Why so serious?
I’ve now seen Batman twice - what can I say, me and the guys love stories about conflicted millionaires with savior complexes. 
Based on the astonishing amount of money this movie brought in this weekend ($155.3M), I’d say we weren’t the only people who saw it twice. 
Spoilerish discussion ensues after the jump.
The Dark Knight is the best Batman movie so far. It kicks your ass right from the beginning. Plot summary from IMDB:
Batman raises the stakes in his war on crime. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the city streets. The partnership proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a rising criminal mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham as The Joker.
The Dark Knight is a film that works on so many levels. It’s filled with action and stunts, obviously, but the action never overshadows the story. That’s a fine line that director Christopher Nolan walks well. The casting is just perfect. Bringing on Maggie Gyllenhaal to replace Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes was a good move. She has the saddest eyes, not to mention the fact that she is a much better screamer. Heh. She had great chemistry with Christian Bale and Aaron Eckhart.
I think the biggest fuss will be made over Heath Ledger, and it’s well earned. His Joker was much more intense, dark and humorous than the campiness of Jack Nicholson. Ledger completely inhabited the Joker — totally committed to the character. They might as well award the Oscar® to him posthumously now.
Speaking of de-camping - Aaron Eckhart was excellent as Harvey Dent. I read a review that criticized him for underplaying his role, but honestly, with an over-the-top character like the Joker in the film, it would have looked ridiculous if Eckhart has approched his role with the same over-the-top campiness that Tommy Lee Jones did. It worked (I guess.) in his film, but it just wouldn’t work in this film. One of the best scenes in the movie is between Joker and Two-Face. It’s menacing, sad and very, very funny. That is not an easy tone to pull off, but they did it.
I think what I was most impressed with is how well the special effects are incorporated into the film. In a big, big, BIG action movie like this, it would be very easy to rely on huge effects. I hate that, and it takes me right out of the movie. There are plenty of things that go sploidy, and lots of fighting, but it doesn’t overshadow the story.
Great movie, great cast, lots of fun action. I give this movie an “A.”
For extra fun, check out this Harvey Dent campaign website. I guess it got hacked. 
I probably read that same review about Aaron. Rubbish. He was great. He’s one of those actors who can really fit into any role - and he was well cast. There’s only one or two other people who I would have liked to see play Dent, but none of them would have been much/any better.
Maggie’s received both praise and flack for the role, depending on the source, but the flack is even more rubbish than Eckhart’s one or two negative reviews. Given her role, she was fantastic… much better than Katie Holmes (and I didn’t even think she was as bad as everyone made her out to be).
I’m so glad I finally got to see the movie today. I’ll probably see it again, as well. The reason why it’s so great, IMO, is that the Nolan brothers worked so damn hard to make the Joker be more than just his arch-nemesis - but his complete foil. Chaotic good versus chaotic evil. I loved Jack Nicholson in 89’s Batman, but this version was just so much more twisted and it made an otherwise physically weak villain that much more convincing… and scary.
Fantastic movie! Between this and Wall-e (which was so much better than I ever imagined - I was practically dragged into seeing it) this is brewing to be a great year for summer movies. Finally, it seems like Hollywood’s realizing that they’ll make much more money by making their big blockbusters actually interesting.
Posted on July 21st, 2008 at 5:04 am
I loved Harvey in this film. Batman deserves a noncampy treatment…just because it’s a comic book doesn’t mean you get a pass on realism. Especially Batman, because most of the characters, villains in Batman are not magic or superpowered, except by their own talents.
The only thing that was weird (and Chris caught this too) was that how the heck did the joker accomplish all the demolition setup? I mean, operations that can blow up that much crap take time, and especially, manpower….that was the only place I had to suspend my disbelieve.
Given the history of the Batman franchise (except these last two films) I guess that’s a 1000% improvement.
We were almost late for the timeslot we wanted to see this movie on Sunday because we discovered our friggin’ car got stolen. GARRRG! I do hate people sometimes.
Posted on July 21st, 2008 at 1:57 pm
The Film Threat Dark Night review is a good read. I agree with most of it. [link]
Ryan - I agree. There has been some great movies out so far this summer. Did you see Iron Man? That’s a great one too. Love me some Robert Downey, Jr.
Lynne! Did you get your car back? In the decade I’ve lived in MA, nobody I’ve known has had their car stolen. When I lived in CA, this was practically a weekly occurrence. In CA people lock their cars just to run into the gas station. Out here, people leave their cars running while they go into Cumberland Farms. Man, that totally sucks. I hope you got your car back.
Posted on July 21st, 2008 at 3:03 pm
It was found, but with the cost of getting it out the tow yard plus fixing the damage they did to the steering column plus the fact that I had planned to bring it in to the shop before it got pinched because I heard engine knocking, and who knows what damage they did driving it around, I ended up signing it over to a guy who does racing in exchange for paying for the tow fee. So we got out of it with not paying anything which was the best we could do.
Honda Civics, apparently, are targets for theft because they are ubiquitous. So, if you have a Civic, lock it, and park it in a garage!!
Posted on July 28th, 2008 at 1:31 pm