Batman: The Dark Knight

All the reviews are deservedly positive. I think Heath Ledger will be nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but I am skeptical he'd win (even though some people claim it's "not just a comic book movie" it's still a comic book movie!).

I thought Heath Ledger nailed the character of the Joker. I am not sure if it led to his inadvertent (or otherwise) OD on sleeping pills, but I find it difficult to believe that the role would have disturbed him so much. I mean, it is so far detached from a 'real' person that I can't see an actor having anything but gleeful fun with the role, since there are no character boundaries for the Joker's mania. Personally, I would've stayed another 2 1/2 hours in the theatre just watching his anti-social antics.

I was never that impressed with Jack Nicholson's portrayal, nor did I like the more campy screen adaptations of Batman in general. I grew up reading the comics and watching the fantastic animated series on WB that I always viewed Batman as a very dark/tormented character. I mean, the Joker killed how many Robins? I recall one was left to drown in a vat of acid!

OK, but enough reviewers have already fawned over Ledger's performance, and despite reading many of those reviews before seeing the film, I was still impressed. As for the rest of the cast, they were good, but not great. I like Bale as Batman, and he's also able to pull off Bruce Wayne quite convincingly (and all I can say is praise Jesus that Katie Holmes did not reprise her role from Batman Begins - her performance was so void it threatened to envelope part of the film!). Gary Oldman was really good. Aaron Eckhart was good, perhaps as good, maybe a little better, than Bale, but his character had to go through such a transformation ... the stakes were highest for his character, and I think that he fell just a little below what could have made his role as memorable as Ledger's. I think Dent wasn't edgy enough before his transformation, and that hindered the believability of Two-Face. Alternatively, his character could have shown more conflict/confusion post-transformation (I thought he too-readily accepted the Joker's manipulation).

There were also some minor logical/technical gripes, such as:

- how did the Joker escape from Bruce Wayne's benefit?
- how did Dent survive that limo car crash, unscathed to boot, after purposefully unbuckling his seat-belt (after shooting the driver)?
- the chase scene in the tunnel was poorly-shot (as many reviewers have commented).

There were a few other minor things I noticed ... if I remember I'll write them, but for now that's all I got.