The Dark Knight is Brilliant

Rating: 10/10 (28 August 2013)

The Dark Knight is a brilliant follow-up to Batman Begins and the definitive Batman movie to date, which makes you wonder if Christopher Nolan will be able to accomplish like this again. The Dark Knight takes place in a world where the line between good and evil is drawn in pencil. With The Joker's lunatic smile and gleefully malicious manner setting the tone for a wild romp through a world gone mad. Batman's universe is teetering on the edge and the conflicted superhero is trying to unravel the puzzle of how best to protect Gotham City while believing he's not the savior his city deserves. 2005's Batman Begins introduced Christian Bale in the dual roles of Bruce Wayne and Batman, and The Dark Knight serves to cement the fact he is the perfect casting choice to shoulder the lead in the Batman film franchise. Gotham City's falling to pieces and Batman is both the problem and the solution. The caped crusader has taken down a king-sized helping of bad guys, although he's not working on his own. Ordinary citizens have taken up his cause, donning their own Batman costumes and patrolling the streets. And now the mobsters left in town have joined forces in order to keep the real Batman at bay. No disrespect meant to Jack Nicholson but this is the performance of The Joker everyone will remember. Nicholson's Joker in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman fit perfectly with the tone of that movie. In The Dark Knight, it's Ledger's Joker the rest of the cast needs to keep step with. This Joker is nasty-scary, a greasy, grotesque creature lifted straight from the nightmares of coulrophobics. Even those not given to fearing clowns are going to recoil in fright from Ledger's mesmerizing performance. The Dark Knight's action sequences are controlled chaos with cars and motorcycles and Mack trucks careening down city streets, and the film's quieter moments are equally as engaging. There's just so much to say about The Dark Knight, so much I want to analyze and discuss, but expanding on a review of the plot would lay out potential spoilers and it's best to go into the film without any knowledge of the story line other than the bare minimum. Nolan and company have surpassed what they accomplished the first time out, and The Dark Knight is everything you'd want from a superhero movie and much, much more.