- Amazon Sales Rank: #36529 in DVD
- Released on: 2009-11-13
- Number of discs: 1
- Formats: Dolby, NTSC
- Running time: 145 minutes
| The Dark Knight arrives with vast 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 percentage 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 confederacy 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 progression 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 prospect to reprise her role), the longtime love of Batman’s modify ego, Bruce Wayne.
In his last finished role before his tragic death, Ledger is fantastic as the Joker, a volcanic, genuinely horrendous strength 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 likewise shine, but as good as Bale is, his reputation turns out rather bland in comparison (not not common for heroes facing more colorful villains). Director-cowriter Christopher Nolan (Memento) follows his seriously acclaimed Batman Begins with an even better sequel that sets itself detached from remarkable superhero movies like Spider-Man 2 and Iron Man because of it is sheer aroused affect 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 outstanding home-theater showoff disc. The detail and colors are tremendous in both dark and bright scenes (the Gotham General scene is a outstanding 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 huge Blu-ray releases this fall, Warner came through with Dolby TrueHD on this one.) One of the most interesting constituents of The Dark Knight was how sure scenes were shot in IMAX, and if you saw the movie in an IMAX theater the film’s aspect symmetry would abruptly modify from general 2.40:1 to a thrilling 1.43:1 that filled the screen six stories high. For the Blu-ray disc, conductor Christopher Nolan has more or less re-created this experience by shifting his film from 2.40:1 aspect proportionality (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 observing the film on a widescreen TV with black bars at the top and bottom, then seeing the 1.78:1 scenes altogether 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 in regards to the IMAX scenes, the Bat suit, Gotham Central, and others. You may watch the film and access these featurettes when the icon pops up, or you may merely watch them from the main menu. A welcome and strange 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 numerous background to events in the movie, plus a potpourri of trailers, poster art, and more. The BD-Live element on disc 1 is more interesting than on a good deal of earlier Blu-ray discs, which could be merely 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 a lot of movie and TV cameos), plus you may 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
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285 of 333 people found the following review helpful.
 Great Film – Buy the Single Disc Version!
By Jeremiah
What has been said about the Dark Knight cannot be elaborated on – so I won’t. The film is muscling its way into my #1 favorite comic movie adaptation of all time.
The reason for my review is in hopes of saving you some money. This double disc Special Edition doesn’t deliver the price you pay for it. There isn’t even deleted scenes!!! I would save your very hard earned dollars and buy the single disc version and wait for the inevitable ULTIMATE re-release that will come later on down the road.
But nonetheless, a great film – you will not be dissapointed; I just wish the studio would have given a better Special Edition release than what we have here. So enjoy!
545 of 651 people found the following review helpful.
The Dark Masterpiece Surpasses the Hype
By Justin Heath
Christopher Nolan has a vision. And whether you agree with it or not, he undeniably completes it in “The Dark Knight”–a vicious, engrossing, overwhelming, intelligent event- film that re-defines ‘comic-book-flicks’. In Nolan’s grim, dark-depiction of Gotham-City (the crime-ridden hell protected by legendary superhero Batman), the director strives to make everything real (something he began in the well-received “Batman Begins”). He makes it plausible, possible. And yet there’s more to it: just as ‘Begins’ was a dissection of myth, the nature of symbols and heroes, ‘Knight’ is the escalation of that notion. It’s a biblical- confrontation of ‘good-and-evil’, yet as ‘good-and-evil’ really exist: a conflict of ideals, something that can’t be purely-defined but that is relative to a viewpoint. In Nolan’s world, the line of villainy and heroism isn’t crossed… it’s non-existent. The bad-guys don’t see themselves as bad-guys, and as such something so unnervingly-real comes across it might fly past some people’s minds (no insult to anybody, it’s just common that people don’t look deep into ‘popcorn-flicks’): the battle is a complete ambiguity.
The film runs at nearly 2.5-hours, yet never ceases to lose interest or momentum. It doesn’t waste a scene or moment; every event is utilized and necessary. ‘The Dark Knight’ tells a story worth telling and it takes the proper amount of time to tell it. Action-sequences are frantic, old-school, eye-grabbing stunts (vastly superior to ‘Begins’) and in their chaotic intensity we see that they serve purpose to the story, yet more interesting are not played for pure entertainment-value: we are meant to watch, petrified, simply hoping that the outcome will go the hero’s way. Attention is never lost because we are immersed in a breathtaking, almost completely-unpredictable story (it packs many a shock), that makes us think and more importantly gains our emotional-investment. We come to care for the characters, because they are believable, developed, and personified fully.
