A Truly Great Movie and For all the Right Reasons

Rating: 10/10 (2 August 2008)

Why is this movie so good and why is everyone talking about it from the mere spectacle of it or Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker? You'll have to go back to 2005 where director, Christopher Nolan whittled and stripped the myth of Batman to the bone to produce a leaner, meaner and fitter franchise. Where Spider-Man 3 promised to be a walk on the dark side, we were subjected to a poor second sequel. In Batman, Christopher Nolan has assembled truly gifted and heavyweight actors across the board and told them to do what they know best. Batman Begins reinvented the franchise and produced a dark, entertaining and well acted movie. In the Dark Knight the ante has been ramped up further. The story is very basic but clever. The script and direction of the movie is brilliant. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman (standout-this guy is just as convincing as a good guy!)and Aaron Eckhart are all superb in that they take centre stage as opposed to the trickery and effects. I think that's about it...Oh and Heath Ledger. In the Joker, Heath Ledger has created one of the most genuinely terrifying villains ever to be put on the screen-this isn't over acting as we saw with Jack Nicholson (although very entertaining). Whenever Heath Ledger is on screen you get a real sense of unease he is an absolute monster of a character, with no morals, sense of decency or saving grace. This is a massive credit to Heath Ledger and one can't feel sad that the movie industry has been robbed of a truly gifted actor. Both this movie and Begins are actors movies-unheard of in the Blockbuster genre. Whether Heath Ledger gets a posthumous Oscar come 2009 is another debate but it cannot be denied he is immortalised in The Joker to produce one of the finest movies you will ever see. To sum up a stunning movie, well acted, directed and produced. When's the 3rd one out?