all five horizons

On Monday night, we went to see The Dark Knight at the Birmingham IMAX.  I had avoided reading too much about it beforehand since I already felt that I had seen too much on the internet and in the trailers.  I was concerned that some of the big screen moments would have less impact having seen the trailer several times.  I needn’t have worried.  Firstly, I am really glad that we made the effort to go to the IMAX.

Entire sequences were filmed for the extra big screen and this really added so much to the overall movie including immense panoramic shots, high-octane action sequences and an extreme close-up of the grotesque but brillant Joker.  The hour-long wait to get our seats was completely worth it for the literally jaw-dropping IMAX scenes.

Heath Ledger’s performance was indeed inspired and would have been heralded as iconic even without his tragic death.  Christian Bale proved again that he really is Batman and his portrayal of both the dark knight and his alter-ego, Bruce Wayne, perfectly encapsulates the very different personas. Maggie Gyllenhaal did a great job as Rachel Dawes (shame she was not cast in Batman Begins too since she had less to do in some respects in this film).  Her face-off with the Joker was gripping and not a melted wax face in sight.  Finally, Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent was the biggest surprise for me since he was less featured in the marketing campaign/trailer and as such, was a bit of an unknown entity.  I was really glad because it meant that whilst I knew the general story of Dent and who he becomes, I had no clue how much would be covererd in this film.

Christopher Nolan delivered another superb piece of filmmaking with The Dark Knight.  To bring so much emotion, passion, fear and morality to a comicbook character is at once admirable and satisfying.