A good solid effort

Rating: 8/10 (4 August 2008)

Walking into the cinema to watch 'The Dark Knight' I so wanted to award it a 10 when I walked out as so many people have done on IMDb.Batman has always been my favourite superhero by a mile and when I saw that it had soared to No.1 in the top 250 my hopes were raised considerably.I guess that the whole idea of writing reviews is to be totally honest and I can't give this fine film the maximum mark.I think it is about an 8.3.It is a good film,there is no doubt about that but it isn't the best film I have seen this year although it deserves a lot of praise.Why not a 10 or even a 9?I think it is a bit too long and it dragged ever so slightly at times.I must admit that I found the voice Batman used to be a little too gruff and he sounded like the guy who does the Carlsberg ads.The character of Two Face didn't have time to develop enough in order to show his switch from upstanding citizen to murderous psycho.These are pretty minor niggles compared to the movie as a whole though.
Christian Bale is fine as Batman(apart from the gruff voice!) and is pretty much making the part his own.Michael Caine is solid as Alfred and Morgan Freeman is his usual reliable self as Lucius.I thought that the most forgettable character was Rachel as played by Maggie Gyllenhaal.It isn't her fault as she is fine in the role but her character was easy to forget,at least for me.The most surprising performance came from Aaron Eckhart.He did very well as both Harvey Dent and Two Face and he was better than I expected.The honours for acting in this movie are tied between Heath Ledger as The Joker and Gary Oldman as Gordon.Ledger is very good although I still believe that the best performance I have seen this year is Daniel Day Lewis in TWBB.That is a hard act to follow and Heath Ledger's performance doesn't match that although to hear some people it is the best performance ever!This is where I must praise Gary Oldman who is excellent here.Never overshadowed by anyone he shares a scene with,he is the equal of Ledger and gives a performance of poise and class.
With many very good action scenes and some fine acting,there is a hell of a lot to enjoy here.On second viewing this movie may well creep up towards a 9 but for now it is a rock solid 8.