Blue Ray Movies

The Dark Knight (+ Digital Copy and BD Live) [Blu-ray]

The follow-up to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight reunites director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale, who reprises the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne in his continuing war on crime. With the help of Lt. Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to destroy organized crime in Gotham for good. The triumvirate proves effective, but soon find themselves prey to a rising criminal mastermind known as The Joker, who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces Batman closer to crossing the fine line between hero and vigilante. Heath Ledger stars as archvillain The Joker, and Aaron Eckhart plays Dent. Maggie Gyllenhaal joins the cast as Rachel Dawes. Returning from Batman Begins are Gary Oldman as Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox.The Dark Knight arrives with tremendous hype (best superhero movie ever? posthumous Oscar for Heath Ledger?), and incredibly, it lives up to all of it. But calling it the best superhero movie ever seems like faint praise, since part of what makes the movie great–in addition to pitch-perfect casting, outstanding writing, and a compelling vision–is that it bypasses the normal fantasy element of the superhero genre and makes it all terrifyingly real. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) is Gotham City’s new district attorney, charged with cleaning up the crime rings that have paralyzed the city. He enters an uneasy alliance with the young police lieutenant, Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), and Batman (Christian Bale), the caped vigilante who seems to trust only Gordon–and whom only Gordon seems to trust. They make progress until a psychotic and deadly new player enters the game: the Joker (Heath Ledger), who offers the crime bosses a solution–kill the Batman. Further complicating matters is that Dent is now dating Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, after Katie Holmes turned down the chance to reprise her role), the longtime love of Batman’s alter ego, Bruce Wayne.

In his last completed role before his tragic death, Ledger is fantastic as the Joker, a volcanic, truly frightening force of evil. And he sets the tone of the movie: the world is a dark, dangerous place where there are no easy choices. Eckhart and Oldman also shine, but as good as Bale is, his character turns out rather bland in comparison (not uncommon for heroes facing more colorful villains). Director-cowriter Christopher Nolan (Memento) follows his critically acclaimed Batman Begins with an even better sequel that sets itself apart from notable superhero movies like Spider-Man 2 and Iron Man because of its sheer emotional impact and striking sense of realism–there are no suspension-of-disbelief superpowers here. At 152 minutes, it’s a shade too long, and it’s much too intense for kids. But for most movie fans–and not just superhero fans–The Dark Knight is a film for the ages. –David Horiuchi

On the Blu-ray disc
The Dark Knight on Blu-ray is a great home-theater showoff disc. The detail and colors are tremendous in both dark and bright scenes (the Gotham General scene is a great example of the latter), and the punishing Dolby TrueHD soundtrack makes the house rattle. (After giving us only Dolby 5.1 in a number of big Blu-ray releases this fall, Warner came through with Dolby TrueHD on this one.) One of the most interesting elements of The Dark Knight was how certain scenes were shot in IMAX, and if you saw the movie in an IMAX theater the film’s aspect ratio would suddenly change from standard 2.40:1 to a thrilling 1.43:1 that filled the screen six stories high. For the Blu-ray disc, director Christopher Nolan has somewhat re-created this experience by shifting his film from 2.40:1 aspect ratio (through most of the film) to 1.78:1 in the IMAX scenes. While the effect isn’t as dramatic as it was in theaters, it’s still an eye-catching experience to be watching the film on a widescreen TV with black bars at the top and bottom, then seeing the 1.78:1 scenes completely fill the screen. The main bonus feature on disc 1 is “Gotham Uncovered: The Creation of a Scene,” which is 81 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage about the IMAX scenes, the Bat suit, Gotham Central, and others. You can watch the film and access these featurettes when the icon pops up, or you can simply watch them from the main menu. A welcome and unusual feature is that in addition to English, French, and Spanish audio and subtitles, there’s an audio-described option that allows the sight-impaired to experience the film as well.

