A Strong Film (that leaves you with a hint of dissatisfaction)

Rating: 8/10 (30 July 2008)

After Batman Begins rebooted the film-series with a dark, stylistic and very okay style The Dark Knight attempts to match it and go further. While the film has many strong themes about sanity, loss and corruption it somehow doesn't bring them all together as well as the first film but still manages to keep the film afloat. But for some the movie may be even a little too twisted.
One thing which this film pulls off well is plot-twists. Tons of them. It seems like the film-makers wanted to avoid the obvious to an almost ridiculous degree. While I commend their efforts it makes the film extremely treacherous to watch the first time because quite frankly a lot of stuff comes in from the left field. Some of the twists work, others don't, at times the film seems to have too many badguys since you can never quite remember if Batman is fighting the Joker or the mobsters.
What can I say about the performances. All the returning cast-members were still great. I'll be a little disappointed if I don't see Morgan Freeman in the next film as he somehow has left his essence into both of the Batman films. Two-Face was a bit of a surprise and I hadn't expected to play a role in this film. However, I was definitely not let down by his character and his scenes were probably the ones I enjoyed the most.
Heath Ledger as Joker is alright, but I have to say I was a little disappointed that he didn't steal the scene at every turn. Instead the thing which his portrayal of the character seemed to do most was jump up from behind someone while pointing a gun. But once he gets into the mania of things Ledger does perform well, but this Joker just doesn't stand out well enough after Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson and Mark Hamill have already given us such memorable interpretations of the character.
Over all The Dark Knight wasn't the Batman film I had hoped for, but it was a strong film none the less. The one thing I was most happy with was that I got to see the Bat-signal smashed (because aside the Bat-hotline from the 60s show, its about the silliest and most redundant aspect of the Batman Universe in my view).