Buy Or Don’t Buy

Duh. The movie was fantastic! It had everything needed for a great film. It had plot, great characters, some action and even some humor. My complaints? There were a few holes in there that were not big enough to take me out of the story, along with some similarities to the ending of Spiderman 2, but besides that, fantastically done. Christopher Nolan delivered. Some of the shots used could have come off as cheesy or cliche, but for some reason, the selected tilted camera angles heightened the drama.

The selling point was the choice of characters and there own internal situations.

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The tragic hero was Harvey Dent, the district attorney, played by Aaron Eckhart. In my book, he was the most heart wrenching character. His story line was the most emotional and most tragic. It was slightly predictable, but at the same time he had you rooting for him, hoping the inevitable wouldn’t happen. True to the comic book, Harvey Dent transformed into the character, both aesthetically and somewhat acting wise into Two Face. I didn’t know what to expect for Two Face and in my mind I figured due to its PG-13 rating, he can’t look too bad or frightening. He was, it was. And it was perfect.

Heath Ledger exceeded all the hype that was built up for this role. Every thing the Joker was supposed to be, he was. Ledger completely transformed himself into the Joker. He was as sleazy looking and as smart thinking as a criminal mastermind should be. Although his character tells stories about his history, each version is different leaving a shroud of mystery of why he is the way he is. He was also badass. You’ll see this with his interactions with the mob bosses. On a sad note, as I was being enthralled with his performance, I kept thinking to myself, I wonder what he’s in next and I can’t wait to see it. But there is no more. And that’s really sad.

Gary Oldman’s character Lt. Gordon got more screen time and more development. You felt for the guy. He was the most noble person on the cast, however he never had a huge internal battle like the other main “good guys”. His extra involvement and character development was a positive change. He is and will always be Batman’s biggest fan, and Nolan definitely established that (almost ad nauseum) in the final scenes.

As for Christian Bale, he was not my favorite. His role as Bruce Wayne was very minimal, while as a masked, voice-altered “dark knight”, he didn’t really have much room to act. For his story line, he was supposed to be concerned with losing himself in Batman, and the face time each side got to have during the 152 minute movie exemplified that. Granted, with such strong characters and cast around him, Batman’s storyline did not really need to dominate the movie.

Three other minor characters that I could care less about in Batman Begins but actually liked were Morgan Freedman as Lucius Fox, Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes, and Michael Caine as Alfred. These three characters each showed more personality than usual that seemed crucial to the film. They had limits and were more than just side characters. It appeared, due to the lack of internal development of Batman in this film, that these three characters gave a different perspective of who Bruce Wayne is.

Overall, totally buy this. I saw this at the midnight showing, getting home around 3am just to wake up and be at work at 7am, because I knew this was a buy. And in a few days, I plan on buying this again… as an IMAX experience.