Show The Dark Knight A delightfully chaotic continuation Diana Joy Jones Arts Reporter For those who have yet yetto yetto yetto to jump on the Batman bandwagon The The Dark Knight serves up a dose of sinister realism Like Batman Begins this sequel is another attempt to shed a different light on the iconic hero and the city he defends Both films carry a serious tone and work to further humanize Batman Batman Begins infuses Batman Christian Bale in both films with a back story and attempts to justify the characters character's polarity and his choice of night attire The Dark Knight shifts its sights from Batman's psyche to the swarthy city of Gotham Its experts in crime once ran the streets Batman has limited the number of gangsters and has hasa a cult following of vigilantes who rip off his look Still a 3 considerable amount of offenders remain to further taint Gotham's reputation- reputation though they must conduct their dirty work in the light of day to avoid Batman's interference Enter Harvey Dent Aaron Dent is a visionary man on a mission to free Gotham from the grip of organized crime For a while Dent also has the upper hand on Batman Dent locks up bad guys left and right Batman finds both respect for and competition in Dent Dent is also openly dating Batman's fonner former love interest Rachel Maggie Gyllenhaal shines in the role formally played by Katie Holmes Unfortunately even Dent finds himself hard pressed against a new threat the unruly psychopath Joker Heath Ledger Jokers Joker's insanity halts his inhibition His joy is in random acts of unconscious mayhem His unpredictable acts of violence and lack of logical motive make him the city's biggest challenge The film opens with a robbery of laundered money by Joker and his small army of very unfortunate thugs Later he interrupts daily news casts and forces the unsuspecting reporters to relay insane ultimatums to citizens Jokers Joker's appearance is eerily perfect He is given givena a thin layer of pasty white makeup that still reveals all the creases in his face He dons a dark purple suit jacket which hides an array of bombs and explosive devises Ledger does extremely well in his last performance His portrayal of Joker boosts The Dark Knight dramatically Ledger is not over the top and certainly not stoic but insane at just the right pitch His laugh vibrates but is only occasional at the carnage he causes There is a limp limpin in his gait an unsteady rhythm to his movements He licks his lips and moves his hands about Ledger affects an American accent which is similar to Jack Nicholsons Nicholson's vocal portrayal of joker blended with a drawl familiar to a mobster straight out of a gangster flick The entire cas cast is top notch Michael Caine is more than welcomed back as Batman's butler Alfred His slight smile and occasional lines laced with wit help to lighten the heavy mood The films film's one misstep may maybe be clarity Dents Dent's inevitable fate is rushed through making his transition feel less plausible The Dark Knight also crams in so many events that even in inan inan inan an epic epie time frame of two hours and thirty minutes some sequences mesh together Its It's hard to fully recover from one explosive scene to the next There is little down time between them Then again confusion and anarchy in the form of Joker run ramped in The Dark Knight This movie has fewer rules than most comic book not films all citizens are are saved in the nick of time and there are areno areno areno no brightly colored villains It and Begins takes a different approach to a familiar tale If nothing else The Dark Knight is heightened by unexpected plot twists great acting and an energized pace This movie WELCOME TO A WORLD I w h 1 it itI I I II I s' s I Im m AA OL MAN ECI 1 RT I. I I H u E D I Ne G H T. T JULY 18 rac races race's s faster than Batman's nitrous fueled Lamborghini leaving a breathless audience behind The Dark Knight is rated PG 13 for extreme violence |