Disc 2 has two 45-minute documentaries on Bat-gadgets and on the psychology of Batman, both in high definition. They combine movie clips, talking heads, and comic-book panels, but aren’t the kind of thing one needs to watch twice. More engaging are six eight-minute segments of Gotham Central, a faux-news program that gives some background to events in the movie, plus a variety of trailers, poster art, and more. The BD-Live component on disc 1 is more interesting than on some earlier Blu-ray discs, which could be simply a matter of the content starting to catch up with the technology. There are three new picture-in-picture commentaries, by Jerry Robinson (creator of the Joker), DC Comics president Paul Levitz, and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.–he’s a Batman fan who’s made some movie and TV cameos), plus you can record your own commentary and upload it for others to watch. There are also three new featurettes (”Sound of the Batpod,” “Harvey Dent’s Theme,” and “Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard”) and two motion comics (”Mad Love,” featuring Harley Quinn, and “The Shadow of Ra’s Al Ghul”). Last, there’s a digital copy of the film compatible with iTunes and Windows Media (standard definition, expires 12/9/09). –David Horiuchi

Product description
The follow-up to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight reunites director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale, who reprises the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne in his continuing war on crime. With the help of Lt. Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to destroy organized crime in Gotham for good. The triumvirate proves effective, but soon find themselves prey to a rising criminal mastermind known as The Joker, who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces Batman closer to crossing the fine line between hero and vigilante. Heath Ledger stars as archvillain The Joker, and Aaron Eckhart plays Dent. Maggie Gyllenhaal joins the cast as Rachel Dawes. Returning from Batman Begins are Gary Oldman as Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox.

Blu-ray features:

• Movie with Focus Points (picture in picture)
• Explore your favorite movies through BD-Live™, an interactive gateway to exclusive content
• 2.40:1 aspect ratio, with IMAX sequences in 1.78:1
• Gotham Uncovered: Creation of a Scene: Director Christopher Nolan and creative collaborators unmask the incredible detail and planning behind the film, including stunt staging, filming in IMAX®, and the new Bat-suit and Bat-pod.
• Batman Tech: The incredible gadgets and tools (in HD)
• Batman Unmasked: The Psychology of The Dark Knight: Delve into the psyche of Bruce Wayne and the world of Batman through real-world psychotherapy (in HD)
• Gotham Tonight: 6 episodes of Gotham Cable’s premier news program
• The Galleries: The Joker cards, concept art, poster art, production stills, trailers and TV spots
• Digital Copy of the feature film

Stills from The Dark Knight (click for larger image)

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Why so serious?
I thought everyone did a magnificient acting job in this.

Christian Bale’s portrail of Batman / Bruce Wayne was actually quite subtle. As Wayne, he was suave and confident; and at the same time, unassuming. As Batman, he came across as determined and unstoppable; and, as the Joker said, uncorruptable. His conversations with the Joker revealed his own inner pain. And that is what Batman is really all about: darkness, pain, and obsession.

Aaron Eckhart did marvelously as Harvey Dent. The transformation from the DA commited to law and order into a ruined man incapable of dealing with his own pain and loss, and determined to impose his own new ideas about chaos upon the world was brilliant.

But it was Heath Leger as the Joker who really stole the show. Unlike the flamboyant interpretation Jack Nicholson did in 1989, his was an irredeemable and scruffy psychotic. Totally insane. Pure evil. Zero empathy. A sociopathic “agent of chaos” that would have had Hannibal Lechter raising an eyebrow; and at the same time brilliant and insightful. During the interrogation scene, the Joker knew all of Batman’s weaknesses, and the undeniable fact that he was, in the long run, all alone. This proved true at the end when the whole city turned against him. And his conversation with Dent in the hospital was really the final push that sent Dent into insanity. The Joker essentially brainwashed him.

The lines he delivered were unbelieveable: “You won’t kill me because of some misguided sense of self righteousness, and I won’t kill you because you’re just too much fun!”

