While not the greatest movie ever made, it's still an enthralling experience.

Rating: 8/10 (16 July 2008)

A lot of people here on IMDb are going to be rating this film 10 out of 10 claiming that it is the best film ever in the history of cinema. While the film is not _that_ good, it is still a great experience that manages to keep the audience immersed in it's unpredictable story line and tight action sequences.
The Dark Knight, the first Batman film not to have "Batman" in the title, takes place after the events of the last film "Batman Begins". Crime in the city has fallen drastically ever since Batman (Christian Bale) started roaming the streets and made the police pull their act together, but this progress starts to become undone when an insane anarchist dubbing himself "The Joker" (Heath Ledger) comes into the scene. What follows is a tight story control vs. chaos as Batman and the Jokers ideals clash in increasingly violent ways. The plot veers and turns as The Joker and his crew continuously create increasingly dangerous diabolical complicated schemes for Batman and the police to thwart, and all the while the film constantly strives for realism by trying to make the events that take place as plausible as possible, and is delivered with utterly seriousness dark attitude more along the lines of a good crime drama than a stereotypical superhero movie.
Since Batman and the other characters from the previous film are largely the same as they were last time around, I'll get to the man we all came to see: The Joker. While Heath Ledger's Joker doesn't top Jack Nicholson's from Batman 89 (because let's face it, who ever could?), Ledger does provide an immensely interesting take on the character. It is probably not fair to compare the two actors seeing as they both do completely different approaches to the character; where Nicholson's Joker was an egotistical, narcissistic psychopath, Ledger's Joker is a schizophrenic, sadistic anarchist. And believe me, The Joker in this film really does play off the anarchist factor. Here we have a man who wants nothing else but to see the world collapse, and the only reason he wants it is just for the very reason of seeing the world collapse. He is jumpy, twitchy, intimidating, and gives off the vibe that he could flip out at any moment for the smallest reason, or even no reason. He spends the whole film scaring, bullying and murdering people, just because it somehow makes sense in his twisted mind, and he feels no fear, remorse or guilt whenever Batman or anyone else tries to "punish" him. He's just dangerous, truly the Batman's arch nemesis; Batman hates everything about him, and the Joker loves making Batman hate him.
District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) is the other big newcomer to the story, and while anybody who knows anything about his character from the previous installments in the Batman franchise already knows his end, he is probably the most well rounded and three dimensional character in the film. You can really get to feel his motivations, and seeing his rise and fall from power is really interesting.
And for the more superficial out there, I will say the action scenes in the film are wonderfully choreographed, and the use of stunt men and practical effects over computer generated ones the majority of the time really does make for some exciting fight scenes.
The film is not without flaws though, the two biggest that come to mind are the films fast pace and ending. Granted, the film is nearly three hours long, but it still feel like the creators tired to tell too much story in too little time. If someone walked in 5 minutes late for this film, they would have already missed about 50 plot points. Granted that is an exaggeration, but it's still true that the movie constantly jumps between set piece and set piece, skimming along to the next action scene, where it would have been nice to spend a few minutes here or there get to know characters better and establish mood. This isn't to say the movie doesn't spend time doing this at all, no, but it still would have been beneficial to pad out the movie a little more. This fact becomes apparent with the ending. Without giving away anything, I will say the ending of the film, while still satisfying, does sneak up out of nowhere and abruptly bring the film to an end, leaving you saying, "Uhh... Don't you have a little bit more you want to show us?".
That and Batman's voice does get a little try hard.
So while many will get wrapped up in the hype that surrounds the film and prematurely denote this films the "Best Movie Ever Made In The Universe" award where it probably does not deserve it, the movie does manage to deliver to an audience member looking for a fun experience and tight storytelling. It's not a masterpiece, but it is a great movie.