Dark knight
it is a sequel to the batman movies and it is the best one by far. the caped crusader is still fighting Gotham city's villains. The joker is causing trouble for batman as usual, but this time, he's got no plan.
The Dark knight
Director Christopher Nolan tried not to stray from the original comic. It may not be the best movie of 2008 but it makes for a good viewing. The movie has a rather predictable beginning but the ending makes up for it.
Batman (Christian Bale) is still fighting to put the bad guys away. During the day he is billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne and spends his nights as the caped crusader fighting crime in Gotham city. Batman spots a lot of attention from the local criminals including the ever-smiling paranoid and schizophrenic Joker (Heath Ledger). It gets easier with the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon(Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) who manages to put away half of the city’s criminals in one night.
In this sequel of Batman returns the Bat realizes how easily people can change when they are in a tight spot and how easily they can turn against you. Or in the Harvey Dent’s words ‘you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain’. Harvey Dent has lived his life as a good guy, but when his girlfriend/assistant, Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who is also Batman’s one chance of a normal life dies in a trap by the Joker and leaves him with a half scarred body and face, he turns to the bad side and seeks revenge on the town.
The Harvey ‘two face’ character is another unique and daring character in the movie. Harvey decides his victim’s fate with the flip of a coin, ‘heads you live, tails you die’ and believes that people make their own luck. The Rachel character however lacks depth and soul in the movie.
The film has the occasional drama and intrigue, one such scene is when batman and the police are forced to choose between saving Harvey or Rachel’s life. The two are put in separate areas, batman rescues Harvey, but the police get to Rachel late and the building explodes. With her death she took batman’s chance of being normal and Harvey’s fight against evil as he turns to the evil side.
The character of Joker is convincing but lacks the original concept of a smile in everything. Ledger is a bit more serious that the original psycho who loves narrating the story of how he got his scars. On the bright side, the Joker is an intelligent schemer who believes that the best plan is not to have a plan and rules. Catchy phrases are used in the movie. The Joker tells Batman that he doesn’t want to kill him because the bat completes the clown.
Original and daring stunts were used along the film, jumping from buildings is usually in any batman script. Dark knight takes the flying to a new level; he flies out of a sky scrapper and into a moving plane with a person in his wings.
Dark knight is an enjoyable movie with realistic features and stunts, but it wouldn’t be complete without the fancy gadgets. Batman has no problem in that department, with the help of Wayne enterprises CEO and scientist Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) who makes the well-known batman gadgets as well as introducing new ones. So like the Joker says in one of his deadly jokes ‘will the real batman please stand up’. The movie deserves applause.
