The Dark Knight

the dark knight
with all the hype about the dark knight, mumbler was quite excited to see the movie. she was not disappointed, but neither was she completely bowled over. the sequel picks up from 'batman begins' and introduces the character of the joker (heath ledger), who's gone on a rampage through gotham city. on the side of batman (christian bale) is the charming district attorney, harvey dent (aaron eckhart), who's dating batman's ex-squeeze rachel dawes (maggie gyllenhaal). as the movie progresses, the joker's antics become increasingly violent and manipulative, and they finally hit too close to home. along the way, amidst the explosions and flying cars, a character dies, batman thinks of retiring, and the audience wonders what exactly was going through heath ledger's mind when he did those scenes.

as per writer/director christopher nolan's take on batman, this movie is peppered with philosophy and rhetoric, and pits the upright and human batman against the twisted mind of the joker. the movie could have been shorter (153 minutes is pretty long for a summer blockbuster) and certain story developments could have handled better. for instance, mumbler was confused for a while when two main characters were suddenly kidnapped because nothing was shown about the actual kidnapping. nolan jumps ahead and suddenly we find them tied up and professing their love for each other. very queer. and what's with the strange sojourn to hongkong? fortunately the later part of the movie runs along more smoothly, although the ending just isn't quite to mumbler's liking.

i won't complain about the casting because just about everyone plays their role well, except for ng chin han. a fair bit of coverage was given to him because it's rare that a singaporean gets to star in a major hollywood film, but i found his performance lacking in passion. he seemed so distant, his semi-british accent so inappropriate for the movie, that his baddie didn't seem bad at all!

contrast this with heath ledger. he is, of course, the star of the show. even before his untimely death there was a bit of buzz about his portrayal of the joker, and now that he's dead, there's lots of talk about him being given a posthumous oscar. i'm not too sure about the oscar, but it's obvious that ledger threw himself into the role with relish. ledger's joker giggles as he's being punched to pulp by batman and licks his scarred lips when he explains how he got them. you see pure insanity as he laughs maniacally at almost everything - burning a pile of money, wielding a bazuka, or flashing a knife while sharing his preference of knives to guns. and the attention to detail that ledger gives is admirable - i loved the neurotic, high pitched voice he used, the hunched posture and his deliberateness in the way he patted down his hair when he approached rachel dawes in the ballroom. and amazingly, somewhere in that madness is a touch of comedy, like in the way he greets a disfigured harvey dent while wearing a nurse's uniform. nothing quite comes close.

in closing, even though the joker will be his most prominent role, i would like to remember him like this:

how could anyone remember him otherwise?