Movie and Game Reviews: The Dark Knight

The TV spots for the DVD release of The Dark Knight have been billing it as the best movie of the decade. I'm not sure if they mean the last 10 years, or if they're assuming nothing in the next year will top it, and I'm also not sure I agree, but it is a fine, fine movie, and worth seeing even if you're not into Batman or comic books.

This is the sequel to Batman Begins, which was a reboot of the Batman franchise, discarding the horribleness of George Clooney as Batman and Ahnold as Mr. Freeze, and starting over with a new Batman first deciding to put on his black suit and mindfuck the criminals at the same time as he beats them up.

Dark Knight takes place some time after that - Batman, working with his traditional ally in law enforcement, Gordon, has started to make a dent in Gotham's crime (something that most people thought was impossible) but there's still a lot more to do. They decide to involve District Attorney Harvey Dent, but at the same time, the Joker gets involved with the organized crime bosses, and all hell breaks loose. If you don't know how it comes out, that means you haven't seen the movie yet, which is an oversight you should correct.

Christian Bale turns in a good performance as Bruce Wayne, and a slightly less but still acceptable performance as Batman. To be fair, that's been difficult for everyone who has played Batman on the big screen - nobody's been equally good at both, except George Clooney, who was equally awful at both roles.

Michael Caine plays Bruce's butler Alfred, dispensing fatherly advise, sarcasm, and knowledge gleaned from his definately non-butler past, all with great style.

And of course nobody can talk quite like Morgan Freeman, which is important for Lucius Fox, who has to give the appearance that he's running Wayne Enterprises for an oblivious Bruce Wayne, while in reality Bruce is fully in control, and funneling money to use for Batman's wondeful toys. (A line that did not, sad to say, make it into this movie. Oh well.) And his reaction when an accountant discovers that money: "Let me get this straight: You think that your client, one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands. And your plan is to blackmail this person? Good luck."

Aaron Eckhart, while not as charming as Freeman, can also talk like nobody's business (See Thank You for Smoking for an excellent example of this), and he does well as Harvey Dent, and fairly well as Two-Face. I would've liked to see more of that, but it seems that is not to be.

And of course Heath Ledger player the Joker in one of his last, and maybe his best role. And boy did he play the Joker... I went into the theatre expecting him to pale in comparison to Nicholson, but instead he managed to make the character darker and more menacing, without sacrificing the hilarity that gives the Joker his name.

Oh, and Maggie Gyllenhaal's assistant District Attorney Rachel Dawes makes Katie Holmes's attempt at the role in the last movie look like a little girl playing dress up. Until I saw this movie, I didn't realize that Bale had to carry her in every scene.

I mentioned the story already, and it's carried off quite well, with an ending that, quite naturally, sets up more movies- but when everything is over, everything is also different, which is a welcome change from most sequel set-ups. Also, the moments that were so lacking in the Punisher movie are strewn liberally over the landscape of this movie- my favorite are Batman's tendency to disappear when he feels the conversation is over, usually right when someone has glanced away, but is still talking to him.

Go rent the DVD and watch the movie. Heck, I'll lend it to you. If it's not the best movie of the decade, it's certainly one of the best 10 movies in the last 10 years.