This is a good film

Rating: 8/10 (20 July 2008)

Wow! I saw 'The Dark Knight' earlier today and after reading a few IMDb reviews thought I would chip in my own two cents on the film. My younger brothers saw it opening day (I had to work late) and they almost insisted that I see it immediately.
I loved 'Batman Begins.' I'm no comic book fan, but that was a great film. I did all that I could to not read too much of the hype surrounding TDK. That was pretty hard with Heath Ledger's death sprayed across the headlines, but I didn't want to raise the film to a level of expectation that, no matter what, would let me down (see 'The Phantom Menace'). The lights in the theater went dark and I was ready to be amazed.
"Amazed" almost happened. "Amused" would have been the best word to describe the movie. 'The Dark Knight' has a lot of great things going for it. The joker's sinister comedy was outstanding; the trick with the pencil sent the theater audience into a frenzy. The cinematography of the action sequences was the best I have seen since 'Ronin.' I also enjoyed the character interactions (Dent/Dawes), (Wayne/Dent), (Fox/Wayne), etc. The pairings were all evenly matched.
The actor who stole the show was Aaron Eckhart; that guy had the best performance hands down. I know that Hollywood is screaming for Ledger to win all kinds of posthumous awards, but Eckhart was the man of the hour in 'The Dark Knight.' This is not the best film of the summer or the year. It is a lot of fun and well worth the price of admission, but 'Iron Man' is still the super hero film to beat in 2008. Actually, that is "the" movie to beat in 2008.