The Dark Knight

...I like the Lambourgini...I want the motorcycle...and the home is not half bad either....

The Dark Knight joins a relatively short list of sequels that hold their own as separate episodes that are as reputable as their preceding movies. While the success of this film is not comparable to Francis Ford Coppola's excellent, classic Godfather trilogy; nor does it advance the kind of psychological and technological breakthroughs of the Matrix threesome; producer/director Christopher Nolan does a credible job of re-formatting the familiar legendary action hero in contemporary cinematic terms, and, in this particular episode, his Joker nemesis - a character that was practically immortalized by a great performance on the part of Jack Nicholson in 1989 - reoccurs in an explosive portrayal by the late Heath Ledger.

Here, the enigmatic, temperamental Batman is further defined outside of the strict comic book persona. Less cartoonish and even more mysterious, his stoicism gives way to passion and his former sense of invincibility is replaced with vulnerability and questionable ethics. Gotham City has leaders who are, in the more normal context, heroes in their own right, and who interact and plot strategies with the super hero who is as counter-culture as he is anti-crime.

The Dark Knight is an action-packed, visually stimulating, engaging, suspenseful, and well acted film. Heath Ledger, the object of most of the film's pre-opening hype and a major factor in terms of its early record-breaking box office returns, is superb as the Joker. All jokes aside (pun intended), he nails the role - the Joker's psychotic, manipulative, and inhumane presence are pushed to the limits by Ledger. If he receives a posthumous Oscar nomination for best supporting actor from the Academy, as the Hollywood buzz seems to indicate, it may well be deserved. While I cannot go so far as to state that he surpasses the memorable performance of Nicholson, he is magnificent in the paradigm established by Nolan.

Christian Bale is no slouch either. He is equally on the mark as Batman in a performance that takes a back seat to no one's. Bale is totally believable as the personification of the Dark Knight whose dichotomous lifestyle is the source of his complex personality and conflicting modes of behavior; and he does so with power and precision. Bale is so well suited for this role that it is possible (and likely) that viewers will minimize his outstanding performance, particularly in light of Ledger's untimely death and celebrated portrayal of the Joker. He has great on-screen chemistry with cast members Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman, and his timing and sensitivity in terms of his physical assertiveness in each scene are tiny elements that translate into big pay offs in the total impact of a film.

Kudos to Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Oldman, Freeman, Caine and Chin Han - all great actors in their own right - for their individual contributions to the overall success of the film.

The Dark Knight has raised the mark for a one day cash total (66.4 million) and has raised the bar for DC Comics-inspired films. The greatest challenge for Warner Brothers, Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale is, how do they repeat it in the next sequence, much less top it?

Grade: A

Until next time,
Amalia