Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight, coming out on DVD and BluRay today. (Warner Brothers)
The Dark Knight not only kicked ass on Gotham's criminals but he also cleaned up at the box office. To date the film has grossed $994,540,885 worldwide (according to IMDb Pro) and it's still pulling in money from overseas. Now this latest screen version of Batman arrives on DVD and BluRay just in time for Christmas. Heath Ledger as the Joker steals the show from the somber Batman of Christian Bale. Seeing the film for the third time I realized yet again how much the film belonged to Ledger and how the scenes without him seemed to drag. The balance between Batman and the Joker was a little off but filmmaker Christopher Nolan still managed to deliver one of the best comic book inspired films ever. The film still dazzles but the DVD comes up short on bonus features. There were no commentary tracks and only features on the music and the evolution of the production design/effects. Nice featurettes about the process of bringing this Batman to the screen but rather thin on substance. With Heath Ledger's death before the release of the film you would at least expect some behind the scenes footage of him or some kind of tribute to or commentary about his work. But there was nothing on the DVD. There were a few production stills but nothing like the behind-the-scenes material that Universal buffed out the Hellboy II DVD with. Since I was gigven the DVD and not the BluRay Disc to review it is possible that the BluRay version has more to offer. Or maybe Warner Brothers is holding back so they can release a fancier collector's edition later. In any case, the film is worth adding to your collection but don't expect any killer extras.
