The Dark Knight: a Review

It's still pretty early for me, about 3 minutes to midnight, and the track that my iTunes player shuffled is "Two Minutes to Midnight" by The Empire Hideous. I'm already feeling dozed, though, for having woken up at 7 to go have breakfast with my family and then get back to cleaning my room. Spacing out more than I usually though, curious thing is I just saw a cockroach standing in my hand... was just a shade cast by the dim light coming from the restroom, or I'm finally loosing it.


I finally got myself into watching that new Batman movie, The Dark Knight. Let it be said I'm not a huge superhero movie fan, I've enjoyed some enough (i.e. Spiderman,) but all of them had been forgettable at best, except: V for Vendetta, which I loved enough to have seen four times when it came out in Theaters. With The Dark Knight, I constantly felt the same thrill that went through me the first time I watched V.

Now, I don't want to give out anything that would spoil the movie, so I'll make this as short and to-the-point as possible. Two things make this one of the greatest films to come out in years: (a) The excellent direction of an excellent script. I've noticed this: some of the greatest movies, their entire shots are build-ups to one epic scene. For example, take Brian De Palma's adaptation of Stephen King's Carrie, a classic that was far ahead of its times; it was an entire build-up for her revenge at the Prom. Then there's Titanic, everything leading up the collision of the ship. Even if V for Vendetta does that, it all leads to the 5th of November. You get the picture. Well, what makes The Dark Night a fantastic movie is that, through out its 2 hrs and 30 mins (aprox.) there are at least 4 scenes of epic proportions, each masterfully executed with style and intelligence.

The second factor that makes this movie succeed: (b) Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker. I'm sure you've heard this, and it is all true: this guy owned the movie! He was even more convincing a-Joker than Jack Nicholson, get that! He was raw, edgy, displayed every single shade of insanity with such brilliance. The voice Heath gave to his character, it had to be perfection. Most of the greatest lines in the movie (and there where many, i.e. 'Why so serious? Let's put a smile on that face!") were spoken by this giant of a villain. It was a true tragedy that at this point in his carrier, a young Ledger who was destined to triumph with this, his last performance, had to face an early death.

The film is the bleakest, grim version of a Superhero movie, which, of course, I like. A lot.

Of course, no movie is perfect. There are flaws, even if they are minimal. There are scenes that point out the obvious sources of inspiration, which I will not name, as I know you might at least spot one or another.

The film is filled with action, explosions, fights; things I normally hate in a movie. Here, however, this is all worked with such intelligence and class that it's hard not to give in and enjoy the experience.

I'm glad Hollywood delivered this gem amongst all the trash it has been putting out lately!

9/10