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The Dark Knight
Christopher Nolan's dark, brooding Batman sequel swoops in amid a storm of hype and feverish anticipation. No film could live up to such expectations but The Dark Knight soars tantalisingly close, probing the inner demons of Gotham's favourite crime-fighter as he duels with his most famous adversary.
The death of Heath Ledger (pictured) casts a long shadow over the picture, adding a tragic dimension to The Joker. Ledger's portrayal of the demented clown is being tipped for an Oscar. Certainly, it's a dazzling performance; a far cry from Jack Nicholson's camp trickster in Tim Burton's Batman. But he is not the film's most intriguing villain: that honour belongs to Aaron Eckhart as the fatally flawed District Attorney Harvey Dent, whose metamorphosis into vengeful Two-Face is riveting.
Nolan builds on the solid framework of Batman Begins to deliver even more eye-popping action sequences including a high-speed chase on the Bat-Pod through Gotham, which reaches a crescendo with an 18-wheeler flipping end over end. The director shot many of these set pieces with IMAX cameras - a first for a major feature film. On the gargantuan canvas of these special cinemas, The Dark Knight leaves you breathless.
Having vanquished The Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy), millionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) continues his crusade against crime aided by Lieut Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent, who is romantically involved with old flame Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Crime figures soar when The Joker declares war on the man in the cowl. As the people of Gotham turn against their saviour, Bruce relies on loyal butler Alfred (Michael Caine) and Wayne Enterprises technical genius Lucius Fox (MorGan Freeman) to stop him falling into the abyss.
The Dark Knight opens with a nerve-shredding bank heist by The Joker and steadily cranks up the tension. Nolan and brother Jonathan, who co-wrote the script, don't waste a single second of the 152-minute running time; this is a lean, muscular and extremely violent battle between good and evil.
The Joker's opening trick (making a pencil disappear) sets the grisly tone for the rest of the film. Casualties are high, even among the principal cast, interspersed with terrific confrontations between an increasingly conflicted Batman and his adversaries. Bale is somewhat squeezed out of the frame - there could have been more scenes of Bruce wrestling with his conscience - and a sequence involving Batman's sonar-imaging lenses is horribly disorienting thanks to strobing effects and Lee Smith's hyper-kinetic editing. But these are minor blemishes on an otherwise thrilling adventure that echoes Harvey's prophetic words: "You either die a hero . . . or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."
10:04am Thursday 24th July 2008
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