I am inclined to believe that the role may have been instrumental in Ledger’s death. Any actor must face the danger of becoming too deeply immersed in the character he / she is playing. Daniel Day Lewis is a perfect example. Ledger went deep into a realm of utter madness to develop the Joker and convincingly play him. Maybe too deep. It was probably hard for him to come back to being Heath Ledger; and he underestimated the effect the role had on his psyche.

4 Stars Dark Knight
This was an enjoyable family movie and my son wants to watch it all the time now.

1 Stars Great Junior High School Production!!
I was given this movie as a gift. I didn’t get all the through it before destroying it and throwing it away (I wouldn’t want anyone else having to suffer through it on my account)! This is an all-to-typical example of Hollywood trash advertised as “something big.” The plot line was flat and disjointed (or totally incoherent in some spots), the acting just ok, and the character development - well, there was none. The writers, if I can call them that, had the police doing things that no normal police agency would dream of doing!

All in all this is a pathetic movie for adults to have made and I would hope that all involved in its production are sufficiently embarassed. However, if it were a junior high movie project I probably would have given it a higher score. In short, don’t waste your time let alone money in viewing this garbage!

5 Stars Batman is at it again
Excellent Batman Movie. Deffinately a keeper. And the seller sent it to me right away.

5 Stars “Dark Knight” is a superb comic book film, but elevated to greatness by the Ledger tragedy
How can you review Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” without starting with Heath Ledger? Not only does Ledger, as the Joker, give one of the best performances ever in a “comic book movie,” he does so with perhaps one of CB’s greatest villains and in his final complete film performance? The Joker has been hammed up for decades in the “Batman” TV series, comics, and movies, but Ledger turns the character into something completely sinister and original . . . we’ve seen this character a thousand times, but we’ve never seen this before.

Ledger’s Joker is an agent of chaos - all he wants is to mess with the established order, to be a burr under civilization’s saddle. Money is a mere tool to buy dynamite, bullets, and stupid henchmen, and as the Joker says, “they come cheap.” This Joker is not going to play silly games just to leave a calling card - he wants nothing more than to take down the best and brightest civilization has to offer.

Interestingly, the Joker (and the filmmakers) choose to make the best and the brightest neither Bruce Wayne or the Batman, but instead Harvey Dent (played perfectly by Aaron Eckhart), Gotham’s crusading district attorney. Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale, grimly charismatic as always) sees Dent as his means to return to a normal life - with Dent cleaning up the streets, the city won’t need Batman any more. And if he gives up the mask, he can marry sweetheart Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, a welcome replacement for Katie Holmes).

The fact that Dawes may be in love with Dent doesn’t really play into Wayne’s plans at first . . . but eventually it does.

While Wayne’s affairs of the heart are playing out, the Joker is consolidating his power on Gotham’s crime scene. Using ingenious means only available to the criminally insane, the Joker unites the various crime families in an effort to bring down the Batman. Not necessarily kill - the Joker has something far more sinister up his sleeve. It’s no surprise that every time the Joker looms on screen, the soundtrack cranks up a creepy, grinding sound that is only tangentially related to music, but sets the perfect tone for this madcap murderer.

This excellent plot gives plenty of opportunities for Nolan to set up fantastic action scenes in the streets of Gotham (actually Chicago, a nice replacement for New York). Nolan also gives plenty of opportunities for the stellar cast - that also includes Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, and the sainted Morgan Freeman - to do some serious acting.

Parents should be warned - if you’re looking for a second movie for a super-hero double feature for the kiddies to go alongside “Ironman,” you should probably watch this movie first without your kids around. While “Ironman” goes for the “safe” kind of cartoonish violence, “The Dark Knight” is grim stuff and definitely not for every kid. My older daughter is only 5, and while she’s enjoyed many PG movies, I won’t let her anywhere near this one. This is not a criticism - just an acknowledgement that “The Dark Knight” is a movie where the villains play hardball.

The superhero movie is definitely in a Golden Age, and “The Dark Knight” belongs on the list of Great Comic Book Movies ever.

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Filed under: Blue Ray Movie Reviews