Chris Nolan's Batman sequel where all the criminals in Gotham are afraid of "the batman" but a deranged mobster called Joker takes crime to a horrifyingly new level.

Rating: 10/10 (16 January 2013)

I'm a huge batman fan and this is one of the greatest comic book movies of all-time. This film is better then it's predecessor, Batman Begins, which was a great film. One of the things that makes this better is the look of Gothasm city. This one was shot in Chicago while "Begins" was shot on a set, it makes all the difference. I love the look of Gotham, it never looked better. I love seeing Batman in a realistic looking city and I saw it in Imax and it was awesome! What I love about Nolan's batman is that the story is so awesome and that's the best thing about this movie the story/plot/screenplay is great. While the other batman films by Burton & Shumaker were basically batman vs the villain of the week, which is fine but Nolan brings so much depth to the story. The story is intelligent, serious, mature and sophisticated. At times I thought I was watching law & order or criminal minds. The film is well shot with some great action scenes like Batman riding his motorcycle through Gotham chasing Joker in a truck. I love the music it sounds great! Nolan's realistic approach to batman is perfectly visualize here.The film has great dialog and a great cast. This movie is also very, very dark. But I always felt that batman is better when he's dark and this movie proves it. Chritian Bale returns as Batman/Bruce Wayne. This film has similarities to the 1989 batman like that the villain, Joker overshadows the hero but like Keaton, Bale holds his own. Bale's great as Batman. He plays Bruce's public image as a arrogant, playboy millionaire but privately he's a brooding loner and when he's batman he puts the dark in the dark knight. He's menacing, intense and other then not killing he shows no mercy on criminals. I love Maggie Gyllenhal who replaces Katie Holmes as district attorney and Bruce Wayne's childhood friend/love interest Racheal Daws. She is much better in the role then Holmes. This is one of her best performances. I love Aaron Ecckart as new district attorney Harvey Dent who becomes the famed villain Two-Face. This is one of the best take on Two-Face ever! I liked that they focus more on Harvey Dent then his villain persona and I love his transformation to Two-Face but unfortunately they didn't put much emphasis on the fact that Harvey's supposed to have a split personality. Harvey/Two-Face is both scary and sad like he should be. Gary Oldman, Micheal Caine, and Morgan Freeman are all great in their returning role. I love the cameo by Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow. But the best thing about this movie is the tragically late Heath Ledger in his unforgettable and tremendous performance as the iconic comic book villain, the Joker. Like Jack Nicholson in '89, Ledger's Joker steals the show. His performance is grear for two reasons. From an acting view and a comic book view. From an acting view Ledger gave one of the best on screen transformations of all-time. The man we knew as Heath Ledger and the guy we saw in Brokeback Mountain was no where to be found, he truly became a whole another person. I love his voice, the way he changed his voice is amazing and I love his scary high pitch laugh. At times his voice sounds a little bit like Nicholson(probably his nod to Jack) This is possibly the best portrayal of a realistic sociopath/psychopath ever. Heath must of studied real life mentally ill people to play it so perfectly and I like the weird way he licks his lips. From a comic book view Nolan & Ledger gave a great interruption of the Joker character. What makes Joker barman's #1 enemy is that he's uniquely crazy, unpredictable, willing to do things that other villains wouldn't do and he's a pure killer. Nolan brings all these qualities to the Joker. Nolan makes Joker a derange murdering anarchist and it's interesting listing to his twisted view point. I like how Joker ups the ante by telling batman to publicly reveal his identity or he'll kill
people. I like how he set up his crimes although some seem a little too elaborate. I love his creepy clown make-up, it's a great look for a more realistic Joker. His look has a "Goth" quality to it. The plot dosen't put much emphasis on Joker's twisted sense of humor but Ledger brings some humor to him like when he's holding Racheal out a window and batman says "let her go" and Joker says "poor choice of words" and lets her go, to fall to her death. I love the scene where Joker meets Dent in the hospital and he's wearing a female nurse outfit complete with a wig, that looked so creepy. But the most bizarre is how he told different stories about how he got the scars on his face. I wish we could've seen Ledger's Joker with Harley Quinn his girlfriend/ sidekick from the comics. I can imagine Ledger's Joker hanging with a weird girl wearing clown make-up. I also wish we found out a little bit about his back-story. If Joker came off the comic book pages and into the real world this is how he would be. Ledger's Joker is one of the greatest movie villains of all time and is going in the comic book hall of fame. This is the best of the three Nolan Batman films and is one of the greatest comic book movies of all-time.