the dark knight

saw this with abu and uan post-national day.

indeed the actors make the show.

i was deeply moved by this installation of the evergreen superhero... for reasons i think many would agree with, this is by far the bestest of all the batman movies ever made. much accolade has been lauded for the brilliant delivery of the Joker by the late Heath Ledger, and one can almost feel that it was as if he was playing out the deliriums in everyone's heads... if ever we went out of control ourselves. his untimely demise only calls for the much heralded appreciation of his talent, now lost from us forever.

it was because of him primarily that the movie took a darker turn, not quite for the emotionally immature audience. his interplay with the other characters - batman, gordon and harvey - is what truly remains the stellar quality of the movie. the joker represents the uninhibited soul who does all of his whims and fancies, but does not require a reason to do so. his compelling performance convinces the audience that he is not the joker of the past, who tended to be portrayed as "fun" in the more literal sense; this joker by heath had a macabre quality - fun which was lethal, and fun which was serious, hence adding to the irony of the much quipped phrase, "Why so serious?"

and when faced with this notion of fun, the other characters are forced into corners which they find no way out of, except through last measures, or amoral avenues - righteousness and morality are not notions close to the joker - and to this end the joker pushes all the other characters, to come to terms with the reality that they do not wish to face, to make the choices that they do not want to make.

batman is eventually left with having to end up the bad guy, as a sacrifice he has to make to protect himself and others. harvey dent loses his life because he gave in to the darkness of his heart. commissioner gordon has to live with the guilt that his actions contributed a great deal to the above happening. the joker lives.

the dark knight is really really a poetic movie, doing justice to the entire franchise. in fact it can even be a standalone, and still stand higher that all the rest that have come before. it will definitely be very tough to make another production that will beat this.

its so good, that i remember a kid saying in the lift as we were going up, "it's his 7th time watching!"

yup. its THAT good.