Saw The Dark Knight today. Given that this involves a round trip to Livingston, and generally a tight schedule as the last bus back leaves before half-past five (presumably everyone who might want to go to Harthill is supposed to be tucked up in bed soon after this), a film has to be quite an event before I’m going to bother to see it.
The Dark Knight does not disappoint. Finally throwing off the shackles of the Burton/Shumaker films*, this installment progresses the story of this new Batman, raising the emotional stakes while keeping to a raw street level. These people feel real, which is quite the achievement in a superhero film.
The centre of the movie is definitely Heath Ledger’s extraordinary performance as the Joker. Almost all the hype of the film has centred on his last acting role, and it is all justified. Every moment he is on the screen is electrifying, and he provides us with a Joker who is completely unlike anything I’ve seen in the comics or Jack Nicolson in Batman, and who makes twisted, dangerous sense. It’s quite an achievement to make the villain of a comic book film the must-see performance of the year.
All the other performances manage to hold up to Ledger’s level – Chris Nolan’s idea of hiring actual actors and giving them actual acting to do pays off really well. Gary Oldman continues to give a beautifully understated performance as James Gordon, Michael Caine is his usual excellent self, and Christian Bale continues to impress as Bruce Wayne.
If I have a criticism – and obviously, I do – it is Bale’s Batman voice. I’m sure it’s meant to be a terrifying bestial rasp, but now that Batman actually has some things to say, I was waiting for one of the bad guys to ask him if he needed a cough drop or something…
In summary: go see.
