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• Superheroes

  Tuesday, Jul 22, 2008 4:44AM / Standard Entry / Members only
  4 comments

  

   

  (SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT!!!)

   

  I watched Batman - The Dark Knight in the ADC and 4D Extreme Screen in Terminal 2, Hong Kong International Airport yesterday. The movie’s loosely based on the graphic novel "Batman - The Long Halloween."  The director Christopher Nolan heavily borrowed the thematic tones from that and added his little touches of brilliance to make, what I feel, is the best movie I have seen this year. He plays with the ever-common superhero concepts of good and evil/ light and dark liberally in the movie.  Yet, interestingly enough, he does so by showing the fine line between those concepts and how easy it can be to switch from either side in the face of adversity and conflict. 

   

  In this sequel to Batman Begins, we’re introduced to the new character of district attorney Harvey Dent, a seemingly driven, incorruptible agent of good, intent on ridding Gotham City of its mob infested streets.  Lieutenant Gordon and Batman use Dent as a tool to provide hope and change to the city, just as Batman is used as a tool to strike fear into the criminals of Gotham.

   

  With a villain like the Joker, the inclusion of the Two Face storyline was an added surprise but a welcomed one. I guess it was to question our conventional sense of the word "hero". Throughout the movie we see Harvey Dent as the atypical incorruptible sense of a hero, yet by the end of the movie our hero has fallen into the depths of darkness. We see what Batman sacrifices to protect Gotham City that he doesn't need popularity or fame. He is hunted as a common criminal, a cop killer all for the sake of the greater good for his ideals. How Batman, a man shrouded in darkness is unwilling to take a life, but a man like Harvey Dent, who is considered good and pure, how he's able to murder without remorse out of vengeance and sadness.

   

  The movie itself is a play with contrasts and duality.  The symbolistic themes of duality personify itself in all its characters both good and evil, with Batman and Bruce Wayne, Harvey and Two Face.  You even see the two sides of the coin so to speak with the relationship between the Batman and Joker; two characters who are agents of opposite sides yet are exactly the same in their single-mindedness and incorruptibility to achieve their opposite goals.

   

  The best way to describe this movie is to say it is an independent, character driven film with a 200 million dollar budget.  It’s the unconventional summer blockbuster: both an independent movie, thanks to the background of Chris Nolan, attached to a gigantic commercial summer blockbuster movie franchise of DC Comics’ Batman.

   

  And did I like the movie?  I loved the movie!  It satisfied me on all my entertainment-craving levels. It provided an escape from the usual, mindless summer movies we've all been force fed season after season by providing an actual story... and a well written one at that with a smooth flowing and interesting narrative that made the 2hour 30minute run time fly by as I was drawn into the world of Gotham City.  But it is not art house by any means, providing scene after scene of breathtaking special effects and action that would make any 10 year old kid jump with excitement. Another impressive feat not to be ignored is the fact that in this day of computer generated everything, the movie was mostly good old fashioned physical real world stunts.  All in all, it was a wonderfully satisfying night at the movie, with a bucket of popcorn and a large diet coke.  I even got a Batman keychain with my food and beverage purchase!  An excellent night indeed……