The Batman of our dreams! So much more than a comic book movie

Rating: 10/10 (20 July 2008)

I got to see The Dark Knight on Wednesday night, the reason though why I'm writing this movie comment this late is because I didn't wanna just jump and say this movie was awesome, I wanted to think it through, still today, I can't stop thinking about this movie! The Dark Knight lives up to it's hype and goes beyond it, this is the Batman movie that goes where no other Batman movie has gone before. It gave us a real sold story, we are finally told why the villains are the way they are, how all the injustice in the world can get underneath Batman's skin, how you have to believe that people still have faith in good on Earth. Heath Ledger, I absolutely loved Jack Nicolson's performance in the 1989 film, when I first read that Heath was signed onto The Dark Knight, I was like "What are they, kidding?", once you see The Dark Knight... Heath was incredible! I'm not going to compare Jack and Heath's performance, because they were two different versions of the Joker, but Heath's Joker was definitely the more scary and intense of the two nominations. You didn't know what he was going to do next, he was so crazy, he was also so charismatic to the point where you could relate to his character, and the worst part is not only that he's crazy, he's driving Gotham crazy and treating everyone like little puppets on strings that he can control, and guess what, he is doing it so well with a smile on his face.
This was so much more than a Batman film, this was so much more than a comic book film, The Dark Knight truly delivers with drama, action, romance, horror, dark humor, the study of a psychopathic killer, a detective story. The force behind this epic movie is Christopher Nolan, who's previous film, Batman Begins, didn't really thrill me, but his incredible film making is truly shown in The Dark Knight, the shots that he got of Gotham City were absolutely fantastic and made you feel part of the city, part of the Batman story. One of the things that I absolutely loved about The Dark Knight is that normally with a comic book movie, you know it's not real, people don't dress up in costumes, and save the day, villains don't name themselves crazy names and dress in make up or crazy costumes, but The Dark Knight actually makes it seem incredibly real, like it could happen.
Bruce Wayne is still learning how to be in his double life of Batman and himself, he has lost Rachel to the new district attorney, Harvey Dent, he's inspiring others who are dressing up as Batman and are trying to take on the villains of the city themselves. But things are much worse when the Joker waltzes into town, and he's going to bring Hell upon Gotham City. Constantly playing with Gotham's mind and trying to get Batman to reveal himself, Batman has never dealt with such a psychopathic genius before. The Joker has named himself as the "Classy Villain that Gotham needs", he also has brought a new thought into Batman's head of them actually being more alike than different, that Batman completes him, the Joker would be nothing without him. But Batman is relying on Harvey Dent, who is Gotham's "White Knight" trying to put all of Gotham's scum in jail. But when the Joker plays Batman and Commissioner Gordon, Harvey and Rachel find themselves in very horrific position and Harvey must discover if he will die a hero or live long enough to become a villain.
All the performances are dead on in this movie, now everyone's going crazy over Heath Ledger's performance, but one performance I would also love to credit is Aaron Eckhart who plays Harvey Dent/Two Face, his performance was just as great as Heath's and made Two Face a human villain. You could understand his hatred and vengeance on what happened to him and why he became Two Face. I know that everyone is saying this but I truly mean when I say this is one of the best movies I have seen in a very long time. We had some great movies these past few years, but I think The Dark Knight is seriously something special, but I don't wanna build it up too much since some people go to the theater expecting my words to be the same as your own. In my opinion though this is not a great movie, I can't come up with a word describe how incredibly powerful this movie was, to be honest I would go above a 10 rating if I could; this is the Batman film that we have been waiting for. I've seen it twice in one weekend, I'm going to see it three times this upcoming week, I don't mind one bit. I can't wait for the sequel and I would just like to say RIP to Heath, wish he could have seen his breath taking performance as The Joker.
10/10