Ranking the Batman Movies: #2 - "The Dark Knight" (2008)

Well here it is. The most-anticipated one.

#2 - The Dark Knight (2008)

The final Christopher Nolan entry on our list, and his second Bat-flick. The Dark Knight is a milestone for how comic book movies should be made. When the film was being made during 2007, there was an intense amount of hype that was being stirred all over the internet. The first Joker image that was released sent the internet into a frenzy for how dark and mysterious this take on the character was going to be, and many people were wondering if the movie was even going to top Batman Begins. Little did we know...

Heath Ledger in his Oscar-winning performance as the Joker

Christian Bale is back for his second portrayal of Bruce Wayne / Batman. His performance comes off as very sophisticated and well-aware of Batman's behavior and operation tactics. His Bruce Wayne is still very cunning but in a profound way. His Batman scenes are very action packed, and the fight-choreography is stellar and to-the-point. Much of the fights don't last long, but I think that aids the movie greatly. My only gripe is the voice. Sweet Jesus, his voice. Remember Batman Begins? How the voice was growly, but not that growly> Well, the guy in post-production in charge of dubbing and altering Bale's Batman voice for The Dark Knight needs to be fired. The point of Batman's voice is to: 1) Ensure the vocal difference between himself and Bruce Wayne and 2) to be intimidating and to inspire fear in his interrogations. Here, it got way over the top. This film is responsible for the whole "let's mock Batman's growly voice" YouTube craze of 2008 onward. Before you knew it, every ten-year-old kid who gets a camera for Christmas becomes a popular YouTuber because he uploads a two-minute video of himself snarling lines from the movie. It quite honestly sounds like Batman swallowed a cactus and couldn't quite get it back out of his throat.

...but we've talked about Bale's Batman three times now. I know what you're waiting for. Heath Ledger as the Joker. I referenced his portrayal in a couple previous posts and now we've finally gotten to it. I know I was initially skeptical. When they announced that Heath Ledger was going to portray the Joker, I was like "The guy that made out with Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain?" Well, much to mine and everyone else's surprise, Ledger took the role, ran with it, dunked it down court, inbounded it to the rival team, stole it, drove it back down court, and drained a three-pointer. The amount of charisma and drive that's being displayed on screen is mind-boggling. Ledger invented a whole new Joker by piecing together different characteristics of other Joker's that had been done. He truly made the role and the performance his own. There's no other Joker performance like his. Joker was originally brought in as a homicidal maniac, then by the 70's he had become a bumbling oaf that was played up for laughs, and by the 90's he was a homicidal madman again. This portrayal took the homicidal madman characteristic and jacked it up to eleven. Ledger was all over the board and so unpredictable that you genuinely couldn't take your eyes off of the screen whenever he's doing something. Even if he's doing or saying something really traumatizing, it was still enticing to watch. The scene where he's captured a Batman impersonator and he's interrogating him is so unsettling and unnerving but dozens of people can quote the scene verbatim they love it so. When I said the Batman growly voice inspired countless YouTube parodies, there must be six hundred and seventy-two Joker parody videos for every one Batman parody video. Joker parody videos are everywhere. Everyone wanted their chance to deliver their own Ledger impression. Some are great, some are pretty laughable.

Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent / Two-Face

The side characters are pretty great. Aaron Eckhart portrays Harvey Dent and later Two-Face. He's the district attorney that competes with Bruce for Rachel's heart who gets horribly scarred by the Joker's attack and becomes a vigilante with a literal "split" personality. Rachel got swapped from Katie Holmes to Maggie Gyllenhaal for reasons that are currently unknown to me. Huh, how about that? Heath terrorizes Maggie in The Dark Knight but makes out with Jake in Brokeback Mountain. I would say that's irony, but that's not what irony is. In this movie Rachel is essentially just there for emotional gravity. Without her, there'd barely be any emotion in the story. It'd just be Joker's chaos that Batman would have to fix. Last, but not least, the main three supporting characters are all stellar in their own right. Michael Caine does his usual phenomenal job as Alfred, spewing entire speeches with the last line of the speech supposedly being a piece of advice. Morgan Freeman is excellent as Lucius Fox, subtly delivering jabs at Bruce as well as his tech and his savvy. Gary Oldman gives the outright greatest Commissioner Gordon performance in the history of Bat-Cinema. I'm seriously in shock at how Gary Oldman got shafted for at least an Oscar nomination. I know in the past he's done some weird movies and some box office stinkers, but good God, he is so good in this movie. His determination to aid Batman in ending the Joker, his intense drive to stop all of the chaos. He's so good. As much as I love Pat Hingle's Commissioner Gordon, Oldman's is far superior and this movie was no exception to that.

Gary Oldman returns as Commissioner James Gordon

The story is superb. It really is. David S. Goyer really outdid himself, and his phenomenal story made even better by Christopher and Jonathan Nolan's full screenplay really can't be matched. The Dark Knight somehow managed to make the realism of the Nolan Bat-universe and make it still feel like you're reading a comic book. Each and every scene carries over to the next bit of story splendidly. From going to China to get Lao, Wayne's gala that turns into a night of terror for Gotham that sees Commissioner Loeb's death, followed by his funeral that also turns into an assassination attempt by the Joker, that leads to Harvey Dent's first bout of vigilantism before becoming Two-Face. It all just flows so well from one major event to the next that by the time you make it to the end of the movie with the two boats ready to be blown up by the Joker, you're practically worn out. The Joker has emotionally stretched you to your limits. My only gripe relating to the story is the run time. You'd think that since this movie's a sequel that doesn't involve an origin story of any kind, it'd be a little shorter than the two hour, twenty minute Batman Begins, but no! It's actually slightly longer at two hours, thirty-two minutes. I guess that's fine, because it is a beautiful use of the two hours, thirty-two minutes. Still, The Dark Knight Rises got carried away with two hours, forty-five minutes, but I digress...

Any way you slice it, The Dark Knight is a superb Batman movie. You could be a new-age kid that hates the new movies or a retro-phile that just digs the old movies, and yet you still can't hate on The Dark Knight. The cast is perfect with supporting characters that are just as interesting to follow as the main characters. All of the characters make defining arcs and have glorious or tragic payoffs, all of which are welcome. Take that and have it have a realistic setting with definable characteristics in a relatable environment, you have got yourself the perfect Batman movie. A villain to be feared has to be conquered after the hero has to overcome obstacles placed in front of him. The classic formula for an awe-inspiring adventure.