Excellent on every level

Rating: 10/10 (19 July 2008)

Dark Knight is probably the least "cartoony" of any superhero movie to date. It's like watching The Departed only it's got Batman, Joker, and more explosions. Monster's Ball was probably the first time I began to realize what a good actor Ledger was, and his death is all the more of a tragedy in that his Joker performance lives up to every bit of the hype and would have thrust him onto the A-List, much like Iron Man is doing for Downey Jr. (not to mention that Christian Bale has been one of my favorite actors in the world since American Psycho). The first hour or so might play a bit slow in parts, but by the half way mark it kicks into action-thriller mode straight through to the end. Also at the half way mark we get an action sequence that rivals the Batmobile chase from Batman Begins, which literally culminates in a theater full of cheers. Cheers and even emotional beats are reached in a triumph of the human spirit dilemma near the end of Act 2, while the very last shot of the film also summons the applause it deserves as it cuts to dark . Intense psychology, humor, action, tension, heavy plot, and plenty of eye-popping spectacle makes this one of the best and most satisfying movies of the decade.