excess verbiage

This may be another movie in the new Batman series, but make no mistake, this is Heath Ledger's movie. And that's no disrespect to Christian Bale, but the fact of the matter is, this role was the most electrifying performance of Heath Ledger's short life. The hype around this performance was buzzing way before he sadly overdosed. It's easy to say that people might be going to see it because it was his last role and they're curious, but that doesn't do Heath or this movie any justice. It is that good of a performance, and it's that good of a movie.

If you're expecting a light and fun summer action movie, then this isn't the movie for you. It's a lot darker than Batman Begins and it's pretty intense. I don't know if I'd recommend this for kids under 12. At the core, the story is obviously about good vs evil. But on a larger platform, there are other themes. I won't go into them, but for me, it's what makes this movie and this series a lot more interesting than the previous Batman movies with Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, and ugh, George Clooney.

Christian Bale is fantastic as usual, and pretty much everyone else in this movie is good as well. Aaron Eckhart, as Harvey Dent / Two Face - I love that guy. Great actor, very underrated, as is Gary Oldman, who plays a good cop. The only weak link was probably Maggie Gyllenhaal. I just don't like her. My guess is that they hired her because she sort of resembles Katie Holmes, who played the role of Rachel Dawes in the first movie. Neither Katie or Maggie are right for the role though. Not sure who else I'd have cast though, but Maggie wasn't a great fit either.

But anyway, I thought the action was pretty good and depicted the relentless and ruthless tactics of The Joker. My favourite scene in the movie is when The Joker is hanging out of the window of a police car that he's stolen. There's something really beautiful and eerie in that shot and Heath managed to embody the essence of The Joker in that scene. Only the madness inside the head of a twisted and tortured soul like that could drive a person to be so free - free from conscience, free from consequence, free from empathy. And that's what that short scene embodied to me.

I'm not the sort of person who goes to the movie theater to watch something I've already seen, but I'm probably going to go watch this one again. I think I've only done that once before. But I definitely want to see this again. Have I sold this movie to you yet?

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