The Batman movie we needed, with the Joker we deserved...

Rating: 10/10 (2 January 2009)

I've watched every single one of the Batman movies. I've seen the series slow degradation, as the dark knight of Gotham turned into a clown, with a gay circus moron for a sidekick. When Bat-girl made her appearance in the movies, I thought "This is the end". Apparently, I wasn't the only one. When Warner Bros. saw that the series have reached a dead end, they *thank god*, decided to start from the beginning - thus be "Batman begins", a fresh start for the Clown Knight we've known for the past two movies. I was impressed with the new Batman and his story, and so I went to the sequel "The Dark knight" with great expectations. I was blown away. Completely.
Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Garry Oldman and Michael Kane play their characters superbly, but after seeing the last movie, I wasn't expecting anything else. I was particularly interested in the character of the Joker, Batman's arch-nemesis, played by the recently deceased Heath Ledger. What I wanted to see was, if the new Joker could top the last one, played by Jack Nicholson in the original Tim Burton classic. Ledger did more than that. We can't compare the two though, because we're talking about two different characters with the same name. Jack's character had a story, had fears, had weakness, plans - Ledger's character was a ghost, no past, no future, only here and now. He lives for the moment, he just does things, and is one of the few villains, who doesn't care about money at all - he just wants to see the world burn, to prove that deep down, everybody is as vile and evil as he. Every time I watch the scenes with the Joker, especially the ones with the stories of his past, I get goosebumps. It's not the makeup, even though it's pretty scary too. It's the voice, the expression, the tone - Ledger worked for months on perfecting this and eventually the stress was probably the thing that killed him. This movie was about a Dark Knight, but if truth be spoken, the Joker's the main character here. Aeron Eckhart also made a debut as Harvey Dent. Dent's fall and his transformation into the dreaded Two-Face was superb(boy, I use that word a lot lately) and up until the end, the movie really had me believe that Dent was the Dark Knight. The epilogue just blew me away, and when I got out of the cinema, I couldn't believe that I had lost two and a half hours. No, "lost" isn't the word...
To sum up, "The Dark Knight" is the darkest Batman movie so far(making the best so far), with a pinch of brilliant humor, a few, but great effects and fights, and the best character portrayal I've seen in a movie so far. Heath Ledger was born for his role, and he died with it. As for the others, they do OK. Don't get me wrong, they're great. But compared to Ledger's performance... If you're a Batman fan, this movie is something you shouldn't miss for the world. And even if you're not - watch the movie. It's worth it.