Countdown to Inception, Part VI: The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight
To speak briefly of my personal preferences, I’m the sort of person who likes their superheroes to be charismatic, confident, and assured. I do enjoy Batman, especially Nolan’s take on the character, but when Iron Man and Tony Stark quite literally came out of nowhere and blew me away a short two months before The Dark Knight did, Batman ended up playing second fiddle. All things considered, The Dark Knight is undoubtedly the superior film. But with Bruce Wayne’s brooding melancholy and mopey resignation to the playboy billionaire lifestyle versus Tony Stark’scharming receptiveness to fun while still being grounded in a situation’s gravity, I see Iron Man as the superior character.
I can’t say that I cared much for the “bat growl”…For me, however, the film’s greatest improvement over Batman Begins is the its portrayal of Gotham City. Gone are the comically filthy litter strewn streets, miscalculated island slums, and all hints of a glorious (but nevertheless absurd) monorail system. Gotham City has been cleaned up and more closely resembles the traditional view of a contemporary American metropolis. Key to the success of the cinematic Batman adaptations is the treatment of its characters and environments as legitimate and plausible. Except for all the gadgetry that would make even James Bond jealous, everything feels real. I even applaud Nolan for widening the scope of the film to include situations which both depict and impact Gotham’s common inhabitants since it more effectively creates the impression of a city on the brink of anarchy and destruction.
Although I did think that the bat-cycle was pretty cool.
But too many indulgences and liberties have been taken with The Dark Knight, and it’s hard not to feel that the entire project was blown far too out of proportion for its own good. Clocking in at two and a half hours, Nolan is asking a lot of his audiences. And even though the film is, for the most part, immaculately well executed, The Dark Knight is too high strung over too long a period of time that it becomes exhausting. Take the transformation of Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) into Two Face, for example, which occurs rather suddenly after a point where most normal films would be wrapping up. Frankly, The Dark Knight’s ending is one less of satisfaction and more of running out of momentum.
Too much has been woven into The Dark Knight that, even if enjoyed on the perfectly functional level of visceral popcorn entertainment, it feels too dense and ambitious for its own good. A lot has been written about how The Dark Knight reached a new tier of comic book adaptation maturity, and with filmmaking this good, I can’t disagree. Narrative-wise, however, its overstretched and overzealous, and has bitten off more than it can chew.
Yeehaw, it’s back to Batman! This won’t be anywhere near as long as The Prestige.
I admit Nolan is trying to cram a lot into this movie, and for the most part he succeeds admirably, unlike a certain other comic book movie that came before which also bit off more than it could chew. (Aside: I actually think that Spiderman 3, while overstuffed, was not a horrible movie overall. The problem was that the whole emo Peter thing and the infamous jazz club scene were so horrible that it’s all you really remember afterwards and it taints the entire experience, but that’s a whole other story.) However, I have to disagree about the Harvey Dent bit.
Dent’s transformation into Two-Face is crucial to the plot, but it isn’t in and of itself the point. His downfall is the victory of the Joker, whose main plan (aside from inciting anarchy and chaos) was to show that everyone is just a step away from madness like him by tearing down the White Knight of Gotham, as Dent is referred to as. This victory comes when it is appropriate, namely at the climax of the movie. Now the actual death of Two-Face comes after the climax, however this is basically wrapping up loose ends. I admit it may seem rushed, but there’s actually a point in that it has to done quietly in the shadows in order for them to be able to cover up Harvey’s little rampage at his memorial. If there is a criticism to be made, I think it’s that such an iconic and big villain was relegated to a mere pawn in another bigger villain’s plan.
That actually brings me to another observation. This movie ends on possibly the biggest down note ever, next to The Empire Strikes Back. In fact, if Nolan’s Batman films are finalized as a trilogy with the upcoming third one, this original Star Wars trilogy analogy is perfectly accurate. On that note, hopefully the last one won’t have any Muppets, but I digress. TDK is downright depressing it its conclusion. The Joker has won, because his plan was a success, even though they caught him eventually (very Se7en-like); they have to cover up the whole Two-Face business in order to save face; and they end with hunting Batman down because it’s “what Gotham needs” right now. (Another aside: I absolutely love the reflection of the whole hero they need vs. hero they deserve thing with Dent and Batman, as well as the White/Dark Knight nicknames.) That’s pretty much about as dark as you can get without the audience walking out of the film committing suicide!
On that note, I totally understand your feelings about TDK vs. Iron Man, and I think it’s reflective of audiences being ultimately worn out by these “dark” superhero films. You just can’t get any darker than TDK without being totally depressing. I’m predicting a renaissance of more upbeat superhero films spurred on by the success of the Iron Man movies.
Comments like these are exactly why you can’t really write short reviews of certain movies. Still, I’ll try to be brief too:
The Joker has many plans. I don’t think it’s really accurate to say that The Joker’s plan all along was to destroy Harvey Dent (either his reputation or himself) since he defines himself as an agent of anarchy (“I’m like a mad dog chasing cars; I don’t know what I’d do if I caught one!” or “The Batman, Gordon, the cops, they all have plans, whereas I do not” or “The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules.”). Sometimes he wants control of the city, sometimes he wants to reveal Batman’s true identity, sometimes he wants to kill everyone, and sometimes he wants to ruin Harvey Dent.
The Dark Knight spent so much time indulging The Joker’s every whim that it seemed like it would go on indefinitely until he was captured or killed. Granted, that kind of defines all of the happenings in the film, but a little consistency would be nice. An anarchist, like The Joker, is a man who just wants to watch the world burn (according to Alfred), but is it necessary to detail the four or five different ways he wants to accomplish it?
Sure, it all came together in the end and indeed Nolan pulled it off (although I felt a bit mystified as to why Dent was judging Gordon, and to be honest Dent’s “heads or tails” rampage didn’t really work for me at all), but it all felt so bloated and unnecessary, like a chef made me a perfect steak that was mostly fat and gristle.
After The Joker escaped and Dent was transformed, I was in “the movie is winding down and in conclusion mode.” Then came the ferry experiment which had no suspense at all (even during the first time I watched it), the skyscraper showdown which felt incredibly messy between sonar bat vision and the nearly pitch black environment, and then the confrontation between Dent, Batman, and Gordon, that I couldn’t make heads or tails of (no pun intended) because it just felt far too contrived.
I think I’m done with this comment. I still have to digest your other one on The Prestige.