Blood & Rhetoric

The Dark Knight lives up to the hype

Writing by Jana on Monday, 21 of July , 2008 at 8:18 am

Batman: The Dark Knight finally came out, and like every other Batman fanatic, I eagerly lined up at the movie theatre to see the long-anticipated release.

To sum up my feelings: Wow. OMFG. And just plain…wow.

In the weeks and days leading up to the release I tried very hard to be a good girl: I didn’t read any reviews. I didn’t watch any of the other trailers or the leaked first six minutes that was making it’s way around the net. I wanted to see the movie and not bring any other opinions in with me. I didn’t want to ruin it. Because as we all know; nothing ruins something good quite as much as too much hype and anticipation. I’m glad I did because I was blown away.

I’m not going to post some long, analytical, intellectual, wank here about The Dark Knight; other more qualified reviewers have taken care of that for me. But I do have a few things I want to talk about.

Heath Ledger

Heath Ledger is amazing as the Joker. Amazing. If like me you haven’t paid attention to all the hoopla surrounding his death, seeing him in this performance will blow you away. Yes I’m using that term alot. What makes it so incredible, is that he actually became the Joker on screen.

There is absolutely nothing of this man:

in this character:

Nothing.

I kept searching for some semblance of Ledger underneath that persona, and found none. He managed to create a true psychopath with none of the usual bullshit excuses for the behaviour; but somehow, he made him almost sympathetic at times and not through sob stories or redemption, but through something entirely else. Something you saw in his eyes. Something that’s difficult to pin-point because it’s so intangible. I think it’s that something that marks a truly great actor from a good actor, or a decent one, or a mediocre one. Whatever that is, Ledger had it.

Christopher Nolan

Thank you for taking over the Batman franchise and making it something worthy of cinema instead of the cartoonish garbage it had descended to, and indeed by comparison, had always been. You surpassed the bullshit, and you even surpassed yourself and Batman Begins with this latest offering that had my adrenaline pumping and my eyes glued to the screen in horror. Thank you for not taking (too many) cheap shots or short cuts or giving us a stereotypical villain. Thank you for setting the stage so perfectly for the next installment of the Batman saga.

I love you, man!

Just please don’t screw it up.

For example, by adding Robin into the fray.

Please for the love of god do not do that. Do not resurrect Robin.

I think it’s safe to trust you at this point, but delusions of grandeur and infallibility can creep into the most noble of intentions.

Soto sum up the preceding rambling/gushing: GO SEE THE DARK KNIGHT. Whether you’re a Batman fan or not, just go see it. You won’t regret it

Category: film

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