The Dark Knight

Like most people (I mean $155 million? Holy shit) I saw The Dark Knight this weekend. In fact, I saw it at midnight on Friday (Thursday?) with an audience of the geekiest geeks who ever geeked. I would actually highly recommend it, because it certainly increased my appreciation for the film.

Instead of what I expected, which was that there would be freaking out at the slightest mention of the Joker and applauding every time Heath Ledger showed up onscreen, the entire theatre (which was packed) was dead silent the whole way through the movie. Save for a few moments when everyone laughed or gasped, everyone had total respect for the other people in the theatre, which is the first time in recent memory that I can recall that happening at a midnight screening that I've attended.

Anyway, if you have not seen it, the movie is awesome. Everyone seems to love it, and it's a highly entertaining two and a half hours, if you can believe it. It starts out a bit directionless and slow, because the plot begins in medias res. This is necessary because the writers wanted to emphasize the fact that the Joker is a motivationless villain. He has no reason for doing any of the things he does, other than to create chaos. This central premise of the movie is carried out supremely by Ledger, who takes the concept of blowing things up for the hell of it and creates an entire evil, merciless villain around it. The fact that he also makes The Joker hilarious and relatable is the biggest trick that the movie pulls off, since the whole thing is an allegory for the fact that there's a piece of all of us that enjoys senseless violence and depravity, and sometimes we indulge that urge to the detriment of our society. Anyway, because they wanted to reinforce this whole thing, the first forty-five minutes or so are a little all over the place, and so during that time I was thinking that the movie could go either way. But by the time Ledger and Bale are facing off at a party on a Gotham rooftop, the movie picks up steam and really never lets go, all the way to the emotionally charged and well-designed climax.

That said, Bale seems a little cartoony this go round when he's in the Batman costume. His Bruce Wayne is great, but his Batman voice is just a little too growly for my taste, to the point where it was almost comical in sections. Bale's acting is phenomenal overall, but he's outshined by almost everyone else in the movie. Especially Ledger, but also Aaron Eckhart (as Harvey Dent, and then Two-Face), who puts the perfect amount of comic book cheesiness into his character, and was one of the most inspired casting choices I've seen in a comic book movie.

And since the whole movie was filmed in Chicago, I spent quite a bit of time watching the background playing Guess The Shooting Location. If you're a Chicago native, prepare for this to take up a lot of your time. You'll see a lot of the Chicago River, and you'll see Michigan Ave frequently (particularly the intersection of Michigan and Wacker). You'll also see an entire action sequence shot on Lower Wacker Drive, culminating in a battle in front of the Mercantile Exchange. There'll also be appearances by Lake Michigan, The Wrigley Building, The Chicago Theatre, McCormick Place, and a parade on Monroe. It's actually sort of fun. Between this and the Spider-Man films (which had pieces also shot in Chicago), it's clear that Chicago's architecture and ambiance clearly lends itself to a comic book landscape, so anyone who has ever lived in the city will have reason to see it twice.

In short, if you are one of the three people who haven't seen it, go. Go now. It rules.