Rapid Review: The Dark Knight
Went to the midnight showing of The Dark Knight last night and am dead on my feet today as a result.
The above picture? That's me today, minus the smile.
But it was worth it.
My brief assessment after the jump (minor spoilers ahead, nothing major).
The action scenes were terrific. More varied though not as atmospheric and spooky as in the previous film. They did make the thing run a bit long, but I wouldn't have given up Batman goes to China (!), Batman fights SWAT guys (!) or Batman puts the smackdown with sonar (!) to make it shorter. I'm all right with too much of a good thing.
The script was, on the whole, very good. A little ham-handed there at the end, with the writers sort of saying: "And if you don't get what we're saying yet...here it is with all our work shown on the back." But less so than most super-hero movies, frankly. They also knew what to take from the best of the comics and what to leave. That's no small thing.
Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker was everything you've heard it is. He played it grittier and closer to the (green velvet) vest than Jack Nicholson, and was definitely much scarier for it. Never went over the top in my opinion. Like his Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain, the great stuff is all in the small details - the character ticks like his licking his dry scarred lips and the vocal inflection that quivers, pops and careens to let you in on the character's unstable mentality. I was skeptical about all this talk of a posthumous Oscar -- but I've been converted.
The other actors were terrific too. Director Chris Nolan had a stunning supporting cast -- Michael Cain, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman. And he did more with them this time, with the origin story out of the way.
I know they're famous last words -- but I'm looking forward to a third.