The Dark Knight Movie Review

THE DARK KNIGHT

Rating: M
Length: 152 minutes
Actors: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman

Simply Stunning

The hype that surrounded this movie upon its release was unprecedented, never has a film been so eagerly anticipated, and usually when something is so awaited it usually fails due to its expectation, but not this time, as the hype is justified and viewers are projected into flawless filmmaking. Every aspect is spectacular, from the acting, story, score, effects and the lessons we can learn from characters that are personified by the mistakes they make. The story takes place a few months after the events of Batman Begins, with our hero (Christian Bale) attempting to put a stop to all forms of evil and corruption in Gotham City, which is no easy task especially when The Joker (The late Heath Ledger, one of the greatest solo performances of all time) is parading around doing everything in his power to destroy the City and the goodness of its people. Viewers are enthralled from the opening minutes, as The Joker is introduced in style through a classic bank heist, and from there you know you are in for something special. What follows is two and a half hours of action and sublime story telling in a pure form of Good versus Evil. This is not only the best Batman movie ever to be made; it is one of the greatest movies of all time.

Acting –
One name stands above all else in this category, Heath Ledger, as his portrayal of the scarred, green haired murderer The Joker in a role that puts Jack Nicholson’s attempt to bed, hands down. With his twisted tricks, mind games, chilling voice and spine numbing laugh you cant help but enjoy everything he does on the screen, even though that involves murdering innocent people, which is wrong but that displays how enjoyable Heath makes The Joker to watch. Winning an Oscar for best supporting actor is a fine tribute, but he doesn’t just support, he runs the show. Christian Bale returns for his second crack at being the caped crusader, and once again does a remarkable job, definitely becoming the best Bruce Wayne to date. His physicality and voice are intimidating, while he performs Bruce Wayne in an arrogant and flawed manner which complements his alter ego. Aaron Eckhart is an excellent addition to the cast, making him truly arrive as an actor as he demonstrates flexibility through being Gotham’s white knight Harvey Dent, to becoming the cruelly disfigured Two-face, with the coin toss sequences adding suspense through-out the movie as they decide the fate of people’s lives, including all the aforementioned characters. Maggie Gyllenhaal takes the place of Katie Holmes as everyone’s love interest Rachel Dawes, looking exactly like her former and displaying more depth than Katie, while Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman all reprise their roles of their respective characters, all coming together to perform at one of the highest levels of acting seen, rivaling such movies as The Godfather, or more recently The Departed as so often having a big cast can mean everyone gets in each others way, but not here, they are all complimented. Yet no matter the blend, Heath is the standout, and it’s the perfect end.

Audio/Visual –

Seeing this on the big screen with booming sound simply adds to the story and acting in every way possible. The explosions, the car chases, the fight scenes and Gotham in its glory is a treat, with a mixture of CGI and real stunts taking proceedings to something of a new level. The score progresses well from start to finish, with The Joker’s theme, consisting of a single violin string building in sound and suspense adding to the acting and the on screen presence felt by the character, which also sums up his murderous moods. The main theme for Batman is only played twice in the movie unlike its predecessor, with a range of other tunes chopped and changed in every scene to ultimately unveil a masterpiece soundtrack, while the cinematography is superb as both were in one way or another recognized by the Academy. The motorcycle used by Batman (which takes the place of the much loved Bat mobile) is the best demonstration of these effects, with the disfigured two-face also worth a mention (quite disgusting when first revealed) as the new franchise pushes itself away from the much more “comical” older series which had Tommy Lee Jones playing his part with nothing more than some face paint. While I don’t like comparing the franchises too much it is just too hard to ignore how far cinema has come in terms of visualization and putting viewers into the thought process that everything we watch in Gotham is so realistic that it is really just a glorified New York. Excellent work.

With such expectation laying heavily on its shoulders prior to its release The Dark Knight has proved many people wrong and taken place alongside the best movies of all time. The acting, score and visual eye candy is stunning and it is a movie that anyone can enjoy without just being a diehard Batman fan or a comic book lover. Heath Ledger deserved every last ounce of credit for his role as The Joker and will own the character forever, while the other actors don’t disappoint under any circumstance. If any weakness was to be found in this machine it would only relate to the complexity of the story line and perhaps the length, but that would indeed be finding flaws for the sake of it as understanding the story and appreciating it gives need to the length as an enormous bar has been set for the franchise, which gives rise to a question that will be on everybody’s mind; Will there be another sequel?

Overall – 10/10