The Darkest of Knights

Rating: 10/10 (18 July 2008)

One of the ways I judge the quality of a movie is by how much attention the audience around me takes from my watching of the movie. With the exception of a couple of minutes at the beginning of The Dark Knight (when a little kid started talking to her mom, she was asleep soon after), I could not take my eyes off the screen.
This is a truly exceptional piece of film making. I will not give anything away by telling you what happens. I have to say though that the acting of Heath Ledger is just spectacular. They give him a lot of lines in this movie, probably a lot more than most would expect to a comic book villain to get. In fact, this movie has more dialog period than most would expect in this type of movie. That was also the case in Batman Begins, but is even more so in this movie.
While Heath was awesome, the other actors were almost as good. The only weak character was Rachel Dawes played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. I thought she was weak in Batman Begins, and she is even weaker here. But the strengths of the other characters/actors more than makes up for her.
Anybody who enjoys these types of movies will love this one. Even if you don't enjoy them, you should see it. It's more than a comic book movie. Nolan has managed to bring so much more to the surface than just special effects and explosions.
BTW, if Ledger doesn't at least get a nomination for Best Actor, that will be a shame. He deserves it.