Batman is back, better than ever

Rating: 10/10 (22 July 2008)

"This review includes a few minor spoilers" I have to admit that I started to loose faith in comic adaptations, recently. After Spider-Man 3 and the slightly better Superman Returns, I kinda lost interest in those two heroes and I began to focus my attention on Batman. Batman is a very interesting person, since his alter ego Bruce Wayne is pretty well known person, a billionaire, who has developed a dark side over the years, mainly due to the murder of his parents.
When I saw Batman and Robin many years ago, I thought that this was the end of Batman. The whole movie was just terribly weak and even the strong cast couldn't carry the movie, making Batman and Robin a very dark spot in the Batman franchise. I suggest you watch it though, because it will make you appreciate Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
Batman Begins strongly rebooted the series. The Direction, the cast, the story; everything just fit together perfectly and it make me look forward to a sequel.
Now, I read many of the reviews and they were all very enthusiastic. I was surprised, because I expected to see a great movie, but not a movie that would even make Roger Ebert give it a 4/4. But now, after having seen the movie, I'm totally speechless. This is definitely one of the best, if not THE BEST, movie of the decade.
The acting really made out a huge part of this movies greatness. Christian Bale portrays Wayne in an excellent way, making you feel his pain and anger and shows more than ever that he was the best choice for the role. Aaaron Eckart was great too, playing Harvey Dent and Two-Face very convincing. I haven't seen too many of his movies yet, definitely a mistake. He can play the good, almost flawless Harvey Dent and at the same time completely get into the role of an evil person, consumed by anger and revenge. His situation is not even that different from Batman's, but he chooses the wrong way of dealing with it. In fact, all of the actors showed a great performance: Maggie Gyllenhall (who tries to forget her love for Bruce), Michael Cane (whose performances are rarely below great), Morgan Freeman (same as Michael Cane) and Gary Oldman (who seems to get better and better with the movies he makes.
And then of course, Heath Ledger, whose performance redefines the term pure awesomeness. There is no one, absolutely no one (including Jack Nicholson) who could have done a better job with this role. He manages to show the Joker as a terribly evil and heartless monster but at the same time also manages to gain the most laughs of the audience, with his appearance, voice and dialogue. It shows what a great actor Heath Ledger really was and this is by far his best performance (sorry, Brokeback Mountain fans). He plays his role completely flawless and more than deserves an Oscar for his performance, a performance that will be hard to top in years to come. It's sad that he won't have a chance to continue his career, which began so promising and ended way too early.
But it's not only the actors that make this movie so good. Christopher Nolan already did an excellent job with Batman Begins but The Dark Knight tops Batman Begins in every aspect, including the script. There is not a single thing that could have been solved better and there were many psychological surprises and twists, no one would have expected.
It's too bad I don't have an IMAX theatre close to me, because the visual effects and action were already great in a normal Cinema. In an Imax theatre, they must be spectacular.
In conclusion I have to say, that this movie regenerated my faith in comic adaptations. It was a long time ago that a movie surprised me like Dark Knight, and many years will pass until it happens again. Until then, this movie stands on top of my long list of movie favorites. Long live the Batman!!!