A cool take on the Joker and Two Face's origins

Rating: 9/10 (24 July 2008)

The Dark Knight pretty much dispenses with presenting the idea that the Joker fell into a vat of chemicals, and the smile is actually sliced into his face here. Like the comic books though the characters origins remain mysterious and the Joker changes the story every time
Heath Ledger plays the character tremendously well, and his body, his eyes, mouth or hair are in constant nervous motion. The take on the character, the performance, combined with Ledger's unfortunate departure make the character extremely morbid and unnerving. I actually found him difficult to watch
The Joker is Batman's nemesis and arrives on the scene in the Dark Knight just as Batman, Dent and Gordon are restoring some order to Gotham with a combination of fear, law and hard policing.
It's revealed during the movie that the Joker preys on and enlists people who have inherent psychological problems and so he goes for Dent, the weakest link who already has issues and a penchant for making decisions on the flip of a coin, to bring down the triumvirate and invite chaos and anarchy back to the city
Batman and Gordon try to lure the Joker into a trap, and find that the Joke is on them
This is an extremely dark movie, even more so than Begins, and should satisfy the most die hard of Batman fans. In particular, those who appreciate the real darkness of the characters as depicted in the graphic novels 'The Killing Joke' and 'The Long Halloween', from which the movie draws heavily
There are some brilliant action sequences including an extremely cool part where Batman's bike is emergency ejected from the car, some amazing sound and editing work, a storyline that has real depth, and some perfect performances including Oldman who is absolutely outstanding here