Why so serious?

The Dark Knight is one of the most anticipated movies of the year and it had a huge act to follow. Batman Begins was the best batman movie till date. In fact, it is considered to be the best superhero movie of all times by many (including the reviewer). Everyone has the same question in their minds. Does The Dark Knight deliver?

It does.

Spectacularly.

The Dark Knight begins with Gotham finding its feet and its voice against the criminal underworld. After the fall of Carmaine Falcone, the remaining crime bosses are the ones in-charge. However, the newly elected district attorney. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) along with assistant district attorney, Rachel Dawses (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Lt. Gordon (Gary Oldman) are the ones opposing them and succeeding. Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent plays the role of “The White Knight” of Gotham with aplomb and comes across as a sincere guy who really wants to do good. Batman (Christian Bale) is happy with the way things are going and even comments in a scene that Gotham may no longer need Batman. But none of them accounted for one thing, The Joker.

If the hero can only be as good as the villain then Batman enjoys a huge advantage over other superheroes. The Joker is unparalleled in his unpredictability, creativity and committing the most heinous of crimes with a smile on his face and one liner on his lips.

The Joker (Heath Ledger) unleashes terror throughout Gotham in his hunt for Batman and almost succeeds in bringing down Batman. Heath Ledger has created a psychopath which compares to the likes of Hannibal Lector and Jack Torrance (The Shining). Jack Nicholson’s Joker was the funny kind of joker who would create mayhem while laughing. Heath Ledger’s Joker creates anarchy with a grin on his face and ice-cold sarcasm in his eyes. He exists just to destroy. He is frightening because no one knows where or how will he strike next. The only thing that can be predicted as that he is going to strike and strike big. He is hated because he asks questions that we do not want to answer. Every one-liner joker says deserves to be on a tee especially "Why so serious?". This line is as iconic as "I'm having an old friend for dinner" (Silence of the Lambs) or "I see dead people" (The Sixth Sense). The last role of Heath Ledger is his best one. It is an Oscar-worthy performance if there ever was one.

The Joker dominates Batman to an extent that batman comes to a crossroad: to give in to Joker’s demands to stop the mayhem or to try and fight him while the whole city stands against him. He has Alfred (Michael Cain) and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) by his side but that might not be enough.

Who wins in the end is up for debate and for you to see and decide.

However, the movie does have some flaws. Rachel Dawses is once again more of a showpiece. Even Alfred and Lucius are more of a guest appearance than a full fledged role.

Non-Batman fan(atics) might find that the first half drags a little as it sets the theme for the action packed second half and there is one big flaw at the ending that would make the Joker fans jump up and protest.

The Dark Knight is almost the perfect superhero movie. Batman Begins set the tone for restarting the batman franchisee and The Dark Knight takes it up several notches. The story, direction, dialogues, special effects, screenplay could not have been better. The Dark Knight is a dark, superhero movie with edge of the seat action. But what makes The Dark Knight as the de facto standard for superhero movies is the depiction of struggle between good and evil along with the internal struggle of Batman himself (thankfully without any tears cough Superman Returns cough).

The Dark Knight and The Joker are hard acts to follow. But hey, that is exactly what we thought after Batman Begins.

- Courtesy, Bangalore Mirror