I really enjoyed this movie. It almost made up for how bored I was with Ironman.
I didn't listen much to the hype and I wouldn't have gone this soon, but Suzie and I wanted to get away together for an evening. We saw the movie in Imax. That made the sound great and it meant we could take advantage of the filmed-for-Imax action sequences. The first bank robbery scene was especially effective. It felt as though we were patrons inside the bank due to the floor to ceiling shot covering our entire view. For those sequences Imax really did add to the experience. Unfortunatly, for much of the movie Imax actually meant the actors were too big and covering too much of our field of vision.
What matters to me in a movie above all else is the integrity of the story line and the actors. I'll put up with a lot of flaws. I can honestly say the actors were fantastic. Every one of them. Chrsitian Bale is my favorite Batman. Morgan Freeman is among the best supporting actors ever. Of course, I'm not in the first 100,000 people to note that one actor's performance in particular was stunning.
Now for a bit of honesty. I'm not one who cares about celebrity or the people who happen to have it. I'd cross the street to avoid a celebrity. The exception might have been that Taco Bell dog.
Because celebrities and their foibles don't matter to me, I didn't pay much attention to the news about Heath Ledger's death. I don't have much margin to take tragedy that remote personally. However, I must say that after watching this movie Heath Ledger stopped being a good actor (The Patriot, A Knight's Tale) in my mind and became a great actor. I was mourning the loss of his talent from about 15 minutes into the movie.
Heath Ledger was flawless and horrifying and believable and unexplainable. Everyone else had plenty of face time and a very important part to play, but his portrayal of this character is what made the movie memorable.
Heath Ledger's Joker in a nurse's uniform is the darkest commedy I've seen in a summer blockbuster movie in quite some time. That scene inside the hospital was the only place where the editing of the film stunk for me. Still, watching him walk away in the nurse's uniform from the hospital as it blew up is the lasting image for me of the movie.
Don't read below if you don't like your movie spoiled.
The movie itself has a ridiculous number of convoluted social and moral messages. This is the movie's weakness not it's strength. It's the movie equivalent of a speech full of truisms, platitudes, and crowd pleasing anecdotes.
It was as if each change in the story had to be propelled by a moral or insight. I found the movie entertaining in spite of this. Batman is a story about vigilantyism. If you don't get that. Don't go.
There are so many little messages and plot serving devices that I thought I would list a few here.
- Sometimes you need outlaw to stop outlaws. This is the normal Batman theme.
- If they don't introduce you until 20 minutes into the movie you are probably about to die or suffer violent pain, but don't worry, it will advance the plot.
- It is always darkest before the dawn (this was actually said).
- You make your own luck (unless someone kills your girl and burns your face off).
- The mob (organized crime) can corrupt almost everyone, but a few people (no more than 6 because the audience in the movie will forget them) will stand up to them. Still normal Batman stuff.
- The general public is fickle. they'll cheer the outlaw today and want his head on a platter tomorrow. Still normal Batman stuff.
- Tattletelling is bad and you could get lynched. Greedy accountant types tattletell.
- Most criminals are bitter and want power or money, but some are just plain evil and love chaos. Nothing new here.
- A good guy can pretend to be killed as part of a sort of weak plan to out the bad guys. This will scare the pee out of his wife. But, as long as it serves a really important purpose. We should all accept that it is OK to drive your wife insane with grief (My wife would beg to differ). This was the worst device of the movie. I still don't know what possible point it served to make pretend the head of the major crimes unit was killed.
- The general public will make the right choice if they have enough peer pressure or some really good role model. I'm not buying stock in that idea. If you do, vote for Obama.
- A big tough ugly person could surprise you with their moral courage. A big tough ugly person could also just kick you in the teeth.
- If you are going to use a super technology to invade everyone's privacy, it must be a dire need and you must have a plan to immediately destroy it. This way you maintain your status as not-really-bad-bad-guy. This is stupid.
- If a pretty girl is torn between two protagonists somebody has to die to serve the plot. In this case, one death and one seriously ugly burn.
- At least one good guy has to survive who can tell the truth later on.
- The line for a good-bad-guy is drawn at killing someone unnecessarily. This goes without saying. We all know the vanquished bad guy has to pull a hidden guy or knife and only then the good guy can kill him.
- Being accused of killing someone unnecessarily might be necessary to keep the public from losing its symbol of hope. A good-bad-guy must accept that to continue being a really good-good-bad-guy.
As someone who mentally catalogues each plot device and moral message in movies I was very busy. The problem here is that we didn't have two views of reality and morality in this movie there were like 6 or 8 at least. In that sense it was very realistic. It's almost like the dialogue was written by one author with multiple presonalities each of which espoused a different worldview. The result only barely kept it's head above water. If any one world view had fully prevailed I would have cried fowl. The end redeemed the mixed messages by returning to the simple theme that Batman cannot be known or accepted fully even as he protects the city selflessly.
