Ledger owns this movie.

Rating: 10/10 (19 July 2008)

Well the movie was great, no doubt about that. Christopher Nolan is one of my favourite directors and it's no surprise that he has made another amazing movie. This one was much darker than the first one and each and every character, no matter how long or short their appearance, was fascinating.
Now let's talk performances:
Christian Bale is always interesting to watch. The best Batman by far and the best Bruce Wayne too. He's an exceptional actor and just flows into any role he does. I really like the fact that he changes his voice when he's in the Batsuit. I don't think any of the other actors who've played Batman ever did this. It really adds to the character and makes for brilliant screen presence.
Heath Ledger. One word: *WOW*. I've never been a big fan of his, but I've seen enough of his work to figure out that he was capable of some pretty decent acting. Boy is that an understatement. "Decent" doesn't even begin describe the level of complete submission of his entire being to becoming Joker in this movie. If you had no idea who was playing the Joker in this movie, you would *never*, *EVER* have guessed it was Heath Ledger. It was as though he ceased to become Heath Ledger, the actor, and just morphed into The Joker from the Batman universe. It wasn't a "performance", it was a total transformation. The best thing that I liked about it is, he took it to the extreme, but he never crossed the line into over-acting the part. You see him in his funniest, darkest and creepiest moments, but every time, it seems like he looks past the make-up and the costumes and the posture and just delivers sharp and philosophical dialogue in that creepy, creepy voice with such effortlessness. What brilliant preparation.
Best movie villain performance I have ever seen.
Everyone else was great. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine. Gary Oldman: always cool... solid performances all round. Great to see Eric Roberts! Nice little cameo from William Fichtner as well and Cillian Murphy's Scarecrow.
If you haven't seen this movie yet, do yourself a favour and go see it as soon as you can.