Dark Knight blasts his way to success
By PHILIP LIM
philim@nst.com.my
The sequel to Batman Begins has just entered the cinemas. PHILIP LIM was there to catch it at first flight.
THE Dark Knight can be described in two words — wonderfully entertaining. If Batman Begins (2005) is considered well produced, this sequel is three notches higher.
It begins and ends with the kind of feeling that comes from a breathtaking ride on an amazing roller coaster with a couple of 360-degree turns. The rumours are true after all, Heath Ledger as The Joker claims top prize for a great outing in Bat Land. He has outdone Jack Nicholson as The Joker in Batman of 1989.
As The Joker, Ledger is psychologically disturbing. His makeup smeared all over his face, his eyes wild and his voice pure evil. This Joker truly has his finest hour in The Dark Knight, and if anyone says Ledger is just average, the joke’s on him. The criminal mastermind is fiendishly brutal. This is no film for children below 15 but I guess they will go anyway.
The Dark Knight is noir to the core. It swoops over cinema hall like a giant bat out of hell and holds you in its claws until you cry “Batman!”
To add tension to the film, there were several uniformed guards who looked like Rela personnel who guarded the Keluar doors throughout the special screening while another walked and stared at viewers.
While The Joker was causing mayhem on the screen, the uniformed men were literally screening the audience, seemingly for criminal elements. Now that’s a film with an atmosphere.
Director Christopher Nolan may be up for several awards with job done with distinction. This film comes with a technological sophistication and gadgetry that makes James Bond look like a Boy Scout. If Batman Begins showed the transition of Bruce Wayne from millionaire playboy to caped crusader, this film reveals the transformation of Batman to The Dark Knight.
It is gripping, gritty and awfully violent at certain stages. Extreme scenes sprinkled generously over 152 minutes are implied, and lesser minds may be shaken. For example, when The Joker with a maniacal look sticks his blade into the mouth of one of frightened victims and tells him how he got his scar, you may just mentally feel the sharp edge of the blade.
Christian Bale who reprised his role as Bruce Wayne a.k.a. Dark Knight is much leaner this time, unlike in Batman Begins when he was more buffed up. With a slimmer body with battle scars to match, Bale has made a quantum leap from the time when he was a little boy in Empire Of The Sun (1987) to his latest role as an avenging crusader in Gotham City.
Veteran actors Michael Caine who plays Alfred Pennyworth, the butler in the Wayne Manor, and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, CEO of Wayne Enterprises, lent much weight to the persona of Dark Knight. They are the two pillars in Wayne’s life. Their roles complemented each other rather well.
The only and almost undiscernible flaw is Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who is Wayne’s love interest. Somehow I couldn’t get Katie Holmes out of my mind. Holmes was Dawes in Batman Begins. Aaron Eckhart who plays Gotham district attorney Harvey Dent or Two-Face pales in comparison to The Joker. He may or may not return if there’s a Part 3.
Nonetheless, there was almost nothing in the way of The Dark Knight blazing a trail of destruction in the darkened streets of Gotham City in his Bat Pod. With those gigantic tyres and twin machineguns on both sides of the front wheel, spitting deadly metal, The Dark Knight takes the audience from captivation to fascination from zero to five seconds.
This film gets four thumbs-up (including the two big toes) from me. Please see it. If you don’t have money, borrow. If necessary, get down on your knees and beg. As of now, The Dark Knight is the film of the year. Watch it or forever be filled with regret.