27 July, 2008

Chaos Theory

Well, I finally got to see The Dark Knight last night. I'm really still absorbing a lot of it so I'm not sure how I truly feel about it. I liked it well enough and there are some genuinely jaw dropping moments but I'm not convinced it lives up to all the incredible hype. Really though, how could any movie? The theme of the movie seems to center around chaos as a tangible force. It's the reason the Joker thrives in Gotham, it's what inspires him. He sows discord throughout the city by appealing to man's basest natures, namely greed and the need to survive no matter the cost. Unfortunately, the Joker consistently uses the same ploy to sow chaos which to me seems to be a much too organized way of creating chaos in the first place. I think the only thing that truly annoyed me about the movie was the damn music. Every time (and I mean every damn time) something major was about to happen you would hear this one freaking note that would get louder and louder until the "shock" came. I was kind of disappointed that Christopher Nolan would resort to using this hack method of creating tension. The story and the surprises were good enough that the music was unnecessary. After awhile it actually took away from the scene. Leave that crap for stupid slasher films, man.
Heath Ledger was as good as advertised. This is the best Joker ever put on film, no contest. Anyone giving me Jack Nicholson needs to go back and watch that original Batman film again (I did recently and was disappointed I ever thought that movie was good). Aaron Eckhart did very well as Harvey Dent also. Nobody else in the cast really stood out. In fact I thought that Christian Bale did a terrible job as Batman this time out (though he was quite good as Bruce Wayne). The deep voice he affected when in costume seemed a little cartoonish. The batsuit itself did not look very intimidating either. I also did not like the way Batman finally tracked down the Joker. I know he's always relied on gadgets to fight crime but the method he uses here seems pretty far fetched even for a "comic book" movie and especially for a Batman film directed by Nolan. I think in the final analysis I enjoyed Batman Begins much more. And as far as a Nolan/Bale collaboration goes, I enjoyed The Prestige even more (that film gets better with every viewing, believe me). I guess I have to say that I really did like Dark Knight but there were some minor things that kept it from being a great film in my eyes. Make no mistake though, it's still a very good film. Just don't believe the hype.