The Dark Knight [No Spoilers]

Last night I went to a midnight presentation of The Dark Knight. It’s the first time in over a year that I’ve gone to a midnight premiere (the last time was for Transformers). It’s also the first time all summer I’ve selfishly taken advantage of the fact that I don’t have to go to my office job until 12:30 PM each day. I want to give you some of my impressions, but without giving away any of the plot for the majority of you who probably still haven’t seen it. But before I even do that I want to tell you the story about how I managed to get tickets at the last second.

The Miracle Tickets

Originally I had thought of organizing a big group of people to go see The Dark Knight last night, but upon hearing that the majority of people preferred to see it Friday night I decided to see if I could just find one or two other people to go with me. It turned out my friend James was planning to go with a few of his coworkers, so I figured I would join him. But none of us had gotten tickets ahead of time. We were planning to go to the theatre at around 10 PM and get our tickets two hours before the show started. Two hours in advance would be enough time, right?

Wrong. Very wrong. There are two major theatres in Tallahassee. James went to one and I went to the other to increase our chances of success. As soon as I walked in I overheard some disgusted fan express his anger at the fact that the theatre was sold out of tickets. So I call James and discover that there aren’t any tickets at his theatre either. He told me his theatre had a 3 AM showing and asked, jokingly, if I wanted to go home, sleep for a couple of hours and catch that one.

Tempting as that was, I had an idea of my own. I suggested that I go ahead and buy tickets for Friday night while I was at the theatre so we wouldn’t run into this problem again. James agreed. I went up to one of the unmanned computer kiosks and selected two tickets for the Friday night 10 PM showing. I slid my card and waited for everything to print out.

If you’re familiar with these kiosks you know that they print out one ticket and one ticket-like receipt for each ticket you purchase. But my machine just kept on printing. It printed out six little pieces of paper instead of four. I take a closer look at what I’d been given. In my hands were two tickets to the Friday show that I had meant to buy, two receipts for those tickets and two tickets for the midnight premiere showing! I know it sounds crazy and like I’m making it up but that’s really the way it happened. So I tell James to get to the theatre as quick as he can. We were even able to get two seats together even though we were two of the last two people in.

My Non-Spoiler Reactions

I don’t want to ruin this movie for anyone, so here are just a few thoughts that I have that won’t give away any of the story.

First, I have to talk about the Joker. Leading up to this movie I had read all sorts of reviews saying that Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker was his best work yet. Furthermore, his interpretation of the Joker was said to be utterly psychotic. I typically take reviews like that with a grain of salt. Movie critics are the masters of hyperbole and overindulgent language. I came in to the movie with high expectations, but I expected especially great things from Ledger.

That said, after watching The Dark Knight I can say that I felt the Joker was legitimately terrifying. I never knew what he was going to do next, and the fear of the unknown combined with the knowledge that he was capable of tremendous evil was a very scary mix. Previous to this I wasn’t a major Ledger fan, so I can’t say I’ve seen all of his work. But from what I have seen I can say that this is far and away his best outing. His performance is what makes this movie. Yes, the other stars turn in good work, but Ledger is the star of the show from start to finish. I believe Ledger’s Joker will be remembered as one of the great iconic villains in modern movie history, up there with the likes of Hannibal Lecter and Darth Vader.

One concern I had heard voiced about this movie was whether you would be distracted by the fact that Heath Ledger was alive and well on the screen but in reality had passed away back in January. Don’t worry; that probably won’t be an issue. He’s so convincing that I never saw Ledger on the screen, only the Joker. There is one line that, given his death, has taken on some sad irony, but that didn’t even occur to me until I was out of the theatre.

Should Ledger be considered for an Oscar? I think it would be a crime not to give him a nomination. I know there’s some concern that it would be done in large part because of his death, but after you see what he’s done I think you’ll agree that the work speaks for itself. Should he win? That’s really dependent on his competition. But you never know.

Maggie Gyllenhaal does a great job replacing Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. I can’t deny, however, that it was a little distracting to try to convince myself that this was supposed to be the same woman from Batman Begins. But her performance is great. She has a certain subtlety to the way she portrays her character that I think Holmes lacked. I think people in the business call it “presence.” In the end I still wish they could have brought back Holmes just for the sake of continuity, but considering the hand that was dealt the outcome was better than I expected.

It’s hard for me to say whether or not I liked Christian Bale’s sophomore outing as the Caped Crusader. If Batman Begins is about Bruce Wayne becoming Batman, The Dark Knight is about Batman and the consequences that persona has on Bruce Wayne. Wayne has a much smaller role in this film. Much of Batman’s screen time is shared with the Joker, who steals the show in every frame. As such, I’m going to wait to pass final judgment on Bale until I’ve seen the movie one or two more times. My first impression is that his performance was adequate, but nothing all that special.

I felt like there was a lot more going on in this movie than in Batman Begins. Maybe that’s because the violence is on such a greater scale, or maybe it’s just because this movie is longer. It could also be due to the fact that I’ve only seen this movie once and I’m still trying to process everything I’ve seen, whereas I’ve seen Batman Begins many times and know every turn of the plot inside and out. At any rate, you should prepare yourself for a multi-layered film.

Overall the movie is much darker than its predecessor. Of course this is in large part due to its primary villain, but even Batman himself is darker in this film. He makes some choices, one in particular, that are morally questionable. Some may not like this, desiring Batman to be incorruptible regardless of the circumstance. But this is the Batman of the graphic novels, the one who is a vigilante and chooses to observe society’s standard moral code most of the time, but who also makes his own rules when the going gets tough. It certainly raising some questions that are very relevant in our world today, like how much leeway are we willing to give our protectors so that they can keep us safe?

Here’s a quick tip: there isn’t a scene after the end credits. Feel free to leave when the credits start rolling.

I do have a couple of negative things to say, but feel like there isn’t a way to say them without giving away plot details. I plan to write a follow-up review of the film in a week or two, just to give the general population a chance to see it at least once so they can agree or disagree with what I have to say.

The Verdict

A lot of movies that will come out this summer are not worth your $9 to go see in the theatres. I believe The Dark Knight is one of the few exceptions. This isn’t just a great superhero movie, nor is it just a great crime saga. It’s a movie that trendscends generes. Now, that’s not to say this is a movie for everyone. It can be heart-in-your-throat scary at times. There’s a lot of violence. When it’s over you’ll probably walk out of the theatre exhausted, even if you aren’t watching it at midnight like I did. So if that’s not your bag I might think twice before seeing it. But if none of those things rub you the wrong way I would highly recommend this movie to you. Batman Begins informs this movie, but if you haven’t seen it (or if you haven’t seen it in a long time) you can still see The Dark Knight without experiencing major confusion.

Did you see The Dark Knight at midnight too? Did you or anyone with you dress up like one of the characters? Let me know some of the things that made the movie great for you in the comments (please, be sensative with plot details).