A Dark Knight

It’s a little late, but with everything else going on in my life, I am sure you will forgive me.

Film Review!!!  I managed to see the Dark Knight last Saturday and I wanted to see if this one was going to live up to the hype, whether Heath Ledger was really deserving of the calls for an Oscar nomination, whether 2 1/2 hrs was really the right length for this film and finally whether the 12A rating was the correct one based on some of the comments I had read.

So lets deal with the hype factor first, IMO this is one film that does not disappoint as far as the hype goes, the story line is spot on, the action is fast and furious, there are twists galore in this film and no one should really leave the cinema feeling that they have been let down.

Heath Ledger’s Oscar nomination should be in the bag.  When Jack Nicholson played the Joker, his performance was aimed more at the Joker character from the camp Batman film and TV series where the jokes were fast and plentiful with lots of Biffs and Kersplats to go around.  Heath Ledger’s Joker comes from the Batman comics of the latter years, his Joker is dark and deadly.  The facial expressions that come from him fit perfectly into the character and the film certainly seems to miss him when he is not actually on-screen.

The length of the film actually seems right, however I did feel that in the end the fact that we had Two-Face making an appearance in the movie, it took too long for him to appear.   Maybe slighty speeding up the beginning of the film or moving some of the story around to give him a little bit longer to play the character.  Other than that, the film is certainly not too long and does not drag at any point.

The 12A rating,  hmmmmmm this is not a tough one as far as I am concerned, this film should have been a 15.  The comment from the BBFC that they didn’t want to remove the film from the large number of younger fans is a fair comment, but in that case they should have requested cuts to be made.  The excuse that a lot of the violence is implied rather than seen is true, but that doesn’t make any difference, the view knows it’s happening and the imagination fills in the blanks.  And come on the bit with the pencil how can that be allowed in a 12A.

Overall this is one cracking film and there has to be a sequel to this, the question has already been posed as to the identity of the villan of the piece and the over-riding opinion seems to be that “The Riddler” will be making a return and by the sound of it Johnny Depp is potentially being lined up to play Edward Nigma.  If that is the case then Batman 3 should certainly be good, the question is can it come anywhere close to the level of The Dark Knight.  I would say that you have to go and see this film, however given the Box-Office no.s both over her and on the other side of the pond, the vast majority of you already have.