Christopher Nolan's film career, especially after the success of his indy sensation Memento, once seemed full of potential, But, now he seems to have settled into a niche as just another Hollywood gun for hire. Last night I finally got around to watching The Dark Knight, the second Batman film of his- you know, the one in which (still dead) Heath Ledger won an Oscar for portraying The Joker. Guess what? Overhyped yawnfest. I'll have a full review soon, but here are the basics:
First, this film is not as good as Batman Begins, which itself was not on par with the first two Spider-Man films. It suffers from middle filmitis, expecting one to care for characters with no effort put forth. Second, Bale is much better than Ledger, who simply cackles his way thru the film, and acts as a seeming supernatural force of nature. In this sense, he's not only less 'comic' than Jack Nicholson's Joker (much less Cesar Romero's), but essentially less scary- we see absolutely zero in the way of character development , motivation, nor shading. Hell, even Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent/Two Face is better acted. And it's a shame they kill off Dent in this film, while Still Dead Ledger's Joker lives (whoops!).
Lastly, it's not even that good an action film, because all the moves are telegraphed. I recall the feeling of not knowing what would happen next when I first saw Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Nothing like that is in this film. Take a look:
Including Insomnia with these two films, that now makes four consecutive films where Nolan has relied on unoriginal material. Boy, it's time to actually use the creativity you were born with. And, as for all those moronic critics who lauded both this film and Still Dead Ledger's performance- grow the fuck up!
