The Dark Knight, Master of Modern Cinema

Rating: 10/10 (19 July 2008)

I must admit, as I walked into my local AMC theater, I knew this movie would either be one of the best movies ever made, or the biggest dud, joining Cuthroat Island as the biggest most expensive flops. Luckily, that did not occur. Starting with just about the best entrance to any movie, Dark Knight will blow you out of your seat, put your brain on spin dry and drop you back down when you are starting to slip into a coma. It's hard to make a movie so well rounded, but the Nolan brothers created a circle, a perfect circle. Heath Ledger doesn't just give the best performance ever, he becomes the best performance ever. Jack Nicholson, did fine as the original Joker, but Ledger took it higher than the next level of creepy clown, he took it the 20th floor. Never has an actor become such a fiend, an agent of absolute chaos, the ultimate predator of terror.
However, despite Ledger's paralyzing performance, he couldn't have carried the entire film; close, but not enough, which is probably a good thing that Batman and the entire cast play the roles of a lifetime. Also new to the new Batman movies, Harvey Two-Face Dent, perfectly paints the perilous internal spiral of one man, who was supposed to be the shining beacon to crush the uprising of terror in Gotham, to a a broken man, done in by the one dent in his armor, his love of Rachel Dawes. Speaking of Rachel Dawes, Maggie Gyllenhaal is an instant upgrade to Katie Holmes of Batman Begins.
Upon reflection, Dark Knight is an example of how great Hollywood can really be, and is the must see of the summer, if not the century.