"Heath who?"
My first thought upon seeing this movie was, like many others, about Heath Ledger...but I found myself wondering where he was in this large production.
Now, of course, I know he was portraying the Joker...but the performance was so convincing, if Heath hadn;t been recognizable by his curly locks, I would've suspected that Christopher Nolan had picked up a homeless, off his medication psychotic to play this role. He was that convincing and unlike any of the other characters, we never truly see his face. It made for an eery transformation that was both real and momentous.
And it is based on this performance that things become believable. The way Gotham's citizens are manipulated into a chaotic frenzy is not only believable but almost plausible. It makes for a thing I call, "scary fantastic". It is all the more wonderful when considering many fans and critics cringed at the choice of Ledger for the role of the Joker. We were all so wrong. His performance with the direction of Nolan and the story made this movie the excellent film that it turned out to be. And once again, the chaos proved so infectious not only from Ledger's Joker but from the atmosphere of Gotham and its citizens that even the three men who were the cities moral compass of it all began to lose there way, with Harvey Dent completely falling from grace.
It was a great film, brilliantly acted, carefully directed and wonderfully enjoyable to watch in its entirity.
All that being said, it was not a movie without out its flaws. The most annoying and blatant of these was from Batman himself. First let me say that Christian Bale IS Bruce Wayne/Batman. He does a wonderful overall job in this film. However, the overuse and overacting that came from his performance as Batman was distracting to me. The husky, almost as if a whisper, threatening tone of his voice as Batman became too drawn out. Why does Batman need to sound like he is trying to threaten Jim Gordon when they are working on a plan to clean up the city?
If he could just pare it back a little, that would be fine. This also relates to the other part...Bale's facial expressions and movements as Batman. When using this voice, Bale has a clenched teeth, angered expression while his lip movements seem overexaggerated.
A second annoyance was the Batsuit and Batman's fighting style. Wasn't it established in "Batman Begins" that he was trained in some form of martial arts and a "ninja" of sorts? Where are the fluid movements, the roundhouse kicks, the use of smoke bombs to make a quick exit. Every fight he appeared to be standing and while he did dispatch all enemies, I am not sure he could've the way he fought, without the use of some extreme rage and volatility. Which may be the point. And yes, I do realize that his suit was now Kevlar and it doesn't move like rubber or skin with fluidity. But it looked clunky and restrictive at times.
Two Face...am I to believe that Harvey Dent, whose brief courtroom temper and kidnap scene was enough to show him slipping over the edge? Nah, so killing off Rachel was enough? Nope. I loved the transformation, but I felt it was a little quick. I mean, the scene in the hospital. Was that really believable? The criminal and the DA conspiring? But, Aaron Eckhart's performance of Dent Two Face was spot on...so I can forgive this small issue.
And the last two things, briefly are...the DARK knight, it was called the DARK knight. Even though disorder and chaos reigned down like hellfire, I did not feel this was as dark as Batman Begins. Was it more violent and realistically so? Yes. Darker, it didn't appear so. And the location and extras. There were scenes that even if I didn't know they had filmed them in Chicago, I would've known. Sometimes it seemed to obvious. Where was some more Gothic architecture? And the extras...did anyone notice that one of the Joker's henchmen when he enters Gamble's office at the beginning was also one of the bank robbers in the opening scene. He is easily identifiable by the same exact haircut, from the back.
All in all, I really enjoyed the movie. Was it my favorite of the summer though? Nope. It is close, but I prefer The Incredible Hulk. And that is because of its tiny hidden gems throughout and the implications that there is more to come based upon those gems. It leaves me wanting more. The Dark Knight seems concluded with this chapter, if they so wish. I have ideas where they may go with the story, but it seems limited by how TDK ends, it limited.
The Incredible Hulk doesn't seem to have such restrictions.
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