‘The Daily Emma’ is what I jokingly call the pop culture emails (film links, reviews, Doctor Who gossip etc) I get from my friend Emma, who up until last month lived in Geek Central with me.
This was too good not to post, she really should be working for Empire magazine.
“Let’s get the Harry Knowles hyperbole out of the way right now, shall we? The Dark Knight is fucking awesome.
There, that is the succinct version of my opinion. I, however, thought I’d give you a little more detail on my views as it’s Friday lunch-time, no-one else is in my office today and I can’t do it over a takeaway because well, I don’t live there anymore.
So, The Dark Knight. It’s had the biggest ever opening day for a film in the US and it has gone straight to no1 in the IMDB chart of Greatest Movies Ever deposing The Godfather. It’s had five star reviews in all the genre publications and tabloids plus four star reviews from most of the broadsheets. Nice going for a sequel to a movie that was only considered a moderate financial & critical success on release three years ago. There has been a significant amount of drama surrounding this film that has undoubtedly contributed to the box-office and press coverage but I’m not going to go into that as it’s irrelevant to the quality of the film and frankly, it annoys me. For once, the financial success and hype of a blockbuster is justified (this is not Pirates 2 or, god forbid, Spiderman 3) and I will now tell you why!
Firstly, the script. The Dark Knight is penned by Chris and Jonathan Nolan rather than a comic book hack like David Goyer. These boys wrote Memento so an understanding of structure and character is naturally expected. What they deliver is an expertly structured movie that balances character moments and set pieces but never at the expense of telling an overall story. And it is a sprawling story typical of a comic book sequel but for once, it is one that is worth telling. It’s not just a series of plot points that are there to get characters from one action sequence to the next. It’s also a story that ties nicely into the previous film but isn’t alienating to anyone who hasn’t seen Batman Begins.
There is also a large cast of key players for the writers to contend with; characters played by A-list names. Luckily, everyone has a role to play and very much like Begins, none of the characters feel superfluous to the plot (a la Pirates 2). Conversely and, despite several recent reviews to contrary, no one character dominates the film; it neither belongs to Batman or The Joker and both characters are given equal focus. Consequently, the movie feels balanced and is in no way self indulgent unlike Burton’s Batman. It is the same with the set pieces. They are perfectly paced and placed within the film and do not skimp on spectacle (a vehicle chase between Batman, the Joker and many others is one that is particularly jaw dropping) but more on that later.
Finally, the dialogue is cracking. People have proper conversations and while there are the typical comic book sound bites delivered with an utterly straight face (mostly by Batman it has to be said); it is all very cleverly written and doesn’t feel silly or cheesy. The Joker does, of course, get some very choice lines but he by no means gets them all. ‘The funny’ is distributed evenly between the characters and there is no ‘omic relief’ as it were.
Onto direction. Firstly, this film may be dark in theme but it is certainly not on screen. There are night scenes but they are not the majority and most take place in broad daylight or the harsh halogens of a police cell. The most obvious comparison to make with the Dark Knight (and one that has been made numerous times already) is that it is very Michael Mann. It is a fair comparison with Gotham being a neon soaked cityscape of glass skyscrapers very reminiscent of the setting in Collateral. The opening sequence is also very Heat in its execution but that is no bad thing.
This is not to detract from Nolan’s own distinct style or very obvious talent. Nolan is very controlled with the camera and unlike many comic book directors, isn’t over-reliant on zooms or jump cuts to build tension or convey a race against time. In character scenes there are a lot of tracking and steady cam shots to capture the actors performances and make the audience feel part of the scene (characters are often followed or tracked by the camera as they walk for example). As for the set-pieces, they are magnificent. Again, there is no epilepsy inducing editing and the action is captured beautifully with gorgeous wide shots. It is fast paced but not confusingly so and the audience can always follow what is happening. The stunts are also very muscular and visceral and metal crunches and bones crack with as much realism as a comic book adaptation will allow. Lastly, the score is brilliant. While using the main themes from Begins to give continuity it builds in scale and grandeur to match the scope of the film. It is never bombastic, however, and never drowns out the audio track.
And finally, onto the performances. First up is Christian Bale as the titular Knight (or is he…?) He is, of course, brilliant as usual. Physical, intense but not completely po-faced, he expands on the Wayne (and Batman) he showed us in Begins. He may be just as conflicted as Bruce Wayne (and in his relationship with Rachel) but he is more settled as Batman and the role he has to play in Gotham. It is only the introduction of The Joker that brings him doubt about what Batman has to do to save his city and Bale portrays this destabilisation with subtlety and presence. He is also surprisingly humorous playing the Himbo Playboy to perfection whenever Wayne needs to distance himself from Batman. Heath Ledger is equally brilliant as The Joker. Full of ticks and quirks he is the embodiment of insanity but he never mugs or ‘performs’. He is charismatic and terrifying in equal measure and in a brilliant move by the writers, he remains completely unknowable. He is also very witty rather than being funny and is all the better for it. Then there is Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent who is the beating heart of the movie. I can’t say too much about him without spoiling the plot but his story arc is the most complete out of all the characters and he is heartbreaking to watch. The supporting players (Caine, Freeman and Gyllenhall) are all uniformly excellent as usual and it’s great to see Maggie showing us how it should be done. There is also a lovely little cameo that almost made me ‘woo-hoo’ out loud in the cinema so look out for that.
So, overall The Dark Knight is, in my opinion, the best comic book film ever made. It’s probably one of the best blockbusters ever made and definitely the best film of the summer. Will it rank as high on IMDB once the hype had died down? I doubt it. There are minor plot holes and couple of visuals are over the top and it is, in the end, a comic book movie. It really doesn’t rival The Godfather or The Shawshank Redemption. It is, however, an undoubted creative success.”
So there you go. Apparently it’s not bad.
