Honestly, even with the flaws, this is amazing

Rating: 10/10 (18 March 2009)

Obviously this has been extremely hyped. And while the overall reception is positive, there are those that hate this. I have no problem with these people, and I won't claim that this is all the way perfect - one can wonder if any film could truly be - but this does have undeniably impressive aspects. This is an excellent movie, and not only for being based on graphic novels. The psychology is magnificent, and goes far beyond the one-note "fear" approach of the first. It can be argued how close it all is to the comics, however, a lot of the tone and concept comes through, and will be accessible to the majority of viewers. Is this not the most intimidating and strongest portrayal of The Joker on the big screen(and the idea behind him is interesting)? Ledger(R.I.P.) disappeared into the performance, and one can understand why it might have affected him personally. The acting, in general, is impeccable. Bale(in spite of having utterly and completely forgotten how to do the voice of the black-clad vigilante...?), Caine, Freeman, Oldman all do great, again. Gyllenhaal was a good replacement for Holmes. Eckhart is spot-on. The complexity of this is admirable. The amount of plot, that one can actually still follow it all, and that it all comes together with nothing going underdeveloped or unused is astounding. The surprises work enormously well. Granted, not everything remains entirely credible. The effects are marvelous. The comedy works well, few jokes fall flat. The dialog is well-written and delivered equally well. The action is awesome, and it does not take over, the focus is still on the material and what is explored, not what gets blown up or who has a fight scene. Might I add, Nolan got better at shooting it, it never looks bad in this, and tends to be exciting and engaging. The music is well-composed, and it stays enough in the background as to not detract from the whole. There is a little moderate language, no sexuality, and quite a few disturbing sights, sounds and thoughts. The DVD has extras, including featurettes(oddly devoid of talking heads, done more with still shots with the crew and/or Christopher talking over them) dealing with the IMAX cameras, the score and others, photo galleries, trailers and TV-spots. I recommend this very warmly to any fan of Batman, the director and/or anyone else involved in making this. 10/10