Phig Billy gives his low-down on the latest Batman flick, The Dark Knight.

Granted, as a comic book artist myself, I’m a fan of comic books in general and Batman in particular, and if you’re well and truly fed up with the recent spate of superheroic spandex silliness at your multiplex then you may react differently. But to be honest I’d still urge you to give it a chance: this film is so much more engaging and interesting than X-Men or Spiderman. As I say, I like comic books and I’ve enjoyed the season’s previous superhero blockbusters Iron Man (mainly thanks to the Downey) and The Incredible Hulk (ditto Ed Norton), but they don’t come anywhere near The Dark Knight. Those films were perfectly well-crafted translations of their comic book sources: charming, action-packed and exciting. Intellectually undemanding, disposable entertainment. But The Dark Knight is something else.

It’s a complete reinterpretation of the Batman mythos, and (as the title may hint) it’s the darkest and bleakest version of the character I’ve ever seen. It’s also incredibly realistic (as far as these things go) and downright terrifying: it’s as much a crime or horror film as it is a conventional superhero flick. And it’s not really a film for kids: it may have secured a 12A certificate, but it’s very intense and not suitable for youngsters. For the uninitiated, TDK is the sequel to Brit director Christopher Nolan’s 2005 reboot of the Batman franchise “Batman Begins”, and it reteams Nolan with his co-writer David Goyer (demoted from screenplay to plot, thank you God, the dialogue in this one is such an improvement), his star Christian Bale (charismatic and compelling, I’m not 100% sure about the Batman growl he’s developed, but this is a minor niggle) and an impressive supporting cast including Gary Oldman, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman.

Although I loved Begins (going so far as to watch it three times on three consecutive nights), it had its problems, most of which are happily remedied here. The love interest Rachel Dawes (played in Begins by Mrs Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes) is played here by the fabulous Maggie Gyllenhaal and her part is much better written this time round. As I mentioned above, the writing is much better all-round, Christopher Nolan bringing aboard his brother Jonathan, with whom we previously worked on the spectacularly brilliant Memento. Furthermore, TDK reintroduces Batman’s arch-nemesis, previously committed to celluloid so memorably by Jack Nicholson back in 1989, played this time by the late Heath Ledger. I read somewhere that Ledger prepared for his role by locking himself in a hotel room with archive footage of natural disasters and bloody revolutions etc and forced himself to laugh at them. Of course I don’t want to suggest that his immersion in the character led to his suicide, but… I wouldn’t be surprised. The immersion is total! Ledger plays the Joker with utter conviction and is utterly terrifying. As a portrayal of pure evil, it’s up there with the best of them.

I don’t want to say too much. Except, oh yeah, Aaron Eckart is good too. Suffice to say: go see it. Don’t worry about having high expectations, because this film will still exceed them. But possibly leave the kids at home… if they’ll let you get away with it.

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 11:17 am and is filed under National . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.