Brilliant - but not quite perfect

Rating: 9/10 (3 August 2008)

The Dark Knight is a superbly made film. It and Iron Man are the two best films I've seen this year - 2008 has been kind to comic book film fans. This film comes across as epic, involving and complex - it gives comics the kind of treatment they have always deserved in cinema. The dark, gritty tone of the film is perfectly judged, and helps us put the camp tone of previous Batman portrayals behind us. Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker is absolutely superb - he just crackles whenever he appears, and we find ourselves waiting for the next scene in which he will do so. This is linked to one of my few criticisms of the film which keep me from giving it 10 out of 10 - it's more of a Joker film than a Batman film. Sometimes it seems Batman is hardly in it - he flits in and out of the plot, and Bale's ludicrous gruff voice when Batman talks is a constant irritation and completely unnecessary. It's somehow more annoying than it was in Batman Begins.
Another criticism would be of the fight scenes - they are edited in the kind of choppy, frustrating way we've seen in films like the Bourne trilogy. It's probably an attempt to inject more realism, but really it just obfuscates the action, makes it pass quicker, gives it less impact. That aside, the action scenes are superb - the tunnel chase, the hospital bombing, the opening bank job, and so on.
The Dark Knight is a brilliantly realised Batman film and one of the truly essential films of 2008 - and, frankly, of the decade. It feels vital, epic, exciting - but it's not quite perfect.