The Dark Knight (2008)

Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman

Director: Christopher Nolan
Genre: Action, Comic, Drama, Thriller
Rating: A+

"Why so serious?"

I’m not really sure if there are words to describe just how much I was blown away by The Dark Knight, the second in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy.  This movie has you sitting on the edge of your seat from start to finish and appears to complete Gotham’s descend into a really dark world.  My favourite part, though, is Ledger’s take on the Joker and the very sick and dark form of humour that he brings to the film.  While Batman movies have been funny before, they’ve never done so in a way even remotely similar to Heath Ledger’s Joker.

The Dark Knight escalates things from the way that they were left off in Batman Begins. While the mob still rules in Gotham it is clear that the duo of Batman (Bale) and Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Oldman) are making a very clear dent in the business. Mob bosses are now definitely scared of the Batman, and the new district attorney Harvey Dent (Eckhart) has a tough on crime approach that makes him a good ally to this dynamic duo. That is, until a new villain arrives on the scene. Calling himself the Joker he is a perpetrator of anarchy and desires to cause Batman to break his one unbreakable rule – he wants to drive Batman to kill. Alongside the struggles of Batman is the slow downfall of Dent, who at the start of the film is a stoic man unwilling to compromise his morals – an unmasked counterpart to Batman, and a good match for Rachel Dawes (Gyllenhaal), who acts as the damsel in distress to both Bruce Wayne/Batman and Dent. Just as it appears that they’ve caught the Joker, Dent and Rachel go missing – it’s up to Batman and the good men of Gotham’s police force to find them in time.

This movie takes the set up that Bale established in Batman Begins and runs with it. We know who the players are and the world in which they live; it’s been established that Bruce Wayne is a brooding, stoic man who carries a torch for Rachel – a torch that while being mutual is in competition with her feelings for Dent. Since we already know this – as well as Batman’s decision to not kill – Nolan doesn’t need to waste the viewers time re-establishing all of this. Instead he just plunges us straight into the action – even going so far as to introduce the movie’s villains before he reintroduces its heroes. And from that moment when he takes out the bus driver Ledger’s the Joker has us completely captivated, assuming that it even took that long.  The best part is that never once does he do anything to rip you out of the compelling narrative that he's weaving; as soon as you're sucked in, you're in it until the end.

The acting in The Dark Knight is stellar, but with this kind of cast it shouldn't come as a surprise.  I much preferred Maggie Gyllenhaal's Rachel Dawes to Katie Holmes', however I am still disappointed that they had to recast her.  I hate it when they recast characters, be it in the movies or on TV, as I find that it takes away from the narrative.  It's one thing when it's James Bond, which is special, and another thing when it's pretty much anything else.  I love, love, love Heath Ledger in this movie.  He was one of my favourite actors, and I think this movie just really shows his genius.  The Joker has always been one of the best Batman villains, and in this film Ledger proves to be one of the best Jokers.  That the film doesn't stop with the one villain makes things even better.  The problem with Batman Begins is that it was unremarkable and rather slow: it spent so much time setting up the premise that by the time everything was established half the movie was over and then they finally got around to dealing with the villains and plot twists.  Dark Knight doesn't waste any of this time and as a result it's plot twist after plot twist, action sequence after action sequence, and the whole thing just blows your mind.  Even when it isn't the big action sequences - even when it's just the Joker strolling down the street you're completely captivated.  If you haven't seen this movie yet, I highly recommend you do.

Batman Begins (2005)

Starring: Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Katie Holmes, Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer
Director: Christopher Nolan
Genre: Action, Comic, Drama, Thriller
Rating: B-

I’ve been trying to figure out how to write this for a bit, but all that I can actually think of is “na na na na na na na... BATMAN!” which I suspect you are all now doing. I’ve always had a thing for Batman; he’s probably my favourite superhero and definitely the only DC Comics hero that I like. In celebration of the release of the third and final instalment in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy I’ve decided to re-watch the earlier instalments before catching The Dark Knight Rises. Having now dived into Batman Begins I’m almost questioning just why we love this series so much (almost – I know that the answer lies in The Dark Knight). While I’ve watched this movie a few times already it didn’t take me long to realize just how unmemorable Batman Begins was. Sure it’s dark and action packed, but there’s very little about it that’s awe inspiring and nothing really sticks out in your mind once you’ve watched it.

