Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight: Batman Continues

That makes The Dark Knight sound like heavy stuff, and it is. But I should add that Nolan also delivers the kick-ass goods, from an opening bank heist à la Michael Mann to a climactic episode of vehicular mayhem à la William Friedkin. And that part where the Batmobile transforms into the considerably more versatile bat pod? Wicked awesome! Those scenes and a few others have been filmed, for maximum visceral impact, in IMAX, though even in standard 35 mm, Nolan is as muscular a movie stylist as any at work today. So The Dark Knight will give your adrenal glands their desired workout, but it will occupy your mind too, and even lead it down some dim alleyways where most Hollywood movies fear to tread. By the end of this second installment in that rare franchise that one hopes won’t end anytime soon, Batman seems to have less in common with his superhero brethren than with those old frontiersmen, like The Searchers’ Ethan Edwards and High Noon’s Will Kane, who were left, at the end of two hours, to ponder the uncertain destiny of principled men in an unprincipled world. And as he rides off into the darkness before dawn, we may well wonder where, but for the grace of Batman, go we.

THE DARK KNIGHT | Directed by CHRISTOPHER NOLAN | Written by JONATHAN NOLAN and CHRISTOPHER NOLAN, from a story by CHRISTOPHER NOLAN and DAVID S. GOYER, based on characters appearing in comic books published by DC COMICS | Produced by EMMA THOMAS, CHARLES ROVEN and CHRISTOPHER NOLAN | Released by Warner Bros. | Citywide

Stephen Vaughan

You laughin’ at me?

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