Dark Knight Movie Review

It was another boring day, where you had a regular power shutdown for the whole day leaving me nothing to do without my computer. Then one of my school mates messaged me asking whether we can go for a film. He had been interning at XYZ IT security firm, rather he got tired of his job there at office, which involves finding out porn sites in the net and adding them to parental control software's list of banned websites. He is getting handsome amount for it(Nice Software job).It was tough call between Jaane tu Jaane Na and Dark Knight, but Dark Knight won cause there wasn't any theater in the city that screened Jaane tu Jaane Na (But weird thing was you had one screening Kismet Connection which is quite ordinary compared to Jaane tu Jaane Na). We at last made it to the theater, it was the same one where we saw The Happening. Now I wasn't in greatest of moods on that day, we just had lunch where each person paid 150 Rs for a meagre meal at a Stupid Hotel ( which my friend boasted to be best for Non Vegeterian food items in the city) which left me very unsatisfied. In the name of trying out new things my friend ordered "Surra(Shark) Putu", I was thinking it would be big (Since sharks usually are , like The Great White) But when the waiter delivered, it was more like 25 grams of cereal served in a tiny plate leaving me fuming. Coming back to the movie it was house full at the theater to my surprise.

The movie starts where Batman Begins left of, you see couple of joker's men trying to steal cash from a bank. You find the thieves are themselves killing each other as they complete each task in the robbery. The last person standing in this double crossing spree at the bank is the Joker.You have district attorney Lawyer Harvey Dent trying to book all criminals in the Gotham city who are guilty of Money laundering. He does have some initial success. Bruce Wayne thinks with people like Harvey standing up for justice its perhaps time for his retirement as Batman. The gang of criminals who are booked by Harvey Dent get together decide how to save their money,only to find out Lau,one of their own has flown to Hong Kong with all their money.The Joker abruptly enters the meeting and promises to kill Batman.You have terrific introduction here for the Joker.Heath Ledger plays the role of unforgiving, psychotic, schizophrenic Joker to perfection. Its more of a darker portrayal of Joker compared to the roles of joker in the earlier Batman movies. Now the Batman goes to Hong Kong to kidnap Lau and bring him back to Gotham. The site of Batman stretching his wings flying across the skyscrapers is one of many awe inspiring scenes in the film.After getting Lau, you have Batman literally hitchhiking a ride from a plane and delivers him to the city police.


The Joker in order to find who the batman is , unleashes a killing spree on the civilians. He kills the Judge handling Harvey Dent's Money laundering case. What makes the Joker menacing is the way he targets people who are close to BatMan. Batman decides to reveal who he is in order to protect the civilians, but Harvey dent jumps the gun in press conference saying he is Batman. Arresting Harvey was part of a ploy to lay a trap to catch the Joker. You have Batman trying to stop Jokers attack on Harvey while he is moved to the prison. What follows is a series of the best action scenes in the movie, which ends with a Flip Flop of Massive truck literally. The Joker is taken to custody. When Batman interrogates the Joker you find Harvey and his girl friend been kidnapped by the Joker's Men and wired to a Bomb. Joker reveals the places where they are hidden, but switches the addresses of Rachel and Harvey while revealing them .BatMan goes after Rachel only to find Harvey there, who is rescued by him. But Rachel is blown up since Gordon couldnt reach her on time.Harvey is admitted to hospital with face injuries from the blast.As you might guessed he becomes the Two Face.The Joker escapes from the prison by blowing up a guy inside whose stomach you have Mobile phone bomb. After escaping Joker further blows up the hospital convinces Harvey to take revenge on people who are responsible for his girl friend's death.

In the climax you have people of Gotham in two ferries moving out of the city, The Joker has wired bombs in the both the ferries. The detonator to each of the bombs in their ferry is with the people in other boat. Joker threatens he will blow both the ferries up after 12 if none of the ferries are blown up by people in other ferry. What happens in the ferry just before the clock strikes 12 is one of my favourite scenes in the movie. As always in Super Hero films Batman saves the day by finding joker.To joker's dismay the people of Gotham refuse to kill each other, however when Batman finally manages to catch Joker , he boasts of how he corrupted a good citizen such as Harvey Dent and turning him into Two Face. Meanwhile Commissioner Gordon learns his family is kidnapped by Two Face.In the end there is a coin toss to see whether the Gordon's boy must die or not, but before the coin falls down Batman takes down Harvey. To preserve Harvey's image of being of an upright citizen, Batman asks Gordon to blame all the murders committed by Two Face on him.The film ends with Batman being declared a vigilante a wanted one for his crimes and Harvey being honoured for giving up his life for the fight against crime.




The film stands out for its intricate plot. I believe a superhero film is only as good as its villain. Dark Knight stands out for its menacing villain the Joker. Whether its putting a smile on people's face with his pen knife or drawing his tongue out every now and then making a slurping sound like a snake or blowing up the city hospital dressed as a nurse , Ledger makes Joker into one of the fearful villains whom you have seen recently in superhero films. Its not like you have a superhero who beats the shit out of every villain. Instead you have a villain who is giving Batman a very hard time and pushing him hard throughout the movie. Later I learned Ledger locked himself in a room alone for a month and made notes how a schizophernic would act for a character study of the Joker. He had done this in order to distinguish this character from its previous portrayal by Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman movie.When I walked out of the movie I was pretty much satisfied with the movie unlike the unsatisfying lunch for 150Rs. Though one of my friends( who feels all english movies should be like full of action Jurassic Park and Godzilla type) was still complaining that the second half of the movie was boring, for the lack of action, But I guess he has trouble understanding english accents so didnt get the plot.To sum it up


Rating: 4 out of 5


and thumps up for the Dark Knight, its right up there with Spider Man 2 as one of my favourite super hero movies.

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