Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (2008) Review

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2018)

Tonight is the night is when I review THE DARK KNIGHT! My god, a film that I absolutely adore and it is my favourite film of all time. Why? Well, let us find out shall we.
Back when I saw Batman Begins back in 2005 and I saw that joker card at the end, I got immediately freaking excited for the next film. Showing that joker card at the end of Batman Begins has got to be the best easter egg I have ever seen portrayed on film. It was apparently classed as a suggestion, but they ended up making a follow up which would be The Dark Knight.
The Dark Knight in my opinion is the most perfect superhero, comic book and Batman movie of all time. It has all the ingredients of a perfect film. Great story, amazing characters, terrific performances, brilliant script and breathtaking directing by the man himself Christopher Nolan.
I had been a film fan ever since I was three years old and never in my life was I ever excited for a film like this. I had been looking forward to many films years before, but never been pumped and excited as I was for The Dark Knight. Did it pay off? of course it did.
The performances are terrific especially from Heath Ledger, but we will talk more about that later in the blog. Christian Bale once again proves that he is perfect as Batman. You get to see him Batman a lot, hence why this is the best one out of the dark knight trilogy. The supporting cast includes - Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman. All of them are just brilliant in their roles. It is safe to say that the performances in this film are extremely strong.
The film again has terrific direction and a brilliant script. Christopher Nolan just knows how to tell an engaging story on the grandest scale. The actions scenes are shot on the IMAX cameras. If you have the Blu Ray like me, you'll get to experience the true resolution of it. It can become distracting as it goes widescreen to full screen but it is still worth every penny of it.
The script is smart because it is a superhero film that has guts. It has guts to subvert the cliche superhero genre. You get to experience of what it takes to be challenging physically but mainly mentally. Without giving too much away, the film takes risks and pays off.
Let's talk about Heath Ledger as The Joker. Do I even need to tell you how freaking brilliant Heath Ledger is as The Joker? You know what? I will tell you again anyway. Heath Ledger is freaking brilliant as The Joker. A villain who portrays this psychopathic and yet clever villain who has his own purposes to dealt with in the film. He is a villain who a lot of people would say that he does things in the film for the fun of it. I may have to disagree on that and here's why.
We know from Batman Begins, that Gotham is a heavily corrupt city. It is filled with crime and hatred all around and yet the cops don't do much about it to help stop it. We see that Batman is trying to put an end to this as he states in Batman Begins. He wanted to show that the people of Gotham don't deserve crime and suffer like this. They need to be saved from this corruption. Whereas The Joker intends to take advantage of the corrupt system. He knows that a lot of the cops in Gotham are corrupt and he takes advantage by murdering people of Gotham. I personally see that he wants to prove a point that the system is a disgrace and nothing is ever dealt about it.
And that brings to the point of the character of Harvey Dent played by the incredibly underrated Aaron Eckhart. His performance has been overshadowed by the breathtaking performance by Heath Ledger and people don't see the appreciation of Eckhart's performance. I for one think that his performance maybe just as good as Heath Ledger's. Especially when he becomes Two-Face.
But the point I am making about Two-Face is that The Joker says, that everyone loses their mind when one simple thing happens, and not when it a lot of things happen. So, when a whole city of Gotham is in danger no one panics, but if a person dies then everyone loses their minds. This gives an interesting point that how The Joker manipulates Harvey Dent. He is saying that his time as the District Attorney of Gotham was a complete waste of time to the people of Gotham. He brainwashes him and says that he needs to take matter on his own hands and get revenge. It comes to show that both of these character have a true purpose for the film's plot. I admire and respect that very much, because it comes to show that villains are not just for the fun of chaos.
Even though The Joker has a true purpose for his existence, he is still filled with enigmas. Such as the amount of times he says how he got his scars. He tells a different story each time he confronts a character. I found it interesting that he maybe someone who is enigmatic and yet he wants to serve justice for it. I was watching a youtube video on the cinefix channel and they said something which I found breathtaking. They say that The Joker maybe an ex soldier who is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. If he is then he getting his justice served by chaos and destruction of Gotham. We never know the true origin of The Joker and it is terrifying that we don't know. It gives the mystery of his character and it really does haunt you.
Overall, this was the Batman film I had been looking for all my entire life. It has everything you need in not just a perfect Batman movie, not just a perfect superhero movie, not just a perfect comic book movie but just a perfect movie. If you haven't seen this film, then please WATCH IT.