A review in two parts: a look at how the latest Batman supersedes the superhero mold, and as a counterpoint, a piece on how The Dark Knight’s hype weighs down an otherwise great movie.

At this point, no one needs to be convinced that they should go see The Dark Knight. Based on its record-breaking numbers, chances are almost everyone with eyeballs and 10 bucks went to see it opening weekend, or gave up when they faced sold out shows and are planning to see it soon. Contributing to those figures was an equally record-breaking level of pre-release buzz, which virtually guaranteed the film’s success. So to give a fair postmortem on the massive Batman weekend, we’ve got a two part ‘review’. First, I take a look at how the latest Batman supersedes the superhero mold. Then, as a counterpoint, a piece from Spencer on how The Dark Knight’s hype weighs down an otherwise great movie.

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The White Knight of Superhero Films

By brian

Almost every opinion on superhero movies ends with a qualifier. The default review is always, “It’s really fun if you like that sort of thing“, or “It was great for a comic book movie“. For those of us who do like that sort of thing, it’s assumed we’re willing to put up with schlocky plots and one-dimensional characters in exchange for the awe of seeing our childhood heroes come to life on screen. Even the best of the genre, movies most people would consider good, are still plagued by wooden performances, gaping plot holes, or cheesy dialogue; but they inevitably get a pass because hell, seeing Wolverine claw shit up or Spider Man in full swing are still really enjoyable.

The writing team of Christopher Nolan, his brother Jonathan, and David Goyer all deserve praise for pulling off a heroic feat that no one thought could be achieved — they wrote a comic book movie that could be taken seriously. It didn’t need disclaimers to be called good; it was legit. Then they did the unthinkable and followed it up with a sequel that was even bigger, without letting the inflated budget and anticipation allow them to spit out a lazy, bloated over-production called Batman Begins II: Begin Again. From the moment word leaked that the second film would be simply named The Dark Knight, and didn’t even need to be preceded by a token ‘Batman (colon)…’, they began building the case that they were going to take this as seriously as they had the first time out.

The first installment succeeded by treating Batman as the monster in a horror movie, with its criminals paralyzed by fear of this strange masked vigilante, but Bruce Wayne’s alter ego never crossed the line into supernatural being. He was just a bad motherfucker. By the second he’s a familiar presence in Gotham. Some of the mystique is gone. He’s even befriended not-yet-Commissioner Gordon, and works alongside the city’s cops and lawyers to clean up the city. In The Dark Knight, he’s gone from monster in the night to a sort of super-spy character, not unlike an Ethan Hunt or James Bond — equipped with the perfect high-tech gear for every situation, trained to handle anything, but exciting because you know underneath it all he’s really just a man pushing himself to the limits. If the first was a monster movie (with a stop off in kung fu film for the origin story), the second is more of an epic crime drama. Most importantly, neither steps so far into fantasy that it no longer feels like a story about real people, instead of just a good comic adaptation.

While Nolan and team do deserve the lion’s share of credit for conceiving this version of the Batman universe, what makes it work is the outstanding cast of actors they pulled together. None of them treated this as a laughable gig between serious acting jobs. They all interpret their timeless characters in a totally human way, and do a perfect job of making those characters convincing.

For better or worse, a lot of this film belongs to Gotham’s civil servants, and both avoid falling into caricature. Gary Oldman’s take on Jim Gordon is more vulnerable than the tough, grumbling comic book version, and his uneasy courage is likely the second best performance of the film. His moments of obvious anxiety or hesitation make his heroic ones that much more impressive. Aaron Eckhart was a stellar choice for Harvey Dent, and not just because his spectacular chin fits Two Face’s profile as drawn. His confident all-American charm fits perfectly with a man who finds himself suddenly thrust into the role of savior, and his wild streak comes out in force when that dream is shattered. Dent thinks he might be able to save the world, yet still carries a lucky coin to depend on; Gordon worries he won’t be able to save anything, but steps up when the time comes. Both actors let their flaws come through just enough to feel genuine, and not like the transparent plot devices of pulp magazines.

Christian Bale’s performance continues to improve as he settles into not just two but three characters; the intimidating Batman, the outlandish Bruce Wayne of the public eye (with shades of his brilliant Patrick Bateman from American Psycho), and the private Bruce of cold, single-minded determination. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman keep up their warmth as the two men he can count on for support and guidance through all his turmoil, and even those smaller parts have weight, grounding the hero in the consequences of reality.

