgy voice.
Then there's Heath Ledger. Wow. I didn't want to buy into all of this hype, but after seeing Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight, I've got to admit that much of that hype was deserved. He absolutely blew the rest of the cast out of the water. Come to think of it, he completely blew Jack Nicholson's Joker out of the water as well. The mannerisms. The subtle nuances. The on screen presence. I've never really been a big fan of Ledger, but I was completely and utterly captivated by Ledger's performance as this psychotic agent of chaos. I was hypnotized every second he was on the screen.
Overall, The Dark Knight matches, if not surpasses Batman Begins on just about every level. It's a dark, non-stop thrill ride, and while the story felt a little convoluted at times, it is worth the price of admission for Heath Ledger alone. The Nolan brothers have certainly made a name for themselves in a short space of time: Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige. Not a bad way to start a career by any standard. With Christopher's skill behind the camera, and Jonathan's ability to craft story, the future of Hollywood looks bright. If they can build on the momentum of The Dark Knight, I can't wait to see where the go with the third, and possibly final Batman film with the Nolan brothers at the helm.
Edited excerpt from: www.youseenthat.com