The Dark Night

A+

Directed by Christopher Nolan

It is indeed rare that a film can not only meet the type of unbridled expectations the public had for "The Dark Night" but surpass them altogether. Christopher Nolan's latest chapter in the "Batman" series is head and shoulders above any previous "Batman" film, one of the best action films in recent memory and possibly the best superhero movie ever. Seriously.

"The Dark Night" is set in a Gotham that finally seems to be pulling itself up by the bootstraps and cleaning up its streets. The local mob bosses are feeling the squeeze as Batman has made their day to day lives increasingly difficult and the new DA, Harvey Dent, is threatening to garnish their millions in assets. Fearing that Dent may indeed rob them of their ill gotten gains, Gotham's mobsters hire a shady Hong Kong businessman to funnel the money out of the country. Batman flies off to Hong Kong to retrieve the mobsters banker only to return to city that is being thrown into chaos by the violent and unpredictable Joker who has made it his mission to throw Gotham into total choas. What follows is an elaborate cat and mouse game between Batman and The Joker that is not only visually awesome but resonates with truth in the way it treats the morality of its individuals.

I always feel stupid gushing about a film without restraint, but it isn't a stretch to say that "The Dark Night" is an almost flawless action film. This is an epic, engorssing film in the very best senses of the words, ressembling at times "the War of the Worlds" or "Heat" more than any of the previous Batman movies. The film's lenght, which at two hours and thirty minutes at first had me worried, flies by at an almost seemless pace bombarding viewers with scene after scene of jaw dropping action that basically beats any skepticsism into wordless submission. Some of the action sequences, most particularly the Joker's assissination attempt on Harvey Dent, are worth the price of admission alone and left me, and every onc else in the audience, on the edge of our seats. Beyond the film's action which is undeniably superb, "The Dark Night" boasts characters that are far removed from the semi three dimensional characters that are the norm in action films and even in most "serious" Hollywood fare. Chrisopher Nolan has taken a series that was often cartoonish and essentially geared towards younger audiences and breathed new life into it by infusing levels of psychological nuance into his characters that almost toally foreign to action films, let alone the "Batman" series. Bruce Wayne is no longer a suave but uncompromisingly honest superhero whose moral campus always lines up perfectly with the wishes of Gotham's residents or his even his own desires. Rather, Nolan has turned him into a tortured, almost reluctant superhero who at every step of the way must question his reasons for doing good in a world that is so evil and has put him face to face with The Joker, a villain that is governed by no morality whatsoever, no code of conduct or ethical creed and wants only to see chaos rule the day.

"The Dark Night" fully deserves whatever box office records it breaks and whatever accolades or awards it is given. I can only hope that the Academy, which often makes laughably poor decisions ("and this year's Oscar for Best Picture...Crash!) fully realizes that "The Dark Night" isn't just a riveting action film but a true masterpiece of the genre that boasts top flight actors giving in top flight performances, most notably Ledger whose performance as the Joker practically dominates the film. A monumental achievement and an action film of the first order, go out and see "The Dark Night" on the big screen if you haven't already. You'll regret it if you don't.