"Wanna know how I got these scars?"

Yes! I did it!
I got my bum out of the comfy chair, and went to see "The Dark Knight".
Y'know... The Batman film?
If you shrug at this point, go hide in shame. Because the amount of kerfuffle this movie has made is unbelievable - mostly due to the fact that this supposedly is a rather good Batman-flick, and because the actor portraying the villain supposedly gave such a good performance the Oscars should be renamed the Heath Ledger award.

Whenever a movie gets this amount of press coverage and praise, I react instinctively and jack my expectations down to bottom level. I hate disappointments, and things that gets built up too much usually tends to fall flat on it's face - whether it is a game, a book or a film. One book everyone claimed I had to read was the Alchemist, the reviews spoke of life-altering reading, so I bought it on vacation, read it, and was bored half to death. I just didn't see the appeal, and I was more moved by the disappointment than by the book itself.

Another reason for me being cautious is that the only Batman-film I've actually seen (yes, it's embarassing), is "Batman and Robin". George Clooney said some years after this was made that he blamed himself for killing Batman. And he's damn right. It really was appallingly bad, even Uma Thurman didn't manage to help this one out. I should've seen the other ones, I know, don't have a go at me for it.

So, I was rather low on expectations but loaded with candy when I sat down in the cinema to watch all three hours of it. My first thought was a rather skeptical "naaah, I'm not so sure". This was very early on, mind you, and my next thought was "you have to take this for what it is; a movie about a superhero". And that changed everything, because this isn't like your standard version of the genre. It has real guns'n'knives, real blood, (mostly) real cars (even a Lambo Murcielago!) and real explosions. No lasers, no funny ice cannons, no gentleman fighting that doesn't look like it really hurts. Simply, it doesn't try to be a movie that can be seen by everyone from 7 years and up, it has an age restriction of 15 (in Norway at least), and a modicum of reality, and I like that. Superhero's are often portrayed as exclusively good, their violence is always accepted and marked as just being "the means to an end", their actions are never doubted or questioned. This isn't the case in The Dark Knight - it's not just the bog standard good vs evil dilemma. And that makes the plot actually rather interesting, for a change.

As far as Batman goes, I think Bale did a damn good job. What I liked best about him was the way he turned his voice into a low growl whenever he donned the anatomically correct spandex. He uses it to mark a distinct difference between Bruce Wayne and Batman, and of course this voice-change makes it more difficult for people around him to "guess" who he is. It also works as a good contrast to the Jokers nasal, high pitched and psychotic voice, where as usually you should think it's the other way around; the mean has the dark, evil voice, the good guy has at least a normal voice. And lastly, it was kinda sexeh.

Well, what about the Joker then?
I'm... stunned. Got no words.
I'm not the one for jumping on the bandwagon every opportunity I get, but on this one I have to agree with the general public, and I'm happy to report that the praise isn't just a result of the fact that this was his last role before he died; he portrayed the best fucking villain, ever! Yes, give his daughter the Oscar her father should've received. The thing that I find really sad is that he didn't get this kind of credit for his acting when he was alive, and frankly I don't think many of us paid much attention to what he did while he was still alive. We never do until someone tragically dies way too young. I know I didn't, I've seen Brokeback Mountain, and I really liked it, but never thought of the incredible acting he did. He had such an attention to detail, and he showed that in The Dark Knight too; the twitches and body language, the voice, facial expressions, the eyes.

Even if you hate superheros, hate Batman, hate action movies: Go see it. Just for the Joker.