As a huge comic book nerd, I dug this movie. A lot. But the fact that it’s getting the amount of mainstream critical acclaim that is, strikes me as not only odd, but a bit misplaced.
I understand that Heath Ledger is dead. And, frankly, he tossed out a perfect performance for the dark, psychotic joker. However, that alone should not take precedence over the movie as a whole. A movie which is flawed in a number of ways.
Like a lot of other movies these days, Dark Knight tries to make itself seem more significant by stretching out the run time. Almost 3 hours for a comic book movie? C’mon. This could have easily been trimmed.
Again succumbing to a common modern movie foible, Dark Knight chooses to portray the action in overly darkened, incredibly quick cut scenes. I think Batman kicks some bad guy ass in this movie, but I have no proof.
Maggie Gyllenhaal. Ugh. The only plus here is that she is replacing Katie Holmes.
I will conclude with a quick message to Christian Bale.
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To: Christian Bale
Subject: The uber-gravelly Batman Voice
Mr. Bale. You play a good Bruce Wayne, and you look heroic enough in the Batsuit (way to recover from the Machinist). However, I’d like to talk to you about the Batvoice. This guttural, gravelly, super-scary voice works really well for intimidating bad guys. However, when trying to philosophize about the symbolic needs for Gotham’s citizens, you may be better off cutting that back a bit. It comes off as -how should I put this?- INCREDIBLY ABRASIVE.
In summary:
Batvoice good – “WHERE IS THE JOKER?!?”, “I’m the Batman!”
Batvoice bad – Any other possible dialogue.
Your pal,
Ben
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All that said, it’s still a pretty cool movie, and this creative team has done a great job resurrecting Batman’s movie franchise from the sad days of neon guns and rubber nipples.
