Rating: 9.8/10 Genre: Action Drama
Overall value for money and time: 9.8/10
With the current craze of superhero movies in the recent months, I didn't expect too much out of this movie. Great superhero movies like "The Incredible Hulk" and "Iron Man" have certainly set the benchmark for movies of similar genre. Despite great reviews about "The Dark Knight", I was skeptical. For movie buffs like myself, I've experienced too many high expectation movies which disappointed. The trailers weren't exceptionally alluring, but the fact that Heath Ledger died after this movie added an additional "appeal" to it. The prequel "Batman Begins" had many fans singing praises of it, but for those who's not a fan of batman will only see it as a good movie. I, for one, was not a fan of Batman movies. Was, is the word, because the difference between the current sequel is that it makes fans out of its viewers.
Here's a quick sypnosis of the movie. With the growing crime activities in Gotham city, an alliance is formed between the new district attourney, Harvey Dent, Batman, and Lieutenant James Gordon to take down the crime syndicate. They did succeed, initially, until the crime lords decided to employ a new villian "The Joker" to take out Batman. Things get messy as Batman is forced to reveal his identity to the world while The Joker brings out the dark side of humanity. This isn't a one villian movie, taking on a similar plot as "Spiderman 3", the villian two face will appear towards the end of the movie. And yes, it fortunately stops at 2 unlike "Spiderman 3" with its 3 villians - Sandman, Venom and himself.
Generally, Marvel movies are better made than DC (detective comics) movies. Marvel movies include Iron Man, Hulk, Spiderman, X-men, Fantastic Four etc, while DC movies include Superman, Batman, and er... that's all I can think of. But this movie is one that tops all. If you thought like I did the Spiderman series was as good as it gets, this is unbeatable. In "The Dark Knight", there's many subplots, and touches on many pyschological aspects pertaining to humanity. In a way, it's more down to earth and a movie which we can relate more closely than the rest of the superhero movies.
Never once in my life have I watched a movie in the threatres 3 times, and I just broke my record. The preivous record was twice, and the movie being "Titanic". "Titanic" was well worth it, with the 2nd viewing being an appreciation of the majesticity of the ship as well as the then new faces of Leonardo Dicarpio and Kate Winslet with their award winning performances. "The Dark Knight" is slightly different in that sense. The first viewing left me in a complete mess, I was confused with some takes in the movie and was too lost with words when the credit rolled that I thought it to be only a good movie. However, upon 2nd viewing, all my doubts were cleared and managed to see "hidden" stuff one would certainly miss out in the 1st. There were many slight subtleties in the movie which are easily overlooked. Let me name a few here (warning: spoilers up ahead).
1. I didn't notice Edison Chen's appearance in the movie initially. Those who caught a glimpse of him swore he only appeared for 2 seconds. However, it came to approximately 6 seconds.
2. When Harvey Dent and Rachel (Batman's ex-girlfriend) boarded the escort home, the look on the police officers' faces gave them away.
3. The first five minutes in the movie made the identity of the Joker pretty obvious when the camera zoomed up from the back of one of the robbers holding a mask in his hand. I did notice it at the start, but kinda lost track of it when they were robbing the bank, and when Joker unmasked himself, I was surprised to see him being in the crime scene.
4. When Harvey Dent revealed to Gotham city as being the outlaw vigilante (Batman), Joker chased him in a van down the underpass with a bazooka in his hand. However, he didnt blow up the truck Harvey Dent was in, instead, he shot at the police vehicles escorting the truck. However, when the batmobile showed up, he started firing at the truck. I was puzzled at first but came to realised that it was becos' Joker didnt want Batman dead, he just wanted to push him to his limit and have him commit a "crime".
5. In the hospital when Joker confronted two face, he passed a loaded gun to two face while two face was bed-ridden, and pointed the gun towards himself. It was a very risky move and when two face flipped the coin, the scene was cut. In other words, I believe regardless of the outcome, two face would have let the Joker off.
6. When the hospital was blown up, Joker sneaked up into a bus and it drove off. The final scene with the hostages being dressed up as clowns were the same hostages that the bus drove off in. Cos initially I was wondering where in the world did the Joker get all his hostages from?
There are many others such subtleties in the movie which can only be fully appreciated upon the 2nd viewing, hence I would recommend that you do not stop at the first. The 3rd viewing was pretty much like "Titanic", I watched it for the casts' performances and the well orchestrated development of the story plot. Heath Ledger's acting deserves more than a thunderous applause, it deserves a standing ovation. A true gem, a true classic, and for those of you who havent caught this movie, you're missing out on the ocar movie of the decade! It will be a long wait before another movie of such calibur matches up to this... Thank you Christopher Nolan (director), for delivering such an epic movie! Simply breath-taking, thought-provoking, beautifully orchestrated and highly memorable!!!
