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The Dark Night is the classic heroes in our hearts. Now let’s review the blu-ray movie of the
dark night that you can rip blu-ray and rip dvd with blu-ray and dvd software and some of
the goodies we can expect to see.

The Dark Knight arrives with tremendous hype (best superhero movie ever? posthumous Oscar for Heath Ledger?), and incredibly, it lives up to all of it. But calling it the best superhero movie ever seems like faint praise, since part of what makes the movie great–in addition to
pitch-perfect casting, outstanding writing, and a compelling vision–is that it bypasses the
normal fantasy element of the superhero genre and makes it all terrifyingly real. Harvey Dent
(Aaron Eckhart) is Gotham City’s new district attorney, charged with cleaning up the crime
rings that have paralyzed the city. He enters an uneasy alliance with the young police
lieutenant, Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), and Batman (Christian Bale), the caped vigilante who
seems to trust only Gordon–and whom only Gordon seems to trust. They make progress until a
psychotic and deadly new player enters the game: the Joker (Heath Ledger), who offers the
crime bosses a solution–kill the Batman. Further complicating matters is that Dent is now
dating Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, after Katie Holmes turned down the chance to reprise
her role), the longtime love of Batman’s alter ego, Bruce Wayne.

In his last completed role before his tragic death, Ledger is fantastic as the Joker, a
volcanic, truly frightening force of evil. And he sets the tone of the movie: the world is a
dark, dangerous place where there are no easy choices. Eckhart and Oldman also shine, but as
good as Bale is, his character turns out rather bland in comparison (not uncommon for heroes
facing more colorful villains). Director-cowriter Christopher Nolan (Memento) follows his
critically acclaimed Batman Begins with an even better sequel that sets itself apart from
notable superhero movies like Spider-Man 2 and Iron Man because of its sheer emotional impact and striking sense of realism–there are no suspension-of-disbelief superpowers here. At 152 minutes, it’s a shade too long, and it’s much too intense for kids. But for most movie fans-
-and not just superhero fans–The Dark Knight is a film for the ages. –David Horiuchi

On the Blu-ray disc
The Dark Knight on Blu-ray is a great home-theater showoff disc. The detail and colors are
tremendous in both dark and bright scenes (the Gotham General scene is a great example of the latter), and the punishing Dolby TrueHD soundtrack makes the house rattle. (After giving us
only Dolby 5.1 in a number of big Blu-ray releases this fall, Warner came through with Dolby
TrueHD on this one.) One of the most interesting elements of The Dark Knight was how certain
scenes were shot in IMAX, and if you saw the movie in an IMAX theater the film’s aspect ratio
would suddenly change from standard 2.40:1 to a thrilling 1.43:1 that filled the screen six
stories high. For the Blu-ray disc, director Christopher Nolan has somewhat re-created this
experience by shifting his film from 2.40:1 aspect ratio (through most of the film) to 1.78:1
in the IMAX scenes. While the effect isn’t as dramatic as it was in theaters, it’s still an
eye-catching experience to be watching the film on a widescreen TV with black bars at the top
and bottom, then seeing the 1.78:1 scenes completely fill the screen. The main bonus feature
on disc 1 is “Gotham Uncovered: The Creation of a Scene,” which is 81 minutes of behind-the-
scenes footage about the IMAX scenes, the Bat suit, Gotham Central, and others. You can watch the film and access these featurettes when the icon pops up, or you can simply watch them from the main menu. A welcome and unusual feature is that in addition to English, French, and
Spanish audio and subtitles, there’s an audio-described option that allows the sight-impaired
to experience the film as well.

Disc 2 has two 45-minute documentaries on Bat-gadgets and on the psychology of Batman, both in high definition. They combine movie clips, talking heads, and comic-book panels, but
aren’t the kind of thing one needs to watch twice. More engaging are six eight-minute
segments of Gotham Central, a faux-news program that gives some background to events in the movie, plus a variety of trailers, poster art, and more. The BD-Live component on disc 1 is
more interesting than on some earlier Blu-ray discs, which could be simply a matter of the
content starting to catch up with the technology. There are three new picture-in-picture
commentaries, by Jerry Robinson (creator of the Joker), DC Comics president Paul Levitz, and
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.–he’s a Batman fan who’s made some movie and TV cameos), plus
you can record your own commentary and upload it for others to watch. There are also three
new featurettes (“Sound of the Batpod,” “Harvey Dent’s Theme,” and “Hans Zimmer and James
Newton Howard”) and two motion comics (“Mad Love,” featuring Harley Quinn, and “The Shadow of Ra’s Al Ghul”). No longer available is the digital copy of the film (compatible with iTunes and Windows Media, standard definition, download code expires 12/9/09). –David Horiuchi

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