by Roger Bourke White Jr., copyright August 2008
I have two recommendations if you plan to see The Dark Knight. First, plan on seeing twice, second, listen carefully to the dialog -- it makes the movie.
Dark Knight is a long movie, and it's tackling some good ideas that are beyond those commonly seen in blockbuster action movies... or any movies for that matter.
I'm really, really happy to see that it's getting a good response from movie watchers because it's a signal to movie makers that they can move on to new story lines. The movie makers may not catch that signal... but then, that's Hollywood.
One good idea in the movie is that terror and lawlessness are ultimately solved by the community, not by vigilantism... not by Batman. In fact, in the movie, Batman tries to retire... but not successfully.
The most memorable part of the movie, and a part that should be memorable for years to come, is the Joker's introduction scene -- the scene where he "kicks the puppy" to show viewers he's going to be the bad man of the movie. In this movie, he has just walked in on a meeting of mobsters, and he tells the mobsters, "First, I have a magic trick for you. I'm going to make this pencil disappear." and he does in a most memorable way. Ewww!
Those are the good parts of the movie. Here are the bad parts.
First, the movie feels long. It's telling us a lot, it is chronicling not one, but two bad guy stories: The Joker and Harry Dent/Two Face. I found the second half of the movie, after the girl dies, confusing. The movie switches focus, but the foundation for that switch was not laid well enough. Seeing it a second time made it less confusing, but I still found it weak.
Second, the Joker suffers badly from a villain cliché: he has too much resource. He's not supposed to have a lot of resource, and the story tellers even try to explain away his resource availability by having him say, "Knives, gas and dynamite are cheap." but it's a lame excuse, and for me, it doesn't work.
Yes, knives, gas and dynamite are cheap, but people and split-second planning are not -- they are hugely expensive. The Joker conducts hugely complex robberies and demolitions requiring great anticipation and split second timing. These are not cheap.
Early in the movie Bruce Wayne conducts a fund-raiser, and his own security measures are thwarted by The Joker and his gang. Tell me again that this person doesn't have a lot of resource!
Third, the Joker won't die, he won't even stay hurt. This got tiresome. In the middle of the movie, it got silly. The Joker falls out of a crashed truck and walks up a Gotham Street machine gunning oncoming cars. Batman races down the street on his Batcycle aiming for The Joker, and swerves at the last moment, crashing his Batcycle instead of crashing into The Joker.
Whaaat? What was he going to do? run The Joker over? he has machine guns and rockets on that Batcycle. When he swerved, why didn't he just miss The Joker and ride off, why did he crash? It just made no sense... except as a plot device.
Fourth, the handling of the big pile of mob money got curiouser and curiouser as the movie went on.
Fifth, the final confrontation between The Joker and Batman was too wacky. Too many situations, threatening too many people, with Batman ending up too busy for it all to make any sense.
In spite of these shortcomings I have described, it is, all-in-all, a good movie. And I'm glad it's doing well. There's a lot of meat in the movie, but as a result it runs long, and it's something that you need to see twice to figure out well.
That's what I have for you on The Dark Knight.
-- The End --