It's Nearly Dawn...

When “Dark Knight” starts, it looks rather like an ordinary action flick, with the superhero setup, waiting for the caped crusader to save the day. A familiar evil is waiting, almost like an old friend, for Batman to show up—you even get the feeling that he doesn’t mind getting caught. That was weird.

Then, we’re brought up to date on all of the recent goings-on in Gotham City, our brooding home-away-from-NYC. There’s the new D.A. in town, Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent, a handsome, Prince Charming type. There’s his love interest and Bruce Wayne’s old flame, Rachel Dawes, played this time ‘round by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal is an improvement on Katie Holmes, who played Rachel in the last movie. Where Holmes wavered and looked dolefully out from lowered eyes, Gyllenhaal stared straight at her opponent, seeming stronger and more defiant. She seems to challenge people where Holmes would have nagged. Gyllenhaal’s determined Rachel seems a more worthy partner for our cloaked hero, although their future together seems, to say the least, shaky.

As for Eckhart’s Dent, he is an admirable man, himself an insistant, unafraid fighter. He is prepared to work with Batman to save Gotham. When he becomes Two-Face (and I’m sorry if that’s a spoiler, but it’s Batman… it’s more or less all been done before in that respect) his sudden change from such a good man to one of such evil is wholly believably, moving, and frightening.

This fear is what leads me to the ongoing discussion of what was undoubtedly the biggest draw for this movie: Heath Ledger. First, I’ll say that Ledger was hugely talented, and that he was a beautiful man, and far too young to die. That stated, his Joker was, well, one of the more brilliantly conceived villains in any comic-movie. He was empty and full at the same time, heartless and wildly defensive. He seemed like someone whose humanity was stolen from him, and now he wanted to steal something, anything, from everyone else. He seems like a child whose favorite toy was stolen, so he just goes mad trying to get everyone back for what happened to him. We never find out why he’s so horrid, but that just makes him more terrifying. What drives a man to do such things, to think in such a way? What makes a human forsake its own kind? Watching Ledger play this horrific role was great fun, and in the end, quite sad. We’ve lost a great actor, and that is the only thing detracting from “Dark Knight”.

Christian Bale is once again convincing and impressive. He does torn so well, but can seem so composed and so focused. He can get so many things done, but cannot seem to control his own life. He’s dark, dwelling on the past, and stuck on an endless clean-up mission.

Now, I don’t know about you, but Batman’s always been my favorite. His costume seemed somehow less ridiculous than some others, and he had the coolest toys. He wandered around at night, and was just a human being for whom the mind and body were tools for justice. He didn’t murder people, though, but brought them into the authorities so that they could be dealt with in a (one would hope) righteous manner. A trial awaited the criminal victims of Batman, not some insane plan. It was what set him apart from the villains—while he and many of his adversaries were strange outsiders, he did not hate the society that seemed to exclude him. Rather, he distanced himself from it in order to help it survive.

I like that idea; that concept that people can feel different and not hate each other for it. I liked that he was alone, and that no one seemed to understand him, but they didn’t hate him for it. What fear they had led them to keep their distance, but in general, Batman was a hero—a man who just wanted to help. He wasn’t insane, just separate.

After this movie, I’m not sure what Chris Nolan thinks of Batman. I think he must like him, because Christian Bale makes for such a humane hero. But at the same time, I think Nolan expects people to recoil from Batman, and I’m not sure that I like that. That said, Nolan is doing something interesting with the franchise. He’s making what might be a more realistic story with more flawed characters. As a result, he has a unique opportunity. He has the chance, moreso than anyone before, to make Catwoman into a great character. Yes, she’s forever portrayed as the crazy chick in the tight cat costume, but she could be more. She could be the quiet, put-upon girl who is murdered. She could come back, still the sweet, kind hearted person she was before, but with something markedly different about her. There could be something deep inside that wants revenge for the first life lost. They could have each life she sheds lose more of the human inside of her. They could create a character slowly being drained of its soul, and it could be a brilliant, heartbreaking movie.

Chris Nolan has the ability to do that, I think, because he has shown us a sociopath, a megalomaniac, and a man crushed by life but wanting so badly to do good. They say that the night is darkest before the dawn, so I'm hoping (at the risk of sounding punny) that Nolan will come through and make a truly grand finale to this series. The only question is, will he follow through on the promise he’s made by creating such great movies? Or will we have yet another case of three’s a crowd?

Whatever happens, I’ll still go see the third movie. Bale is the single most compelling super-hero out there, with Hellboy in a close but fantastical second.