"The Dark Knight" is the Best Comic Book Movie of All Time

Rating: 10/10 (17 July 2016)

The title of this review is proved true in multiple ways throughout this film. First and foremost, the villain is actually terrifying. The Joker, played by Heath Ledger, is a sinister and formidable adversary for Batman. He is unpredictable and mesmerizing. The Joker has been brought to life on multiple occasions by great actors in live action and animated films and TV shows. Some performances are better than others and audiences have varying favorites. My favorite is Heath Ledger's Joker. No other actor's performance of The Joker, nor any other comic book film character role to my knowledge, has been awarded an Academy Award. No other performance of The Joker has been as impactful on the world, not just comic book movie fans. There are, of course other exceptional aspects of "The Dark Knight" besides Heath Ledger's performance, which is why it is so great. The rest of the casts performances are phenomenal across the board. The casting director was definitely doing their job well. The stunts are great, the graphics are great, the sets, locations and costume design are great. Lastly, the plot to "The Dark Knight" is what makes all the pieces come together so well. We get to see Batman try to take down The Joker the way he's taken down other villains in the past and fail because The Joker is unlike anyone he has ever encountered. We get to see Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face and The Joker's involvement in that. We get to see the pure corruption in Gotham in their legal system, police force, etc, which contributes to the success of The Joker's plans, or in his eyes lack of a plan. If I had to recommend one movie for a person to see if they were only alive long enough to watch one, I would probably tell them to watch this. It's shows the reality of brutality and corruption that's possible in the world but it also shows hope that people will take charge of their bad situations in order to create a better and safer life for themselves without leaving their fate to a masked men like the Batman or to the whims of a psychopath like The Joker.