Amazing filmmaking, great story, and some surprising, uh, acting!

Rating: 8/10 (20 July 2012)

The Dark Knight (2008)
I saw this in preparation for the 2012 finale of the trilogy. And it's as fabulous as fans and critics say. You don't have to like Batman or comics or New York or even any of the actors to like this movie. It's written and edited with amazing nimble subtlety. Yes, a movie with this much force and bravado is highly nuanced.
And that makes it a wonder to study, or to just watch and not realize it's well over two hours long.
Key attributes: 1) Heath Ledger is unbelievably chilling and present in every scene. I liked Jack Nicholson's redefining Joker, years ago, but this brings it to another dark, human, disturbing level. 2) Michael Caine, as brief as his appearances are, is a wonder of philosophical gravity and wit amidst all the mayhem. 3) Morgan Freeman in a similar way is a paradigm of good judgement and gravitas while winking. 4) The editing, which is not just putting things in the right order and at the right pace. It combines and conflicts short and long scenes in a way that builds and compounds the story, building momentum, without getting confusing, and without resorting to the visceral barrage of lots of disordered cuts. 5) The photography, which is fluid, filled with darkness, virtuosic without drawing attention to itself.
It's Christopher Nolan who pulls this all together of course. He deserves the praise he gets for great filmmaking. Is it an important or meaningful film? I hope not--meaning, it's an entertainment with long coattails. It does make you think and admire certain kinds of behavior. But it doesn't pretend to have pretensions. Good.
See it. It's up in the top ten of IMDb's best films (as rated by readers) and if that seems like a stretch, see it first, or see it again, and understand the accolades.