He stalks around in a big plastic suit, which makes his voice several octaves deeper. Obviously, in this, the directors have gone for a dead-serious film about how corrupt the world is now, just as it was in the 80s and 90s, with the first serious Batman. He's supposed to be the people's hero fighting against the problems in society. Shots of 'Gotham', a blend of New York and London, show the alleys plagued with drugs, the AIDS epidemic, and a public with no trust in the government, as a reaction to Nixon's role in Watergate. Admittedly cheesy, but Batman Returns (1992) was a edgy and exciting film.
This new one, however, doesn't seem to have any specific focus. In 2008, Obama was on his way in, with voices all over America shouting 'Yes We Can'. So, where exactly does Batman fit into this? He doesn't. Bruce Wayne is a Fortune 500 yuppie, who plays around with his hi-tech toys in fighting low-level crime at night. In the age of the internet, and banking being done so much online, more and more crimes are committed with computers, like with Hugh Jackman in Swordfish. Batman seems a bit out of date already. Admittedly, he's got a big car that transforms into a bike, with flashing screens, but it already seems eerily like KITT from Knight Rider.
Batman acts more like a disgruntled 5 year old, with Morgan Freeman telling him "when you stich yourself up, you always make such a mess"than a sleek businessman. Gone is Batman's adolescent rage, mysterious set of gadgets and widely-acknowledged cool. Freeman might as well have his hair in curlers, wear a floral apron, and be brandishing a rolling-pin.
Batman's called in to fight The Joker (Heath Ledger). He's scary, wacky, funny, and a character everybody loves when he comes on screen. Ledger outshines all the other actors in this film by a long way, and delivers what is overall a fantastic performance. But, he takes a back seat in the plot to Harvey Dent and assisstant Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gou yllenhall). Dent's a fairly average young policeman trying to crack down on the problems, and Dawes has some history with Wayne, but is now dating Dent.
Surely you can see this for yourself, but she's nowhere near attractive enough to play the leading girl - the love interest of two rich and powerful men. What about Sienna Miller, or even, for God's sake, Judy Dench!?
There's been a lot of rave about this film, and Heath Ledger acting is outstanding. When you come to really watch it properly, you find it's two and a half hours of clumsy plot turns, and predictable baddies. Everybody seems to swap sides at least twice, and at the end, you don't really get the sense you've seen a complete film, just a long narrative list of loud and contradictory events. ★★
Though I disagree with it, of course, as I liked The Dark Knight, it's your best review yet I think.
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