The true Dark Knight (Batman - Special Edition (DVD))

Member Name: ElChupacabra

Product:	Batman - Special Edition (DVD)
Date:	02/08/09 (8 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Jack Nicholson's Joker

Disadvantages: Kim Basinger overacts a bit

Much has been made of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight for their attempts to bring Batman into the real world and make the character a dark refelction of what he is in the comics.

Batman, unlike his comic book cousin Superman, was always grounded in reality. An average, albeit rich, man, Bruce Wayne, who witnesses crime in the form of the murder of his parents at a young age. He devotes his life to fighting the criminal underworld. He has no super powers, just a well trained body and mind. Certainly Christopher Nolan, in BB and TDK, tried to play to this to the ultimate real world extent.

However, I very much feel that Batman, although more realistic that Superman, was still very much fantasy. After all this was a guy who ran around dressed in an animal costume with a cape and fought a rogues gallery of absurdly unrealistic villians. For that reason it is incredibly difficult, at least for me, to accept the completely realistic interpretation to the Batman mythos that Nolan presents, anf even though his movies are good, for me Tim Burton's 1989 effort Batman remains the best film of the Dark Knight to date.

There are so many great aspects to this film, but I think the best would have to be Anton Furst's alien cum industrialistic style Gotham City and the inspired casting.

Ok, perhaps it wasn't that inspired to cast Jack Nicholson as The Joker, but then you can't complain after watching his truly legendary performance which, in my opinion, is leagues above Heath Ledger's "lick my lips a lot" performance. Ledger very much concentrated on the evil side of the Joker. But this was a character who, after all, was called The Joker and I didn't see much humour on the part of Ledger's version. Nicholson on the other hand injects plenty of humour, but doesn't let you forget that this Joker is still, nonetheless, a very evil man.

The most inspired casting however is Michael Keaton as Batman. Before this movie was made I would have never imagined him in such a role, and I think that's why it works so completely. You truly believe that this is a man who has come into this role in life because of circumstances outside of his control, and has to wrestle with the effect it has had on his life. You also believed that this man was the billionaire playboy who couldn't also possibly be the guy running around in a batsuit.

The plot obvious sees Batman take on the Joker's evil plan to kill half of the citizens of Gotham and by itself proves for an average story. However, it is the sheer visual pleasure of the cinematography side of the movie, and the realisation of Gotham as a true cesspit of desperation, that keeps you gripped.

Alas the sequels that followed could not match up to the quality of this movie, especially after Joel Schumacher took over from Burton, and I suspect that perhaps now those sequels have tainted peoples' view of this movie. But, rest assured this is an outstanding effort and well worth buying.

Summary: THe best interpretation of the Batman comics to date.