I finally went to see Dark Knight today. It seems like the majority of the movie-going public watched this movie on opening weekend: Dark Knight broke the record for proceeds in an opening weekend (from the venerable Spiderman 3… I guess the record doesn’t quite mean as much as it did back in the days of Star Wars).
Bottom line: This movie was a mixed bag for me, and I am a bonafide Batman fan. But one thing should be clear: Heath Ledger was amazing. More on that later.
The movie has certainly received incredible hype and buzz. A lot of it, however, doesn’t seem to be all that well deserved.
First, Maggie Gyllenhall was not the vast improvement over Katie Holmes that I expected. I thought her acting was a bit superficial, obvious maybe. Perhaps it was the writing, but I did not enjoy her character.
Second, the Harvey Dent – Two Face story line was resolved a bit too quickly. I had thought Two Face would be the subject of the next movie, but it appears not. I think they could have gone without the conversion to Two Face until the very end of the movie, and use that as a cliff hanger, much like the great cliff hanger they used in Batman Begins with the Joker card. That way, they could have shaved at least 20-25 minutes off this long movie.
Also, the sound and editing seemed a little off during the movie. A lot of the dialogue was too quiet, the background music was inconsistently noticeable, and the scenes were a little jagged, fragmented, not logically sequenced at all. A few times I thought the projector had somehow skipped a reel!
That said, I will say this again. Heath Ledger’s performance was everything it had been promised to be, and it is reason enough to plunk down the $8.00 $9.50 to watch this in the theater. He saves the movie, plain and simple. Or rather, he IS the movie, plain and simple. I hesitate to write any more in case some readers haven’t seen the movie (though, let’s be honest, how many readers will read this early post?). I think it is enough to say that even if you don’t know exactly what the Joker character is based on, you will love his performance. It is simply the best villain I have seen in the movies in a long long time. It truly is a shame that it is Mr. Ledger’s last full performance. Seems like we tend to lose artists just when they have mastered, or reached an epiphany in, their craft… Kurt Cobain, River Phoenix are the two that come to mind. If you have any others, please add some comments.
