The Dark Knight

(Can anyone tell what's wrong with this picture?)

"The night is darkest just before the dawn. And I promise you, the dawn is coming."

This is my favorite quote from The Dark Knight. I absolutely LOVE this movie. Everything you've heard about it is true. It's great! Cody and I have seen it twice so far (Gotta love having grandparents in town who love to babysit). The movie is definitely dark and intense.

I really wanted to review this movie, but I don't feel that I express myself very good in writing (I express myself better in my art). So I asked Cody if he would write a review of it. So below this picture is his review of the film and superhero movies in general.






WHY SO SERIOUS?

Superhero movies have been taking Hollywood by storm over the past few years. Not only are they good performers at the box office, with even average fare like Ghost Rider and Fantastic Four making big bucks, but they come loaded with sequel possibilities. Because their comic book predecessors have decade’s worth of material and fans of all ages, they are the ultimate franchise.

Another important factor is that the recent trend is to make these films for the adult audience. Not in the sense of lewdness or vulgarity, but in the sense of taking the characters seriously and using their stories to examine real themes and concerns. These aren’t biff-pow sockfests, though they are exciting and action-packed more often than not. Rather, these are movies about loneliness and alienation, being a good person with or without a hero’s mask, and discovering your true calling.

This thematic thoughtfulness really came to the fore with 2002’s Spider-Man, a tale about a young man learning to accept the responsibility that his unusual powers carry. That film was helmed by respected indy director Sam Raimi, who found in Spidey the right balance between his weighty filmmaker’s side and his early career work in monster movies. The cast included well-established young stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst as well as the veteran Willem Dafoe.

With a huge box office success and critical acclaim, too, the door was now open for more of the same. And so another respected up-and-coming filmmaker, Bryan Singer, teamed with renowned British actors Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen to tell the tale of the disgraced and outcast X-Men. Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee tried his hand with the repressed Incredible Hulk. And just this year, Robert Downey, Jr., one of the most talented actors in the world, debuted his superhero movie, Iron Man, a tale of a how a greedy billionaire learns to care about more than himself.

Not all of these efforts were successful, but many were. And the point remains that since 2002, there has been a concerted effort to bring together the pop culture phenomenon of comic book superheroes with top-notch directors and actors.

One of the major moments of this new wave came in 2005 with the release of Batman Begins. Batman was one of the most glaring examples of what was wrong with superhero movies, starting with the Tim Burton goth-camp of Batman and Batman Returns and ending with the horrifying George Clooney-led Batman and Robin, a film renowned for being the epitome of sound and fury that signifies nothing.

So with Spider-Man and the X-Men proving that serious films could be made involving costumed do-gooders and Ang Lee’s Hulk proving that even auteurs could be enticed to give the genre a spin, it seemed like it was time to right the wrongs done to Gotham’s Caped Crusader. And British director Christopher Nolan seemed just the right guy for the job.

Nolan was, per the typical fashion it seems, an up-and-comer who had built some credibility as a director with the mind-blowing Memento (a film about crime and memory told in reverse) and the well-received Insomnia (in which Robin Williams actually, well, acts…an achievement of direction in and of itself). What he brought with Batman Begins was a gritty sensibility and a desire to start over.

All the other Batman movies were scrapped and ignored. Batman Begins begins with a young Bruce Wayne being frightened by bats and carries him all the way to his first battles in a war on crime in his hometown. Nolan’s version of Batman’s origins was grounded in real-world grime and crime (fitting for a superhero who actually has no superpowers) and was driven by Christian Bale’s intense portrayal of a man who’s haunted by wrongs done to him and by the lonely burden he bears in a sin-infested city.

Batman Begins was very well-received, though some of this may have been due to the low standards of previous efforts. And, as is usual, if wasn’t long before a sequel was announced.

Which brings me (finally!!) to The Dark Knight. Ironically, it’s not just my rambling intro which finally leads to The Dark Knight, but it seems as if the whole genre of superhero films has been building to this moment as well.