The movie tells the origins of Batman, from Bruce Wayne’s (Bale) initial encounter with bats and the death of his parents, to him making the decision to free Gotham from its criminal underworld, the training that he undertakes in order to be able to do so, and his return to Gotham and the creation of Batman.  While training, Bruce spends time in a Bhutanese prison, where he meets Ducard (Neeson) who offers to train him as a ninja with the League of Shadows, headed by Ra’s al Ghul.  That’s right, Batman is a ninja.  While he trains under Ra and Ducard, he disagrees with their methods and eventually burns their temple down and kills Ra, before returning to Gotham.  Once back at Gotham he enlists the help of long time family butler Alfred Pennyworth (Caine) and high ranking Wayne Enterprises employee Lucius Fox (Freeman), who has been delegated into a dead end job for opposing C.E.O. William Earle (Hauer) in the boardroom.  Bruce and Alfred build Batman’s lair underneath the Wayne mansion, while Fox provides Bruce with the technology needed to make Batman awesome, thus proving that any billionaire ninja can become a crime fighting unit if he has a secret lair.  Later, Batman’s allies are joined by Sergeant James Gordon (Oldman), Gotham’s only uncorrupt police officer.  Batman’s first target is the ruler of the underworld, gangster Carmine Falcone (Wilkinson), but what he doesn’t realize is that psychopharmatologist Dr. Jonathan Crane (Murphy) has an alter-identity as the Scarecrow, and has been dumping fear inducing toxins into Gotham’s water supply.  Oh, also there’s a girl: Rachel Dawes (Holmes), assistant district attorney and Bruce’s childhood friend adds some sexual tension, but really doesn’t become relevant in any way until the end.

There is nothing remarkable about Batman Begins.  It’s not that it’s not a good movie, but in terms of a Batman movie it doesn’t really stand out.  It’s not so horrible that it just sticks in your mind like a really bad dream – that would be Batman and Robin.  It’s not so ridiculous and over the top that you can’t help but love it – that would be the Adam West Batman.  Where Batman Begins is successful is not in the movie itself but in what it succeeds in doing for the Batman franchise and the superhero genre in general.  Previous superhero movies were prone to being campy and very light; look at the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies, where you really do expect Spider-Man to say “Gee, golly” as he’s fighting crime.  Batman Begins takes this genre to a whole new level of grittiness.  Gotham is a dark and ugly world, completely free of camp that has haunted other films.  This film is the push that the genre needed in order to give us the far superior superhero movies of the last few years, from The Dark Knight to The Avengers.

Beyond that, the acting is stellar; Christian Bale is awesome, although the voice that he does for, well really both Bruce Wayne and Batman, is a bit ridiculous.  I almost wished that Bale would use his natural voice, although I somehow suspect that Batman with an English accent would have been a lot easier to identify.  He wasn’t the shining star in this movie though, although Bale did succeed in making Batman stand out far more than his adversaries (evidently, the trick to doing that is to make the villains not all that cool).  I think the real stars of this movie were Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman.  Seriously, how can a movie go wrong with these three in it?  It’s kind of messed up when you care more about Alfred the butler than you do about Batman himself, but then that’s been a problem that’s long existed within this franchise.  I love how Caine developed his own backstory before portraying Alfred; it’s never determined in the film itself, but it gives him a deeper sense of who the man is and by extension creates a deeper character.  I got a similar feeling about Oldman and Freeman; they really knew the characters that they were portraying.  It’s also important to note that the accent that Oldman used in this movie, while not his natural one, was far better than the fake accent that Bale used. Come on everyone, say it with me “I’m Batman.”