Posthumous Oscar, coming right up!

Rating: 10/10 (18 August 2008)

Batman returns to the big screen once again in The Dark Knight, sequel to already brilliant Batman Begins. But as good as Batman Begins is, this truly is epic in comparison. Christopher Nolan returns again as the director and co-writer and creates the movie of his career. As we all know, the hype was everywhere. Many were skeptic of whether it would live up to it. And it didn't. It surpassed it! Even after waiting a whole week for the brilliance of The Dark Knight to fully set in and assure myself I, myself, wasn't just caught up in the hype, the only thing I can still say is, "Wow". There really is no place to start. The acting, the writing, the plot structure, effects, action scenes - each of these showing the best of what cinema has to show for each section. But, in a messy, misguided attempt, I will start with what I saw as the most impressive arc of The Dark Knight, the acting.
Now, I think we all know who steals the show. It is, undeniably, that of Heath's performance as the Joker. This truly is a milestone in film history and is definitely the performance of Heath's life (no pun intended). It's up there with such unforgettable legendary roles as Marlon Brando as Don Vitto in both dedication and delivery and a posthumous Oscar is well on its way. Every minute he is on screen, your eyes devour it, savoring every second he appears, and craving it again once he is gone. But as good as Heath is (and he really is that good), you cannot oversee the other excellent performances by many of the cast, especially that of DA Harvey Dent by Aaron Eckhart, who tragically becomes Two-Face later on. And who ever thought Gary Oldman could be versatile enough to play such a good character so damn well.
Well, let's move onto the next aspect of The Dark Knight that I saw as almost impeccable. The script. Once again, the Joker's script is one that any writer can only ever dream of writing, full of clever wit and some of the best quotes cinematography will ever be graced to. Every word is like a piece of beautifully woven poetry, but not only that of Heath's but by everyone.
But aside from all the genius that is packed into this almost 3-hour masterpiece, it is not perfect, just like any other film. And to push aside these blemishes and try and forget them would be ignorant. The first problem seems to be a case of too much to do in too little time. I felt the plot structure, as good, no excellent, it is, it is a little messy and I just felt Nolan tried to bite off a bit more than he could chew. No, more like a nibble. Also, we can't deny that, even with a change from Holmes to Gyllenhaal, Rachel's character is just plain badly written. Though Gyllenhaal's performance was a fresh breath of air and her acting overshadowed that of Holmes, it still had that same dry, bland feeling I felt with Holmes. Finally, I did think the ending, the last 15 minutes or so, were a bit drawn out, filled with what are good final quotes, but utter spoon feeding.
But believe me, it took me a week of nit-picking to find any faults, and all of them are very small. Even with all that said, this movie is a triumph and must be seen by everyone.
Hamish Kearvell A.K.A Screaming Japan Pictures - www.myspace.com/screamingjapanpictures