The last act of my weekend was to take my two of my cousins and one of my brothers to watch The Dark Knight. Teabelly has a decent review here too…. but get there after you have read mine! 
The movie itself – pretty good I think; not brilliant, but good. The disappointment of the movie? Well, the 2 villains (yes, there are 2 villains (to my surprise)) had a higher profile and better performances than Batman. I also kept thinking that Rachel Dawes was played by Kirsten Dunst – of course it was played my Maggie Gyllenhaal from Secretary (that’s no disappointment in any way).
A lot has been said about the performance of Heath Ledger as the Joker. Michael Caine went to the extent of claiming that it was the best performance in a negative role that he had seen by any actor in his entire career. Actually…… I think he is right. He was too damn good. In fact, I would go to the extent to say that the movie has been held together by his performance alone. His character in the movie is definitely stronger than that of Batman. I don’t think I have watched a Heath Ledger movie before, but I think its a real shame that he is no longer with us. His performance was almost legendary!
MA (Changing Direction without my GPS) suggested Johnny Depp as a possible replacement for the Joker in a future sequel…. but I don’t think that Ledger’s performance could be matched. In the age of multiple sequels for any movie, I think that Hollywood should appreciate the performance of the Joker in this movie, and just draw a line at the end of The Dark Knight; the pinnacle of Ledger’s career one might say.
As for the movie – well as always, I won’t spoil it for you. It’s definitely worth watching, over hyped I guess, but it has a good plot, sharp dialogues by the Joker, and a wicked twist towards the end of the movie…. The second villain was totally unexpected, and adds a very good dimension to the movie. I must say though, the Bat suit was pretty disappointing; does anyone else remember the Batman series with Adam West? Now that outfit was something!
All in all a very good movie I think, but I really hope that there is no sequel to this movie. Now… go read Teabelly‘s review!
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Hello, and thank you for the link. I agree with you about the Joker, I think it would be nigh on impossible for them to have someone else play him in a future film. They would always be compared to him. It’s probably best if they leave that character alone for a while and let someone else create one of th other iconic villains of Batman.
I can’t wait to see it!!!
I loved The Dark Knight from beginning to end. Especially considering all the other extremely crappy high-budget movies that’ve been released.
Me and my friend came to the same conclusion! Johnny Depp can take over as The Joker. Of course, his performance won’t be the same (I won’t say “as good”, I’ll say “the same”), but the point isn’t to have a Joker as good as Ledger. It’s to get the character across so that the story can progress.
I know a bit about Batman’s comic book life, and in early press kits, talk about Two-Face appearing was common knowledge. But yeah, he, Commissioner Gordon and The Joker completely overshadowed Batman’s character.
i agree, heath ledger definitely outshone the other performances in the movie… but i will say i still enjoyed it from beginning to end
i LOVED that adam west series growing up! it was one of the few non-pbs shows my parents let me watch.
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