The Dark Knight – Half of a FM 94.7 movie review

Heath Ledger - Joker

I wanted to write something or talk about my impression of The Dark Knight after watching it this Monday July 21st. So it was my pleasure when my friend and the popular FM 94.7 radio host Terry Chan (陳家燕) like my idea of reviewing the movie for her radio show. So we recorded the chat to be aired coming Monday.

Christian Bale - Batman - The Dark Knight

Overall, I gave the movie a very rare 10/10. I was most impressed with the acting, in particular Heath Ledger’s amazing work. Heath totally lived and breathed the Joker, someone without moral nor remorse. Terry and I also talked about Heath’s untimely and tragic death and the possibly misinterpreted warning by Jack Nicholson (YouTube clip and news). Heath’s interpretation of the Joker is scary. And I think, provided the rules allow it, Heath has a great chance to win a posthumous Oscar because he earned it from his great work.

Christian Bale did a great Batman as expected and I mentioned about his work in 3:10 to Yuma (2007), The Prestige (2006), and Maquinista, El (The Machinist) (2004). Too bad I didn’t have time to mention Rescue Dawn (2006) and the still cool Sci-fi action Equilibrium (2002).

I had expected great work from Heath Ledger and Christian Bale but I was very pleasantly surprised by the wonderful acting by Aaron Eckhart. The transition from good to evil was good. Great job.

Of course, a great movie has to have a wonderful group of supporting casts. In this case, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and the less-known Chin Han (he plays Lau) have all make this movie great.

Terry mentioned that this movie may be too dark for her taste. We then discussed the positive effect of a dark movie, we talked about the wiretap scene, we talked about the boats explosive scene, the scene where Batman rides right into Joker, etc. All those are moral decisions that parallels can be drawn in our post-911 age.

We concluded by I saying my most admired super-hero at the moment has to be Batman because, the latest iteration of Batman, he faces some moral decisions that we can draw parallels in our current complex post-911 world.

Now, here is my half of the Chinese audio FM 94.7 radio movie review of The Dark Knight with radio host Terry Chan (陳家燕). Have a listen. I hope you enjoy it.

P.S. For a great movie review, check out Roger Ebert. For an interesting reflection on what it means to be a hero, take a look of Tara Hunt’s blog entry “The Dark Knight and Darker Questions“.

P.P.S. Here is a trailer of The Dark Knight,

Here is clip one of History Channel’s “Batman Unmasked – The Psychology Of The Dark Knight“