Dark Knight

I have say to start that I never really cared about "Batman Begins." I had hoped that C. Bale would have brought a quieter more silently powerful intensity to the movie but it seemed that all the noise and explosions overwhelmed him. I realize I'm in the minority in this opinion. It's only my opinion. I was in and out of sleep for first hour or so of "Dark Knight." Heath Ledger of course was incredible but he was so good it was almost an insult that he be in a movie about Batman who, let's face it is essentially a guy in a Bat suit right? I mean personally I was not gripped by the whole "Poor little rich boy watched his parents get murdered falls into a pit of bats and decides to dress like one" story. The guy is nuts and that's fine. I think they should focus on that. The "Dark Knight" graphic novel, which I am only familiar with because my brother collected them when we were young, did not depict Batman so much a superhero but someone who had lost his way. It was the study of his decidedly violent psychological breakdown, a downward spiral. In any case, I guess I'm just not a huge fan of Christopher Nolan's style. I'm a Burton fan and his treatment of Batman is my favorite. He allowed it to be the dark camp that it was but you also got the feeling with his direction that each character mirrored the other in some way. There was a clever perversity and a sense of humor in unexpected places. Nothing about C. Nolan's Batman was unexpected. Not to me anyway. In this installment, Heath was the only thing in a class by itself. He could have been in an entirely separate movie, he was that good, that improvisational and surprising. He was fearless and performing at the top of his game, outside the box. The rest of the movie was fine I suppose, just not anything I would look forward to seeing again.


Another less than satisfied reviewer.