THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)

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"An unforgettable, awe inspiring trip into the heart of darkness of the human psyche, that transcends its genre to become posibly the most inspiring, but disturbing, mainstream movie of all time."

WARNING: THIS REVIEW OBVIOUSLY CONTAINS SPOILERS SO DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE.

I've been eagerly waiting for years for this sequel to arrive, since Batman Begins was absolutely outstanding and left such a brilliant open end.

The Batman is one of the best super heroes ever created, specially his darker approach (mostly through Frank Miller and others).

Christopher Nolan is also one of the most talented directors out there (me being a fan of both Memento and The Prestige), and Christian Bale is my number 1 favorite actor, so you see - this was all shaping up to become probably my favorite saga of all time.

Now that reality is even more obvious. After a 2h30min long trip into the "heart of darkness" of super hero movies, all I could say after leaving the theater was..... OH MY GOD. I was left without words for the first hours.

For one I just cpuldn't believe that the movie could be that intense, for so long. The pace and the way things build up, it just chains you to your chair.

I'm fascinated by how the people who created this movie were able to put together things that I didn't know could coexist in cinema:

--A-class acting performances;

--Lots of high adrenaline action sequences;

--A super hero in a costume;

--An intricate plot full of little twists and shock fests.

I mean, seriously... when was the last time we saw a super hero movie or an action movie that could make you feel - literally - like this one does? Probably Batman Begins (imo) but it was a slow, emotional, kinda melancholic approach, compared to the fast, agressive, dramatic and sometimes terrifying effect of The Dark Knight.

Sometimes you almost forget you're watching a movie based in comics. This script and the direction, should inspire all the super hero movie directors out there; it totally thinks out of the box, it aims higher than just sticking to the genre formulas, it dares to claim: Yes, this is a comic book based movie, and we still want to make it one of the best movies of all time.

The whole opening sequence for instance, could leave many regular gangster/crime movies envious. And some of the most shocking scenes with the Joker almost brought me back to scary crime movies like Seven.

The surprises and twists along the way (mostly related to the Joker's brilliant mind) is where you can mostly see the "Nolan touch". He really knows how to introduce surprise into the viewer... And the regular flow of these situations kinda reminds me of The Prestige. It's like you have to keep yourself on edge, "watching closely" at all times.

And you can also see his touch in the human side of the whole movie. With the Joker portrayed as pure evil and Batman himself doubtful as to how far exactly he can go, Bruce Wayne swallowed in his alter-ego - I thought the story of Harvey Dent and how he was described was absolutely amazing and the most human, emotional element of the movie.

Aaron Eckhart did wonders here. Two-Face being one of the most interesting villains out there (in fact, I often think the best villains are from the Batman universe...), I was pretty confident Aaron could pull of a great portrait of him and he surely did.

Christian Bale now became a guarantee for all Batman fans. His second take on the character is even more solid and convincing than the first, and if we have this dark, agressive, more anti-hero type Batman now, it's mostly due to his take. I am confident that only a really SMALL minority of people aren't accepting, by now, that he IS the definitive Batman and that replacing him in future movies should be legally defined as a crime. ;)

Of course, there's one thing a person who'll watch this movie can take for granted: all the hype around Heath Ledger not only is justified, but it isn't even enough to give you an idea of how good he is.

Many people who didn't see the movie will still think this is an exageration, but it's not: I'm thinking it's probably the best acting I've seen, like, ever, and there are some side details that might contribute to this.

For one, he behaves and talks in a way that you never seen Heath Ledger behave in any other movie of his, and his make-up further "disembodies" the character from its respective actor. This Joker character becomes an entity, a force in itself. What Heath Ledger did with this character is something that breaks the boundaries of pure acting and I often think that it could only take its toll on his psychological stability; Heath just flew too high here.

The absorbtion of the character into every single moment and every single detail of his posture is absolute, and this character just happens to be the most evil, psychotic, terrifying villain in movie history.

Sometimes, he made really comical things (oh my that nurse outfit scene...), but he was so explosive, insane, unpredictable and scary that I immediately sort of felt guilty of laughing.

Furthermore, the way Nolan and Ledger outlined the Joker deserves a big round of applause. I never seen a character that is such a perfect impersonation of pure evil. He has no motivations, no purpose, no origin, no background, no reasons... The only thing that defines this guy is ABSOLUTE EVIL. I am thrilled by the decision to not give him any background at all, it was quite a clever choice and works wonders.

No villain in super hero movie history will ever be able to achieve the effect Joker has on the viewers. You might laugh at him and you might even think he's cool, but you can't question the fact that he stands for the darkest, deepest, more horrid corner of the human psyche. The chaos hidden beneath the apparent order we impose in our minds.

And because of the dreadfully sad fact that Heath is gone and we'll never see anymore work from him again, it's like this overwhelming, anarchic, raw force of nature that he created, was so powerful that it swallowed the very actor that created it.

Now, I found myself questioning two things.

One, the death of Two-Face just didn't feel right, specially when he seemed like the best possible Two-Face ever (Tommy Lee Jones must be so depressed that he was given such trash to work with...).

I loved every single thing about him and his whole storyline, so I was very sad... Even though I admit that it suited the storyline and made the movie individually cohesive (ie, not too dependant on the sequel). After all, much of this movie's point is solely based on Harvey Dent's journey from the "white knight" of Gotham and the hero Batman was waiting for, to a crushed, despairing and ultimately insane villain. His destruction and - logical conclusion - death represented the end of the dreams for a better Gotham.

I eventually concluded that if you watched this movie as a standalone piece not based in the comics, and if you didn't know Two Face as a villain from comics, but as just some personage of a movie, his character arc ending in death only makes sense. Unfortunately we are just too used to reading the comics where major villains never die. And Aaron's outstanding performance certainly left us kinda desperate for more.

A smaller detail: I was confused at the role of the Scarecrow; I was hoping he would get a bigger opportunity since he did so well in Batman Begins, and I also didn't understand very well what his purpose was.

But, in a way, the movie itself is so beautifully crafted that it's easy for me to forgive these choices.

This is a movie that leaves an unease feeling in you. Where does this evilness that we have dorment come from? And how do you fight it? Is it really that difficult to be absorbed by it? Are we constantly on the brink of crossing the line and embrace the chaos sleeping in our sub-conscious? Throughout the film and at the end, Batman himself is constantly treading this very fine line.

And the Joker's obvious deathwish in multiple ocasions of the movie seems like the logical, extreme end of this permise: that to embrace the ultimate essence of chaos is embracing death itself. A rather gloomy line of thought considering the tragic fate of this amazing actor.

The Dark Knight asks you the question of how far one should go to achieve justice and offers no easy answers, no happy endings or glimpses of hope. The dramatic climax happens in a scene that left me glued to the chair and filled with tears in my eyes, when Two-Face Harvey Dent, the "White Knight" turned into a monster, is about to commit one of the most hideous, unimaginable crimes possible - the murder of a young child - and solely out of pure desperation. On the brink of madness but with a sad glimpse of the truth, he turns to the Batman and bursts out:

"You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time. But you were wrong. The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world....is chance."

I cried.