Batman: The Dark Knight

I will not spoil this movie for anyone, but I will discuss the plot. I liked this movie. It is the furthest away from the "comic book" feeling of any of the Batman movies produced thus far. The traditional take on Batman is that he's fighting crime in a world where morality is black and white. This however is a film noir and that necessitates "moral ambiguity". The role of the Joker in this was to push people- good people, common people and moral superstars alike- into that gray area. The Joker desires to show what evil a good man is willing to do. He is not motivated by money, power, revenge or lust but, as Alfred says "Some men just want to watch the world burn." Thankfully, they weren't too gruesome when showing someone snuff it, but the Joker is still a disturbing and bloodthirsty figure. Heath Ledger was amesome in that role- he redefines the super-villan in the Bat-world (oooooh, sorry for that cheesieness!).

After watching the movie, I really had an unsettled feeling. This is not a feel-good movie, to be sure. What occured to me later is that the Joker's main intent was really not much different from that of the killer in the movie Seven (actually Se7en). They both were killing people to make a comment on human nature and, in the process, elevated killing to some sick type of art. That killing could be an art, in itself, is a sick and sad commentary on human nature. Oh that it wasn't true! But the legacy of the genocides of the last century- and the current one in Darfur- are too true and even more abominable than any one serial killer could ever be.

Another, but lesser, important question the movie explores is "what is a hero?" This one is central to Bruce Wayne as he tries to figure out what his place is in the world. Does the world need a hero? What type of hero?

If you don't wany any movie spoilage, then this is your cue to leave.

Seriously, leave now if you don't want to know any more about The Dark Knight.

Not gone yet?

Well, you can't say I didn't warn you!

WOW! Those fight scenes were just amazing!!! Like when he flipped that diesel and the whole chase scene prior to that. I loved the plot twists. I like how Bruce really bought in to the DA and determined that Gotham needed a "hero with a face". It still seemed like a bit of a jump for the Harvey Dent to all of a sudden become Two Face. Maybe I wasn't sold on how much he loved Rachel- they weren't that convincing together. The character of Rachel will not be missed by me in future bat-movies, either. The high point of the movie to me was when the prisoner on the boat takes the detonator from the warden and says "I'm gonna do what you should've done ten minutes ago" then chucks it out the window. I figured each detonator would've blown up the boat it was on anyways. It's not like the Joker was a real credible guy by that point in the movie! Alfreds story about chasing the smuggler was pretty cool, too.

And the technology was amazing! The whole para-lift thing from the building in Hong Kong was outstanding! The escape motorcycle from the Batmobile was sweet. And turning every cell phone in the city into a sonar device fed back to a central computer- WOW! That was some freaking awesome stuff! Whoever thought that up is an evil genius. Muhahahahahahaha!

I can't wait to have this one on DVD so I can watch... oh wait...