Exploring the Dark Side

Dark, dark side of humanity.
Enough water has flown under the bridge about the dark knight! Everybody is raving. Ranting. Crying themselves hoarse chanting Heath Ledger’s name. A rip-roaring thundercloud that’s definitely the best in a long list of movies I’ve seen in a long time.
With fantastic performances by all, especially the indomitable Heath Ledger who overshadowed Jack Nicholson’s Joker in a reprisal of the infamous villain.
Why ssssooooo sserious? * With that hiss and the lick of lips! Seriously sent shivers down my spine!
Loved every single moment of this dark and gritty adaptation of the Gotham hero comic book, far surpassing even the first installment from Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins which was a classic again) Batman is still the same, ever in doubt, this venture takes us even deeper into the stygian depths of his dark mind and psyche as he ponders about the futility of him being the capped crusader hell-bent on being Gotham’s savior and is plagued by searing self-doubts about himself.
Katie Holmes missed out this one, but I din mind one bit. Psst...if you ask me, ‘Rachel’ was always a distraction for Bruce. I was mighty sad when the rich philanthropist came back on strongly, to reclaim Rachel’s love choosing her over his crime-riddled city and almost gave up on Batman. But then Joker took care of that, dinn he? In his own devious, ingenious manner. What of course endeared to me was the flippant attitude of Joker towards life. Scorn and contempt for any kind of rule, loves to be anarchist, someone who never ever schemes or plans.
Am like the dog who chases the car, I wouldn’t know what to do with them if I ever catch one *
With some classic gems to treasure (that still rings in my head everyday I wake up ‘If you are good at something, never do it for free!’), he easily flitted from frame to frame, gamboling in crime for fun’s sake. The classic agent of chaos, how he wrecks hell on Batman scene after scene and how this turns into almost a personal vendetta for our man forms the plot of this heady concoction of super-dark, morbid violence and psychosomatic depressive plunges into tunnels within human psyche. Christian Bale is as usual restrained, dark and pondering. With a hammered growling menacing voice like he’s been on an unrestrained diet of cigarettes and ice-cold martinis straight for weeks, newer uber-kewl gadgets, sporting a new bat-suit, and vrooming on the super-sexy bat-mobile. He fits the mask now. He’s brilliant and one of my favorite actors especially after movies like ’12:10 to Yuma’, and now this! I cannot picture anyone else as the Capped Crusader for ever enduring pain for his beloved Gotham city. Gary Oldman aka Lieutenant Gordon, the ever lovable cop now promoted to commissioner, plays a longer role, as endearing as his first time. Aaron Eckhart playing the DA, represents the transformation or rather fall of the city’s white knight in shining armor into Two-face, the embittered alter-ego, who falls for the Joker’s trap. Very measured performance, good but overshadowed by the main protagonists.
But the question that now remains, is, now that Heath Ledger is unfortunately no longer with us, after having played the role of a lifetime and left boots TOO HUGE for anyone else to play, who will reprise the enigmatic Joker?

Gawd, am I waiting for the sequel or what. Can I fast-forward into the future please?