Now, me and a friend of mine had this huge, heated debate about which is a better film, The Dark Knight, The Shawshank Redemption or The Departed. My friend is utterly biased about The Dark Knight and does not even bother to listen to the arguments I state. So, I will do so here, though I will refrain from being negative about the latter two movies, because they are two of my best movies. All negative points about them can be made in the comments area clearly provided for your vocal thoughts.
Reasons Why The Dark Knight Is A Good Movie But Not As Good As TSR or TD:
- Acting – Besides Heath Ledger as The Joker and Aaron Eckhart as Two-Face/Harvey Dent, none of the actors are even convincing. Christian Bale is wooden, a la Arjun Rampal in Rock On, an ornamental piece, in the movie. Maggie Gyllenhaal is a terrible choice as Rachel Dawes. Michael Caine appears the star compared to Mr. Bale.
- Storyline – The storyline of the movie, though good, lacks the flow of TD or TSR. There are many illogical parts in the movie, with respect to the actions of the police of Gotham City, and the freedom which The Joker is provided with.
- Cinematography – Though Gotham City is supposed to be dark and forbidding, with many-a-nemesis of the Batman walking about, Nolan’s Gotham is a sunny, bright city. The scenes done when the Joker and Two-Face are about are brilliant though.
- Casting – Most of the casting for the movie was very nice, but some choices, especially Rachel Dawes and some others need to have been reconsidered. Eye-candy would not have been a bad option for a movie filled with good-looking actors, but hardly worth a Hollywood movie in which you are assured of atleast one hot chick.
- Music – The Departed had some very catchy soundtracks, which cannot be said so for The Dark Knight, which had good ones, but not comparable.
But otherwise, The Dark Knight deserves all the plaudits it has been getting. Nolan’s interpretation has been brilliant, and combined with Ledger’s last hurrah, has resulted in an exciting, edgy thriller which keeps you spellbound with the psychology of two of The Batman’s arch-rivals.