f4f3 | So, The Dark Knight, then…

First of all, this is a hugely impressive movie. There’s a lot in it, a lot of the money is on the screen, and there’s a bit of thought there too. Good performance by Bale, fairly solid support from all around, and a wonderful turn by Heath Ledger. He did actually make The Joker scary, as much by his use of knives as his rolling eyes and cackling. His Joker is all about getting inside you – whether physically, by poking a knife into someone’s mouth (or sewing a cell-phone into their belly) or mentally, by facing all and sundry with ethical dilemmas designed to prove that all of humanity is ultimately as nasty as he is.

There’s a few flaws, of course. I think the movie is too long – the first obvious ending is about 90 minutes in. I wouldn’t have objected if they’d stopped there, and came back for the Two-Face story in the next movie. There’s a feeling of anti-climax for the last section, after The Joker is beaten. I have a feeling that every foot of Ledger footage was swept back up off the cutting-room floor after his death and wedged back into the movie. The thing is, it’s all good stuff, but not all of it is necessary to the movie. Neither is the Hong-Kong interlude, even though it looks great.

All of these are quite minor flaws, though, and I can forgive them quite easily. What really grated for me was taking part of the sub-text of Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” graphic novel and thrusting it into super-text. Miller plays on the way that other characters in his book, particularly Two-Face, Superman and The Joker mirror part of Batman’s character. He even has Batman tell Two-Face at the end of part two the when he looks at him he sees a reflection. In the comic this works well, and lends Harvey quite a bit of pathos, and exposes Batman’s self doubt (oh, ok, it’s pretty microscopic, but it’s there).

In the movie, the contrast between Harvey Dent, crusading D.A. and Batman, vigilante avenger, is played a little less subtly. It goes something like this:

GOTHAM NEEDS A HERO! HARVEY DENT IS A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOUR! BATMAN WEARS BLACK! DENT IS A HERO! BATMAN ISN’T! EXCEPT HE IS, REALLY! BUT NO ONE KNOWS! EXCEPT JIM GORDON! AND ALFRED! AND JIM GORDON’S SON! AND ALL OF US! WE KNOW HE’S A HERO! EVEN THOUGH HE WEARS BLACK!

I’m not exaggerating. People actually speak this sort of stuff. Sometimes in voice over. The bit about “The hero Gotham wants and the hero Gotham needs” comes out about three times. Strangely enough, it’s about the only element that you don’t find in TDKR, Batman: Year One (Miller’s take on the Batman’s origin) or Alan Moore’s “The Killing Joke”, which runs through the Joker’s “Any of you could have turned out like me” shctick with a lot more economy. And a funnier joke. I suspect the very heavy hand of the director in his screen-writing role.

It’s a shame, since this detracts a little from the (eventual) ending, but it won’t stop me seeing it again, this time at the IMAX, next Wednesday.