A Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (16 July 2008)

Set almost immediately after "Begins", The Dark Knight focuses on Batman's fight against the Joker, a criminal mastermind and mass murderer who is gathering all of Gotham's criminals under his banner. With the body count piling up, Batman, along with his close allies Lucius Fox (Freeman), Detective Gordon (Oldman), Harvey Dent (Eckhart) and his faithful butler Alfred (Caine), must bring the Joker to justice before he turns Gotham City inside out.
This movie was perfect in almost every aspect. A solid script, great action sequences, suspense and well-portrayed characters, this movie definitely surpasses all the hype.
The action sequences in DK were brilliant. They kept you on the edge of your seat with suspense and excitement. I myself almost fell off my seat wondering if Batman really was going to kill the Joker or spare him.
The movie, however, is not just a movie about a Superhero. There were parts in this movie that i found interesting. Such as the scenes in which people's lives were placed in the hands of others. These scenes really help to investigate the dark side of the human mind and in some aspects, brings out the joker in all of us. This made this film more than just a Superhero film, but somewhat of a psychological thriller as well.
The characters in this film were very well-portrayed. Maggie Gyllenhall's depiction of Rachel Dawes was interesting and definitely different from Katie Holmes'. She gave Dawes a stronger character in a way which was more suitable for this film as Rachel played a much bigger role. Aaron Eckhart was brilliant as Harvey Dent. His performance was powerful and confident and portrayed Gotham's new hero as the kind of hero you would expect.
However, best of all would be Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker. Ledger's portrayal of the Joker was creepy, disturbing and downright scary. It differed greatly from Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the character, giving it the creepiness it needs to portray a psychotic mass murderer. He simply captures every scene and has the ability to either make us laugh or make us cringe.
Overall, this movie not only lives up to the hype, it surpasses it. The Dark Knight is hands-down, the best Batman movie ever and maybe even the best comic-based film ever.