Great Drama

Rating: 8/10 (22 July 2008)

As long as a movie has good acting, writing, and direction it has the potential to be great. Dark Knight has all three, in spades.
In acting we've got a fair line up of leading men and a dream supporting group. Gary Oldman the most consistent of fine actors among the group, reprises his role admirably. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine has shown us nearly all of their tricks (granted they had quite a few throughout their ridiculously long careers) so there performances were merely comfort zone for the audience to recognizable and accept what they have to say as important. They did absolutely nothing special. Maggie Gyllenhaal equally did nothing special. She held her own put out a completely expected performance. Its nice to see Eric Roberts again, and he truly tried to add dimensions to a dimensionless character, he actually would have made a very fine Joker (granted nothing compared to Heath) during the eighties/early nineties when he was in his prime and hadn't been stained by so many B-movie disasters. Ritchie Coaster's macho dog loving mobster was fun. All the other minor characters excelled under Chris Nolan's direction, who instantaneously introduced us to seemingly three-dimensional human beings.
As far as our leading three. Christian Bale had a lot more range to play in Batman Begins. In this movie it seemed very old hat already. Bale works best the more estranged his character is to both the other characters in the story and the audience. And we all accept him as Batman and Bruce Wayne, so there was no surprise in Bale method magic. Aaron Eckhart was as bland as usual. He played all the beats needed for the character and hit all the high points but was completely uninteresting. He looked perfect as Harvey Dent though. The fact of everyone else being so mundane actually improved the movie however, because it allowed Heath Ledger's performance become all the more striking. Ledger never over shadowed his other actors, he just dominated them and the scenes, as the character should have. He took one important line and transfixed it through his entire performance. He mentioned being a dog chasing cars, and the dog aspect is rooted through the entire performance. In any other context or character Ledger's performance would be considered inconsistent, although playing a primarily inconsistent character, makes his portrayal of the Joker, flawless.
The Writing... truly strong. Situationally very Nolan esc. with is common twists and turns. And the dialogue for the Joker was intensely strong... everyone else above average. The writing translated very well into Nolan direction. He kept a two and half hour movie moving. Almost to the point of annoyance on a repeat viewing. I wanted time to relish in a scene, which was never delivered. That's merely taste however, it makes for iconic moments instead of iconic scenes.
Other then that minor difference of opinion, my only true complaint. Is the terrible... terrible... terrible action choreography. Ever fight was Batman punching, elbowing, or forearming someone. Bad. Epic failure on the part of the action. Chase scenes? Great.
However because I consider this movie a drama as apposed to a "Super Hero" movie. It still holds and A rating and a 10/10 (in percents... more like a 95)
If you liked Dark Knight watch:
Batman Batman Begins Fight Club Seven Heat (Nolan's sighting not mine)
BRANDON C. LAY