And then there’s the Joker. Say what you will about Heath Ledger — I may have doubted him myself at one point, his first two works that spring to mind being 10 Things I Hate About You and Lords of Dogtown, having never seen Brokeback Mountain. But from the instant you see his mangled face and hear his impish voice, every shred of doubt is replaced with respect. That Ledger not just nails, but personally reinvents one of the most iconic ‘bad guys’ of all time, with the conviction that he does, will be this film’s memorable achievement, recent events notwithstanding. His character is not a super-villain of children’s stories. He doesn’t have any evil magical abilities as a result of some experiment gone awry. We don’t even know where he comes from. All we know is that he’s pure psychotic. But this is where Ledger pulls a coup where Nicholson as the Joker — or much worse, Carrey as the Riddler — never did. This Joker is totally unhinged without ever being over the top, and it’s downright disturbing. This is plotting, scheming madness of the Hannibal Lecter variety, dressed up in messy clown paints. The fact that they’ll sell action figures of this character to kids is troubling. And it’s the central antagonist’s ability to disturb on an emotional level, not just fill the role of crazy, cartoonish foil, that seals the whole movie as genuinely powerful.

The movie isn’t perfect, and it’s important to recognize that in the face of all the attention it’s getting. Gyllenhaal added very little to the film, the balance between Batman/Joker/Dent could have been better, and there were awkward lines or brow-furrowing moments that showed chinks in the armor. Ledger may very well deserve an Oscar — I would say Oldman deserves at least a nod for supporting — but putting this among the best films of all time is a bit premature. However, the fact that such a discussion even comes up, especially compared to the other superhero films of this generation, shows that this group has accomplished something seriously impressive. They’ve proved that you can make a serious film out of comic book material, and when it all comes together this well, it’s destined to be a classic.

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The Dark Hype

By spencer

Not to be the Grinch Who Ruined A Historic Hollywood Moment, but I’m going to come out and say it: The Dark Knight is over-hyped. Wildly over-hyped. I feel a little dumb bitching about this, because I contributed to it. Here’s my Netflix review from March 17, 2008, which appears to be exactly four months before I even saw the movie: “Why bother seeing this before I give my review? Five stars.”

Don’t get me wrong, I really liked The Dark Knight, and it deserves all of its financial success. Also, I have loved seeing it take that goofy shitstorm Spider-Man 3 off the record books. But its critical success has been wildly overstated. No movie could ever live up to the reviews that have been written and the hype that has been generated for this one, which ends up really reducing the impact of the film when you compare the final result to your expectations.

For example, as of the writing of this article on July 21, it stands at the top of the IMDB as the best movie ever. So let’s look at a few movies that it’s implied The Dark Knight is better than. The Godfather; The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly; One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest; Star Wars; Raiders of the Lost Ark; Casablanca; City of God; The Silence Of The Lambs. I don’t even think I broke the top #30 with anything from that list, but it shows just how distorted this whole phenomenon really is.

Quickly scanning the list myself, I would probably place it at #130; sandwiched between Woody Allen’s brilliant Annie Hall at #129, which it’s not as good as, but ahead of The Bourne Ultimatum at #130, which it’s far superior to. And about thirty slots lower on the list than its predecessor, Batman Begins, which I personally found to be a better movie. That was the true example of learning what Nolan was capable of doing with the Batman franchise; his inventiveness in recreating the origin story, his willingness to deviate from the comic books when he saw opportunities to improve upon them, and his in-depth characterization of Bruce Wayne culminated in a movie that towered far above the quality of past Batman entries. It was shockingly impressive.

The fawning over The Dark Knight and Iron Man has really only illustrated one thing about movie critics: how far downward they adjust their expectations when they’re seeing a “comic book movie”. But guess what? Christopher Nolan is one of the best directors alive. As a critic, you know that the studio gave him several years and $185 million dollars. If you don’t know whether to expect something with quality comparable to a) The Prestige or b) Batman and Robin, well, Nolan’s probably going to create something more along the lines of critical fave The Prestige, as opposed to the failure of Batman and Robin. If you judge what you see based on expecting Batman and Robin, you’re going to wildly overstate the case in the film’s favor.

Now that my expectations have been readjusted, I am looking forward to seeing The Dark Knight again. I love a lot of the choices (masking The Joker’s origins, the wealth of screen-time given to Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon, the bravura opening sequence) and disagree with others (the amount of time spent on the Two Face storyline, the relative lack of time given to Batman and the Joker, the decision made by Batman at the end). But I did learn why you need to bother seeing a movie before giving it your review. Four stars.