The Dark Knight delivers the film fans have been waiting for.

Rating: 10/10 (16 August 2008)

In 2005, Christopher Nolan relaunched Warner Brothers' dormant Batman franchise with "Batman Begins", an exceptionally well-made film that took a realistic, detailed approach to the origins of DC's biggest hero (arguably the most popular hero in the world). Now, three years later, Nolan and his star Christian Bale return to the property, and they deliver what is perhaps the greatest superhero film ever made (and a great film, besides), one that will become the model all others will look up to.
The first movie ended on an optimistic note: Batman had saved the city, and had "really started something", in Gordon's words: however, one tease at the end (the Joker's playing card) hinted at the violent chaos to come in the next movie. And here, Nolan delivers on that, in the form of the late Heath Ledger, in a performance that is already becoming legendary. Gordon closed the last film with a prediction that Batman's presence would lead to escalation in the criminal community. He was right. The desperate Gotham mafia (a coalition of Slavic, African-American, and Italian gangsters) turn to the Joker to deal with Batman before he brings them all down. The Joker enacts a campaign of terror designed to smoke Batman out: the caped crusader and his chief allies, DA Harvey Dent and Police Commissioner Gordon (the first film's Commissioner Loeb is among the Joker's first victims), along with assistants Alfred Pennyworth and Lucius Fox, must deal with this embodiment of chaos. Dent, as well, is romancing Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, a superior replacement for Katie Holmes).
Nolan and his screenwriters draw on several different comics sources to create their vision of Batman, the Joker, and Gotham. The most obvious among these are Alan Moore's "The Killing Joke" (perhaps the seminal Batman vs. Joker story) and Jeph Loeb's "Batman: The Long Halloween", which involved Harvey Dent and the struggle between Batman and the mob. Moore's Joker was conceived of as having no fixed origin, and Nolan follows throuhg with this: the Joker has no origin, though he offers several different versions to different people.
Conversely, the film diverges noticeably from the comics in its depiction of Two-Face. There is no split personality in evidence, nor any of the psychological problems that said personality springs from. Two-Face has more or less been cut down to his gimmick, and then a new rationale for the gimmick constructed to suit the themes of the film. Eckhart is very compelling as this version, which also sports some effectively grisly makeup/effects.
"Batman Begins" was notable for being the first Batman film to really be about Batman, instead of being a showcase for various freakshow villains; this is dialled back a bit in this film, where the villains take more of a centre-stage. Batman still has a significant character arc, but the story is less about him; notice that the buzz surrounding the movie centres on Ledger, not Bale. That Batman is less of a focus is not a bad thing in and of itself, so long as the villains are well-done, which they are. Caine, Freeman, Oldman, and Gyllenhaal are all effective supporting cast.
One of the most notable things about this film is its ability to make the audience doubt the outcome, bringing the storytelling styles that have flourished in the comics industry for at least twenty years to the big screen at last; Spider-Man succeeded in 2002 where he failed in the comics in 1973, but now the audience is never sure whether Batman's allies will reliably make it out alive. It's a jolt that one hopes will allow future comics adaptations to reach the greater diversity of outcomes that the comics currently enjoy.
A bravura effort from all involved.