Epic

Rating: 9/10 (17 December 2009)

It took me three viewings to fully appreciate the masterliness of The Dark Knight. On first viewing I found it too long and the plot impossible to follow (but that's me being slow); on second viewing I got the gist of the game and liked the film a whole lot more. On my third viewing (I own the title on Blu-Ray) I was astounded by the quality of (1) the dialogue, (2) the mood, (3) the acting, (4) the subtlety and efficiency of the scene cutting, (5) the photography (especially noteworthy are the aerial shots) and (6) the plot. And, yes, the special effects are phenomenal. Oh and the score is both compelling and threatening, as is fitting for a Batman movie. For me, the star of the film is not so much Heath Ledger, though he is very good as the Joker, but Aaron Eckhart who plays Harvey Dent. His lines are my favourite and he has so much charisma and charm... Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel is a definite improvement on Katie Holmes for a number of reasons. The relationship between Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) and Alfred (Michael Caine) is very convincing and Mr Fox (Morgan Freeman) is, as usual, impeccable. My only serious gripe with the film, despite the painstaking effort at realism on the part of Christopher Nolan, is the rather high number, perhaps inevitably, of implausibilities. Granted though, this is a comic book-based film and so it gets away with it. In summary, this film is well worth the effort and must feature among one of the best crime-fighting films of all time (for me the best of the genre is still Heat by Michael Mann).