Does What it Set Out To Do

Rating: 9/10 (30 July 2008)

Frank Miller's The Dark Knight was one of the greatest comic series ever made. I was a young comic book collector when it first came out and I remember buying 5 copies a couple of days after its release and then watching it sell out in a few weeks. The price for the first edition sky-rocketed after just a couple of months to over $100, as second and third runs were printed.
What Miller did was nothing short of revolutionary. He depicted the Batman much the same way as the original 1930s Batman comics did - as a nearly maniacal, shadowy vigilante who sets forth to strike fear into the hearts of villains throughout Gotham. But he deepened the internal conflicts, the personal relationships, and the psychological aspects of the stories - especially the 2-3 episodes that dealt with the Joker. Miller's Joker was the flip-side of the Batman. An entirely sociopathic force for chaos and evil - and not entirely unlike the Batman at a deep structural level - driven by a similar kind of megalomania. The commonalities between the characters were just enough to shake Bruce Wayne to his core and to cause him to question everything he stood for.
Take note - With Iron Man and this film, Comic Book Films Have finally begun to realize their full potential.
Thankfully, The Dark Knight took aspects of Miller's version of the Joker and brought them to the screen faithfully - with adequate but not overbearing special effects, great acting talent, and a script worthy of Miller's work.
The Joker, devastatingly played by Heath Ledger, is not the quirky Cesar Romero prankster, nor the slightly demonic Jack Nicholson Commodore of Crime, but rather Frank Miller's ingenious, amoral, homicidal maniac. And he is anything but funny. The Joker reigns terror down on Gotham through a series of increasingly murderous experiments designed to test his nihilistic hypothesis concerning human nature. The Batman is being hunted by a righteous new district attorney for his vigilante approach to justice, and it is becoming increasingly clear that crime has stepped up its skill and intelligence to meet him at his own level. Bruce Wayne, plagued by personal difficulties and the deep conflicts of his dual life considers hanging up his cloak just when Gotham needs him most. But something about the Joker gets way under his skin.
The film even captures Miller's dark aesthetic of Gotham and the Batman consistently. Ledger is perfect, Bale is very good (though he was not given the depth afforded the Joker by the script, the story dictates that this will change in the next film), and the excellent, star-studded, supporting cast makes this blockbuster worth seeing by just about anybody.
For those who know the story and bring great expectations to this film - you will be rewarded with catharsis. For those who don't - prepare to see something you would never expect from a comic book based film - intense psychological drama and powerfully realized characterization.For those who are just looking for a fun and entertaining action film - you will get more than you bargained for in The Dark Knight, but may find it too lengthy and dark for your tastes.