The Dark Knight

3 comments July 28th, 2008

Batman broke a record. Batman this. Batman that.

That is a short summary of the entertainment news for the past month. After reading all of these headlines for weeks, we, like most of America, jumped on the Dark Knight bandwagon and purchased tickets to see the movie.  In honor of Dark Knight being the first major motion picture to be shot in half IMAX cameras, we decided to see it on IMAX in Batavia.

This movie is the second installment to The Batman Begins, which came out in 2005 with current Batman Christian Bale. That movie also was very impressive, making it no surprise The Dark Knight was such a success among fans.  The Dark Knight picks up where Batman Begins left off, with Batman a civilian vigilante out to clean the crime infested streets of Gotham City using fun gadgets, frightening fighting skill, and the coolest car ever made.

The movie is dominated by dark themes like death and corruption. Although it may seem depressingly hopeless and a little scary at times, the movie was so well-done we left the theater a little in shock.  The performances of all the actors are unbelievable.  From the smaller roles of Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, to the main roles of Christian Bale, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Aaron Eckhart were perfectly executed.   We thought Gyllenhaal was a great replacement for Katie Holmes.  She was the intelligent lawyer she needed to be, and continued the awkwardness between her Bruce Wayne/Batman very well.  Eckhart was a passionate do-gooder as DA Harvey Dent, but took up the evil role of Two Face just as enthusiastically. 

The role that stood out more than the others to us, along with pretty much everyone else who has seen the movie, was Heath Ledger’s role of The Joker.  It’s really sad to say Heath Ledger was not even able to see his own opening, because he truly deserved it. We’ve heard rumor talk about an Oscar-worthy performance, which we completely agree with.

 We recommend any ‘Batman’ fan to go see the new film in IMAX - it really added to the experience and is worth the extra drive. Just make sure to leave plenty of time so you’re not stuck in the second row like we were!