The Dark Knight Strikes Again

Rating: 8/10 (28 January 2007)

One of the best representations of Batman the world of cinema has ever seen. Burton gives us an even darker version of Batman. There is the one thing being the fact that this film concentrates more on the villains whether than Batman, but considering the brilliance of this film I thought it all worked out very well.
Why? Burton juggled the actual comics continuity of Catwoman and Penguin and made them characters of tradegies. As a Die Hard Batman fan, I thought this was an excellent move, at least as far as cinematics go. I think this because the villains have more of a connection personally to Batman cause as we all know, Batman is a character of tradegy himself, not to mention a someone of purest darkness. Catwoman and Penguin are placed into that very darkness he is but in different doses and they have different morals. As a viewer, it was a very smooth combination of characters.
As Batman, Michael Keaton makes a grand return. The best Batman by far, Keaton's frightening, and sometimes even depressing facial expressions brought out who Batman is. You can tell of the personal conflict and struggle he copes within himself. That was the beauty of Keaton's performance. He doesn't have to even say anything, you can just tell its there. Michelle Pfeifer was hands down fabulous. A grade A performance as Catwoman, so seductive, and just about what everybody else said about her at the time of this films release. Not to mention the fact that she brought out the tortured soul within perfectly as well. Equal in Keaton's performance as the Bat, Pfeifer pulled off his feminine opposite and with such style. DeVito couldn't have been a better choice for Penguin. Cruel, Sadistic, Funny, and Sad he highlighted them all within the character, and I'm happy Burton went with him. If I'm not mistaken Dustin Hoffman was at one point considered for the role and I don't think that would have worked out good.
The movie itself is visually stunning once again, the view of Gotham was perfect, at times I felt like I was actually in a comic book, cinematic art to a marvelous perfection (if that makes any sense). Not to mention Danny Elfman's staggering theme.
A perfect Batman film.