Sanjoy Alexander's Movie Review of The Dark Knight

The Knight glows in the Dark
Sanjoy Alexander - wrote on 07/21/08

The best part of the movie is the stellar cast. All except one put in amazing performances. The odd one being Maggie Gyllenhaal. Katie Holmes was not good, but she atleast managed to look good. Gyllenhaal doesn’t look good and she can’t act well too.

Heath Ledger and Christian Bale are impressive in their roles, the former stealing the show from the latter most of the time. But Bale does stand out with his intensity throughout the movie. Michael Caine, Morgan freeman and Gary Oldman root the movie with their supporting roles. Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent is the white knight of the storyline who fights crime, staying within the law till the debacle which makes him the Two-face.

Christopher Nolan has resurrected a deteriorating franchise and gave it a new lease of life with Batman Begins. Now he has raising it up to an epic status– a modern day epic. He has learnt from his predecessors – Tim Burton (too dark) and Joel Schumacher (too flashy) – and has given us a movie that Hollywood can be proud of. After a long time here comes a director who has proved that real action (sans-CGI) is more spectacular than a visual effects fest. If you need to blow up a building, you should blow it up in real world and not in a CGI environment. The chase sequence was well-executed, though we lament the loss of the batmobile. Hope they bring it back in the sequel, as it was the most purposeful batmobile till date. The Batpod scene didn’t disappoint either.

Nolan’s skill with his craft is evident in the scenes with emotions and intensity as well. The ferry sequences built up tension with so much strength that the movie stepped out beyond the scope of a summer blockbuster. The characters are forced to question their ethics and convictions – good or evil.

At the box office, it’s the reign of the knight now. Record breaking opening day and opening weekend collections hint at one fact – this movie is going to hold on in theatres for a very long time. The best reason being the immense re-seeability value associated with it. I have watched it twice and I don’t mind watching it twice more. It’s running to packed houses everywhere.

The hype and the publicity have got the audience to the theatres and now the audience has taken up the promotion mantle with must-see recommendations flying all over the place.

So is it one of the best movies ever made? With thumbs up sign from the critics and the masses, yes it is and we all look forward to the Knight’s return.