The Dark Knight: a brief movie review

The only thing that could have made me brave the rains and the traffic and troop all the way to far-off Mall of Asia yesterday was the premiere of The Dark Knight at the IMAX theater. And--by the end of the movie--I was glad I did.

The movie
The movie takes off from where Batman Begins ended. Bruce Wayne is staying at a posh penthouse while Wayne Manor is being rebuilt. Instead of the Batcave, he's holed up in an underground bunker with all the gadgets and goodies every caped crusader could ever want. Alfred is still Alfred, throwing out his sarcastic commentary with some fatherly concern thrown in. Bruce is still pining after Rachel who dumped him after discovering his secret identity. She's now District Attorney Harvey Dent's assistant and significant other. Harvey has become a symbol of hope for the city, a incorruptible

The cops are closing in on the mob and its assets as the movie begins. There's a wild card in the equation though with the entry of the Joker. a murderous maniac who has no fears about robbing the mob. And he's not shy about letting them know it, too.

So in the midst of this mob upheaval and crime spree, Batman, Lt. Gordon, and Harvey are trying to put the mob out of commission. The Dark Knight even takes a trip to Hong Kong to pick up a criminal. The Joker is having none of that as he tries to blackmail Batman into revealing himself by killing people until he does.

With a burden weighing heavily on him, Batman and the cops take a big gamble to nail the criminals. Victory comes at a very heavy price for Batman, but being the hero that he is, he makes some sacrifices as well.

The Verdict
I loved it. It's been a while since I've actually seen a movie (Iron Man was the last one) so I was pretty much satisfied with my trip to MOA--even if it was at the ends of the Earth. The movie avoids the "curse of the sequel" by having excellent acting (Aaron Eckhart, Heath Ledger) and a good script. Yes, it's a bit wordy in comparison to the first one but Heath Ledger's performance was stellar. He takes a few elements from Jack Nicholson's Joker and put it into his own interpretation of Batman's nemesis. He was a truly demented killer. While there were times that it felt as if his scenes had taken on an eerie silence, he managed to make the Joker his own. I loved the scene where he makes a little visit to the hospital. Demented and comical.

You might want to do a quick review of Batman Begins before hitting the theaters though. I kinda forgot about the Scarecrow in the first one until I saw him putting in a brief appearance in this one.

The chase scene under the elevated train reminded me of the first movie's climax as well.

Miscellaneous stuff
The movie was made in memoriam to Heath Ledger and another guy. I asked the Warner Bros. people who the guy was and they told me it was the stuntman who died while making the film.

Nope. There's nothing after the credits.

I sat next to this very sosyal gal and her pals. I think she lost her sosyal tag when she could only say, "Asteeeeggg!" during sequence.

Stuff to watch out for? Heath Ledger's scenes--plot twists galore. Batman in Hong Kong--Disgraced heartthrob Edison Chen makes his Hollywood foray.