Movie Review: The Dark Knight

To continue that last post, I decided to see The Dark Knight instead of getting a manicure to sooth my sunburn pains...

I'm guessing that most people that go to see it are either big Batman fans or have a morbid curiosity to see Heath Ledger's performance. I'll admit that I'm somewhere in the middle. Partly I went because superhero movies are usually pretty fun, and partly I was curious about all of the hype surrounding Ledger's portrayal of the Joker.

So I'll answer the questions, in my own opinion, that people are asking about this movie:

• How good is it? If I had to give it an overall grade within its genre only, maybe a B+
• How good is it compared to all movies? Probably a C. Let's put it this way, I was looking at my watch a lot during the last half hour.
  
• Heath Ledger's Joker is...? Frighteningly good. The hype was not overdone. The character is psycho, intense, sickly humorous, and mesmerizing to watch. To say that it is an Oscar-worthy perfomance is not an overstatement.
• Favorite character? Jim Gordon was actually my favorite, but I'm biased because Gary Oldman is one of my favorite actors. I like Christian Bale a lot too, and he makes an excellent Batman, but I wish he would tone down the intensity a little. Plus, that gravelly voice he uses whenever he's in the Batsuit makes me want to hurl cough drops at the screen.
• How was the story? Weak. But you kind of expect that in a movie like this. The writers were lucky they got such excellent A-list actors, because only they could give the story a little credibility. But not much.
• Overall impression: You won't remember the story much when you leave, but you will remember the characters and their performances. Aaron Eckhart did an impressive job as Harvey Dent/Two-Face. Maggie Gyllenhaal--well, I've never liked her, she always seems very smug, so she did nothing for me here as Rachel Dawes, replacing Katie Holmes from Batman Begins.
• Would you recommend it? As a summer super-hero movie, sure. But as a life-changing film that you have to see again and again? Probably not.
• Final thoughts: This movie is definitely dark, intense, and violent. Personally, I think it borders on an R-rating, because of the extreme intensity of almost all of the characters and because much of the violence--even implied violence that you don't actually see--could be quite disturbing to younger kids. A lot of younger kids are going to see it (let's be realistic) and all they are going to take away from it are the visual images, which are often scary.