My review of The Dark Knight

Let me interrupt the usual sex-ranting and religion-bashing for a review of a movie that I just watched: The Dark Knight.

I watched it last night with a female friend in the IMAX theater in SM Mall of Asia. And as soon as the final credits rolled, the one thought that crossed my mind was this: the PG-13 rating seemed a bit...well...conservative. Don't get me wrong: I found "The Dark Knight" a fantastic, kiss-ass movie; one of the best, if not the best, movies this year; and in my list, the best comic-book movie ever.

But the movie was dark and grim. It does not feel like a comic-book movie. There is little comedy and camp. I felt I was watching a noir crime movie. In fact, it played more like a Scorsese movie. When the movie ended, there was none of the typical "feel-good" emotion that is attributed to the summer popcorn fare. I had the same stunned, jaw-dropping, bleak feeling when I watched "Empire Strikes Back" decades ago (is that it?! what kind of f---ing ending is that?! where is the triumph of good over evil?! how can the good guys be on the run?!) The movie could have easily been given an R rating, and I can imagine how the director cut off some scenes to "tone" the violence down. Most of the deaths happen off-camera. There is no blood, no gratuitous sex, no swear words. And I would love to get an unrated, uncut, director's version that would show more blood.

But the atmosphere and the theme defitinely is adult theme. There are scenes which may give nightmares to children. The other comic-book movies (e.g., Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men) look more like Disney movies compared to this one. The movie was long at close to 2-and-a-half hours, but I did not feel its length. The child behind me, however, felt its length. He was giddy at the start but turned to a somber silence at about the midway point.

Many will undoubtedly watch this for Heath Ledger's last performance. And it does not disappoint. I don't think it as an exaggeration if people are talking about a posthumous Oscar award. This Joker is not Cesar Romero or Jack Nicholson; this Joker is psycopathic anarchy embodied. For some, the Hannibal Lecter character was the gold standard of pure villany, but if Ledger's Joker does not knock the Anthony Hopkins character out of its pedestal, then it would come a very, very, very close second.

Some movies are meant to be watched in a theater. Like a Broadway experience or a grand opera, one has to be in an audience, with a larger-than-life performance happening before his very eyes. In fact, I felt that this movie played like a tragic Shakesperean opera. All of its characters have their flaws; the heroes are not particularly heroic.

So go watch it.

And to move back to the usual theme, my female friend and I did end up screwing each other's brains off.