The Effect of "Wow"

Rating: 10/10 (18 July 2008)

The Dark Knight lives up to it's hype, and then surpasses it. The depth of the acting, the levels of psychosis and differing views of morality you have to try and wrap your mind around, and the action sequences leave you sitting in the theater wondering if the state of shock your brain is in will stop soon. ***Spoiler*** I believe my personal state of shock moment started at the scene between Rachel Dawes and Harvey Dent when they are both tied up in different warehouses. The emotion in Gyllenhaal is incredible, the moment she realizes that she is going to die is on her face, and it just makes you ache. This is also the scene where the movie steps over the line, Dawes' death is horrifying, not because of the way it happens, but because the movie makes you think that she is going to be just fine, then it smashes your head into a wall and brings you into stark reality. ***Spoiler*** The shock doesn't wear off though, it keeps on going right along with you. After the death of Dawes you question everything, the people on the boats, the Dark Knight himself, Two-Face's destructive insanity, Commissioner Gordon just letting Batman take the fall for Dent. "Is it all really going to end that way?", I asked myself. Only to realize that the credits were on the screen and it was time to leave. I don't think my brain has caught up to answer "yes" yet. See the movie, feel your own awe at the story line and Ledger's last and greatest performance, and hope that your brain wakes up before the cinema workers have to kick you out.