The Dark Knight: may contain a spoiler

Last night a small group of blokes descended on Belfast to watch The Dark Knight, latest in a long line of Batman movies. Before I get into any specifics which the reader may want to skip – let me just say – that movie is LONG. I expected the credits to roll a couple of times!

The Dark Knight lacks the style of Batman Begins. It’s action packed to be sure but there’s much too much of it and not enough acting and dialogue. The only person who actually gets to do any acting is Heath Ledger and maybe that was a decision made on the cutting room floor; considering this was the actor’s last film it would seem they took the opportunity to give him the stage. Batman Begins was a character piece. The Dark Knight is a lot of explosions and fighting.

It’s not like the film wasn’t filled with critically acclaimed acting stalwarts. In comparison, Bale, Gyllenhaal, Caine, Freeman, Oldman, Eckhart just sit in the background and mumble words. In that sense I found the film to be disappointing in the cold light of day. There just wasn’t much acting.

The plot. Ehhhhhhh. It was relatively faithful to what I see as the first Joker story. The Joker striking out at wealthy important people but I dislike this notion that he’s a lackey for ‘real criminals’.

On the other hand, Batman was WAYYYYY too cosy with the police this time around. At the end of the day, Batman is a criminal. And it bodes well that he’s not being invited to fundraisers and the like.

Ledger’s Joker was insane, yes, but it was comic book insane. Where Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of the Joker was camp and out of place, Ledger’s performance was a modern retelling. Neither, to be honest, was to my taste though the latest incarnation is closer to what I see as correct. The creation and death of Two Face was really weak and if it had been cut from the movie, I think that it would have been better for it. And the Joker coming back for two encores? Man, I got bored quickly. At least this time the Joker survives and I would hope that Nolan sees sense and writes a good movie into the third. I’d like to see a third movie concentrating on the increased in costumed crazies (Killer Moth, Black Spider) with a major villain coming out of the woodwork – my personal favourites would be the Riddler (again, not the camp Jim Carrey version but the version I remember: sure, he uses puns but he’s also sensible enough to bring a gun to a knife-fight) or Clayface (returning to being a guy with a disguise – lots of opportunity for ‘Mission Impossible’ style masks). I’d also like both of them to escape. I’d like to see an end to stupid villains like The Penguin, frankly. We’re also unlikely to see some of his more ‘superpowered’ enemies like Man-Bat or Killer Croc. On that note it was nice to see Cillian Murphy reprise his role as the Scarecrow. If the Nolans want to come talk about my idea for the third film, they’re welcome. 🙂

The longer I dwell on the movie, the more I am convinced that it’s success hinges solely on Heath Ledger’s untimely demise. If he had not died, this would be recognised for what it is: a sequel.

On that, The Joker’s ‘disappearing pen’ trick still gives me the giggles.