In Continuum.

Like the minority of the people out there right now, I am one of the few individuals that didn't like Batman Begins all that much, and has had little to no interest in the franchise as a whole. Tim Burton's interpretations were good, but they never stuck to me as being brilliant movies in anyway. Like the majority of the movie lovers, however, the latter two films (Batman Forever and Batman & Robin) are not considered a part of the franchise, simply because of how extremely bad they were to watch. Sure, Jim Carrey wasn't that bad as the Riddler, and the bad mobile looked pretty good in that same movie as well, it just never lived up to the first two Batman movies. Now, Christopher Nolan came along and gave us Batman Begins three years ago in an attempt to reboot the franchise in a way, and everybody loved it - save for me. It didn't work on so many levels, and I initially thought it was because of the fact that my seat was in the corner of the first row when I saw it. I watched it again on television a few months later, and I still didn't like it all that much. The Dark Knight, however, changed everything about my impression of Batman. 

I entered the theater without a lot of expectations unlike a lot of people out there. That is probably the result of a couple of okay preceding movies and a couple of very bad ones in the past. The viral marketing didn't exactly work for me, and the U.S. release of the film was more exciting to me because it was bundled with the trailer of Watchmen, due for release next year. Still, I wanted to watch The Dark Knight, because I didn't want to be left out of the loop. Besides, Christopher Nolan is just such an incredible director, and I still see Batman Begins as his only major mistake. Anyway, so the movie idea really was an impromptu thing, since I wanted to watch the movie and MJ was free for today before he trots off to another one of his duties again, we decided to catch the film at Vivo City. At that point in time, I have already watched the Watchmen trailer (so, so, so good), but I still secretly hoped that they'd play it in Singapore. Of course, as usual, Golden Village disappointed me. 

The Dark Knight is radically different from most of the other Batman movies, pretty much like the departure of Batman Begins. Although both films seem to stem from the very same root, I feel that The Dark Knight is a lot more focused and concise as compared to its preceder. This time around, the writers threw out all the origin stories of The Joker, and they focused very definitely on the story at hand. That is definitely one of the things that was improved over Batman Begins because, the whole thing about Bruce Wayne's story really bored me out. How many times over the course of the past two decades have we heard about Bruce's parents being shot by a man in a dark alley after a show? Besides, I felt the treatment of Batman's origins was pretty messed up in Batman Begins, with the beginning of the film rushed and awkwardly paced for the most part. More about why I disliked Batman Begins later.

The Dark Knight picks up where the last film left off, and we are treated to a bang heist at the beginning of the movie. The Joker is here to tear down Gotham City, as promised at the end of the last movie, and he is doing so without any remorse or reason. This is Batman's chief enemy, this is a man that kills and destroys without any real motive or reason. Worst of all, however, it is The Joker's fearlessness that makes him the most formidable enemy out there for the Batman. The whole cast is back this time, with Christian Bale as Batman, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Michael Caine as Alfred, and Gary Oldman as James Gordon. Katie Holmes, however, passed the baton to Maggie Gyllenhaal this time around, whom I love so much. Additional to the cast, we have Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, and the late Heath Ledger as The Joker. Harvey Dent is the city's new D.A., and he is determined to bring crime under control in Gotham at all costs. Batman sees Harvey as the new hope for Gotham, and decided that it was time for him to step down. However, The Joker comes into the picture and wouldn't allow Batman to do so easily. He feels that the city deserves a better class of villains, and he felt that he was up to that challenge. 

Like I mentioned, Christopher Nolan threw away all the origin stories and focused on the story at hand, a story that has been crafted to almost perfection by the writers, including himself. This is the re-imagining of the Batman universe that is as good, if not better than the original materials from the books. We find a lot more realism in The Dark Knight, and the story definitely has a greater level of coherence because of the linear story line. Although standing at being almost three hours long in length, the film does not feel rushed or strangely paced in any parts, and that is because of the constant sense of danger and threat in the air that created a brilliant suspense. You never quite know what The Joker is going to do next, and even a stumble in the film feels as if it is "a part of the plan". In this film, Batman isn't interested in the small fries any longer. He is going after the main villain this time, and a villain that actually feels a lot more menacing and real. Let's face it, as much as we were excited to see Liam Neeson's name in the last Batman movie, his character sucked. We had a villain that had a giant steam engine that was supposed to make people hallucinate and, in turn, allow him to rule the world? Please. He wouldn't stand a chance against The Joker. 

