The Dark Knight - A Movie Review

This is not your father's Batman by any means. No POW or BAM, and no boyish naive Robin to serve as the dumb foil for Batman. Christian Bale does a fine job portraying the caped hero (or caped revenger?), but I have to give it to Heath Ledger on this one.

I had heard the hype before we saw the flick, and thought much of the hero worship for Ledger was just sappy sympathy for the guy who accidentally killed himself. But Heath clearly had a good time playing this role to the comic and tragi-comic hilt. He is dark, and scary, and believable as a mentally deranged man with no moral insides. There are killings galore, and even of those who you cringe at, like lots of cops and relative innocents. The film is so fast paced it does not allow time to ponder what one is seeing before being thrown into the next crash and tumble scene. I definitely recommend this film for anyone over 14 (no little kids), but it won't leave you feeling quite the same.

In fact, Batman may take a hit in this film, not quite up to saving Gotham, but still required to do so, at least this one last time. Of course we know it won't be one last time, but it's certainly not the sappy, syrupy stuff that those of us born in the '50s loved as well as endured. My bath towel cape could change from being Superman's one day, to Batman's the next. And it did.