karoooh said:
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Must watch a second time! Best remake of the Batman series EVER.
iawtc.
In more ways than one
***
Anyway the film is so strong as a performance through the cast and crew and soundtrack. It was intense throughout, particularly in the second half, and the final sequence was thrilling yet quite cathartic as an experience (which in the words of Aristotle in
Poetics is the mark of a great tragedy).
And a tragedy it was that it was over already. I hardly noticed that two-and-a-half hours had passed when the credits were rolling and the audience started clapping.
A quick critique of the film overall as a work of great integrity: all of the main actors were superb.
I sincerely thought Christian Bale was as good as Heath Ledger in his portrayal of an outcast vigilante.
Aaron Eckhart was very strong in his representation of a man of morals in a dark world (Dent) and yet could still come up with an intensely vindictive performance as 'Two-face'. The hurt on his visage was apparent and his sense of revenge really resonated with many elements of the tragic hero in Aristotelian tragedy who is neither thoroughly good nor bad but a mixture of both. He evoked powerful feelings of pity (in that he had been punished severely in the circumstanes) and fear (demonstrating how a great man, of higher moral worth than ourselves, could similarly fall to baseness and become the eponymous 'Dark Knight'). His hamartia (or tragic flaw) of elevated human love ironically leads to his deterioration of self and the channeling of rage against his old friends and life itself: i thought this highlighted the dual effect of nihilism and moral coda/didacticism in the film (the latter through the mise-en-scene of the hostages on the ship).
Morgan Freeman had a very understated but controlled performance and imparted a sense of relaxed order to the film's chaotic trajectory.
Maggie: simply stunning as Rachel Dawes. Could not have been a better replacement for Katie Holmes (who seemed awed by such a superhero role in Batman Begins).
Gary Oldman was highly convincing as was Heath Ledger who truly morphed into 'The Joker'. A metaphor is suitable here as he WAS rather than LIKE what most of us had imagined the joker to be.
The soundtrack was the second major highlight: each emotion and nuance in the story was conveyed through the crescendos and flourishes in the Zimmer soundtrack (best known for Lion King, another film that has influenced my experiential childhood).
The heroic theme, instead of being a reductive 'der ner ner ner ner ner Batman' repeat ad nauseum was a powerful eg of how foreshadowing (traditionally done through a 'chorus' in Shakespearean tragedy) could be achieved through the opening soundtrack. The juxtaposition between the music played when Dent was on-screen and the Joker's abrupt entrances also reflected the internal conflict in the audience of terror and thrill (reflecting Burke's sublime). The final score (used in the worldwide trailers also) with the underlying heavy beats and fast-paced music that built to a climax played in the cuts between Alfred burning Rachel's letter, Batman running off and the Commissioner destroying (very symbolically) the Bat signal also complemented the open-ended denouement well.
There's much more that i could comment on about the design (costumes and sets) and deliberate editing and special effects strategies, but we'll leave the textual analysis at that. Due to my academic background this is basically my way of saying this is the Best. Work. Ever.
***
tl;dr Acting and music made this film good. WHY SO SERIOUS?