Might Be Dark But The Star Got A Whole Lot Brighter.

Rating: 10/10 (21 December 2008)

First of all i have to make a few points: My opinion of this film is not swayed by the sad passing of Heath Ledger, indeed a great actor has been lost but just because this was his last major movie i don't feel obliged to say it was his best performance. I was hyped up for this movie i am a massive fan of the comics and the batman is my overall favourite comic book franchise but living up to the hype also doesn't sway my opinion.
This review has come a bit late but lets just review it now shall we? Christopher Nolan jump started the batman franchise up again with the fantastic Batman Begins. Now 4 years later the sequel everyone was waiting for has arrived.
Dark Knight surpasses Begins on so many levels. Cast/Acting: New additions and some casting changes have been made but a stellar cast has been produced. Maggie Gylenhall was a good replacement for Katie Holmes who was rather wooden in begins. Christain Bale exceeds his last performance and maybe even his American psycho performance by delivering the more emotional bruce wayne in this movie, but the really awful voice for batman is still here unfortunately. Lucius Fox played by ol' Morgan returns delivering the usual laughs and humour you come to expect. So, down to Heath Ledger, yes, the performance is indeed a fantastic one. He captures the psycho persona of The Joker exceptionally well and has everything even down to the voice fantastic. But this raised most controversy around my friends, I preffered Arron Eckharts performance as the villain. He manages to transition well between hero to villain and has the personality of Harvery Dent Sussed out to deliver the screen incarnation of Harvery Dent people have been waiting for. Writing/Direction: Of course David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan return and it wouldn't be as good as it was without them. Goyer manages to write out a fantastic story and creates deep meaningful characters with complex psychologies. And Christoper Nolan can essentially take the already fantastic writing and translate it onto screen. He takes the script and develops the scenes into pieces of art. He has the skill to take such a complex story and develop it into a narrative that lets the view digest easily while this film may not be the best example his other movies like The Prestige and Momento. So essentially Nolan and Goyer are a match made in heaven.
But now here come the bad point(s). The main one was that it was over done in the sense that it was far too long, it could have easily been cut down. But besides that this film easily ranks at the top of my film of the year it is that good.
thanks for reading