Batman: The Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan (2008)
19 July 2008I was looking forward to this film, but after Iron Man I just didn’t think that this could possibly top it. And then their was the whole Heath Ledger death, and all the talk of his getting a posthumous Oscar, which really put me off, and I really should have waited to see the film to form any opinions, because this is a great film. And I mean really great. This could be the best super hero film ever made. Just a great film in every way. Great story, looks great, and the acting, oh the acting. The thing is that this film really would have made Heath Ledger the best actor in Hollywood. His performance is absolutely perfect and absolutely psychotic. To me this Joker even surpassed any of his appearances in the comic, he is absolutely psychotic with no more motivation than creating chaos and bringing everyone else he can down to his ledger, and Ledger pulled it off with more flair than anyone could have ever expected. He is amazing in this film. Honestly it would be a crime if he does not get a posthumous Academy Award, and not because he died, because he was just so damn good. And the rest of the film is that good as well. Sure Maggie Gyllenhaal is no beauty, but is good enough, and everyone else is just perfect. Nolan has really proved himself one of the best directors around and made up for the awful Prestige (Well at least David Bowie was good in that). This is a must see.
The film starts with a well orchestrated bank robbery, where as each robber completes a task, he is killed off by the others there, until finally we see that the last is the Joker (Heath Ledger), who gets away with a ton of mafia money. That night Batman (Christian Bale) is out fighting crime, and shows up a scene with mutiple batman impersonators working with the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy) working in Batman’s name to fight crime, but Batman subdues them all, but is wounded because his armor makes him too slow. So Bruce Wayne goes to the head of Wayne industries Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) to get him to design some lighter armor, and other gear he will need. Gotham has a new district attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) who is dating Wayne’s oldest love Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and seems to be the true good man that Gotham needs to clean it up, and maybe even replace Batman. Police Lietenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Batman consider bringing him into their plan to try and take down the mob. Meanwhile the mob bosses all meet while a Chinese named Lau (Chin Han) informs them their money was going to be seized by Dent and Gordon, and he has taken the money himself, and will keep it “safe” for them. The Joker shows up to tell them that they must kill Batman, and he will do it, and also that Lau will betray them if he is caught, and while he might be safe from the Police in Hong Kong, that Batman will get him, and Lau will then give them all up.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….
Batman of course just goes to Hong Kong and with Fox’s help (and a device that uses a cell phone to give off Sonar) and takes Lau straight out of his building, being picked up by a smuggler plane, and Batman delivers Yau to Gordon. So the mobsters agree to pay the Joker half their money in return for killing Batman. The Joker tells Gotham that if Batman does not turn himself into the police more people will die each day, and the Joker starts by killing off public officials. The Police Commissioner is killed in the Police Station, and the judge who is helping to prosecute Lau and the mob is killed in her car. And Wayne is holding a fund raiser for Dent, and he manages to stash Dent away, but the Joker tries to kill Rachel, and Batman leaps from the building to save her, making the Joker realize he cares for her. At a funeral for the commissioner Gordon is killed.
The Joker makes Waye feel that he must turn himself in to stop the killings, and he goes to a press conference help by Dent to do so, but Dent realizing the city needs Batman, says he is Batman and is arrested. The joker attacks while Dent is being transported, and Batman comes to rescue him, and they take the Joker with Gordon’s help, as he was playing dead to protect his family, and the mayor makes him Police Commissioner. Dent and Rachel are taken away to safety.
Gordon lets Batman in on the interrogation, and the Joker reveals that he has taken Rachel and Dent to different parts of the city. Batman goes to save Rachel, and Gordon to save Dent, but the Batman finds that the Joker has led him to Dent, who he manages to save, but with half his face burnt off, and Gordon doesn’t manage to save Rachel.
The Joker meanwhile escapes the police station, and goes to Dent, and makes him blame Batman and Gordon for Rachel’s death, and drives him to evil, and then blows up the hospital.
Dent now known as two face, using his scarred 2 headed coin to decide people’s fate goes after mobsters and bad cops with equal abandon.
The Joker meanwhile burns Lau and his half of the money, as he only wants to make chaos, and he declares that the bridges from gotham will be destroyed, so they start to evacuate on ferries, with civilians on one, and criminals on the other, but he has planted bombs, and the have till midnight to blow up the other boat, or all the people in both ferries will die.
Wayne gets Fox to use his phone technology to find the Joker in the city, and he and Gordon go to the building where the Joker has hostages, but Gordon goes in, so Batman must rush in, and stop the cops, as the Joker has tricked them into thinking the ones with guns are the criminals, when they are the hostages.
On the boats people decide to blow the other boats, a civilian wants to do it, but stops, and a criminal throws their remote overboard. Really I think they would have blown themselves up anyway. Batman manages to stop the Joker from detonating both boats, and get him, but the Joker has made Dent, the cities symbol into an evil man.
Gordon has gone to get his family, who Dent has now taken, and who he is going to judge like he was judged, talking to his loved one who is going to die, but Batmans shows up and saves Gordon’s family, and he and Dent fall over the edge. The news that Dent has gone evil will ruin Gotham, and all the good he did, so Batman decides to take the blame for Two Faces crimes, and become a villain, because that is what the city needs, and Gordon must act as if he hunting batman, even destroying the Bat Symbol.
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Wow. Let me say that again. Wow. This movie is a tour de force. Really amazing. Not only a fantastic super hero film, but just an amazing film all the way around. I would like to see it in IMAX, since they filmed 4 action scenes in IMAX to make it more spectacular. This is an absolute must see!!!!
I saw this at the Arclight, and they had these costumes there, so I thought i would show you. Nice!
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