Best of '08 to date

Rating: 9/10 (19 July 2008)

I missed the midnight showing of the dark knight Friday, but showed up almost 2 hours early that morning to see it at 11:30 am. From the beginning of the film (I saw the first scene a few months ago, and i have been anxiously waiting to see it since) i was engrossed completely in the storyline. Christopher Nolan's direction, in my opinion, was nearly flawless, the acting, as many others have said, superb, and the visuals, amazing (the IMAX scenes especially). Heath Ledger's performance alone made this film great, his portrayal of the psychopath, the Joker, was absolutely stunning, and one of the best single performances i have ever seen. Christian Bale portrayed an excellent Bruce Wayne and Batman, by far my favorite out of any of the previous films. Even in the supporting cast, I saw no weak characters. I can't say anything bad about Morgan Freeman, whom is one of my favorite actors, and if there is any actor alive that should play Alfred, it must be Michael Caine, he was perfect in that role. Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes was adequate, but not nearly as satisfying as the aforementioned performances, good nonetheless though. The run-time was long, but to me at least, not dragged out at all as there were never extended periods of time where nothing important to the storyline didn't happen. Overall,
P.S. For all of the haters, I am not a "fan-boy" of Batman, nor do I have an unconditional love of the actors involved, or Nolan. I just wanted to say that giving the movie a 1/10 is absolutely ludicrous. Even if you did not like it at all, can you honestly put that movie in with the likes of films that actually deserve 1/10? Compare it to a truly terrible film, for example Gigli, can you tell yourself it was that bad? If you can, i just don't know what is wrong with you...