The Dark Knight

This one's been hyped all over the place as a film that will make the most of any hi-def system, so I was quite excited to use it to test mine. Thankfully, the image quality was excellent. I watched the blu-ray version via a PS3 and 1080p projector. The visuals were detailed, vibrant and clear.

I did have a couple of technical gripes, though. Firstly, the audio range was annoyingly high with explosions so loud in comparison to the speech that I had to put the subtitles on or get evicted. Secondly, the normal pause control on the PS3 didn't work, so you had to bring up the in-movie menu and then pause. It's a fairly minor gripe, but a major bad omen for the future of blu-ray.

Those points aside, the movie had everything you would expect from a Batman film. There were Bat-vehicles, Bat-gadgets, Bat-stunts and Bat-villains. The budget financed an all-star cast that even included the nerd from The Breakfast Club and as you know, included Heath Ledger's Joker. This was a very well played example of criminal insanity that even managed to stand out despite great performances all round. Oh, and both Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman delivered the exact same performances they have done for years. Old, wise, kindly, understanding men who you'd better realise are not to be made fools of.

The plot basically said that people of Gotham City have had their Dark Knight who did things his own way, but got the gosh darned job done when nobody else knew how. Now it's time for a return to law and order and they need a hero who will play by the rules, asserting some moral authority. Add the Joker to the scene, a force operating without a moral code, throwing up tough ethical decisions for our hero and the people and you've got the whole film set up.

I found the plot to be both complex and shallow, which may sound contradictory, but basically, they could have chopped about thirty minutes out of the middle of the movie without it really mattering. The story was weak, but I suppose that's actually ok here because The Dark Knight works really well on every other level. The action scenes are well executed, the photography is excellent, the spectacle is all there and if you really want a film with a stronger story, you probably know this is not where you're going to find it.

Not bad.

The Dark Knight