With that said, Heath Ledger is the center of this film definitely, and that is also why I have chose the poster out of the many others in the movie's marketing campaign. The Joker is the star of this movie, and Heath Ledger nailed this performance and brought a new level of menace to comic book villains, or villains as a whole. If he isn't the scariest villain to hit the screen, he must be in the league of one of the best, like Hannibal Lector. This man is a psychopath, a man without reason at all. He would kill for no reason at all, and he is a very very smart man. In fact, on many occasions, he trumps Batman and figuratively knees him in the balls. Heath Ledger became the Joker, and his performance was simply outstanding. With that said, however, I do have to disagree with all the Oscar buzz around his performance. Just because Heath is dead, that doesn't mean he deserves an Oscar. He was good, in fact he was really good. But to say that he was Oscar worthy? Not really, I wouldn't think so. 

The other performances were solid across the board as well, although Christian Bale's raspy voice as Batman pissed me off. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman took a step back this time and allowed the rest of the cast to shine, and one of them is definitely Aaron Eckhart. I have liked him ever since Thank You for Smoking, and I have to say that his transformation from Harvey Dent to Two-faced was both convincing and real. The local news kept going on and on about the Singaporean actor, Chin Han, making an appearance in the movie. Well, his role wasn't actually very important, but at least it had a large amount of screen time. This is the same actor who was in Masters of the Sea and Troubled Waters, some of the first English language dramas in Singapore, and we have him having more screen time than Edison Chen. Edison Chen had so much screen time that pedestrian #83 probably had more. Seriously, it was really forgettable. 

You know how it is when you watch a superhero movie, you know that things are usually going to turn out well for the protagonist. The Dark Knight changed that equation and diverted off the path of the conventional. While I am not going to spoil the ending, all I can say is that it is not an ending one would actually expect, unless you have been a faithful reader of the comics. It is definitely a lot darker than all the other movies, and it examines the minds of the villain and Batman on a deeper level this time around. The psychological tension in this film is definitely worth mentioning, and that is on top of all the other action scenes that we were treated to throughout the movie. They weren't, for me, the highlights of the film to me, although they were nice. The bit with the truck doing a somersault in the middle of the street reminded me of the scene from Terminator 3, even the method used was rather similar. Anyway, my favorite scene was probably The Joker appearing in the hospital as a nurse. I don't know why, that was just such a "Joker" moment to me. 

Batman Begins was bad to me, because it just felt really messy. It didn't have a very convincing main villain, it didn't have a very convincing plan to destroy Gotham City, Scarecrow was a man with a potato sack over his head, and Ken Watanabe died in the first half an hour, what's up with that? I didn't buy the story at all, but this time everything worked nicely. I hate to say this, but I love the Joker. I wouldn't want to be stuck in a lift with him of course, but he definitely is the main reason why this movie worked for me. Everything from his "social experiment", to his magic trick with the pencil, to his blood curling laughter. Everything worked, and I really don't care if people are complaining that Joker shouldn't be wearing make-up. This film to me was a real step up from all the other Batman movies, and definitely is the best in the whole series. 

The year 2008 seems to belong to comic book adaptations somehow. We have had too many failures in the past I suppose, and this year we've already had The Dark Knight from DC comics and Iron Man from Marvel. Both of them are immensely entertaining movies, although both for different reasons altogether. I must say that they are both comparable, and they are both the shining pinnacles of what comic book movies should be like. This is a completely different ball park now, and let's just wait for the next Batman to happen, if it is happening at all. I wonder if someone should adapt The Dark Knight Returns and bring Frank Miller's version of the hero to the big screen. Not only would we get to see a Bat Tank, we'd also get to see Batman kick Superman's ass and, of course, that thing with the Joker. 

9/10