Cut through the dribble... (A honest review of The Dark Knight).

Alright, my purpose is to write a critically honest view of The Dark Knight. First, I'll be straight up. I have film man crush on Christopher Nolan. The man is a film genius. He has at least 2 of my top 10 films, under his belt. So, I am a little biased. That said, I LOVE this film. I pays great homage to the Joker that people who read the comics are more familiar with, and Ledger plays him remarkably. For instance, there's a pivotal scene where The Joker confronts a main character in the hospital. The Joker is in full drag, dressed as a nurse, and uses lines like "Do I look like a guy who plans?" It's just plain hilarious. Unfortunately, there were people in my theater who were laughing at the weirdest times, so I kind of hated that. I plan on seeing the movie in IMAX to confirm my overall perception of the movie. Overall, I give it a 10 out of 10.
Now, the reason I titled it "cutting through the dribble", is that there are some things about the movie that I didn't like or the way their percieved. Mostly, it's about Ledgers performance. If you listen to people in Hollywood, they say that this "oscar calibre" or "worthy of an award". These kinds of buzz words make me sick. It's more of an emotional call from the insiders of Hollywood. Ledgers performance is good for the character. However, The Joker is such a colorful character and Nolan is so good, that I think that there were several people who could have done good with the role. The second thing is Maggie Gyllenhaal. Maggie is by far the worst thing of the film. She is one of several aging starlets that is getting really old looking and I wouldn't have anything to do with. The full list includes Gyllenhaal, Katie Holmes, Angelina Jolie, Kate Hudson, and Uma Thurman. Most of these women look like the struggling 30 to 40 year old women trying to hold onto youth, like it's a Year Pass for a membership to a Day Spa. Granted, Gyllenhaal's original role was played by Katie Holmes, which wasn't much better. However, this was a step down. Gyllenhaal was a good looking actress in the past, but her day is done. I couldn't look at the movie without seeing her drooping face and thinking, this girl is absolutely not good looking, and Bruce Wayne would have nothing to do with her.


This is even a picture which has all the Botox and make up in it, and even then I still think that she wouldn't get any play from me. So, that was one of the MAJOR drawbacks, but most of the performances made up for it. The action and all the tone and overall pace of the movie was dead on. I don't know if there's room in my Top 10 movies for it. I don't think it quite cracks the list, but overall a great movie.
The movie is really dark though. Traditionally, I look at movies and see what age I would let met my kids (if I had any) see the movie. Most PG-13 movies, I'd show to a 10 year old, depending on the movie. This movie, I'd probably only show it to a 12 or 13 year old. It has a lot of adult themes, and many of the beautiful things in the movie would be missed by a younger audience. So, when I see all the merchandising geared towards young children, it kind of makes me sick. Kids as young as 8 should not be seeing this movie.
This movie doesn't have as many "moral zingers" as the first one, like "Why do we fall? So, we can learn to pick ourselves up again". However, it does have one major point at the end. Heroes do hard things. They aren't always liked, or work within the system, but they do the things required. Which I think is a good point in this "get with the system" kind of world.