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» The Dark Knight: Review

The Dark Knight

I was lucky to see the Dark Knight previews here in Sydney last week, and it’s a rare thing: a blockbuster that doesn’t disappoint. Knowing that everyone in the known universe is talking Health Ledger up for a posthumous Oscar made it difficult to look at his Joker objectively, but again I think all the superlatives are deserved. He’s taken on Jack Nicholson’s mantle here and made it his own, and his performance in Brokeback Mountain, I’m reminded, had him compared to Brando. Knowing at the end of the film that he’ll never reprise this or any other role again was incredibly sad, with more than a few people in attendence moved to tears and everyone else dishing out thunderous applause.

Not everyone is loving it though, notably Sandra Hall at the SMH (a great review whether you agree or not, especially in the last paragraph) and Stephanie Zacharek at Salon (“…Katie Holmes, who played Dawes in “Batman Begins,” has used her newly found Scientologist shape-shifting capabilities to morph into Maggie Gyllenhaal…”), and neither is the New Yorker impressed with anything but Heath Ledger.

This makes me wonder if being outside of the demographic as these critics are, means they have different expectations of filmmaking — even when they’re watching a comic book adaptation, where the source material is literally 2-dimensional and therefore so are the characters. Yes, there’s transperent themes (duality, good vs evil and free will), but I’m failing to see how this is a problem. That’s what comics are: pulp fictions.

This is like KISS all over again! Here we are, now entertain us. And the Dark Knight is nothing if not entertaining.