Original blog entry written during the summer
"Why so serious?" Because it can be!
Warning: Contains Spoilers
I’ve watched The Dark Knight three times – twice in theaters, once in IMAX. And I’ve loved it every single time.
From the strictly unbiased perspective of someone who’s gone out of her way to watch one movie three times over the course of two weeks, I simply can’t understand how anyone could not like something as awesome (as well as enthralling, gripping, and wonderfully made) as The Dark Knight.
Any movie that's just as compelling the third time around is a good movie in my book, especially when that movie falls just short of two and a half hours. I didn't feel bored for one second, even though I already knew most of the lines and Heath Ledger's performance wasn't nearly as grueling as before. It was still brilliant; it's just that the fear generated from many of his scenes stems from an element of surprise, or suspense, which obviously becomes moot the third time around.
If someone were to ask me what exactly I loved about this movie, I would be tempted to say “everything.” However, if I had to pin it down to just one thing, I would say that I love it because it's so dark. I like that it's a superhero movie done well, and probably one of the very few out there, that's not geared towards kids. Like one reviewer commented, "Transformers was for kids. The Dark Knight is for adults."
True, one could watch The Dark Knight as merely another hero-driven action flick, the kind where epic battles showcasing good vs. evil (Batman vs. The Joker, good cop vs. bad cop) are rampant throughout every other scene, and there are enough explosions, plot twists, and general bouts of ass-kicking prevalent to keep even the most restless viewer entertained. But to enjoy this movie on merely the entertainment level would be missing out on so many other layers that the film contains.
These layers, I feel, are what differentiate The Dark Knight from the majority of superhero movies (or even just movies in general) out there. They're what make it that much better than movies like Ironman, which have a lot of the same glitz but not nearly the same amount of heart and insight.
Ironman is downright entertaining, and the special effects are certainly superb, but it doesn't stay with you the same way that The Dark Knight does. And the character development definitely pales in comparison – I couldn’t sympathize with the character of Tony Stark at any point of the movie. Sure, he was a cool guy, cool enough to shoulder pretty much the entire movie on his own iron-clad shoulders, but that's pretty much all he was. Batman doesn't come out as the hero (in fact, you could maybe say that he doesn't do nearly as much ass-kicking as others do to him, and by the good guys no less), and The Dark Knight is not a feel-good movie, but that's precisely what makes it so original and worth watching.
To put it on plain and simple terms, this movie is not happy, not in the slightest. The good guys don't really win. The female lead dies, in a horrible, drawn-out way in which the audience doesn't even get to hear her last words to her honorable-but-ultimately-helpless boyfriend. The bad guys get away with some pretty horrendous stuff. And in the end there is no happily ever after, not in this movie and probably not in the next installment, if that ever comes. There is a resolution, but it's not one that will leave you easily satisfied and heavily sedated with the contented feeling that all is right with the world and that the brighter bits of humanity will always come out on top after all.
But come to think of it, I've never enjoyed a movie with an ending like that, the kind that sacrifices potential poignancy for a cookie-cutter version of life. I don't end up feeling happy and light-hearted, only mildly disgusted. Cheated, even. I don’t watch movies to escape from life, I watch movies to embrace life – the good, the bad, and the ugly.
To diverge a bit, one example of a cookie-cutter movie would be The Lake House, starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. I totally think Reeves’s character should have died at the end. That's where the movie was headed, and it would have made much more sense if that was the ultimate conclusion, but no, Hollywood, being what it is, had to make the happy couple reunite in some unfathomable, gag-worthy version of Disney's famous (infamous) happily-ever-after. After that disaster I decided to stay away from chick flicks and Disney-inspired movies as much as possible. Happy endings are acceptable under certain circumstances, but not when its only purpose is so that the movie can be called "cute." Thanks, but no thanks.
The Dark Knight is about as far away from The Lake House as you can get. Very little of the movie is cliché, despite the fact that it depicts one of the most recognized comic-book heroes of all time. I won't deny that it does take a toll on the emotions when one scene after another depicts tragedy and further illuminates the darker side of the humanity (save for one scene, which does the very opposite), but more often that not, that's the price you pay for seeing a "serious" movie.
And you know what? It's so worth it. So you don't get your happy ending after all. Big deal. You get so much more than that if you actually pay attention to what the film's trying to say, rather than whining that it isn't what you expected (or wanted).
They say third time's the charm, but not when it comes to a movie this good. Speaking from the perspective of someone who's already watched seven and a half hours' worth of dark chivalry, The Dark Knight has plenty of charm left for a fourth or even fifth viewing.
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