The Dark Knight

Simply Phenomenal!



I convinced a coworker, Ryan, to accompany me to see the Dark Knight on Imax this morning at 6am.

There has been a lot of hype about this movie and this movie delivers on every level. I would give it a 9.7 out of 10.

Is Heath Ledger's performance Oscar worthy? Without a doubt. Even if he hadn't died he would have fully deserved to be nominated, Now, given his tragic passing I expect that he will run away with the award. Does the story stick to the source material? Yes. Nolan nails it. Only at the end did I realized how phenomenally well he did. When I heard he had taken inspiration from The Killing Joke I was very excited, but after reading a synopsis of the plot I didn't know how it would be incorporated. The reality is that even though the movie storyline is very different than the Killing Joke the themes and conflicts are spot on. In fact the movie may be superior. Is the writing good? Its probably the best part. The dialog is spot on.



This movie is INTENSE. While there are humorous moments it doesn't have the "family fun" feel of recent Marvel releases. This is an adult oriented film. It is VERY violent, though not gory.

This movie also deals with some very timely and interesting themes and will generate some great discussions. Unfortunately, having seen it so early I have to wait for everyone else to see it before I can talk about aspects of the movie.

The Bad: There are two things that kept TDK from getting a perfect 10 in my book and deserved a knock of a few points from being perfect. (1) Nolan is still in love with the "quick cut" fight scenes where it is hard to tell what is going on. (2) Maggie Gyllenhaal - I don't like her. She did her job adequately and carried her part, but for me she didn't bring anything new or show any previously unrealized depth. Also, I don't find her attractive; Katie Holmes was better, too bad she couldn't reprise the role. (Kristina gives me a hard time because every once in a while I don't find a Hollywood starlet to be attractive. She considers it undue snobbery; I pretend it is due to my refined tastes.)

All in all the movie is phenominal. Go see it. (Just don't bring the kids.)