Superhero movies are big
right now, this summer has already seen
Iron Man, Hulk, Hellboy
and
Hancock
battle their way across the silver screen. In part, this is because special
effects have evolved to the point where filmmakers can do the impossible but
it’s also because of the prevailing fear and paranoia in today’s world —
we could all use a hero these days. Luckily, that hero has arrived and he is
Christopher Nolan, director of
The Dark Knight
, the latest Batman flick opening at midnight Thursday
night at the Village 8.
Even at almost two and a half
hours long
The Dark Knight
stands
out as the best superhero flick ever made and the best movie we’ve seen this
year. This is a crime film first and foremost, a meaty, gritty saga dealing
with the fine line between hero and vigilante, justice and madness, order and
chaos.
The Batman (played again by
Christian Bale) is conflicted — for all the evil he vanquishes more seems
to spring up despite (and maybe because of) his efforts. His caped crusading
and bad-guy ass kicking seems, at times, to be no more effective in cleaning up
Gotham than the regular work of District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart.)
Toss in the whole secret
identity/yearning-for-simplicities-of-normal-life-with-a-normal-girlfriend
stuff and Batman is one of those complex characters you don’t usually find in a
superhero flick.
And then there’s the Joker.
Much hype surrounds this film due to Heath Ledger’s untimely death earlier this
year but in his last role Ledger knocks one out of the park, embodying the
Joker as chaos-incarnate, a truly insane and deplorable entity. The Joker has
never been more fiendish, more badass or more shitballs-crazy and director
Nolan wisely plays the Batman/Joker dynamic as two sides of the same coin.
Moral ambiguity is all over this picture. Gotham City is all grey area.
Add in Maggie Gyllenhal as a
love interest, Alfred Caine and Morgan Freeman as Batman’s stay-at-home support
staff, Gary Oldman as a much more utilized LT, Jim Gordon and a motley crew of
baddies, villains, and do-no-gooders, and what Nolan has crafted is a complex,
engaging crime story in which every character has depth and inner conflict.
On the visual side of things,
The Dark Knight
astounds.
Partially shot in the giant-screen IMAX format, the action set pieces, the
gadgets, the gizmos, the fights and the one-liners are all top notch. On the
Imax screen, Nolan keeps interior scenes regular sized to add elements of
intimacy then blows up to full screen gigantic proportions for the action. It
works and it works well. A few minutes shaved off the running time might not
have hurt but overall
The Dark Knight
is top of the class for superhero movies and definitely the first must-see
picture of this summer. It might not get any better than this.
On the opposite end of the
spectrum is
Mama Mia
, a
slapped-together flick based on the long-running stage musical of the same
name, also opens Friday. First of all, ABBA blows but that doesn’t mean their
music can’t be properly utilized in film (see Australia’s fantastic
The
Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert)
. Unfortunately, even with Meryl Streep starring, director Phyllida
Lloyd — who despite having a crapload of ‘L’s and ‘Y’s in her name
— lacks the skills required to mold the songs into an even half-decent
movie. She’s a stage director and it shows. The twenty or so musical numbers in
this daughter-seeking-to-learn-which-of-her-mom’s-three-lovers-is-her-real-dad
drama are clunky and poorly staged and the whole movie sucks. No superheroes here,
more like super-Zero.
