Transcends it's Origins

Rating: 9/10 (22 July 2008)

I saw this movie at the midnight premiere, with a bunch of overexcited friends, and I was expecting to see another mediocre superhero movie, with a throwaway plot and some nice nostalgic moments to keep us interested. I was totally blown away by what I saw that night.
The Dark Knight is a masterpiece compared to all other comic inspired movies. It makes Spiderman 3 look like Shumakers Batman and Robin(with the nipples). The plot is incredibly deep, with unexpected twists and turns all along the way. There are many moments where the viewer is completely caught off guard, as they are setup to expect something to happen, only to have the complete opposite take place instead. The film also makes use of multiple climaxes, which made for a great roller coaster ride of a film, but also made the length of the film a bit more apparent and made the plot feel like it was dragging on.
Heath Ledger gives what is possibly the best performance as Joker since Mark Hamills in the animated series, thought the two are very different. Ledger gives a Joker that is both insane and indifferent, he isn't interested in money or power, but only wants to watch the world, and the batman, burn. The only bad part about Ledgers performance is that he won't be able to return. Although the Joker pretty much stole the show, the rest of the cast gives a solid performance. The only performance gripe I had was the masked man himself, who is given a raspy hiss of a voice by Bale, which I found to be very annoying. I thought Bales rendition of Bruce Wayne(no mask) was very good though.
The special effects are also great though they are rarely used. I actually didn't realize that CGI animation was present in the film until I saw it the second time, it's employed very skillfully. The fight scenes are fairly good, better than your average batman fight scenes. Although most of the action scenes are pretty forgettable in the midst of all the great drama going on, there is a chase/car-fight scene involving the joker, a SWAT convoy of armored cars, the batmobile, a helicopter and a huge semi battling it out in the tunnels and streets of gotham that is truly exciting to watch.
The Dark Knight stands out above the rest of the super hero genre because even if DK was in no way associated with the modern legend of Batman, if the hero in the film was just a generic caped crime fighter, it would still be a considered a great movie. While the association with legendary Batman certainly makes the movie more accessible, it doesn't lean on it's roots for support the way most other super hero movies do. A superb movie that is enjoyable to Batman lovers and non-batman(mythological creature?) lovers alike