Between Love and Hate

I had been putting off seeing The Dark Knight for a long time. Finally, I was at my cousin's for his birthday and he really wanted to see it before it went out of theaters. I was still a little hesitant (poor Heath, etc), but it was my cousin's birthday. Plus, he was right; if I was going to see it, I should see it on the big screen.

Now, I really like Batman as a super hero. I think he might even be my favorite. However, I probably know less about the Batman comics than I do about any other super hero. So, my review is not based on how closely related the comic is to the movie (which I usually do take into consideration).

We go to the theater, get our tickets, find some good seats, and the lights dim. I start to get pretty excited. I keep thinking about all the rave reviews I've heard: better than the first movie, Heath is the best actor in the movie, could've done a dozen more movies with him as The Joker, etc.

The movie starts and I get even more excited. Christian Bale! Michael Caine! Morgan Freeman! I was so happy to see them all! But for some reason, even though I'd seen dozens of previews for the movie, I had no idea Aaron Eckhart was in the movie! I loved him in Meet Bill. This just keeps getting better!

Then after I got over the initial high. I remember being pretty confused by the plot. Everything was happening so fast. I feel like crucial details were lost in the clutter that was my mind trying to keep track of people's names and faces, let alone the storyline. I was actually starting to get annoyed by it.

Then, all of the sudden, Heath! The makeup, the hair, the clothes, the mannerisms, the voice. Haunting. Then he came back a second time. And a third. Each time I was less and less impressed with the overall effect. The makeup, hair, and clothes would be easily as creepy on someone else, and his mannerisms were not all that distinctive. So, that only left the voice. I finally realized that the only reason I was so impressed by his portrayal of The Joker, was that his voice never faltered. He never slipped out of the higher-than-normal Joker voice. He never once said anything even remotely with his usual Australian drawl. When you expect to hear Heath Ledger and you get that voice, it's unnerving. However, once I realized that was the only thing making his portrayal so unsettling, I was significantly less impressed with his acting for the rest of the movie. I'm not saying it was bad, it just wasn't as great as everyone said.

After a while, I felt really disoriented. It's like when you're riding in a plane at cruising speed and you doze off for a second and wake up and you've started descending and your body is startled by the new speed. That's exactly how my brain felt about this movie. You're racing along so fast you can barely keep up and then someone starts slowing it down. When you finally notice you're slowing down, you've already slowed down so far that it's almost shocking. Once I realized how slowly the plot was moving along, I thought we had to be nearing the end. So, I looked down at my watch. What?? There was a whole hour left!

After a very mediocre middle of the movie, Two Face finally takes the center of attention. I think that Aaron Eckhart's transformation from Harvey Dent to Two Face was the greatest acting in the entire movie. And I'm not putting any of the other actors down; I think that, overall, this is probably one of the best-acted movies I've ever seen. Most of the time you say, "Wow! Everyone was really great! ...Except [insert name like Selma Blair, Sarah Jessica Parker, etc]." I don't think there was an "except" in this movie. Everyone—even the people you only saw once or twice—played their parts exceptionally well. However, for me, Aaron Eckhart just stole that movie right out of Heath's cold, dead fingers. There's no way Heath out-acted Aaron. Sorry, but you know that if he hadn't died before it came out, everyone else would be thinking the same thing.

Overall, I would have to give this movie 3 1/2 stars. I like my movies to start out slow and introduce the characters, progressively build up to a climax of some sort, and then let you down easy. This movie was exactly the opposite: it started out too fast, dropped down to much too slow, and then the only thing that saved it at the end was Two Face.

I also have to say I'm much more interested in seeing another movie with Two Face than The Joker. No matter how many more movies they could have put The Joker in, I feel like you wouldn't have learned any more about his character. The point is that he's just completely insane and there's no rhyme or reason to his actions. With Two Face, you can see how his psychological damage plays out. Overall, he's a much more interesting character.

Once again the sequel rule holds true. This was not better than Batman Begins. Maybe I'll be less disappointed by the third movie, but I have a feeling it's going to be a long wait for that...