The Dark Knight

Wanna know how I got these scars? My father was....a drinker. And a fiend. And one night he goes off crazier than usual. Mommy gets the kitchen knife to defend herself. He doesn't like that. Not. One. Bit. So, me watching, he takes the knife to her, laughing while he does it. Turns to me and he says "Why so serious?" Comes at me with the knife,"Why so serious?" He sticks the blade in my mouth. "Let’s put a smile on that face!"

There's so much of ideas and words that flashed in my head when I watched The Dark Knight. It's like Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby where every word that is uttered carries a whole load of weight behind it. I've never watched a movie that made me think so much after the Matrix! Lol, the philosophical and literature concepts in there is just overwhelming. Once again, Stan wants to put up a WARNING sign that there are SPOILERS ahead!

The movie starts off with a bank robbery and I got a tickle when I saw who was casted as the Gotham Bank Manager. It was Alex Mahone from Prison Break! Lol!! And he scares the pants out of all the robbers when he blasted a couple of them with his shotgun. That is until The Joker makes an appearance and left him with the words "I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you... stranger."

The character at the center-stage of the movie is undeniably the Joker. The Batman had to take the back seat for this one. Heath Ledger's death may had played some part in propelling the film and character to global fame but the thing is, Heath is simply phenomenal in the role. His portrayal of the Joker embodies an individual being who's psychotic, erratic and ruthless. The imagery conjured into the audience mind is one which is terrifying the mind. Heath brought out the essence of the Joker, something which previous adaptations or even the animated series had not done as well as him. The Joker could literally have an entire section of monologues by himself because his quotes are just so profound. "Malicious silliness" and "saddistic humour" would be some of the tags that I'll put on the Joker. He's the anti-thesis of Batman, the very opposite what the Dark Knight represented and stands for.

The Joker is not a mere ordinary lunatic. He represented a higher form of destruction where he destroys for the thrill of it. He regards himself as an agent of chaos and the eerie thing is that he's willing to even become a martyr to usher in anarchy into the world. He has a taste for pure nihilism and as he puts it," It's not about money... it's about... sending a message. Everything burns." Interestingly, the Joker orchestrated a real-life Prisoners' Dilemma using two ferries where one contained a group of thugs while the other are ordinary folks. Lots of ethical questions are raised around here. The end result was that none of them pressed the button. I think in the real world, I'm sure there are definitely people who are willing to press the button.

The Batman is an interesting superhero which stands out from the rest. Unlike Superman, Spiderman or the X-Men, Batman does not possess any sort of superhuman powers. He's a mortal that is equipped with lots of cool gadgets but he's essentially vulnerable to death and emotional or psychological wounding just like any other man. In the Justice League, Batman stands out among the other members and the exco as someone who's rather difficult to work with, low sense of humour and a very emo person because of the dark experiences that he went through. In any case, Bale does well in the movie too as Batman, continuing the good work which he had in Batman Begins.

The "White Knight" of Gotham is Harvey Dent and the Joker is totally obsessed in demonstrating that he is capable of turning the best of men into a villainous character. And he succeeded in making Dent descend into madness and transforming him into Two-Face after the death of Rachel Dawes. I like this portrayal of Two-Face as compared to the one in Batman Forever which is played by Tommy Lee Jones. In Batman Forever, he's just shown to be a bad ass with no introduction that Two Face was once a defender of justice. The corruption initiated by the Joker in the Dark Knight is not the first because in the Batman animated series, he was also responsible in turning Detective Ethan Bennett into Clayface.

Despite the fact that both Batman and the Joker are nemesis to each other, both are not willing to deal the killing blow. For Joker, the end of Batman would mean the end of thrills for him while Batman's philosophy has always been never to murder criminals but to hand them over to the police. So, as the Joker had already mentioned, they can do the cat-and-mouse game virtually forever..lol.

The Dark Knight is a truly superb movie that lives up to all the hype surrounding it. The Joker was the last act by Heath Ledger and it was a befitting farewell. Take a bow, Heath Ledger. A magnificent performance before the curtains come down. It would definitely be very hard to find a replacement if they do want to have a sequel in the future. With that said, I would definitely look forward in getting the Dark Knight DVD in the future :)