And there it was, after years of waiting, longing, there it finally was, as big as the world, on IMAX, in front of hundreds of adoring fans.
The Dark Knight.
Sure, it's ultimately too long, the plotting is inelegant, the whole plot seems to be a bit thin on second thoughts, the action is too frenetic and choppy, too many elements, too many explosions, too many plot twists, too many false climaxes, too many too many's...
...and yet...
...and yet...it's the best movie, ever!
There's the familiar Batman logo coming at your through blue flames (or was it smoke) and then...boom!
The entire screen lights up and you have to go "woh."
And there it goes. And it doesn't stop until the very end.
Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, William Fichtner (in a small cameo) heck even Nestor Carbonell and the straining-to-be-cult-great Eric Roberts are all good in the small screen time they are given.
One of the good things about a movie brimming with excess is that it gives more time to everyone else.
There's Maggie Gyllenhaal doing so much more than her predecessor ever could think of doing in a role that is still somewhat thin.
There's Gary Oldman, who once shockingly played Sid Vicious and is now note-perfect as the honorable, dogged, but world-weary (he knows of the corruption eating away at the city, but he also knows that he must live with it) Jim Gordon. He's given a lot more to do in this movie (it really is more of an ensemble film than just a Batman-Joker narrative) and handles it well. He really is the human face of this movie, and helps ground the entire enterprise.
There's Christian Bale, making the character more unhinged and filled with more demons than one would imagine. This is not the steely, self-righteous Batman we have come to expect, if there was a time that he comes close to going over the edge this is it. He's almost feral in some of the scenes, like a caged animal howling to get out of his self-imposed cage.
The real surprise is Aaron Eckhart. We all know this story, but he is so very, very good at pushing the Harvey Dent persona that it's almost sad when his inevitable fall from grace arrives, he's not given enough time with it (I thought for sure they were saving him for the third movie). He is absolutely perfect as the crusading crime fighter in a suit (um, the other one) and he is great and keeping you on edge the whole time (Can he be trusted? Is he really the hero he seems to be?).
Eckhart is the perfect embodiment of that old descriptor: a character-actor-in-a-leading-man's-body. Never has that been truer here. He uses his considerable charisma and movie-star-good-looks to great effect, all the while sutbly exploring the many undercurrents within, using all the deftness he possesses as an actor.
And then...
...of course...
...is Heath Ledger. His Joker has to be one of the most frightening, unrestrained, lethal villains this side of Hannibal Lecter. I know, I know. This role is an easy one to play, after all it calls for no, um, restraint. But Ledger does so much more. He has all the affectations, sure (the voice, the licking of the lips, the tongue, the hair...all of it), but he also has the presence, and the menace.
I mean, there were times that he came so close, so close to doing something horrific, that the anticipation made me cringe more than the acts themselves (it is PG-13 after all). He was effete, and on the receiving end of much physical violence (and I do mean violence, this is the first time in a long time where I actually felt movie punches) but there was always that all-too-familiar feeling that at any point, at any moment, he could turn the tables, and that made him even more frightening.
This is his world that everyone inhabits. They all play a small part in this relentlessly bleak landscape. It's not just about Batman and the demons he must overcome, it's about all of them, and the ultimately tragic destinies they are powerless against to keep from fulfilling.
In fact the movie is a lot like the Joker himself. It's too big, it's too loud, it's too anarchic, and it's too idiosyncratic to fit neatly into the superhero/action-movie/summer blockbuster mould. It's wonderful to see a great director like Christopher Nolan (yes, great in spite of his seeming inability to direct coherent action scenes) let loose of the reins a little bit (Batman Begins was as tightly put together as this was shambling and all over the place) and let it all hang out.
Even if it doesn't all come together, even if it risks being too different to be truly satisfying, even if the pleasures lean towards the more intellectual than the visceral/emotional, the fact that this is like no movie of its kind I've seen before was enough for me. That something so large and so essential to the corporate machinery of Hollywood could dare to be like this was invigorating.
The climax is the absence of a climax. The resolution is that there is no real resolution. The message is that very little separates the heroes from the villains, and sometimes we don't get the hero we need, thirst for, or even long to be...sometimes we get the hero we deserve, to get us through the night.
Sometimes, in the bright sunshine of the summer, it's good to know that our heroes reside in the dark.
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