"The Dark Knight" ... Okay... It's dark!
Once again I was dragged kicking and screaming into a movie theater, this time to see "The Dark Knight". For those living under a rock, this is the new Batman movie which is the sequel of "Batman Begins" and has nothing to do with the Batman movies on the 90's.
First of all, let me say that I have HATED each and every Batman movie up to this point, including "Batman Begins", though I despised "Batman Begins" less than I despised the other Tim Burton inspired movie and its spawn of celulousic dreck!
So you may all be surprised when I say, I didn't hate this movie. I had some very serious issues with gaping huge plot holes that a truck could drive through (and at one point literally did), but it was entertaining.
Heath Ledger is as advertised: the embodiment of the sociopath that is The Joker. I do not see how anyone could portray this maniac character any better without becoming two dimensional. But I grew tired of it quickly. There is only so much death and destruction, so much unmotivated, cold-blooded cruelty I can handle even in a movie setting. This Joker is a true sociopath. There is absolutely no redeaming social value to this himan being. But he makes the perfect foil for The Batman.
Christian Bale reprises his role as the Batman well but I still have problems with the Bruce Wayne character. The dynamic between Bruce and Alfred doesn't feel real. As in Batman Begins, they never let us into their relationship and never show us anything but quips and barbs going back and forth.
So, is this movie worth seeing in the theater? For me, yes. I know I would have switched the channel had I been watching it on HBO during the fourth or fifth explosion; or at least during one of the times when the Joker shows up after a "Saw"-like improbablility-laiden plot-twist which in any form of reality would have been foiled by a single bullet. Going to the theater with some one who wanted to watch this movie forced me to sit through those parts of the movie that stretched my suspension of disbelief to the breaking point and enjoy the rest of the morality play which was hidden only two layers below.
The Dark Knight is the fist of the Batman movies that doesn't make me leave the theater looking for the nearest gun dealer so I can buy a .38 and blow my brains out with depression! This movie, though keeping its dark, ominoius, overbearing, and depressing tone actually has a little tiny ray of light shining at the end. I tried to hang on to that.
This movie is absolutely, positively NOT for younger or impressionable audiences. Use you judgement, but I would not allow anyone under a very mature 12 or 13 to see this movie due to the depiction of real, unadulterated sociopathic behaviour which is very, very disturbing. The final scenes especially would have done me in as a kid!
See ya
Tony
