Excellent

Rating: Null/10 (7 August 2008)

The Dark Knight was a fantastic surprise for me in that I really enjoyed it. I tend not to be into comic book films etc, but this was a very entertaining and action packed piece, with memorable characters and a decent plot. The Joker, of course, is the star of the film. I've never been a fan of the late Heath Ledger's films, but in this he was outstanding. The menace he conveyed was brilliant and he stole the film in every respect. Christian Bale made a good, understated batman, and there were good performances by the bloke playing Two Face and also Michael Caine. In England there has been plenty of controversy that the film was given a 12A rating, but I don't see why the Daily Mail is so insanely frothing at the mouth. Yes, its quite a violent film, but the actual attacks/incidents are not generally shown on-screen, more alluded to or the camera pans away etc. One scene in which the Joker stabs a man in the face was skilfully edited for impact, but wasn't gory as we didn't see any blood and so on. Overall, a brilliant film. My only criticism was that it was a tad too long, but I'd still happily buy it when it comes out on DVD.