Everyone and their brother will be weighing in on this movie this weekend because everyone and their brother will have seen it by this evening, but I'll talk about The Dark Knight anyway.
The hyperbolic raving is all true. It's a masterpiece, as everyone has said. It's not a superhero movie - this is a "graphic novel", sequential art for adults brought to life. It's a crime epic, a character study, all of those things. It doesn't feel like a sequel to Batman Begins; rather an entirely new sort of thing. The only origin story here belongs to Harvey Dent, and it's woven into the film's plot so expertly you hardly notice you're watching an origin story.
All that frothing and Oscar-talking about Heath Ledger is true. The Joker is less a character and more a hurricane of chaos and anarchy that descends on an already-crumbling Gotham and basically kicks Batman's ass for 2 and a half hours. Not one character makes it through this movie without being horrifically threatened, scarred or terrified. There is no backstory for the Joker, which is a brilliant touch. He is effectively "summoned" in a sense by Batman's mere existence, who inadvertently created a world in which the Joker could exist. It's a lot to chew on thematically but it works. The chorus of critics claiming that Ledger has created an instantly iconic, classic and unforgettable screen villain are right.
It is relentlessly brutal. Aside from a handful of tiny little moments of humor, this thing is just one big harrowing downer until the end, and it's magnificent. There's a little sliver of grey light in the film's final moments, but that's all you get. I can't help but feel this film would've benefited from an R rating, but it's already so intense that I'm not sure a little extra blood and swearing would've really mattered.
You'll be seeing this regardless of what anyone says, though. It's that good, that pervasive. A moment in pop culture history.
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