The Dark Knight (****)

Directed by: Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, Batman Begins)
Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman
Seen: July 25th and 27th, August 3rd, November 24th

**** Out of ****

When Christopher Nolan made Batman Begins the world noticed it – this was a reinvention of an essentially very stale franchise, with even the better ones from the past not nearly in the same league. Nolan took Batman out of the comic book and put him slap-bang in the middle of the real world. And it works. It probably wouldn’t have worked in the 80’s, but the world has become a harder place, much like Batman actually needs to be.

And now Nolan has taken this franchise soaring even higher – with The Dark Knight, the first Batman film without the word Batman in the title. Instead of the Joker’s facial features being caused by a chemical accident, we never learn his true origins during this mammoth 152 minute edge-of-your-seat thrill-ride. And he’s made so much scarier for it, Heath Ledger turning him into a real menace instead of the merely strange Joker we saw from Jack Nicholson. This guy is truly an agent of chaos, and Ledger gave me a Joker that had me literally holding my breath whenever he appeared on screen, my heart pulsing adrenaline.

Bruce Wayne still wants Rachel Dawes (Gyllenhaal – replacing Katie Holmes, and making this her role), but as you might remember from the previous film, she does not want him as long as he still is the Batman. So he’s trying to find the guy to relieve him of his duties, opening a convenient gap for Harvey Dent (Eckhart), district attorney for Gotham. He is the white knight of Gotham, at one stage even charging the collective crime collaborative of Gotham successfully. Together with James Gordon (Oldman) they start working against the new crime element that’s rising in Gotham City, mostly under the rule, or anarchic influence, of The Joker.

The action sequences are fantastic, and Nolan actually developed new ways of filming and designed new rigs in order to support the IMAX cameras (highest resolution cameras currently available, but massively oversized) used during production. Every sequence, be it drama or action, pulls you to the edge of your seat, into the cinematic experience. When did Hollywood forget that this is what film is supposed to be? And did they stumble upon it by chance? I won’t try to answer question 1, but to #2: Nolan has always been great – Memento, his debut, was almost as fantastic.

The side characters, Alfred Pennyworth (Caine) and Lucius Fox (Freeman) also impress, and even in these smaller roles they become highly visible and indispensable to the story. Everything in this film just works, to a spectacular degree. It definitely deserves its massive box office and critical success. The hype that was generated before this film’s release is actually justified, and overtaken, something you don’t see very often, actually almost never.

As a parting thought – when Batman had to choose one person to save – did the Joker fool him, or did Batman change his initial decision? Just a thought.