subplotkudzu | Just saw Dark Knight

For the non-spoiler part of this port, it was good. Intense, well crafted, thought provoking and good. Not FUN, mind you, and NOT a PG-13 movie. Sure, there's no vulgarity and no sex, but it's violent, sometimes brutally so, and deals with very mature themes. This is an R rated film anywhere other than the US, where the premium concern for protecting young children is in bad language and bared breasts. Do not take your 8 year old to this thinking it's "just like the Batman Animated Series."

Now, onto the spoiler-rific stuff

It's an absolute crying shame that they managed to get the Batman/Joker relationship right, with with Batman's strong code vs killing letting Joker live through the movie and then have the actor who so animated him never be available for a follow up. I'm not sure such a follow-up is necessary (movies not being serial fiction the way that comics are) but not having the option now really sucks.

They provided a wonderful Two-Face from start to finish, and it's a shame that he died (or did he...? he could just be unconscious from the fall, and they could lock the misshapen Dent up in Arkham to continue the cover-up) - it's doubly a shame that he died from one of Batman's actions, albiet indirectly. Still, I have to give them huge kudos for not having Bats rip his mask off in that scene to share his loss with Dent. They would have in every other Batman film, and every time it irked me. Now, when it actually might have made some shred of sense they wisely didn't. I was thrilled. I was also very happy with them ending it with Bats on the run again, sans official support structure, to maintain Dent's reputation and deny the Joker his victory. Very apt.

I also really liked the brief return of the Scarecrow (and hell, you just know that Crane got away again, right? There's no way that situation holds him) and the continued focus on the mob families - a plot that I felt was seriously under-used in the last film. In any event, Scarecrow is still alive, Joker is still alive, and, ya, right, I'm gonna trust that Ras a Ghul is dead? Pull the middle one and I spit coins. It's nice to see someone understands the power of returning villains and a code vs. killing.

All told, I liked it a lot. The Nolan/Bale Batmans are entirely different animals from the Burton/Keaton ones - they were serving different masters and different images of the hero, so it's unfair to directly compare them, but I think that the Nolan/Bale ones will stand up better over time. Bale has said he's on board for a third; Nolan has not, but then, he wasn't on board for the second.