The Batman we were waiting for!

Rating: 10/10 (16 June 2010)

This is one of those films that I just couldn't stop seeing more than 3 or 4 times in a row, no joke.
Now the direction/story: What I loved about the dark knight, personally as a Batman fan, was how the story is very well adapted from the comic series itself, it brings stories from the comic into a realistic point of view and that really amazed me about both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Now as a film the story is very good as well, its not your typical superhero movie with the hero narrating on and on as if you didn't know what was already going on(except at the end, where James Gordon and Batman narrate a bit), the script is also very well portrayed thought out the movie, good kick ass action for the guys, a bit of romantic moments for the girls, and for the kids we have Batman (of course this film's joker isn't really kid oriented). Now what is also great about this story is how well it can have multiple plots without losing grip of the audience, I mean this film has a lot of things going on but not like in the spider man 3 kind of way, its much better how all of these plots seem to come together perfectly, Rachel Dawes dating Harvey Dent while at the same time wondering her feelings towards our protagonist Bruce Wayne, meanwhile The joker comes to Gotham and begins to position himself in the criminal underworld while also attempting to force Batman into revealing his identity, also Batman becoming more brutal and mean as he tries to stop the joker, and so on. The dialogue isn't too cheesy, like in most superhero moves, its more realistic and very well performed. Another great aspect is how the story is much darker than in Batman Begins, of course, in here Gotham city seems brighter and thus a bit happier than in Batman Begins (of course, I guess that's due to Batman's arrival, Gotham became a better place), now by a dark story I mean ending result of the film and what it shows, a tragic tale about justice, how far a hero will go to pursue it and how hard will he try to maintain it. Now for how it was directed, as I said earlier in here Nolan makes much brighter aspect of gotham city, its not as dark and obscure as seen in the previous film, but that doesn't matter very much, it actually works in a better tone with the story. Most of these scenes were beautifully executed and they will be sure to entertain you and keep you hooked til the very end.
Now the acting/characters/interaction between them: For the lead performance we have Christian Bale, who portrays our caped crusader once again and not in a bad way, though this time, portraying a darker side of our hero as Batman becomes more brutal in his pursuit to stop the joker (which can easily seen during the interrogation scene), this time Batman came back tougher and meaner than before. Now the joker... Man what a performance, Heath Ledger left us with one of his...no... One of the most amazing performances I've seen ever, he took a simple character like the joker and turned it into a true psychopath, he may be wearing make up but you wouldn't want to mess with this guy. A truly macabre look at this classic comic book character, Ledger embraced who the joker truly was, a mad man who was just looking for a laugh in the death, pain and suffering of others and also someone who was personally responsible for tragedies in Batman's life. Now don't get me started on how well were the scenes between Batman and Joker, when you saw those two face each other I felt the same energy that I felt watching Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker face off...remarkable, I hadn't seen that kind of good guy- bad guy interaction in a long time. Now as for the secondary characters, they were not just standing there I can assure you, Gary Oldman does a very good performance as commissioner Gordon, Aaron Eckhart portrays a tragic character like Harvey Dent/ Two-face without the goofyness portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones (which is good), and Maggie Gyllenhal also does a well job in portraying Rachel Dawes, they all were very well acted characters that won't have you feel like you wasted money on it.
Especial effects: Now from what I could see there was no CGI used in this film, but the visual effects are very well done, the cars exploding, the truck being turned over, batman gliding from the top of a huge building, etc. I was actually glad with the lack of CGI because I'm somewhat getting tired of watching very awful and unrealistic computer generated explosions or vehicles crashing, it was much better and more realistic the way they show it in this film.
Overall, the dark knight is a well executed film and a great comic book adaption. This film is more than just Heath Ledger's performance, its an epic and tragic tale about justice that should not be missed by neither fans of comics or just average movies viewers.