Amazing; Oscar-Worthy Action and Morality Tale

Rating: 10/10 (20 July 2008)

Wow.
Only having been out for 3 days, I have already seen it twice. It is that good.
Now, to start off, I was not a big fan of "Batman Begins". I thought it was too drawn out, featured a sub-standard plot, and was more or less just another comic adaptation, albeit a tad bit more realistic. (On that note, I am not a big fan of comic book adaptations at all).
Enter, "The Dark Knight", which is, I think it is safe to say, the best movie of 2008 and most likely the last 3 or 4 years. These are bold statements, true, but Christopher Nolan's masterpiece lives up to them (and indeed, the intense media hype that has surrounded the movie).
Acting: Amazing. Christian Bale takes his acting a step up from his previous performance in "Begins". Gary Oldman's version of Lt. Gordon is an excellent supporting character, worthy of at least a nod from the Oscars. Aaron Eckhart, already one of my favorite actors, simply reaffirms himself as one of the most talented stars of our time. His take on Harvey Dent is much better than Tommy Lee Jones's. And thank God that Maggie Gyllenhaal replaced Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. Now I know what you're thinking if you, for some odd reason, are the only person who hasn't seen the film yet; is Heath Ledger's "Joker" as good as it's supposed to be? The answer is noit's better. It's easily the best performance of his too-short career and will be remembered for generations. I would not be surprised if (and would, indeed, be disappointed if he doesn't) become the first person since Peter Finch to posthumously win a best actor Oscar.
Script: Although not quite as impressive as the acting, it is still a fine piece of work. The Joker's lines are both horrifying as well as morbidly funny (take for instance, when he is dangling Rachel Dawes off the top of a building and Batman say's, very typically, "Let her go!". The Joker's response? "Very poor choice of words, hahah!"). Bale is given some excellent material to work with and his interactions with Michael Cain provide some much needed comic relief to this otherwise gloomy tale. There are some truly gasp-worthy twists, and, although there is the occasional one-note character, they don't get a lot of screen time, so it's understandable that they lack depth. What makes "The Dark Knight" so much better than the average comic-book-adaption, or even the average action movie, is that it is, at it's core, neither of these. It is, first and foremost, a morality tale, told in a very realistic, very human way, and therein lies it's secret to avoiding most of these two genera's clichés; we haven't really seen a truly good morality tale at the theater in such a long time that we as the audience probably don't know any of the genera's clichés.
Cinematography: Deserving of an Oscar nomination, at the very least. Another thing that separates this batman movie from it's earlier predecessors (especially the one's from the 90's) is that it's very realistic. It doesn't try to say "HEY NONE OF THIS IS REAL!!!". Quite to the contrary, this film is much more real than most dramas. The lighting here is very dark and gloomy and, thankfully, those awful color's from "Batman Forever" and "Batman & Robin" are nowhere to be found. Directing: Solid and, arguably, Nolan's best. The only problem I have is that of pacing. Now, don't get me wrong; I like long movies. As a matter of fact, I prefer them to these short, 90-minute cookie-cutter one's that Hollywood so loves to produce. But your film shouldn't be 150 minutes simply for the sake of being 150 minutes. I am more than willing to forgive this trespass, though, because I simply did not want this film to end.
Score: Excellent. There is not just one cheesy, heroic theme that you will hear repeating the whole movie (whose sounding you can be rest assured means that our hero is on the job) and, as such, you will not have to endure everyone in your office humming that theme for weeks. And it should be that way in a film like this. It would merely be a bad distraction. Most of the music is, in short, amazing, especially the contrasting two-note theme of the Joker and Harvey Dent's themes, which are typically made up of more brass. Although you probably won't be able to remember any once piece enough to hum it once you walk out of the theater, it is all still very distinctive and, chances are if you hear it again, you will instantly be able to place it.
Miscellaneous: One of the things that blew me away about "The Dark Knight" was how realistic it came off as. Never before has Gotham ever seemed like it could be a real, breathing city. It comes off as a place like Chicago, but not necessarily as a Chicago stand-in. It is never over the top (as it frequently was in past Batman films) and always seems like a place that, if you so desired, could easily visit.
Conclusion: And what do you get when you put all these great parts together? Nothing but a great film. Not just a movie, but a true work of cinema, possibly the first piece worthy of being called cinema to be produced in Hollywood in a couple of years. It's just amazing and awe-inspiring. I cannot stress enough how good it is. And it holds up just as well on a repeat viewing. I'm looking forward to seeing how well it holds up to a third-viewing.
10/10