Truly NoJoke - This Is a Very Good Movie!

Rating: 9/10 (26 December 2008)

The Dark Knight, the follow-up to Christopher Nolan's first Batman movie Batman Begins, is a very satisfying sequel and in many ways a much better film. Christain Bale again returns as the caped crusader Batman/Bruce Wayne and so do all the regulars like Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Luscious, and Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon. Katie Holmes is replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal as the "love interest" so to speak. New are Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent - a new DA out to rid Gotham of its scum and a new villain - the Joker this time round. The late Heath Ledger plays the Joker with an incredible range and he is evil, twisted, psychotic, and even at times subtle. Ledger plays the arch-enemy strictly seriously rather than for any cheap, easy laughs such as Jack Nicholson did in Tim Burton's Batman. Though Nicholson did a great job, he is vastly over-powered by Ledger's work in this film with the same role. The Dark Knight has it all: good, solid if not inspired acting, some fantastic chase scenes, new technological gadget wizardry, dark, foreboding atmosphere, and, for extra measure, a few morals and lessons thrown somewhere into the pot(though not as easy to discern as many would like to believe). The story gets a bit long-winded in the final third of the film, but the loose ends are tied well and Episode Three is given its introduction briefly. It looks like Nolan surely has a winner with this franchise and I look forward to more of the same with eager anticipation.