Batman – The Dark Knight

I think I might have watched the first Batman movie in the early 90s. Maybe not at the movies, but on video or TV later. I’m not sure though. But looking at the cast and the plotline I think I might remember it. I don’t really remember anything of any other Batman movie, so I guess I definitely haven’t watched those. Not on TV, DVD and certainly not at the movie theatre. I remember trailers and photos of the cast in their costumes like Catwoman, the Pinguin, Mr. Freeze, but they were all over the media, so I know about the movies without having seen them.
I probably would never have watched this new Batman movie if it hadn’t been for Heath Ledger. As the movie was already in the theatres in London I was determined to watch it there and I did, although the ticket prizes did shock me. Ok, it was Saturday but 14,50 £ (18,4 EUR / 13 $) for a movie ticket? And it wasn’t even the most expensive section. But it was the Odeon at Leicester Square. And it was a vacation, so who cares about the money?
After the movie ended I knew why I usually don’t watch Batman movies :-) I don’t know if I missed part of the storyline, because I just didn’t understand what they were talking about. My English obviously isn’t good enough for Batman movie dialogues and I definitely missed some of the jokes. All in all it wasn’t a bad movie, it was just that parts of the story didn’t make much sense to me. Would any distric attorney really want to arrest the hero just because he broke some laws while he is protecting the city? And the whole “lonesame rider / dark knight” stuff in the end? Didn’t make much sense to me at all. Maybe because I thought that the movie was some sort of prequel to the first Batman movie. Just today I read that this movies with Christian Bale are not connected to any other of the previous movies, so some of the events, which bothered me, weren’t that strange after all.

Considering all this, it was a rather entertaining movie, even very funny a lot of times and a great cast, who was a joy to watch. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Maggie Gyllenhaal (one London paper called her a “welcome upgrade from Katie Holmes” *g*), Aaron Eckhardt, Gary Oldman (who I really didn’t recognize behind these glasses and ugly moustache) and the mayor of Gotham City was played by someone who I really didn’t expected to see: Nestor Carbonell. The name doesn’t mean anything to you? To me either, but I just knew that face and couldn’t remember from where until I checked the IMDB. The mysterious “Richard” from LOST. But I honestely didn’t made the connection…

And then of course there was the one guy, who made me buy a ticket in the first place: Heath Ledger. And he was so incredibly awesome. A total maniac and really really creepy. There was a moment when I almost felt sorry for the Joker and was tempted to blame his evilness on the bad things that happened to him as a child. But then later there also is the moment, when it’s clear that no tragic events turned him into the bad guy, but that he is just pure evil. Which sometimes is hard to get, as we usually always try to explain something so evil. But the Joker is inexplicable. He is just who he is. And that made him such a strong character. And very very creepy. I’m glad I didn’t see the movie in German, because I think Heath’s deep voice added to the whole evil appearance and I think some of it just might get lost with the German dubbing.
It was such a great perfomance and it makes me incredibly sad to know that it was his last but one movie. To me this role proved that he was such a talented guy and I’m sure over the years he could have evolved even more and could have played so many great characters. It’s such a loss to the movie world :-(