18th
Movie Review: The Dark Knight
Disclaimer: Don’t read ahead if you haven’t yet seen the movie. Go see it then come back.
So I lived up to my goal and saw “The Dark Knight” on opening day…I was going to go to the midnight showing in the next town over, but I had to work at 5 AM and figured that sleep-deprived me was probably not a good idea at work. So I went to an evening show.
Let’s get on with it, shall we?
Plot: The story picks up pretty closely after “Batman Begins”. Obviously the main villain is the Joker, though the origins of another classic Batman villain are revealed later in the movie. The Mob plays a fairly big role, as does the Gotham police department. Overall, a good story, though not especially different than other superhero movies. I give it a B.
Acting: The movie had a star-studded cast including Christian Bale (in all of his Batman attractiveness), the late Heath Ledger (R.I.P.), Maggie Gyllenhal, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, and Aaron Eckhart, among others. They were all great, but Christian Bale’s and Heath Ledger’s characters especially stood out. This was a different role for Ledger, and he did the psychopathic Joker well…maybe a little too well, as we can maybe tell from his untimely death soon after filming the part. I give the acting an A.
Music: Two of my favorite screen composers, James Newton Howard (most noted for several M. Night Shyamalan films) and Hans Zimmer (most known for the “Pirates of the Caribbean” scores). This duo created a dynamic score that showed a lot of drama (which much of Zimmer’s music has). The music gets an A.
Special Effects: As in any action movie, the special effects were showcased in the chase and fight scenes. Batman’s gadgets, especially his car, were very cool. The chase scene between the police transport (with Harvey Dent inside) and the Joker (in a semi truck/trailer) was done very well. There was a funny part when the cop assures Dent that only a large weapon could get through the armored truck…and then the Joker pulls out a Bazooka. I give the special effects an A-.
Overall, this movie was cooler than “Wanted” because it had a more cohesive plot, and that’s really saying something. “The Dark Knight” gets a solid A.