The Dark Knight (The Dark Knight (2 DVDs))

Member Name: Macfarlane65

Product:	The Dark Knight (2 DVDs)
Date:	02/08/08 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Yes

Disadvantages: A couple

I don't think this a great film, so four stars not five, but it is a very atmospheric one, a very accomplished piece of film-making and though about twenty minutes too long, very watchable indeed. In this film, Gotham is a dark, dark place. The moral ambiguity of good and evil - that they are opposite sides of the same coin, that one needs the other for survival, that today's hero is tomorrow's public enemy, is not only an interesting theme, it is one that finds parallels in reality (we love, for example to find fault with and cast down our TV screen and celluloid heroes - the tabloids and gossip mags are full of it). Here, Batman duels with the Joker ( a thoroughly unsettling and thoroughly brilliant performance from Heath Ledger, full of facial tics, greasy unkempt hair and wet mouth noises) for the soul of Gotham's good man, D.A. Kent. The spectacle is often breath-taking and all the leading actors command the screen - Ledger, Christian Bale as Batman, Aaron Eckhart as the unfortunate D.A., Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman in an excellently restrained performance as Lieutenant, later Commissioner, Gordon, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine as a very engaging and slightly wistful Alfred - and the mood, predominantly dark, does shift and change, so that there are lighter and even comic moments. In the end, superficially brilliant film as it is - and I mean that as a compliment - it has its faults, particularly in its plot-line, which is labyrinthine but not water-tight. But the attention is held, there are many clever touches and it deserves to be the success at the box office it is proving to be.

Summary: -