(K)night and the city...

Rating: 8/10 (11 January 2009)

Having just watched for the first time "Batman Begins" (guess who got the double DVD set for Christmas!), I was keenly anticipating my viewing of the almost universally praised sequel, the record-breaking "The Dark Knight".
I was not disappointed. Unlike its predecessor, there's no "origin" sequence to slow down the "clobberin' time" (to mix up my comic-book metaphors!) and while I would recommend any comic-lovers to read the superb "Killing Joke" graphic novel which does just that, we're here presented with The Joker full-on from the outset, of course tying in with the continuity from the end of the first film.
Much has been said about the performance of the late Heath Ledger in the Clown of Crime role and I was naturally curious to see if it lived up to the hype. Again, I have to say, believe it. This is a truly superb performance, endowing what is after all a comic-book creation with psychological and psychopathic depths. While not conforming physically to the idealised image of The Joker as painted up beanpole in a purple dress-coat, Ledger's commitment to the role knocks aside any reservations on that score. You almost believe that the scars which grotesquely extend his manic grin are real (a brilliant attribute which I never picked up from the comics), so deep does he reach into the role.
Almost as good is Aaron Eckhart as nemesis number two on show, namely Harvey Dent D.A. who metamorphoses into the twisted "Two-Face". His ghastly fate is set-up with a number of premonitory phrases if you listen closely enough to the soundtrack and as well as sporting the best make-up effect in the whole film, Eckhart too makes the pulp villain into something believable.
This is where the film is most successful, with its concentration on characterisation heightened sufficiently above the norm against a similarly exaggerated, but still grounded in reality, cityscape which any urban dweller can imagine all too easily. The duality of pretty much all the characters is brought to the forefront, particularly the central premise that the Batman and Joker justify each other's existence which is why the half-way house character of Two-Face alongside them (in the previous Batman series he was paired off with "The Riddler"), is so right with all the maxims about two sides of the one coin etc absolutely manifest, particularly the celebrated scene where Batman indulges in straightforward interrogation brutality as he's brought to the edge of his reason that The Joker voluntarily and Dent, involuntarily actually cross.
Which brings me to The Batman, almost third-string in his own movie. Perhaps it's just that old song about the devil having all the best tunes but certainly while a complex character in his own right, Batman here pales in significance beside The Joker and Two-Face and seems in fact to get roughly the same screen-time to almost tacitly acknowledge this fact.
Onto other facets of the film and praise must also go the cinematographers, stunt organisers, special effects technicians and Messrs Zimmer and Newton Howard's atmospheric soundtrack. The only debits for me were the casting of Maggie Gylenhaal as the new Rachel Dawes. I actually quite liked Katie Holmes in "Batman Begins" and found the less glamorous Gylenhaal too jarringly different in the part. Continuity counts for a lot in a series like this, less so oddly enough for the costumed characters than the flesh and blood everyday parts and I found her performance wanting.
Also the plot-dense narrative lost me from time to time and I really just didn't get what The Joker was planning with the ferries' stand-off at the conclusion. With a bit of imagination, I'm sure the writers could have given us a big, certainly more memorable three-way confrontation between the main protagonists, say, at Arkham.
So whither now for the franchise? The producers mustn't weaken the vision here by allowing key-players like Nolan or Bale to move on and the introduction of new characters from the comics (Robin? The Riddler? - arguably the two campest characters in Batman's cast) must be done sympathetically to what has gone before. This series is too good to stop now and shouldn't be allowed to deteriorate as the 80's first reinvention by Tim Burton was sadly allowed to. I caught the reference to cats which makes me think that Catwoman might take a bow next time. Whoever gets her part however will certainly be up against it as comparisons to Ledger's performance, at one stroke trashing the memory of Jack Nicholson, will require not only a similarly dramatic revision of the part but also a performance of similar dare and imagination.
Until then, I'll be there for the next one, same Bat time, same Bat - channel...