The Dark Knight opened two weekends ago to record box office numbers and near-universal critical acclaim. This weekend it closes in on the $400K million mark and seems well on its way to making even more, thanks in large part to repeat viewings by audience members. And all I can say to that is, believe the hype, folks. Every word of it is true. The Dark Knight is a phenomenal film and an exceptional work of art.

Since we saw it the first time, it’s haunted my thoughts and lurked in corners of my brain, occasionally coming out and pouncing on me. It’s not just a blockbuster, though it is clearly that. And it’s not just a cultural phenomenon, though again, that is true. This is a movie that insists that if it must give you entertainment, it will have to demand to also make you think and ponder its themes long after the lights come back on.

Since the last film ended, Batman’s enemies are on the run. Not only are they afraid of him, but the city itself seems to hope again. A new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, shines like a beacon as the city’s white knight, taking on corruption out in the open. Lt. Gordon, Batman’s police ally, is now in charge of a whole task force. And Batman himself begins to hope for a day when he is no longer needed.

Then comes the escalation. The city’s evildoers have been chased far enough down their ratholes that they feel they need to turn and fight. And they call upon a weird, shuffling little man known only as the Joker. The Joker doesn’t seem to want anything, other than their support in his all-out retaliation against the good people of Gotham. It doesn’t take long before Batman begins to wonder just how far he will and should go to uphold justice.

There’s no way to summarize the plot of this 2 ½ hour movie without a whole lot more detail, which would ruin several twists. Suffice to say that this is an epic, with the soul of an entire city at stake and the heroes ever more on the ropes against a remorseless and unrelenting foe. The intensity is ferocious and Nolan is not afraid to wound the heroes in ways that can be surprising and rather sad.

The fetid heart of this tale is Heath Ledger’s Joker. In two separate reviews that I read recently, one by a non-Christian and one by a believer, the Joker is referred to as the big screen’s most successful portrayal of the Devil. This is not to say that Nolan and Ledger intended for the Joker to actually BE thought of as the Devil, rather it’s such a True version of evil that it sends shudders of recognition down the spine. This is not evil that is glorified, but it is evil that is seen for what it is, scary, deceptive, and all too-close to our own hearts.

In opposition to this are the heroes: Gordon, Dent, and Batman. All three actors give good performances here, as they struggle to comprehend and defeat an evil that ****SPOILER ALERT FOR THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH**** seemingly twists and turns out of their reach every time. Indeed, the Joker’s goals turn out to be nothing more than chaos; he only wants to compromise them and draw them to his side. He pushes and pushes and pushes them to make decisions where all the answers are wrong in some way or another, where remaining “pure” doesn’t seem possible.

By the end, though there is sorrow, there is still hope. And even the audience cannot help but wonder if all the right choices were made, even as we’re presented with a very compelling version of self-sacrifice and heroism. Are our heroes merely reflecting us? Are we wrong for what we want them to be? Do we even know what we need in a hero? And for the Christian viewer, is there a Person who can be both the hero that we want and the hero that we need?

The Dark Knight is not just the culmination to-date of the adult superhero genre, but it’s a fine film on its own terms and one that will likely stay with you for a good long while.
This is the most serious superhero film ever made. I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of the thematic richness in this story, from the way one character sacrifices himself for another midway through the film only to have that sacrifice repaid by the end to the way the Joker’s nefarious schemes for 2 ferryboats play out. But also, in case it wasn’t apparent above, this is NOT a movie for the kiddies. There isn’t a ton of gore, though there’s a fair amount of violence. But this is a dark, dark movie. Hopelessness and its consequences in people’s hearts are not shied away from. As another critic noted, “Nihilism gets a hearing, but it does not carry the day.”

I left the theater feeling both uplifted and drained. This is an amazing movie and one that will be well-worth repeated viewings.