Just about everyone who saw Batman Begins in 2005 almost immediately started to salivate at the prospect of a sequel, and by God did Christopher Nolan and his crew deliver.
The film picks up about where Begins left off; Batman/Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale, complete with his lame rasping voice from the last movie, but just as brilliant as ever) and his crusade against crime are starting to pay dividends, until an anarchist bank robber and murderer known only as the Joker (Heath Ledger in his final role) starts to stir up trouble. Much of the film deals with Wayne and his efforts to back new district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart, the film's secret weapon IMHO), who is now romantically attached to Wayne's ex-girlfriend Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, taking over the Katie Holmes role from Begins). But those who know the Batman mythology know that Dent is destined to become another of Batman's nemeses, Two-Face, and one of Joker's evil pranks causes just that, driving Dent to madness and murder at the flip of a coin. But the big news is unquestionably Ledger, who transforms the cartoonish, cheap-joke-loving Clown Prince of Crime that everyone knows into a frighteningly believable and fascinating fiend, more interested in causing mayhem and fear (and squaring off psychologically with Batman) than simply committing crime.
Much of the supporting cast from Begins is back, with Gary Oldman as Lieutenant-and-soon-to-be-Commissioner Gordon (probably the most ass-kickingly cool incarnation of Gordon ever caught on film), and film legends Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman as Bruce Wayne/Batman's circle of friends, Alfred the butler and Wayne Enterprises CEO and inventor Lucius Fox respectively, plus a cameo by Cillian Murphy (reprising his role as the Scarecrow from Begins), and extra support from William Fichtner, Eric Roberts and Anthony Michael Hall. Besides all the exciting stunts, the cool fights (which look much better than in Begins) and cool toys (most prominent of which is the Bat-pod, a motorcycle that ejects from the Batmobile after the Joker destroys it midway through the film), not to mention terrific cinematography and ass-kicking musical score (provided again by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard), the film's biggest draw is its intelligence and its incredibly believable treatment of the Batman universe and characters, showing us the consequences of putting on a costume and fighting crime and especially what the definition of a true hero is. If Begins's motif was fear, Dark Knight's motif is heroism, and the difference between the heroes who bask in the spotlight, and the ones who must stand off in the shadows.
The big questions I have are:
- Who're they gonna get to play Riddler, Catwoman and the Penguin for the next few films?
- Since they were smart enough not to kill off the Joker this time (although I'm sure they had no idea what was going to happen to Ledger), will they actually bring the Joker back...and if so, who's gonna have the balls to step and try and top Ledger, if anyone at all?
Van Ginkel's rating for The Dark Knight (I rate films on a 7-point scale, just to be strange...1 is awful, 7 is the best):
SEVEN out of SEVEN (You don't have to be a superhero fan to get something out of this movie, which is about as cool as a mainstream movie can get. And enough cannot be said about Ledger as the Joker, who is as insanely funny as he is horrifically chilling. This is probably the best sequel to a film, IMHO, since The Empire Strikes Back.)
Long story short (too late :D)...GO SEE THE DARK KNIGHT Don't wait for the DVD, see it in the theaters, folks...especially, I'm told if you have an IMAX theater nearby.
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