The Dark Knight

With 'Batman Begins", writer/director Christopher Nolan opened a new chapter in the 'Batman" film franchise by taking the legendary character back to his origins, re-imagining why and how the billionaire industrialist Bruce Wayne, again played by Christian Bale, became the enigmatic crime-fighter known to the world as Batman. In 'The Dark Knight", Nolan returns to the saga with the character now, in the director"s words, 'fully formed'. In 'The Dark Knight", Nolan is focused more on how Batman"s very existence has changed Gotham City... and not - at least initially - for the better. At the end of 'Batman Begins", the threat of escalation was all apparent - that in going after the city"s crime cartels and attacking their interests, Batman could provoke an even greater response from the criminal community and now that has come to pass. Yet, while on the one hand, Batman has begun to rid Gotham of the crime and corruption that has plagued the city, ironically, the vacuum he creates draws in an even more powerful criminal element, who see it as their chance to take over the city. While many consider Batman a hero, others wonder if he is doing more harm than good. And the arrival of a new kind of criminal raises the stakes on that debate. The most dangerous of these enemies is Batman"s most infamous nemesis, a maniacal, remorseless fiend known as The Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger. In his own way, The Joker is as much an icon as The Dark Knight is, a fact that presented the filmmakers with both an opportunity and a challenge in terms of exploring the character"s distorted point of view. In keeping with the tone established in 'Batman Begins", he is a serious operator, despite his handle as The Joker. Director Nolan sees The Joker as the most extreme form of anarchist - a force of chaos, a purposeless criminal who is not out for anything and, so, can"t be understood. He is not only a massively destructive force, but one who takes great delight in his murderous nature, and in the process becomes the film"s most terrifying spectacle. That old, and somewhat cynical, Hollywood adage that death can be the ultimate career move seems very appropriate to Ledger this month. Billed by some reviewers as one of the great movie villain performances, his ominously comic greasepaint face and catchphrase 'Why so serious?' are already destined to be amongst the highlights of the summer film season. While Jack Nicholson"s camp and deranged take on the legendary character in the 1989 film set the bar for all that followed with its mix of mayhem and mirth, Ledger"s performance as a Joker for a new generation looks to have eclipsed even that with a role already garnering an Oscar buzz many months ahead of the 2009 Academy Award nominations. 'I do think that Heath has created an iconic villain that will stand for the ages, and of course, I would love to see him get an award,' said Christian Bale. Co-star Gary Oldman sees Ledger achieving something only done once before in Oscar"s long rollcall: 'I think it"s an incredible performance, it sets a new benchmark. It would surprise me if he didn"t get a posthumous Oscar for it, the first actor since Peter Finch. He may even win the damn thing.' Finch is the only person to win posthumously, earning the Best Actor prize for 1976"s 'Network", two months after he died. It adds further to the karma surrounding the performance that next year"s Academy Awards nominations will be announced on 22nd January - the first anniversary of Ledger"s death. In the US, advance ticket sales for the film"s opening were sold out within hours of going on sale. Initially, cinemas took the relatively unusual step of adding extra showings of the film at midnight and 3am to cope with box office pressure. Such was the demand, however, that even this did not sufficiently stem the hype and many of the bigger cities like New York and Los Angeles added shows at 6am as well - something previously unheard of. With a uniformly good buzz surrounding the film in every newspaper, reviews like that of Rolling Stone magazine, who described The Joker as 'mad-crazy-blazing brilliant' has helped to ramp up expectations off the graph. Added to that, all The Joker figurines - an essential part of every major comic character - are consistently selling out in every shop and store. As well as Bale and Ledger, all the usual suspects from the prequel are again present: Lt James Gordon (Gary Oldman), District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), as well as trustworthy butler Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine) and high-tech-gadget-maker Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman). As with any summer blockbuster worth its salt, the action sequences are, at times, breathtaking and well beyond any of Indiana Jones"s extremes. And while many audiences will be lured in due to the required wow! factor, it is the human element of the characters that will more likely linger long after you"ve seen the movie. Nobody is entirely good in this 'Batman" - everybody has a desire or secret passion that opens them to the virus of corruption, but it is the way in which they try to deal with this that forms much of the film"s hard core. Regardless of the hype added to the film as the last acting job of Heath Ledger, this is one 'Batman" you won"t want to miss. It will set the standard, not just for this summer, but for all action-adventure movies for years to come. It is dark, complex, thrilling, loaded with stunts and twists - and yes, Ledger really is that good. A classic.