Everything you’ve heard about the new Batman movie is true. It met, if not exceeded every hope and expectation I had for it. I’ll try to keep this clean and clear and hopefully offer some tips to help you better receive the movie.
[rating:5/5]
First of all, against the backdrop of bubble-gum, popcorn superhero flicks, The Dark Knight is seriously fresh. Not to say I didn’t enjoy those other movies. I did, they were fun, but that’s generally where they stopped.
The Dark Knight however offered more.
So, for that reason, I will not call it a superhero movie. In fact, if I were to judge it by the same rubric I used to judge The Hulk or Spiderman, I would probably find that I didn’t much care for it.
Go into The Dark Knight looking at it as any other suspense, thriller, action movie. One that just so happens to feature two of our childhood’s most beloved characters.
Christian Bale delivers, I think, the weakest performance. Although that’s not to call the performance weak. He did a great job.
Aaron Eckhart, playing Harvey Dent, sells it. I bought it all.
But where the movie oozes with magnificent delivery and on-screen presence… you guessed it: Heath Ledger. He tears it up. From the first moment he appears on screen to the last exposure, he’s phenomenal. I expected never to be out-impressed after Jack Nicholson. But Ledger delivers everything the Joker should be and way more.
I’d rather not go into details about the story. Partly cause I think the ambiguity is good. But, partly because I just don’t want to.
I loved this movie. As a Christian I loved this movie. The Batman franchise is notoriously dark. The Dark Knight promised to be all that and more. And it lived up to its promises. But the movie wasn’t about death and destruction and mayhem.
The movie was about self-sacrifice. Being for others what they need you to be. Giving yourself for the benefit of others, even if they don’t understand or recognize it.
In this film, Batman’s trademark sense of revenge was almost altogether absent. What it was replaced with was the inner struggle of man to provide for people what they needed. Even if it meant losing what was precious to him.
I absolutely recommend heading out to see this movie. But, I’m not sure younger kids ought to be there. Everything is more realistic and in all probability the Joker will give them nightmares.
