Badman

Rating: 5/10 (7 August 2008)

One has to sit through a lot of idiocy in this sado masochistic wet dream in order to glean some exciting moments as this loud bombastic endless piece of highly polished garbage bashes it's way to a sequel. Given the running time there are plenty of thrills and chills that more or less simply repeat themselves for the last hour by which time it becomes a race between losing interest or your hearing.
Gotham City is in danger of being picked clean by the mob. Only crusading DA Harvey Dent and Inspector Gordon stand between them. Enter the Joker, a sadistic yukster who can't get or deliver enough mayhem to all concerned. Even Batman has his hands full with the cruel overly optimistic and principled (it ain't about the money) bad Bozo. Now the stage is set to destruct much of the city, kill and injure much of the populace and give the Joker every opportunity to escape.
Batman has always walked a fine line between fantasy and gritty realism (sci fi meets noir) that I felt succeeded when the tone was light. But this follow-up to Batman Begins allows even more darkness to seep in. The caped crusader is even more conflicted this time around since he's still sweet on his ex, now the DA's girlfriend. Then there is the impervious Joker. Still the energizer bunny to punishment he bounces back like a Joe Palooka doll no matter how bad the beating. After all if you kill him, you maim the sequel. The mirthful maniac, so crucial to keeping the train running is simply replaced by another less resilient villain.
As Bruce Wayne, Christian Bale displays an ambiguous menace. As Batman he exchanges boiler plate philosophies (sprinkled with Bush administration policy) with cops and crooks sounding as if he has severe emphysema. It's hard to say if it's Heath Ledger or the make-up that makes him so ominous. Certainly the most sadistic Joker to date he lack's Nicholson's breezy take and better cosmetics as well as TV Joker Caesar Romero's boundless comic energy. But even with an Uncle Fester intonation he is a disturbing and convincing example of the fearless nihilist.
Director Chris Nolan pours the chaos and carnage on like syrup with sensorial disregard. There's a well edited bank heist at the beginning of the film and Batman gets to tool around Gotham in a really cool motorcycle (Bat cycle?) but the biggest budget on earth (this may well have been) cannot disguise the fact it it is an inferior work to his gripping and imaginative Memento. Like another Indy phenom Steven Soderbergh he has chosen to sell out (Who can blame him, who wouldn't want a piece of the film gross?) to make bloated shiny movies that make a lot of noise and cash. The Hollywood moguls gain is the art house loss with this one time original filmmaker.
The evolvement of Batman from the unique comic book crime fighter to the satirically brilliant TV show to the mega monster super film franchise has gone through many transformations to date. From the record breaking box office returns most would agree that it's for the better. Call me sentimental but it will never improve over the comic I would read twice while sitting under the maple tree in my yard and then trade even up with my friends for a Flash or a Green Lantern. Loud as this slick and crass masterpiece of marketing is it will never deliver the bang for the buck that the pages of the comic fed my imagination without all the noise.