Batman Rightly Is The Dark Knight

Rating: Null/10 (21 August 2012)

Immensely entertaining and thought provoking The Dark Knight doesn't come across as the typical blockbuster. Beyond the combat scenes and extensive action sequences The Dark Knight explores deeply the themes of morality and corruption via the actions of the characters which I found greatly intriguing.
At the core of the narrative is the conflict between Batman and the Joker in which they trade blows and mind games go amuck. The conflict is mostly intensified by the brilliant performance given by Heath Leger whose demeanour is one of cool indifference of his actions and the flamboyantly creepy tone in his voice, his persona horrifies as much as it fascinates. Yet despite his disturbed personality he rightly highlights the status of Batman as an outsider. "To them you're just a freak like me", resulting in violent outburst from Batman which is connected to his inner vulnerability in terms of his feelings regarding his own persona.
Bruce Wanye's persona as Batman not only raises questions from himself about how far he goes but also makes others question his actions. Some begin to blame Batman for the troubles in Gotham throughout The Dark Knight seeing him as selfish and a vigilante. It is a recurring element which makes the audience question Batman's methods, is he truly a hero or a man who follows his own rules no matter the cost? Yet The Dark Knight turns this question upon ourselves when citizens and convicts are given the choice to kill the other to save themselves. Surely we were all thinking thoughts others may deem to be selfish. Therefore was Batman as selfish as anyone else in Gotham? The Dark Knight achieves intellectual satisfaction in making us ponder such elements.
This theme continues as it intertwines with corruption taken on by Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Dent. Both are honourable men in a corrupt city going to great lengths to fight organised crime. However it comes at a price with Harvey Dent becoming Two Face in the process of playing a part of the indecent world he wished to destroy and Gordon having to reluctantly betray his morals to mislead Gotham into a lie. The Dark Knight again confronts us with the morality within ones actions as if to comment that the world is not completely black and white.
Although these themes play a major role in The Dark Knight it also has room for lighter elements such as romance, where Wayne and Dent aim for the affections of Rachel in scenes providing nothing more than a brief relief from the seriousness of The Dark Knight's main theme. The combat sequences are choreographed well and convey realism within each movement which enables such sequences to be more fulfilling for the audience as it draws us in rather than being amused by a staged quality which sometimes plagues other films of similar stature or even previous Batman films, with Tim Burton's installments coming to mind. The cinematography and editing are also vital in drawing the audience in with its fast cutting and pace enthralling us particularly in the opening sequences where the Joker's robbery and Batman's latest intervention are juxapostioned getting the audience ready for what lied ahead.
It may have been a blockbuster in 2008 but The Dark Knight conjures much more than intense combat and large explosions. It leaves an afterthought of the consequences of being a hero as Batman/Bruce Wayne is a conflicted individual whose sense of humanity ironically sets his fall from grace by the closing moments setting the stage for the fallout in the equally provoking sequel The Dark Knight Rises. It gives The Dark Knight a human quality to its heroic protagonist which can be missing from other superhero films.