The Dark Knight

The best comic book adaptation, but not the greatest film

I have now watched this film three times. In truth, the substance I drew from it on my first viewing is essentially all there is. Nolan excels at constructing grand, spectacular, even epic imagery — which is precisely why he is so enamored with the IMAX format. Yet beyond the beauty and visceral impact of those images, the film offers little else, nothing genuinely novel. The Joker’s performance is quite remarkable, but not enough to elevate this film to a pedestal it does not deserve. A Taiwanese critic once described his performance in self-destructively vivid terms — “over-immersion becomes spirit possession” — but I would say it has not gone quite that far. In the history of cinema, he is not the first to perform in this manner, nor is the Joker an unprecedented or unsurpassable character. It was Heath Ledger’s death that mythologized the role.

Some say this film surpasses The Godfather. To me, the two are simply not comparable. The Godfather has no special effects; it leans entirely on its actors, its story, and their performances. The reason this film sits so high atop the IMDb rankings is, most likely, a matter of being in the right place at the right time. The power of Web 2.0 is immense, and The Dark Knight rode that wave at its peak. Add to that Heath Ledger’s extraordinarily outstanding performance and his tragic death, with Brokeback Mountain already a jewel in his crown, and the film’s score was skyrocketed from the outset.