Amazing Work... for a Serious Superhero Movie

Rating: 7/10 (3 April 2009)

The Serious Superhero Movie Movement has been going on for a while... from the Hulk reboots to the X-men franchise-- but none of them is anywhere as good as the Dark Knight (2008). Packed with solid production values and strong dramatic performances, the deal is sealed by the Seriously Psychotic Joker Character of Heath Ledger, who inspires equal amounts of fear and hate through the sheer unhinged power of his performance.
Written & directed more like a crime drama involving a serious vigilante rather than a comic superhero, the film manages to create and maintain an amazingly consistent and convincing pace and atmosphere. Gotham City feels like a real city threatened by crime although we never really see the crime syndicates and dirty cops at work; and the Joker feels like a criminal genius even though his level of dementia could never have allowed him to plan and lead like a crime boss. So the heightened level of realism can sometimes work against itself in places where the film still applied "superhero movie logic/ conventions"-- i.e. where superheroes/ criminals get things done too easily/ conveniently. I mean, I can accept that all of Batman's gadgets work-- but enter and leave Chinese airspace without authorization? Err, the last American aircraft that tried it in 2001 was captured on Hainan Island.
Doesn't really break any genre conventions-- the characters are still stereotypes despite the great characterizations, and the imaginative script still led to an ending stinking of post-cold war propaganda ("we need a common enemy/threat to unite us", blah X 3 is not really that smart/ meaningful-- see Watchmen, etc.)-- but it certainly made for a great ride.