Dark Knight, The (DVD)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

This film, rightly or wrongly, has been compared to the 1990's franchise headed by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher. In particular, how Batman was overshadowed by Catwoman and the Penguin in "Batman Returns." It's an apt analogy, considering Ledger's performance. He is second billed on the posters and in the credits, yet his is a magnetic personality we're simply drawn to. Even at his most wickedly deadly, it's impossible to turn away from the screen for fear we'd miss something. Ledger is ruthlessly maniacal in a way neither Cesar Romero or Jack Nicholson could ever hope to be. The cackle is there, the make-up, the purple suit. This Joker, however, turns out to be more grounded in the real world. He's never overplayed and never a mockery. From the lip curl Ledger brings to every scene (the only word for it is unsettling) to the playful terror aspect he brings to the part so very well, he would outshine any hero.

Which isn't to say the rest of the cast sits on the sidelines, watching Ledger. This is, after all, a Batman movie. Whereas "Batman Begins" was about Bruce Wayne and becoming Batman, "Knight" focuses in on the hero himself, specifically the lengths he will go to in order to protect Gotham City. There is a fine line he must toe between becoming the Joker and being good. We catch glimpses of the battle within throughout the film, though it is brought forcefully onto the screen in the climax.

Any self-respecting comic book fan knows who Harvey Dent is and his alter-ego. For the purposes of this review, I won't spoil the character. Suffice to say he is one of the lackluster aspect to the production. His alter-ego is brought onto screen, runs around a bit and then…nothing. An ignominious end to a potentially new character for the inevitable sequel. As Dent, though, Eckhart doesn't disappoint. He is a fresh face (to the series) with a hope for the city not seen on anyone else's face. The character is a charmer in the vein of Wayne, but without the vanity. And Eckhart plays it well.

The one casting change from the first film is Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes. As much as audiences liked to rip on Katie Holmes in the character, for as much as Rachel gets to do here, would it have really mattered who played the part? Don't get me wrong: Gyllenhaal has a grace and elegance Holmes never could possess while being a more credible love interest for Wayne (Bale looks older than his age while Holmes considerably younger). The issues lies with the way the movie is plotted out, as I already mentioned. The relationships are already in place, leaving "The Dark Knight" to begin to pay them off. Gyllenhaal didn't get to do any of the heavy lifting in the first film and here seems a just a bit lost in what to do perhaps because she wasn't present before.

(That's not to leave out the contributions from Oldman, Freeman and Caine, or the smaller parts played by Nestor Carbonell, Eric Roberts and Anthony Michael Hall, but there are other aspects of the film to talk about.)

When Bale and Ledger share the screen, as in an intense interrogation room scene, the film crackles with excitement and potential. And when they end up debating the merits of humanity at the end, we're watching two people on the fringes of society ruminating on their futures. Oddly, everything the Joker predicts comes to pass at the end, providing this universe not with a hopeful outlook on the future, but one seemingly destined to be bleaker than it was before. (Not to mention leaving the audience clamoring for more.) There's a new direction for the series set up in a handful of minutes, one hinted at through the entire production. In a sadistic way, the Joker is able to kill hope and Batman in one fell swoop despite not winning the day in conventional terms.

Chris Nolan has gone on record saying as many effects as possible were done practically on set instead of with the use of computers. To be frank, it shows. There is a weight and substance CGI simply hasn't caught up with yet when it comes to action sequences. As good as the finale to "The Incredible Hulk" looked, it pales in comparison to any of the chases, fistfights, shoot outs or explosions here. We're always mindful someone could be hurt at any given moment because of the reality of the situation. When a hospital blows up, it is an actual building and not a construct. It has all the details an actual location would have without any of the computer gloss.

A very minor nitpick takes place in an early courtroom scene, eventually coming off as too quick, too easy, too polished and too rushed. It flies in the face of the rest of the movie and I can't help but wonder why. Is it deliberately structured like this for some reason? Did I simply become too used to the way the rest of the film was plotted? I'm not sure, but since the scene lasts less than five minutes, I'll overlook it. (There is also a traitor subplot which never gets any traction in the film. It's an important piece of the story and one glossed over too easily. Certain camera moves through the film do suggest something is happening, yet the story doesn't delve into it.)

