How do you do a sequel to a good movie?
There have only been a handful of movies that have improved or expanded on the original movie and in some cases were even better than the first one: Godfather 2, Toy Story 2, Aliens, and Empire Strikes Back (feel free to throw in some more). Because other than these movies, sequels suck despite the fact that as a nerd I keep hoping when a sequel happens that it will be good. I know I'm stating the obvious now since The Dark Knight was released in 2008, but I'll say it again: this is one of the best sequels of all time. Nolan does everything a sequel is supposed to do with this movie: he improves upon the story, expands the mythology and doesn't for one second repeat any part of the previous movie.
I also have to admit that I was very apprehensive when Nolan cast Heath Ledger as the Joker. I just didn't think Ledger had it in him to be the kind of Joker that would fit into the world Nolan had created. But once again Nolan proves he knows his story and the world he created. Heath Ledger was an inspired piece of casting as he inhabited the role of the Joker with such a conviction and abandon that I just sat in amazement when I saw him on screen. He is the personification of evil for the sake of being evil, chaos for the sake of chaos - do those few lines of description sound familiar? Nolan thought so as the Joker clearly mimics the terrorists who inhabit our world today.
One thing Nolan firmly established in Batman Begins was that he wanted to explore the Batman in as realistic a way as possible and how a world would respond to him as realistically as possible. I don't know if Nolan has read The Watchmen or not but irregardless he takes those same questions of superheroes and realism - as brought up by Allan Moore and Gibbons - and explores them in every possible way he can with the answers clearly aimed at making us think about our own world.
All of this from a comic book movie.
One of the first things I noticed about The Dark Knight was how improved Nolan's direction had become since Batman Begins. There is such a fluidity and seamlessness to his direction this time around. Every shot, scene, and edit has an assured flow to it, not that Batman Begins didn't have it but The Dark Knight just seems to overflow with it even more than Batman Begins. I really think the use of the IMax cameras helped Nolan to control things more, because those IMax shots are truly a thing of beauty and really enhance the action and story to a degree I would've never thought possible.
Another thing I like was how Nolan pushed Batman/Bruce Wayne to the limits - or at least we thought they were the limits here, until The Dark Knight Rises which I'll talk about in another post. Here those limits are pushed by having Rachel killed, played really well by Maggie Gyllenhaal, I wish she had been in the first movie. The effect of her death is clearly seen in Bruce Wayne as he sees the price he's going to have to pay to be Batman and to fight the Joker.
Casting is one of the big things with Nolan, I've said it before and I'll say it again, he's the master of finding the right person for the right part. Aarron Eckhart as Harvey Dent was amazing casting as he was fully able to hold his own with Oldman, Bale, Ledger, Caine and Gyllenhaal. Even the role played by the bank executive at the beginning, the guy in the passenger seat in the SWAT van carrying Dent, the small accountant who tries to blackmail Wayne, the TV talk show reporter, even the Ballerina Bruce Wayne brings to the dinner with Dent and Rachel, and the guy who plays the Mayor: all of these people helped a lot in making this movie feel real and more than the sum of its parts. There's not many movies around where little bits parts like these are cast right but Nolan seems to understand the importance of every part as it pertains to the story line and he seems to have actors lining up play in his movies as his films after this one has shown.
Another thing I noticed and even Nolan mentioned this, this movie owes a great debt to the Michael Mann movie Heat from the frame work of the story - cat a mouse of the cop and robber - and the visual pallet of the movie: chromes, blues, darkness, and shadows making it a visually different experience from Batman Begins. I could talk about this movie for much longer but right now all I have to say is bring on The Dark Knight Rises.
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