Matthew Dancona

Brilliantly Dark

The Spectator’s own Wiki Man, Rory Sutherland, and I spent yesterday evening at the BFI Imax near Waterloo watching a preview of The Dark Knight. Very rarely is it genuinely true to say that a movie is astonishing. But no other word will do justice to this film.

To describe The Dark Knight as the latest in the (famously uneven) Batman franchise simply does not explain what this film aspires to be and to do. If the splendid Iron Man was a pitch perfect blend of high camp and high tech – the superhero flick at its best – this is something altogether different. Christopher Nolan uses every technique available to him in the modern cinematic palette to make this a relentless assault on the senses – and one that is overwhelming in the Imax format. Christian Bale as Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred and Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon are all excellently cast.

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