Satanosphere

Go see The Dark Knight right now. If you have to skip work, do it. If you have to lie to your family, do it. If you have to miss a meeting with your parole officer, so what. You’ve heard by now that this movie changes the super-hero movie genre, taking it up to a new level. It does. This is not a fun-time popcorn flick. This is a dark, morbid film that makes one wonder how they came away with a PG-13 rating.

There’s little swearing, and actually little violence, but when it’s there, it’s complex and brutal. The fight scenes from Fight Club come to mind, and the sound editing in these sequences must have been intentionally mixed to make you queasy.

By the time the film’s done you’ve been there almost three hours, including (awesome) trailers, but it doesn’t feel like it. You get pulled directly into Gotham City, and it keeps you there, and then, when the credits roll and the lights come up, you’re not ready to leave. You’re scared to death of being there, but you can’t imagine being anywhere else.

I’m not going to go on about Heath Ledger’s Joker, there’s been enough said about that, and it’s all right. He does with the character just as others say. The phrase “Ledger becomes the Joker” is not hyperbole. He’s perfect.

Aaron Eckhart won’t get as much credit as Ledger, simply by virtue that he’s not the main foil to Batman this time around, but he is the main foil to Bruce Wayne, and while this could have gotten sloppy and complex, it doesn’t. One of The Dark Knight’s secrets is that every single line of dialogue is important. If you miss anything you’ll be sorry.

The rest of the supporting cast is outstanding, even those with bit parts like Anthony Michael Hall and Eric Roberts. While I would have liked to see more Morgan Freeman in this installment I can understand not wanting to dilute the main character’s screen time.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is great as Rachel Dawes and should have been cast in the first movie as well. She acts as a driving force for the three main characters without them even knowing it, making Dawes more than a pretty face but rather an important element to the plot.

I’m happy that the two things I thought would be cheesy this time around–the new Batsuit and the Batpod–weren’t. Freeman’s Fox handily explains to us why Batman needs a fancy new suit (so that he can turn his head) and when you see where the Batpod comes from you’ll grin.

In all, this isn’t just an effective superhero movie, this is the Batman movie that all other Batman films will ever be compared to. Those that say it’s like the Empire Strikes Back or The Wrath of Khan are right on the money. It breaks down the mythology into its barest form and rebuilds it as a new–though familiar–story.

Go see it now, in Imax if you can. You won’t believe what you’re seeing at certain times, but you are. And you’ll never, ever forget the Joker’s magic trick where he makes a pencil disappear.

Last 5 posts by Matt Hickey

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