The Dark Knight On The Prowl in ... New York?

Imagine my surprise when I go about my normal morning routine of checking up on the morning's goings-on in the NY Times only to find a sizable article on this summer's forthcoming The Dark Knight. I was a little disheartened to not find this in the pages of the Gotham Gazette, but what are you going to do?

The piece covers a fair amount of ground as they had a reporter on set at the time of filming. Everything from Nolan's directorial tics to the unforeseen impact of Heath ledger's death are discussed. Here's a snippet:

It's enough to make a marketing executive cringe, that the word "dense" pops up in conversations with Mr. Nolan and his actors. But it's true: "The Dark Knight," which will be released on July 18, is jammed with characters, plot and action. It picks up where "Batman Begins" left off, with Mr. Oldman's police lieutenant, Jim Gordon, warning about the perils of escalation: that Batman's extreme measures could invite a like response from the criminal element. And sure enough, a deadly new villain, the Joker, emerges to wreak havoc.

In a political context this would politely be called an "unintended consequence." (Gotham as Baghdad, anyone?) Mr. Nolan doesn't deny the overtones. "As we looked through the comics, there was this fascinating idea that Batman's presence in Gotham actually attracts criminals to Gotham, attracts lunacy," he said. "When you're dealing with questionable notions like people taking the law into their own hands, you have to really ask, where does that lead? That's what makes the character so dark, because he expresses a vengeful desire."

I'm actually excited for this flick. While I loved the Bruce Wayne stuff in Batman Begins, I was never really sold on anything happening while he was in the suit. His Marlboro Man accent in the suit (Batman does not need to speak five octaves lower than Bruce) and the overall shift from ultra-realistic to almost cartoony action movie just never sat well with me. That's not even to mention the fact that the third act just throws logic right out the window (if Ra's machine nukes water, how are they standing next to the machine when a human is comprised mostly of water? For that matter, shouldn't it have nuked the water in the metal of the train and the buildings, crushing them into nothing but dust?)

But here's hoping The Dark Knight rectifies those issues and judging by what we've seen so far everything looks to be on track for it to be at least the second best comic movie this year (oh, you know Iron Man is going to be insanely good).

Check out the NY Times Online to read the article if you don't have access to the paper and ink version.