Is this film perfect? No. To make a perfect film, the filmmakers would need to be infallible. But this is a damn good-dare I even say great-film. A masterful performance from Ledger, fantastic supporting turns by a big enough A-list cast to populate three movies, fantastic visual splendor and an engrossing story. As legendary as "Batman Begins" and "X2: X-Men United" and "Spider-Man 2" and even "Superman: The Movie" all turned out to be, this production takes the crown as best comic book movie to date. Not to mention possibly one of the five best movies so far this year and the best of the summer. Mr. Nolan, we are ready for the encore. An enthusiastic 9 out of 10, if only because a 10 out of 10 demands perfection.

Jason's Film Rating: 9/10

Video:
"It was a dark and stormy disc." --J.J. Puccio

If you watched "The Dark Knight" in a regular movie theater as I did, you saw it projected in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio. However, if you saw it in an IMAX theater, you saw it in a variable aspect ratio, with some scenes in a 1.44:1 IMAX ratio and the rest in 2.40:1. The DVD offers the film in its regular theatrical configuration of 2.40:1, transferred to disc anamorphically, with the IMAX footage in its larger aspect ratio found separately as a bonus item. (Not to worry, though: This IMAX footage is nothing that's not in the film; you'll just see it framed differently.)

In any case, I found the DVD video presentation somewhat underwhelming. The film's overall tone is intentionally dark, and that's how it shows up on disc, with strong black levels. I just didn't expect it to be this dark and this black, with a lot of inner detail swallowed up by shadows. Facial tones look particularly swarthy, seeming too dusky even for a fanciful motion picture like this one. I also noted more than a few instances of moiré effects, which at times were unsettling. In addition, more so than I noticed in the Blu-ray transfer, I could detect any number of instances of edge enhancement. While none of these shortcomings--overly dark hues, moiré effects, and edge enhancement--were egregious, they can be distracting. When the image is good, it is quite good, but, unfortunately, it's inconsistent.

Audio:
The audio comes in Dolby Digital 5.1, which provides everything you'd expect from an action movie. The dynamic range is wide, the impact is impressively punchy, and the surround effects wrap around the listener. If there are any issues I had with the sound, they were that tonal response is at times a trifle bright and the bass is sometimes so thunderously deep and loud that it can obscure dialogue. Bass lovers will have a field day here, but I found it too much of a good thing.

Extras:
Warner Bros. offer this "Special Edition" of "The Dark Knight" on two DVDs. Disc one contains the feature film, with a few trailers and promos at start-up; thirty-nine scene selections; English, French, Spanish spoken languages; French and Spanish subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired.

Disc two begins with a series of trailers for other Warner products. After that is "Gotham Uncovered: The Creation of a Scene," which includes two featurettes, "The Sound of Anarchy" and "The Evolution of the Knight," wherein director Christopher Nolan and his fellow filmmakers discuss the usual stuff you'd expect a director and his crew to talk about.

After that are "The Dark Knight IMAX Sequences," six sections of the movie in their original IMAX aspect ratio of 1.44:1. These sequences are "The Prologue," "Hong Kong," "The "Armored Car Chase," "The Lamborghini Crash," "The Prewitt Building," and "The Dark Knight."

Following these items is a series of six Gotham television news broadcasts, totaling about forty-six minutes, followed by two galleries of poster art and production stills. Things conclude with three widescreen trailers and a standard-definition digital copy of the film, compatible with PCs and Macs. The two discs come housed in a double slim-line keep case, further enclosed in a handsomely embossed slipcover.

Parting Thoughts:
The movie's film rating below is an average of Jason's and my opinion of it. We both enjoyed Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker, but Jason felt the supporting cast, the atmosphere, and the plot were a tad more enjoyable than I found them. Fair enough. "The Dark Knight" is a good, entertaining superhero film, overlong, to be sure, and often delving into the morbid for the sake of morbidness, but nonetheless up there among Hollywood's better superhero films. Whether it is the best, however, remains open to question.

"Some men just want to watch the world burn down." --Alfred Pennyworth

---

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---