Christopher Nolan's much-anticipated follow-up to Batman Begins lives up to the hype -- and occasionally surpasses it.
With the bitter taste of the dreadful late-'90s Batman flicks successfully erased by 2005's Batman Begins, director Christopher Nolan is free to unleash his full arsenal of filmmaking weapons -- and tackle the franchise's greatest villain -- in The Dark Knight. The result is nothing short of breathtaking.
The Dark Knight opens shortly after the events of Batman Begins, with billionaire industrialist Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) slumming it in a high-rise penthouse as he awaits completion of Wayne Manor's reconstruction. Thanks largely to the efforts of Batman and a bold new prosecutor named Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), crime in once-uninhabitable Gotham City is solidly on the decline.
Things are going so well, in fact, that Bruce openly ponders quitting the masked vigilante business for good -- a move that he hopes will finally allow him to reconnect with longtime love Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who just happens to be shacking up with "White Night" Dent.
But an unintended consequence of the dramatic drop in crime and corruption is a dangerous vacuum created by the elimination of so many powerful underworld figures, and Batman's retirement plans are abruptly shelved when a terrifying new menace steps in to fill the void: The Joker, (Heath Ledger) a murderous psychopath who perpetrates his audacious crimes while dressed in colorful suits and hastily-applied clown makeup.
Threatened with extinction by the one-two punch of Batman and Dent, the increasingly desperate captains of Gotham's criminal underworld turn to the Joker, reluctantly handing over the reigns to a man they'd previously dismissed as a violent eccentric.
With the collective resources of the city's reigning mob bosses at his disposal, the Joker wastes no time in mounting an unprecedented campaign of terror against the citizens of Gotham. Baffled by a nemesis whose behavior lacks any recognizable pattern, Batman, a vigilante accustomed to taking the fight to the criminals, finds himself on the defensive, constantly one step behind as the Joker rampages through the city, his every attack increasing in scope (and deadliness) until the whole of Gotham is literally held hostage.
Much praise has already been heaped upon Ledger (and rightly so) for his stunning performance as the Joker, but not enough credit has been given to screenwriters Christopher and brother Jonathan Nolan for crafting what might very well be the perfect villain: brilliant, ruthless, genuinely unpredictable and, most importantly, entirely unmotivated by greed or want of power.
Bucking convention, the Nolans choose to reveal precious little of the Joker's back story, declining even to mention his real name. If anything, they mock the standard "origin story" concept imported from the comic book world. In separate monologues, the Joker first attributes his gruesome scars to an abusive father, then to the dissolution of his marriage. The true cause of his disfigurement is unknown, but the point is clear: When a homicidal maniac is holding a knife to your throat, the nature of his upbringing is of little consequence.
The Joker's casual ruthlessness ultimately pushes the usually unflappable Batman to his breaking point, threatening to unravel both Gotham's greatest hero and the city he vowed to defend.
Compared to 2005's Batman Begins, The Dark Knight is heavier on plot and action. Questions of good versus evil, order versus chaos, freedom versus security, the meaning of heroism and the value of symbols are explored in depth, but they're so expertly integrated into the action that the movie rarely pauses to take a breath.
While it's destined to be labeled as the greatest comic book movie of all time, The Dark Knight is really a comic book movie in name only. Director Nolan pays minimal attention to the gadgets, weaponry and other elements of technical wizardry that traditionally characterize such films, preferring to focus instead on the characters, their dilemmas and the ultimate consequences of their decisions they make. Even the action sequences, as astonishing as some of them are (especially in IMAX), take a back seat to the story. Somehow, I don't think the fanboys will be disappointed.
It's difficult to add anything but an exclamation point to what is already the most talked-about -- and likely best-reviewed -- movie of the year. One thing that did surprise me about The Dark Knight is how suspenseful it is. Like a skilled horror director (a phrase that, sadly, has become increasingly oxymoronic) Nolan steadily heightens the tension before every set piece. With Ledger's Joker, he knows he has a potent weapon in his arsenal, and he uses it to maximum effect.
Warning: Slight spoilers ahead.
Which is why I found The Dark Knight's ending to be an incredible downer. Everyone who's ever sniffed a Batman comic (or 1995's Batman Forever, for that matter) knows that Harvey Dent eventually transforms into the villain Two-Face, so I don't think I'm ruining anything by mentioning it here. But near the end of The Dark Knight, as the story's focus shifts from Joker to Two-Face, the letdown is palpable. This isn't necessarily Eckhart's fault; he does his best to make the character's journey from good to evil seem realistic. Unfortunately, his villain isn't nearly as compelling as Ledger's. Nor is he as frightening, despite his grotesquely disfigured face.
The point raises an unsettling question: Where does the franchise go from here? As brilliant as Christopher Nolan is, I can't imagine how he could ever produce a follow-up as riveting, as intense, as thought-provoking as The Dark Knight is. It's oddly apropos that as the movie reaches its sobering conclusion, Batman speeds away on his Batpod toward an uncertain future. Such can also be said about the franchise that bears his name.
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