The best of the best.

Rating: 10/10 (4 September 2019)

Nolan brought a very serious tone here, by taking the caped crusader and making him grounded enough to where nothing that happens in the movie seems out of place or feels unrealistic. The whole conflict that is built up here really pays off as you see how these two characters are total opposites and how the Joker challenges Batman to his limits as a human and as a hero. I loved every single second of this movie as Nolan's attention to detail, along with a well structured story, really elevated this movie to its greatness. I love that throughout the movie, there are things happening to where if you miss it, it won't ruin the story in any sort of way, but if you catch it, you'll be able to appreciate the amount of detail that Nolan put into this movie. The whole movie will have you feel tensed as anything can happen at any moment and knowing that the Joker is somewhere ready to strike makes this film even more better.
I think one thing that people don't fully talk about is how Nolan really surprises you in this film. Not only with the character interpretations, but there were a few scenes that I thought would happen one way and totally revealed something that surprised me a lot. It'll be something like two characters are having a normal conversation and then out of nowhere, you're frightened as something comes out of the blue and you see that the chaos is about to start. It can also be where you expect the hero will stand on top only to see that they fall down to the bottom.
I do have a small gripe and it's mostly with the fight sequences. I've seen the making and I know why Batman's techniques are of a certain style, but even up to this day, I still think it doesn't look as cool as they intended and it still doesn't work for me. It puts me out of the film a little and I just wished that would have been fixed. This is not my complaint as I loved every single minute, but some may find the film to be too long and that some parts, rather very few of it, could be cut out of the film.
Although he still does the growly voice, I still think Christian Bale is one of the best actors to portray as Batman/Bruce Wayne. The movie doesn't focus much on the Bruce Wayne persona due to the fact that we have seen that in the previous film, but Bale continues to do a great job. You also have a lot of great performances from the cast with Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Maggie Gyllenhaal, who replaced Katie Holmes, did a better job as Rachel. He doesn't get much credit, but I really liked Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent showing both sides of the character that fans have recognized through animation and video games. I'm not counting Tommy Lee Jones as his interpretation of the character was pretty bad. What they did with Harvey turning into Two Face was shocking and I loved the look. This is where Eckhart shines even more as he starts off as one way, but when you see him become that character, he totally embraces the role and being able to be the same character, but in a different way. But the guy that stole the show was none other than Heath Ledger as the Joker. He was able to portray this iconic character very cynically, bringing in the unpredictability of the character that will make feel scared, wondering what he will do next. The chaos that the character brings to the film easily puts him as one of the most iconic and memorable villains of this generation. I wanted to see more of the Joker and more of his interactions with Batman.
With so much memorable moments and iconic shots throughout, this is a film that has you so focused on what is happening to where you don't want to miss a single moment. It is not a perfect film with very minor flaws that you will notice if you think about it way too hard. Despite that, I still loved this film and I can't recommend this enough. Not only is it a great Batman film and not only is it a great superhero film, but it's a film that will forever be helmed as one of the greats of all time.