My mind is BLOWN!!!

Rating: 10/10 (13 August 2008)

This was the perfect way to bring a superhero movie to a non superhero world. They made it so that you could believe that this could happen at any time. How do you do that? Well... a couple of aspects were put into place: First, write a wonderful script that explains how everything happens. Bit by bit, nothing left to wander. Also about the script I should say that it helped a lot that a lot of mini-stories were played together so you wouldn't be bored for a second, and you will be very busy following everything that's going on, story-wise, because every bit is important and there are no filler moments. It almost gets to a point were you don't want to blink to miss what's going on. Try not to.
The next aspect, to bring it to play. And in this, we have to take into account that even a good story (and specially a superhero story) could turn out ridiculous if badly developed. Great directing by Nolan leaving you busy at every second of the way, so that when the action wasn't catching your attention (and few moments it wasn't) the character development was, and more times than not, everything was happening at the same time.
The casting was a dangerous part too, and risky, casting Ledger to fill in the shoes of Nicholson, and to everyone's surprise, well.. it has been the best joker ever! and in this influenced the fact that Ledger was strictly prepared for the role and it showed, and the character was fairly better portrayed, in the script, and in action. It was as sick as you'd expect and yet he didn't take himself too seriously, you almost felt like sharing some of the fun he was having. But even so, he wasn't the only one in the spotlight.
In that sense, you can remind yourselves of movies like "Ocean's eleven" or "The Departed" in which everyone played their part and got enough screen time not to make the movie just about one. This movie is about Batman (more so than about Bruce Wayne), it's about Harvey Dent (and he portrays brilliantly the role, one to surely remember), it showed the human side of things, by the hands of Gordon, Rachel Dawes (who is so much better and a refreshing change this time around) and in the hands of all the secondary characters, that cement the whole ensemble.
If you're looking for action sequences, you won't be disappointed either, this movie delivers. You'll find it to be a "slice of life" movie, in an alternate reality that you'll certainly find believable and will identify with. If you look beyond the action and superhero gimmicks you'll also find the deep political critique behind the story, and the struggle that everyone feels, between wrong and right, every character in this movie is faced with the choice, and it's what they choose, that we can all relate to.
It's a must see. I give it a ten.