Everyone has great-chemistry together. Maggie Gyllenhal is a more mature Rachel Dawes than Katie Holmes. Morgan Freeman provides his authoritative presence to the role of bad- gadget-inventor/Wayne-Enterprise CEO Lucius Fox, and under anyone else’s portrayal, the part would be less-memorable. Gary Oldman underplays his world-wearied lawman with such honest-nobility, you never feel for a second any of its forced-acting. The irreplaceable Michael Caine makes a gentle, reassuring, father-like presence as Alfred, and the movie would surely fail without his strong-presence and interjected-moments of light-humor.
And while everyone (rightfully) pours the praise unto Bale and Ledger, I think most are glancing-over Knight’s breakout-performance. As Harvey Dent, Aaron Eckhart does more than hold himself in the company of such a renowned-cast. He makes his presence known, whether he’s playing on the easy-going charisma of Gotham’s ‘White-Knight’ or the broken and damaged, twisted-soul of Two-Face. He achieves a full-impact with the tragedy that comes unto his character, and so closely connects with Dent, that he makes his pain tangible for us: we sympathize even as we become terrified. He captures both facets of each personality flawlessly.
Now, some people cite that ‘Knight’ has a potential fatal-flaw in the supposedly wooden- acting of Christian Bale. Admittedly, his development is not as grand as in ‘Begins’ (yet that film gave us such a good psychoanalysis of Wayne, we hardly need more), yet what Bale pulls off is admirable. Wayne is not an eccentric personality. He is a disillusioned man who can hardly find any joy in having no family, giving up his love-interest and spending his life fighting a battle that may never end. He’s dark and conflicted, and Bale plays up on that brooding-mood by making Wayne look as though a thousand dark-things were on his mind. He’s not wooden…he’s a humorless, quiet individual. Even when Wayne is acting as a frivolous playboy for the public, every now and then Bale offers us a powerful glance that reminds us its all a façade; that deep down, something more disturbed irks him. Occasionally he offers a broken-smile when exchanging banter with Alfred, letting us know that beyond the dour depression of the Caped-Crusader lies a damaged human-being. It is only in the guise of a growling masked-man, that he can unleash his true, ferocious personality.
Finally, who could forget Heath Ledger. Now, when he was first-announced for the part, I was (along with many other people) asking myself: “Why?”. Mr. Ledger had proved with ‘Brokeback Mountain’ he could deliver a potent performance. But he hadn’t before. It is only, after seeing this film, that I know the answer to ‘why?’: I see the significance of his loss.
When Heath appears in this movie, he is completely unrecognizable. His voice is distinctly-altered; a near-whiny, pedophile-like tone that sends shivers down the spine. His face is completely splattered with makeup that renders him both freakishly-nightmarish and strangely-funny. And when you see him, you don’t think it’s him. In this, his final performance, Ledger proved he was a chameleon. His two iconic performances in this, and ‘Brokeback’, could not be more different. I am convinced he could have been anything in his career. He commits so intensely to character that the line of actor/portrayal dies. His every tick and gesture only further-enhances his character. Heath never hams the role up or goes for something cheap: he delivers a fully-immersed display of psychotic madness…or do we just label him that to feel safer? The movie writes the character brilliantly; blending terrifying truth into his every social-accusation, and making us question why we laugh at his sick-jokes.
‘The Dark Knight’ has had an incredible-amount of hype running for it, from the get-go, mounting ever-higher, until Heath Ledger’s too-soon death. And the finished-product does more than exceed all of the near-impossible expectations placed on it. It becomes something much richer than a super-hero-franchise-saga. Christopher Nolan has opened a new door in cinema: allowing action-flicks to become more serious, capable of intelligence. He has transformed this into a piece of artwork, full of beauty, terror, moral-conundrums. This movie has changed things…forever.
There’s no going back. 10/10
28 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
Info on the Bat Pod
By turtlex
This is just some information regarding the Bat Pod. Please be aware, the Bat Pod and the display stand are 100% plastic. The Bat Pod is also not removable.
In my opinion, they are not worth the extra money.
Get the film, but don’t splurge on this plastic toy.
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