How many thousands of people are blogging their Dark Knight reviews today?  Why are you going to sit here and read mine?  You tell me.

Let me start off by saying that when I went into the theater I had already been up for nearly twenty consecutive hours and exhaustion can do funny things to you, so I’m just going to jump around a whole lot.

The End Credits
I hope you don’t consider this a spoiler, but there isn’t any last little thing at the end of the Dark Knight credits.  You don’t get a cameo appearance hinting at a third movie and you don’t get the Joker’s evil laugh.  Unless you want to see Warner Bros. thank Mayor Daley and the citizens of Chicago, you can leave after you figure out who played which part.

The Joker
He’s the big villain so this is where all the buzz is.  One of my co-workers (who is not in the pop culture loop apparently) said to me this morning, “I don’t know who they got to play the Joker, but he’s got to be brave to follow Jack.”  Those of you in the loop know that Heath Ledger (most notably of Brokeback Mountain fame) had the honor and in the wake of his death the film was dedicated to him and Conway Wickliffe (a stunt technician killed while filming the picture).  Jack Nicholson’s take on the joker was nearly twenty years ago and it’s apples and oranges folks.  Neither are perfect adaptations of the comic book, but that would be boring anyway.  Ledger’s take on the Joker is excellent in its own right and the character’s introduction in the movie is great.

Plot and Storytelling
No spoilers, I promise.  The Joker kills people and plays mind games with Gotham City.  The Batman pursues him.  It’s almost that simple.  There are some twists and turns with the underworld mob bosses struggling for a foothold.  What I enjoy about it is that it’s dark.  It’s not campy.  The Joker doesn’t contaminate all the hygiene and cosmetic products with a fatal chemical which plants a permanent smile on the victim.  He blows shit up.  He plays with knives, fire, guns, and bazookas.  I might have been okay with the addition of a few handguns that fired flags reading “Bang!”, but their absence is okay too.

Criticisms
Most of my complaints are things that bothered me about Batman Begins as well.  Christian Bale’s Batman voice isn’t quite right (Keaton’s was the best, Clooney didn’t bother).  Batman’s suit doesn’t look how I think it should.  The head is the biggest problem; it seems disproportionately big.  I like the mostly black look, but some gray would be nice too.

Something bugs me a little about Maggie Gyllenhaal, but I can’t put my finger on it.  Maybe it’s just her acting.  Katie Holmes seemed too young or too short though.

Yeah, the criticisms are pretty minor.  Really, you already know if you’re going to see it or not, right?  So go see it.  Definitely worth the price of admission, maybe not worth the added cost of concessions…but then I’m pretty cheap.

The Trailers
The Day The Earth Stood Still: The end of the world staring Keanu Reeves.  Didn’t he save the world once in Constantine?  Could be interesting.  Very well may be stupid, but the visuals were cool.

Terminator Salvation: No matter how much time travelling they do, they just can’t stop those damn supercomputers from killing all of mankind.  I’m a sucker for robots so I’ll see it eventually, but might wait for the video.

The Watchmen: The visuals are intriguing, but I have to confess that I’ve never read the graphic novel.  I should do that first so that I’m properly disappointed by the movie adaptation.

So?  Go see it and tell me what you think.

Filed under: Reviews by John