Let's put a smile on that face

Rating: 10/10 (29 July 2008)

The Dark Knight is a great film, one of the best superhero film ever made. Batman is my second favourite comic book series, only beaten by X-Men in my opinion. This film has everything to appease Batman fans, and the general cinema going public.
The Dark Knight starts showing the Joker and his gang robbing a mob bank and becoming a treat to them. A police team, led by Lt. Gordon (Gary Oldman), also plan on taking on the mob by affecting their wallets. A Chinese Gangster, Lau, offers to safeguard the mob's money and this is when the Joker offers his services to them. Batman (Christian Bale) and Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) also are involved in the operation and Batman goes to Hong Kong to receive Lau and bring him back to Hong Kong. Because of Lau's information the Gotham authorities are able to move on the mob. This is when Joker the shows his true colours and starts his murderous rampage around Gotham. As the Joker continues Bruce Wanye starts to doubt himself, he hoped that Dent would take his place as the hope of Gotham. This changes when the Joker's men capture him and he becomes scared for life. This makes him into Two-Face, a psychopathic killer who ends up having a personal mission against the mob, the police and Batman.
The Dark Knight starts off where Batman Begins left off. It is even darker then before and is easily the best Batman film so far. Christopher Nolan understands Batman, knowing that he is a dark character, and not some light-hearted camp affair like the 60s show and Joel Schumacher. Like Batman Begins, The Dark Knight is influenced by Frank Miller's Batman: Year One and The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's The Killing Joke. The Dark Knight brings into two of the best villains in the franchise: the Joker and Two-Face. Heath Ledger got the Joker right, as a psychopath who has no remorse. The Joker is not a camp character, who has dark humour and this is how he is meant to be. I was personally return impress with Two-Face and he looked horrible (in a good way). I really enjoyed Eckhart's performance as Two-Face. Christian Bale and Gary Oldman are good, as always and Maggie Gyllenhaal is a better casting choice then Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are also good in there roles as Alfred and Lucius Fox.
The Dark Knight is more action packed then its precedence, but still has its eyes on the prize. This is an intelligence thriller, looking at philosophies of ideas and threats the film as a crime thriller. Unlike previous Batman films which focused too much on the villains, Batman is still the central focus of the film and Bruce Wayne himself is made into an interesting character. There is also a sub-plot which is the love triangle between Bruce, Harvey and Rachel. The action in the film is very good, and like a good Bond film, uses as little CGI as possible.
I would like to the Joker and Two-Face in future Batman films, especially if they are directed by Christopher Nolan or a director of the same calibre. If they don't come back I would go for Catwoman or the Penguin (as the gentleman of crime). I love that Christopher Nolan takes the most realistic approach as possible.
My one word of warning is that this is not a kids film and would be close to a 15/R rating. This film is very dark and no one should bring kids younger then 10-years-old.