Reviews

The Dark Knight

**WARNING: some spoilers below**

I'm stunned. Films have no right being this good.

I have no real words to describe what I've just seen. I can't quite process it yet. It is going to need several more screenings to unravel all of the stuff that is in that film. This isn't a superhero film...this is a complex ideas driven crime thriller about two outlaws vying for the soul of a city. One who is dedicated to preserving order but at what cost? The other dedicated to creating chaos at any cost to expose the 'true nature' of humanity and to prove a point; to push Gotham's Dark Knight and its White Knight beyond the limits. And caught in between are the mob, the police, and the people at large.

Welcome to a world without rules. Indeed.

It's a film about our society. About how fragile it really is. About how close we always are to true chaos and how easy it is to slip in to anarchy or do the wrong thing for the right reason. It's a film about choices.

Heath Ledger...what can you say? One of THE best performances I've EVER seen. Unpredictable, insane, vile, intelligent, disturbing, blackly funny, horrific, entrancing...all at the same time. This is probably the most subtle and nuanced 'BIG' performance ever. There is so much detail and depth to it. Just give him that Oscar right now.

This film was filled with so many "Holy ....!" moments that either made me giggle with manic glee to rival the Joker himself or made my jaw go slack or just gripped me so hard I couldn't move for fear at what was going to happen next. Too many to list them all...but the Joker's disappearing pencil trick, dropping the mob boss, flipping the truck and then Batman's quick turn from the wall on his bat bike are just a few. Oh, and the sight of the Joker dressed as a nurse is an image now burned forever in to my brain.

If I had one minor criticism it would be that Harvey's downfall and descent to madness is a little to fast, but Aaron Eckhert is so good that you still buy it.

**START OF SPOILERS**

And what a way to end.

Batman makes the sacrifice and truly becomes the outcast, the hunted. He is stripped back down to the basic essence of the character: an outlaw, a vigilante, a well intentioned criminal who is to be pursued and brought to justice by society.

**END OF SPOILERS**

The Dark Knight is a massive achievement. It is a film that transcends its genre roots to become something much bigger and bolder while still remaining faithful enough to be recognisable. It is quite simply one of the best films I've ever seen. Just how far up my list it goes I'm not sure. It will need a good few more viewings to unravel it all the more, but as of now...it's pretty darn high up.

Stunning!

I really enjoyed this movie. It's professionally made, well paced, shot and edited with proper actors of decent quality. Richard Tyson as the bad guy step dad/werewolf is actually rather good as is Kimberley Brown as Sam.

I thought the story was pretty good and didn't quite go the way I was expecting it to. I imagined it was just another 'teens go to a cabin in the woods and get killed one by one' movie, but it isn't. There is actually a plot and some subtext here. The director says this film is an attempt to use the beast as a metaphor for struggling with addiction and as a representation of the id and the beast within. This is why this werewolf can talk and likes to taunt people, and why he doesn't just kill, but enjoys a spot of rape and torture - and it works just fine in the context of the film. It's also a retelling of the classic mythological story of the son having to confront the father figure to finally become a man. The director acknowledges major story elements owe a lot to the movie The Stepfather (the sheriff is named after that films director, Joe Rubin), and even Shakespeare's Hamlet. The film is also filled with homage's to great movies by Hitchcock, Spielberg and Landis. I won't say what they are, but see if you can spot them or just listen to the interesting and informative commentary.

Having said all that, there is still plenty of gratuitous nudity, humour and some nice gore. The make up and CG FX are actually quite good. The wolf is of a decent design and about as well done as you get with standard makeup FX (no animatronics - just man in suit).

What I liked most about this film was its take on the werewolf as a representation of the darkest, nastiest and innermost human desires. The villain, while always a pretty nasty guy, had been struggling to control his 'problem' and had actually been quite successful until the daft teens got involved.

This is of course a very low budget film. What makes this far superior to similar low budget efforts is that the writer/director had a clear vision of the type of story he wanted to tell and actually spent time on the script and in casting some decent actors.

Not brilliant or a classic, but much better than I expected.