Of course, such achievements cannot be made without sacrifice: the movie felt too long, which is no good. Even if a movie’s 3 hours long, you don’t want it to feel three hours long. Honestly though, I blame this more on my conditioning than on the film. Let’s face it: in the normal superhero movie, we have introduction of the villain, exploration of his power, possible temporary defeat of the hero, then defeat of the villain. Throw in a moral dilemma and a romantic interest, and you’ve got a box office Marvel movie.
However, right away, we know that this wouldn’t be the case for one simple reason: we’ve already seen the defeat of both villains in previous Batman installments. So, being the second Batman movie chronologically, we were categorically certain that the Joker was not going to fall off of any rooftops (because, hey, it’s Michael Keaton’s job to do the pushing), and we knew that Harvey Dent’s coin wasn’t gonna bite him in the butt (yet).
What does this mean? Only the best kind of movie ever: the psychological action thriller! OK, I know it doesn’t sound thrilling, but it is an entirely different type of movie (and a magical Never Never Land for the philosophically-inclined). Instead of wondering what was going to happen to the main characters, I was left to explore why they acted the way they did.
The disturbing thing about the film is not the Joker’s stories of how he got his scars, nor the ensuing throat slitting; the disturbing thing is that you began to understand evil, and that Bruce Wayne’s similarities (not his differences) with the villains are what make Batman the Dark Knight. Villains, heroes, even regular citizens: all are trying to remake the world in the image that they see fit. The only questions factors are (1) the vision being pursued and (2) how far the individual is willing to go to attain it. In-tents.
I’m not even going to talk about the actors, not just because they all were great, but because I don’t want to stop thinking of Ledger as the joker, or Eckhart as Two-Face, or Bale as Batman. However, as Sarah can attest, I was thrilled to see Rachel Dawes bite the big one. It’s not your fault, Maggie – Katie Holmes killed her a long time ago. You were just making sure she had a dignified exit.
Watch this movie. Then pick your bloodied self up off the floor and watch it again. Then, after weeks of recuperation, watch it again (wait for the painkillers to wear off, though, just for safety’s sake). Then buy it, and write a thesis on it. At least, that’s what I’ll be doing.
Kudos
– The Joker’s magic pencil trick
– The Joker’s monologues
– The Joker’s… you know what? The Joker. Period.
– Awesome chase scene
– So many moral grey areas! This was like 3 seasons of House distilled into 2.5 hours
– Cool strobe light fight scene
– “A fall from this height wouldn’t kill me”
– That con is my new hero
– Interesting new perspective on what it means to be a hero
