The Dark Knight

Amazon.com

Almost everybody I know skips the theatre and waits to watch at home. The Dark Knight recently became available to download came out on dvd. I was skeptical going in. Action movies have been terrible for the last 20 years. What an experience! What a movie! They spend the high budget well. You know those movies where you are dizzy afterwards? You have to go for a drink afterwards and talk to another person about what you went through? Home theatre. The technology is good enough these days, audio and video. You don’t need to go to the Cineplex. The opening scene has you sold. (Don’t worry, no spoilers.) There’s a bank robbery that Joker planned. I can’t say more than that. My wife and I turned to each other: “What a scene!!!” This is where you wish you were in the theatre, just to hear the audience react with you. (It helps to have watched Batman Begins, for the serial reasons, but not necessary. The Dark Knight is much better.) I read Batman comics as a kid but was too old by the time they revised the series with Dark Knight. (That’s right, things like skateboards and comic books need to be abandoned at age 14 max.) However, I appreciate comic book movies. Such as: Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Mummy, Tales from the Crypt, Batman (the original). The Dark Knight is still a comic book but it’s better than anything I was ever exposed to. The Joker is an ingeniously realized villain. He’s real and frightening. Again, no spoilers, but why does he make himself up that way? (I thought Nicholson was a great Joker. Put him right out of your mind. Actually, it doesn’t take any effort. ) Michael Caine, who plays Alfred: It's Sir Michael Caine's opinion that Heath Ledger beat the odds and topped Jack Nicholson's Joker from Batman (1989): "Jack was like a clown figure, benign but wicked, maybe a killer old uncle. He could be funny and make you laugh. Heath's gone in a completely different direction to Jack, he's like a really scary psychopath..." IMDB trivia Gotham is dark. This movie is a work of art. See it.