The Night is Darkest Before the Dawn

This review contains no significant plot spoilers.

An old quote recycled into the primary theme of The Dark Knight, "The Night is Darkest Before the Dawn," seems to aptly describe the progression of the Batman movies. Before Christopher Nolan took over the Batman movies, and pumped them full of modern gritty style, we had all been sadly watching an unsuccessful string of Batman movies. The Batman comics and cartoons had so much color, and pageantry, but the attempt to translate this more traditional Batman to the big screen, comparatively only ended in failure. Thankfully, “the night is darkest before the dawn,” and the previous poor attempts have given way to two masterpieces.

Don’t get me wrong; personally there is still a part of me that craves the old batman. That part was bristling at the fact they showed the Joker, and left out Harley Quinn. Overall however, the gritty style has been an improvement. With the remarkable performance by Heath Ledger, the Joker became more than just a madman, he became a possible candidate for best supporting actor.

These fantastic movies have their downsides though. Batman, once the cartoon loved by my eight-year old brother, has become and adult-only franchise. While I believe most people, and certainly all adults should give this movie a try, it is not appropriate for children. From the joker planting a bomb inside the stomach of a living man, to the gruesome special effects used to show Harvey Dent’s burn injuries, this has the potential to give any five-year old nightmares. So while I support The Dark Knight is for adults a fantastic exercise in nostalgia, responsible parents should be prepared to wait for the privilege of sharing their batman fanaticism with their little ones..

Adults: The DVD is out now, go see the performance everyone will be talking about during the Academy Awards.