'Knight' gives comic book films a bright future

Review ByCharley Reed

Contributor

Unless you've been living under a rock, I'm probably not telling you anything you don't know when I say that the hype around "The Dark Knight" is no fluke. It really is as good as everyone says; perhaps even better.

Even if I said it was the best film of 2008, which it is, that would still be selling the film short. Because, despite recent successes like "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk," no film has come close to perfectly capturing a graphic novel or comic book's essence like "Knight."

Unlike the goofy and sometimes outlandish entries into the superhero film canon in recent years, Christopher Nolan's take on the Batman mythos goes the extra step and takes the world of comic book fantasy and puts it on par with the great crime-dramas of the last quarter century. "The Dark Knight" will, and should, be remembered in the same breath as "Se7en," "Goodfellas," "The Departed" and "The Usual Suspects."

This film is more about Gotham City than it is any one character. Throughout the film, from the opening bank heist to the roll of the credits, the Joker uses everything, and anyone, to fight to pull Gotham City into chaos. Batman, meanwhile, not only has to save the city but keep himself from being pulled down with it.

And while Nolan, and his script-writing brother Jonathan Nolan, deserves a lot of praise for achieving this benchmark in cinematic history, this film is nothing without its outstanding ensemble cast.

Everyone is great but Heath Ledger as the Joker and Aaron Eckhart as Harvey "Two Face" Dent are the standouts here. Both play their characters so well that they become absorbed. Ledger's performance as the Joker is nothing short of epic and Eckhart's is a career-defining role for the otherwise indie-scene actor. It just happens to be overshadowed by one of the greatest character performances in cinematic history.

The other truly remarkable aspect of the film is its score. Organized by Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer and Oscar-nominated composer James Newton Howard, the music truly makes the movie.

Compartmentalized to highlight the three key characters - Batman, Joker and Harvey Dent - each individual score adds either tension in the case of the Joker, aggression in the case of Batman or patriotism in the case of Dent. Combined into one set it stands as one of the best film scores ever recorded.

However, in the end, it's the film's message and the issues that it explores that truly make an impression. In any other comic book film you can leave your brain at the door, but not here. Just like the comic that gave the film its namesake, "The Dark Knight" mirrors society's problems, fears and hopes in an attempt to enlighten. Never preachy, but constantly thought-provoking, "Knight" stands head-and-shoulders above its predecessors for this fact alone.

While there's so much more than could be said about the film there's just not enough space to express how truly impressed and overjoyed I am that finally there is a superhero movie that can be both fantastically awe-inspiring and bitterly inward-looking.

If you've already seen the film, then you understand what I'm talking about. If you haven't seen the film, what are you waiting for?

Hyperbole be damned, "The Dark Knight" is the best experience you will have in a movie theater this year.