Very very good or excellent? I'm not sure

Rating: 9/10 (24 July 2008)

So - is it as good as everybody says it is? I'm not sure. It's certainly very, very good, but I'm not 100% convinced it's a solid gold classic. There have been other movies in the genre which have grabbed me more on first viewing, but I'll have to do a bit of thinking before I can nail that thought down with precision.
The thing it does do, to an extent which I didn't think would be possible, is to take the idea of a fully established Batman (as opposed to the creation/origin Batman in Begins) as well as Joker and Two-Face, put them into a world which is recognisably the real world (as opposed to the stylised Gotham of the Burton movies), and have them all be credible characters. I except here only the Two-Face makeup - I thought it was great, but I worried about the absence of tear ducts.
The film is long, but there is a lot of plot going on. Attention needs to be paid - there are lots of details, and they can escape easily.
The main players reprise their roles from last time, and it's good to see Gary Oldman's James Gordon having a much bigger slice of the pie this time. Together with Caine's Alfred and Freeman's Lucius Fox they create a solid foundation of decency for Bale's Batman to operate against.
Credit to both Heath Ledger for a genuinely scary Joker, and also to Aaron Eckhart for a performance which makes Harvey Dent's tragedy very clear (and, perhaps, turns it into the heart of this movie). Is Ledger's performance worthy of an Oscar nomination? Well, the Academy likes showy, gimmicky characters, and Ledger's untimely death will undoubtedly have increased the chances even more, so I wouldn't bet against it.
The stunts are fine and the effects are fine - nothing so outrageous that disbelief can't remain suspended. The script is good, and some of the music cues are remarkable. However, there were places where I felt that the sound balance favoured music and effects over dialogue - Gordon's words at the very end, for instance.
This has been a very good year for films in this genre, and this film is one of the best in this (or any other) year.