Nearly flawless.... nearly

Rating: 10/10 (17 July 2008)

I must give Christopher Nolan credit. He took a franchise that seemed doomed and rebooted it with "Batman Begins", taking a huge risk by making it darker and more serious. This time, now that all of the necessary background information has already been presented, he takes things one step further by making it darker, more serious, and more exciting.
"The Dark Knight" is an unbelievably exciting, funny, and creepy movie all at the same time, and they all hit the viewer in equal amounts. Heath Ledger's performance is the masterful center of the movie, complimented wonderfully by Bale's batman, Oldman's Gordon, and Eckhart's Harvey Dent. The first half of the movie sets up so many shocking moments and take-your-breath-away action scenes that it's hard to catch your breath, but I've never felt so great hardly being able to breathe.
However... the second half of the movie gets a little heavy, and to avoid spoilers I will just say that I think this movie would have worked nicely split up into two. However, that's not nearly enough to make someone forget the fact that this is the most exciting movie of the year (sorry, Iron Man) and the second movie we've seen guaranteed of an Oscar nomination (after Wall-E). Go see it now.