a closer look into the Darkness

I saw the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, yesterday, and I am ready to go again.

First, to echo the latest buzz about the movie, this is not a "kid movie". I definitely wouldn't take anyone under the age of 10 to go see it and I would probably draw the line around 16 depending on the teenager's maturity. Granted, they have probably seen worse, it doesn't mean you should encourage or enable them (wow, do I sound old!).

Christopher Nolan and his crew deserve plenty of accolades for what they have done to revive this series... but it is more than that, they have essentially created a new level of comic book based films. When I saw Batman Begins a few years ago, I was stunned at how good the movie was. I totally bought into Christian Bale's performance and Nolan's treatment of Bob Kane's creation. The Dynamic Duo of Bale and Nolan made Bruce Wayne a real person with depth. They achieved the same with the Batman, something many others have failed to do. The story was intelligent, engaging and had a unique depth for the genre.

I grew up watching the old Adam West version of Batman and I loved it. I had the 10" action figures and all the toys. While that was obviously a campy take on Gotham's beloved crime fighter, it still has a charm to it.

I can remember going to the theater early on a Friday in the Summer of 1991 to buy tickets for my friend and myself to see Tim Burton's Batman. I remember people questioning the choice of Michael Keaton, but lauding Jack Nicholson as the Joker. Honestly, there was something I didn't like about that film. It was cool to see the new Batmobile and the gadgets, but I just didn't feel completely comfortable with it. I thought Burton's follow up with Catwoman and the Penguin was pretty lame especially the Penguin's story line. I actually enjoyed the third film which introduced Robin, the Riddler and Two-Face. I thought there were some lapse in story line, but overall it was alright. I won't even comment on the waste of film that was the fourth installment of the series which deservedly retired Batman movies for a while.

Fast forward to the present... Bale is still good in this film, but it is much more of an ensemble piece than the first. Appropriately, everyone is praising the late Heath Ledger's uncanny rendering of the Joker. Gary Oldman proves that he was the right choice for Jim Gordon and Aaron Eckhart is solid as Harvey Dent. With so many actors, so many characters and so much action it would be easy for this to be a big fluffy mess with a lot of explosions, but it doesn't. Nolan keeps the story on track and packs a lot into 2 1/2 hours. He weaves many story lines into a big tapestry that the audience get wrapped up in, but not smothered.

The movie is dark, very dark. As the Joker tries to push humanity and the Batman to their limits, past those limits and off the edge into the abyss, we see the Dark Knight and the white knight, Dent, come to grips with how far they will go to see justice served. As the movie goes on and Batman tries to make sense of the Joker and the viewers get to see the Joker revealed piece by piece, but not in a simple formulaic way that insults them. When you hear the Joker steal and redefine the pop reference, "you complete me", you understand. As I watched, I couldn't help but think of what philosophy, ethics and religious studies could be done about the story.

The movie is move violent than the first and not just in fight scenes and explosions, but in graphic, suspenseful scenarios that truly make you feel uncomfortable for watching. Most of those feature a sadistic and provoking performance by Ledger as the Joker. I put my hand up to cover my eyes at least twice, once for a prolonged period of time. To be honest, I can't tell you how graphic it got, because I didn't watch. Just be warned.

I had expectations for this movie and Nolan blew them up and exceeded them by miles. I would go more into this, but I don't like reading spoilers, so I won't list any here. Just know that this is not another comic book movie or even another good comic book movie (a la Spiderman or Ironman), this is a great movie that happens to be about a comic book character. Right now, the only complaint I have is that I kinda get tired of Bale's gravely voice as the Batman; it is just a little too much for me. However, these two Batman movies are the standard of what could be for DC, Marvel and the likes.

Growing up reading comics, I was happy to see the recent trend in comic book movies. However, while some have delivered, others have given the genre a bad name. The first two X-Men movies by Brian Singer were great as were the first two Spiderman movie's by Sam Raimi and the recent Ironman movie by Jon Favreau. They understood it isn't just about the superhero, fights and super powers, it is about characters and stories. Those 5 movies are right under the latest Batman movies in the genre. I thoroughly enjoyed them all.
I think Spiderman 3 was good and got a lot of unwarranted criticism, but I also think that Raimi bit off more than he could chew with the number of big name characters in the movie- 3 central villains is a lot to cover in one movie.
The third X-Men and the Fantastic Four movies were okay, but really fell short of potential and relied too much on cool effects, hot girls and undeveloped stories.
Daredevil, Electra and the Punisher were poor to bad... and the first Incredible Hulk was a big green mess.

I hate to go back to an old standard, but it's like Star Wars... when you had good characters and stories, the movies were great, when you had technology, computer generated everything and flimsy stories, they were bad.

I definitely recommend The Dark Knight, but understand that while the film will entertain you, it will also make you feel uncomfortable.