Lives up to Most of the Hype...

Rating: 7/10 (27 July 2008)

I've heard far too much about this film and about how "awesome" it was in every way before seeing it and then I too was intoxicated by the experience. Before I go forward I'd like to explain my experience in the theater. The sound was turned up all the way, when a gunshot went off I winced and luckily there were no interruptions in the theater at all. Oh and one more thing, go see this in theaters, the fading to black, the obnoxiously loud noises, everything cannot be replicated outside of the theater. The camera angles don't really impress me but almost everything else does, the acting by everyone is pretty high and Nolan certainly shows off his ability to manipulate lighting, colors, etc. The dialogue's strong for the most part, if it isn't the acting carries the lines through. The films pretty well paced but I think it hangs over by 20-30 minutes. Stepping into this extra amount of time feels a little strange at first but it's still pretty darn engrossing and fun to watch and sets up the trilogy further so I can understand why it's in there. Ledger's performance doesn't make me awestruck but it does inspire me, his character has an aura in this film and there is a complete vision of the Joker but I don't feel that this performance completely trounces Nicholson's twenty years ago. Don't get me wrong, it's great but I don't think it's forty times better than Nicholson. Either way, a must see in theaters the experience is pretty awesome, and yeah you can say the films not very challenging but it really is a lot of fun.