Monday, July 21, 2008

Movie Review 4: The Dark Knight... the return of great movies

Title: The Dark Knight

Running time: 2 hours 32 minutes

Director: Christopher Nolan

Genre: Action, Thriller, Fantasy, Sci-fi

There actually is still hope left in the movie industry. I have never really been a fan of the Batman movies. I prefer heroes with some kind of super powers that no normal human would possess. If a hero has super powers, then their nemesis would most assuredly possess some kind of unnatural power as well.

Thus, I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself entertained by this movie. Christian Bale played a fine role as Batman. To be frank, I did not think that his role in Batman Begins was nice enough. However, in this movie, he managed to convince me that he is suitable for the role of Batman where he exudes an aura of a dark and brooding hero whenever he puts his cape on. Without the mask, he is just one rich playboy. One thing that bugs me however, is the voice that he used for Batman. That scratchy, dried wood sound is really out of character... not to mention it would damage his voice box as well.

The maniacal Joker is of course another fine point of the film. Played by the late Heath Ledger, he made a very convincing psychotic Joker. I actually felt scared looking at him and cringed whenever he flipped out that little penknife of his. It is sad that he passed away when he finally made a breakthrough in his career. His roles in A Knight’s Tale, Casanova and Brokeback Mountain were also quite good.

The Dark Knight is about Batman’s attempt to cleanse Gotham City of the Mafia while the Mafia employs the Joker to make Batman disappear once and for all. The movie also tells of a rising new star, Harvey Dent played by Aaron Eckhart who is looked upon as the White Knight by the citizens of Gotham City. Together, Batman and Harvey Dent managed to bring the Mafia to heel until the Joker appears. While the plot is not really anything new, it is the characters which brought the plot alive, making each and every moment filled with emotions of fear, anger, excitement, joy and grief.

I hope that Christian Bale would still reprise the role of Batman in future movies with Christopher Nolan at the helm. Both of them were able to wipe away my skepticism on the movie despite my poor experiences with earlier Batman series movies. Maybe I can finally relive the memory of Penguin and the Riddler in the next movie :P.

Quotes: The Joker: You know, you remind me of my father…
(Takes a knife to Dinner Guest’s neck)
The Joker: … I hated my father!

Bottomline: A must see movie… not for the faint hearted though

Bamboo ranking: 4.0 / 5.0

3 comments:

meifong said...

I have been debating whether to watch this due to Christian Bale recently being in the news for alleged assault on his mother and sis.... Should probably watch it for Heath Ledger though

Bamboo said...

Really? Hmmm... he looked so sweet in the moives :(... but then again, alleged mah... besides, it really IS a very good movie...

meifong said...

Just saw this on Monday with a friend...it really was directed very well! And well worth the money for it lasted 150 minutes.

Spoiler alert







The number of unfortunate happenings was just staggering..