The Greatest Comic Book Film of All-Time!

Rating: 10/10 (18 July 2008)

The Dark Knight is the follow-up to 2005's Batman Begins. Now I thought Batman Begins was amazing, I mean it is one of my favorite films of all-time. To sum it up, I was very pumped about the sequel, but there was always that fear in the back of my mind that The Dark Knight might not be as good as Batman Begins, but finally after three years of waiting I can say that The Dark Knight is not just as good as Begins, but it in fact blows it out of the water.
The story of The Dark Knight follows Batman on his continuing crusade to rid Gotham City of crime. In this film Batman begins to see hope for both him and Gotham in the hopes of the new District Attorney, Harvey Dent. Batman feels that Gotham needs a hero with a face, and he believes that Dent is that hero, not Batman. Of course, Batman's hopes are soon shattered by the arrival of a new criminal mastermind calling himself the Joker.
As I have already said, The Dark Knight is amazing, you could call it a masterpiece, but that just doesn't seem to fully sum up how blown away I was by this film. To start, the directing by Christopher Nolan is superb, reinforcing once more that he is quite possibly the film industries greatest current filmmaker. On top of that the cinematography by Wally Pfister is amazing, and I really think it is about time he finally wins an Oscar for his work. Then the score by James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer is perfect, fitting each scene perfectly. Finally the script by Jonathan and Christopher Nolan is perfect, flowing perfectly from scene to scene, making this 2 and a 1/2 hour film feel as if it lasted only 90 minutes, but in a good way. Of course the true highlight of the film is the acting from the all-star cast, all actors turn in perfect performances, including: Christian Bale as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Aaron Eckhart as D.A. Harvey Dent, Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred the Butler, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, and Maggie Gyllennhaal replacing Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes; though the one performance that truly stands out ahead of the others is the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, he was amazing, this role just fit him like a glove, and he truly deserves a post-humous Oscar win.
In final thought, the Dark Knight is epic, emotional, and exciting, all at the same time. I loved this film, it was tense and disturbing while being at times a little comical through the Joker's odd, dark sense of humor. I could go on all day long talking about how perfect this film was, but I'll try to wrap things up here. The Dark Knight is easily the best film of 2008, and should definitely be considered for some big-time Oscars, in particular Heath Ledger's stunning performance as the Joker; but not only is The Dark Knight the year's best film, it is the best film of the decade thus far. The Dark Knight is the Greatest Comic Book Film of All-Time, and definitely stands in my books as one of the Greatest Films of All-Time. It is a true masterpiece.
The Dark Knight earns a perfect 10 out of 10!