Nolan, Bale, Ledger, Eckhart, all hit it out of the park

Rating: 8/10 (18 July 2008)

I wasn't sure what to expect from The Dark Knight a sequel to Batman Begins and, by virtue of extended franchise, a remake of the Tim Burton 1989 Batman movie, which also featured Batman, the Joker, and Harvey Dent (though not Two-Face). The previews had all the action and excitement, and some cool-looking gadgets, but... despite the whole "Heath Ledger is dead, this is final great performance" hype, I didn't want to second guess myself. A Joker with no real "origin" story? Ledger playing him with slapped on, sloppy make-up and lots of facial tics? How will this work, and how could it be any better than Nicholson's Joker?
Answers? It does work, very well, though it's dependent on the universe that director Christopher Nolan has set in place. Ledger's Joker wouldn't work in Burton's style, as his mix of camp and seriousness was perfect for an actor like Nicholson. But in Nolan's world, he fits in like a f***ing psychotic glove. To get it out of the way for this review, I'll say this: Ledger practically lives up to the hype. His presence is uncouth and strange, and not like one's used to (the slashes through his face are "jokingly" referenced that "my dad did this, "my wife did this"), and he's totally ambiguous. But it's also the unpredictable Joker seen yet on screen, and only topped probably in the craziest of the comics. He's an unpredictable force that is the twisted ying to Batman's protect-by-all-means-but-murder yang. It's basically an anarchic punk rocker taken to the lengths of a terrorist.
While this should make the Joker boring, there's nothing that Nolan isn't willing to do to make the audience jump or second guess the plot, which makes it extra exciting as he heads on in the last half hour, leading to an incredible double-catharsis of sorts. But if Ledger's performance is being touted for an posthumous Oscar nomination (which I'm still not sure about though will probably happen), then the amount of attention being paid to Aaron Eckhardt is minuscule in comparison. On his own terms, Eckhart delivers a performance that's even better than Ledger's (or, rather, he has a lot more complexity than "I'm gonna blow stuff up and go chaotic here"). He puts in everything that's needed for the perfect Harvey Dent, as a man who's the "white knight", someone who could be the one to take the place of Batman as the one to look after Gotham. His downfall, however, becomes the great, horrifying tragedy of this Batman. To say Eckhart blows all other interpretations (on film or TV) of Dent is putting it lightly, and the make-up given to his latter reincarnation is some of the best I've ever seen.
In the interest of not coming off like a total crazy fan-boy for the Dark Knight, there are some likely criticisms to have. Despite Nolan's vision being epic and grand, and for the most part pulling off such a big story very well, the last section, however exciting and tense and posing moral questions, goes a little long. And, however staying true to the comics (which is great), the last section starts to pile on the exposition a bit much. But these are mostly mild quibbles. In the scope of delving into the Batman world as honestly (if not realistically) as possible, Nolan succeeds even further than in 'Begins'. The characters of Batman/Wayne, Gordon, Dent, and Rachel Dawson are all put into incredible circumstances throughout the film, and we're pulling for them and care about what happens all the way. It's all the more a credit to the storytelling power since we should know how things will turn out; a certain twist mid-way through had me thinking "say it isn't so", and when I knew I was had, I knew Nolan had done his job well.
Another question: does Dark Knight live up to the hype? It depends on how you define it and how it pertains to the movie. A lot of the hype has been around Ledger's death, and the new characters, and some of the hype (i.e. box-office predictions) have become ludicrous. Yet, for what Nolan set out to do as filmmaker, delivering drama and action and pathos and a kick-ass-but-truly-conflicted Batman in his *very* dark city of Gotham, he succeeded admirably. It might not be the same amount of pure "fun" of Burton's films, but then again it doesn't need to be. It's an excellent, breathtaking experience, and one of the best pics of 08.