"The Dark Knight": The IMAX Experience

You've probably seen it by now and if you haven't yet you've probably already got your tickets. I bought mine for last night nearly three weeks ago. Opening night was already sold out and while I could have gotten tickets to most any other theater, to see it for the first time in IMAX I was willing to wait a day.
As I've been shouting up and down for months, "The Dark Knight" is the first Hollywood film to ever shoot in IMAX. It's not the entire movie but it's a lot more than the "four sequences" we've been hearing about. The result is jaw dropping and serves to create the appropriate canvas for the showdown between two men with "a taste for the theatrical."
Picking up nearly a year after "Batman Begins," Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) and Alfred (Michael Caine) are living in a Gotham penthouse and storing Batman's gear in a much more well-lit make shift bat cave. Wayne Manor is still under reconstruction. With the criminal underworld running scared, Batman's foes are hardly formidable. But it was only a matter of time before Batman's theatrics inspired a new kind of criminal to pose a serious challenge. Known only as the Joker (Heath Ledger), this is a man who robs, kills, destroys, and who will push Batman to his limits. He does all of this for no other reason than it's fun. It's going to take the help of Lieutenant Gordon (Gary Oldman) and new District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) to take on the Joker.
So after the months of build up and the kind of anticipation that has not been seen in years, "The Dark Knight" had a lot to live up to. You know that part of you that died inside the day "Star Wars: Episode I" came out? This film brings that back to life. It is epic not only on a visual level, but emotionally as well. The Joker makes Bruce Wayne face darkness he is not prepared for and forces him to take extreme and arguably unethical measures. Even upright D.A. Dent will be put to the test. For those of you who don't know your Batman lore I won't spoil anything for you regarding Harvey Dent. I will say it allows for a quietly outstanding performance from Eckhart.
Like Gotham, "The Dark Knight" is shaken up by the Joker. We've been hearing Oscar talk for the late Heath Ledger and all I can say is, yes, he deserves it. He is genuinely terrifying and manages to be theatrical and completely steal the movie without being hammy or chewing the scenery. My claim nearly a year ago was that Nicholson's Joker, while fun, was really just Jack being Jack. Ledger was really going to be the Joker. Every once in awhile I get something right. He gives a performance that is instantly legendary, with or without the actor's tragic untimely death, which adds an eerie quality to a few moments. I cannot really think of what else to say about Ledger's work in this film that hasn't been said already. You simply have to see it for yourself.
The acting is uniformly solid. Bale, Caine, and Oldman all deliver terrific understated performances, and Maggie Gyllenhaal stepping in for Katie Holmes was clearly the right move.
As "Memento" was taking the indie-film world by storm in 2001, in an interview with virgin.net, director Christopher Nolan said, "I don't consider myself to be an 'art' film-maker at all. I actually have pretty mainstream tastes, which may come as some surprise." Seven years later we now know exactly what he means. Not only is he making mainstream films, he's taking the mainstream to a higher level. He's making mainstream art. The screenplay co-written with his brother Jonathan is a perfect balance of story, character, dialogue, and action. This is great writing that doesn't call attention to itself. Nolan's decision to shoot in IMAX was a bold move that ups the ante for all event films moving forward. Cinematographer Wally Pfister should just be handed the Oscar right now. What he and Nolan create is spectacle with a purpose. Also, the score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, particularly in what's written for the Joker, is outstanding and imaginative.
Hopefully I've managed to sing this movie's praises without gushing...much. If it's playing in IMAX anywhere near you (I'm talking within like a three state radius) I urge you to see it there. It's absolutely worth it. For the first time in 2008 I can award a film 10/10.