This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Rating: 10/10 (15 July 2008)

And that word is Awefantaculous. I use that word because words like "awesome" and "fantastic" are thrown around way too much. This movie deserves better. Almost everything about it was perfect. I will try to give away as little about the plot as possible, because to take away anything from this experience would be disastrous. Let me just say that I was not in the least disappointed with the plot, it delivered in as many ways as seemingly possible. It improves on Begins in almost every way. What you have seen in the trailers doesn't compare to what the movie delivers. heard complaints about the run time, but that was absolutely no problem for me. Every minute of the movie was great, and I didn't think any of it was unnecessary at all. In fact the only real problem I had with the movie was the dread of knowing that the movie had to end some time. The movie was the perfect mix of the human side and the action side. It goes so much deeper than the battle against good and evil.
The acting was at the top of the ranks. Christian Bale has once again proved that he is made for the role of Batman and Bruce Wayne. Maggie Gyllenhaal served as a great replacement for Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine both played their roles just as good as before, which is all anyone can really ask, is it not? I think Gary Oldman was even better as Gordan than he was in Batman Begins. Harvey Dent was played really well by Aaron Eckhart, as well. But I guess in the end what people want to know is about is how the late Heath Ledger played the Joker, easily my favourite Batman villain, and maybe my favourite villain of all. Well, he was perfect. I feel that the role will go down in history as one of the greatest villainous portrayals of all time. Give him the Academy Award and any other awards that he could possibly qualify for. Hell, invent a new category just for him. He was The Joker. May he rest in peace.
I loved the way the film was shot, whether it was the hotel scenes, the scenes of Gotham City and especially the action scenes in the movie, which I felt was another improvement made on Batman Begins. I guess you could say it was a lot more fun, since a common complaint about Begins was the lack of that. I thought the blue colour scheme of Gotham was really great. The movie also had some great wit throughout it, which rarely seemed cheesy or out of place. The score was really something as well. It is probably one of my favourite ones around. One of the best things about the film, for me, was just how dark the movie was. If Batman Begins pushed Batman and Robin to the back of your mind, then The Dark Knight will be the movie that pushes it out. The film was made to really let The Joker be what he was truly meant to be, without restraint. I am amazed that it got away with the PG-13 rating (even though I'm an Aussie, and don't have that rating system). The costumes and make-up in the movie were, big surprise, just great. I thought The Joker's makeup was really cool, because it didn't just take the easy way out and make it perfect throughout the movie. They went into detail with it. Batman's new suit was also pretty cool.
I guess in the end, all I can really say that I loved this movie, and I think it would be hard for someone to be disappointed with it. Christopher Nolan really came through big time, and made a massive improvement over the already great Batman Begins. This is clearly a franchise that fits him like a glove. It is suspenseful, emotional, action packed and really everything else I think people could hope for. A problem with the movie is that after seeing it, you may just be a little spoiled. Because it is at a level of awefantaculousness that is pretty rarely seen in movies. Believe the hype. This is way more than a Batman movie or a summer blockbuster, it is just incredible.