Best Sequel I've Ever Seen

Rating: 10/10 (18 July 2008)

Just so you know, I do tend to like most sequels except ones like The Butterfly Effect 2 and Phenomenon 2 which was just a retelling of the first movie usually with no characters from the first one in it. Also a sequel like Blues Brothers 2000 was crap. Magic? Honostly. Wow, I'm nearly a full paragraph into my review and I haven't said anything about the Dark Knight except that it's a sequel. Well there is one thing you should know about this movie. It Freaking Rocks I'm a huge fan of comics but I mostly stay in the Marvel category because DC always seemed to outdated. Superman and Batman (the original movies) came out some 20-30 years ago and never seemed quite realistic. Studios have tried to bring these famous superheroes into the 21st century with Superman return, which was supposed to be the third in the Christopher Reeves series even thought their was little or no continuity and I had thought that Batman Begins was supposed to have been a prequel to the old Timothy Burton series (though now I've read the IMDb FAQ I now know that it wasn't which was good because I could've told you that if it was then it failed considering the original movie had it that the Joker killed Bruce's parents... I think... my memory's getting away from me... It might've been Two-Face...) And speaking of the Joker and Two-Face, that brings me to the two main villains of this film. Heath Ledger and Whatshisname (Aaron Eckhart? I'd check but that would take precious seconds away from me ranting about my new favourite movie) were ABSOLUTELY FATASTIC. I'll explain by starting with the Joker. First of all, I was a huge fan of Jack Nicklson's (I spelt that wrong) performance of the Joker in Tim Burton's classic. He was absolutely perfect choice for the Joker. But I'm going to have to say that Heath Ledger's performance completely surpasses Nicklson's. Wow. The voice that Ledger has created for his villain made my skin crawl. The way that he could make every lip smack so perfectly audible was creepy. Also, the voice was obviously the voice of a lunatic and when he was angry and shouted it made me jump ie. the video when he shouted "LOOK AT ME!" and also when he said "Why... so... Serious?". But we must remember that Ledger didn't actually come up with the dialog himself and a round of applause should go to Christopher Nolan and his brother for writing the part so well. Don't get me wrong, the first time that he explained how he got his scars my heart sank as I felt they had destroyed the mystery that had made the Joker so creepy. But when he explained how he got his scars the second and the story was completely different I was on the edge of my seat for the rest of the movie hoping to hear a brand new story about his scars (sadly though it never came). Now comes the second villain. I'm glad the the Nolan brothers knew that people would already know that Harvey Dent would become Two-Face and gave us little nods with things like the coin flipping and the line "You live long enough to see yourself become the villain". The only thing that upset me is that he had to die, because he had obviously become a madman. I can't say that the performance was as legendary as the Ledger's back was fantastic nonetheless. The funny thing is that the performances of the two bad guys completely overshadow the main character Bruce Wayne/Batman. That isn't to say that Chritain Bale's performance was bad it's just that we sometimes forget that the movie is about Batman and not Commissioner Gordon, who seems to be the main good guy considering that at the end of the movie... wait, you know what. Even though I've said that there are spoilers in this review, I'm not going to give away the ending that makes this movie so much better than all other superhero movies. Watch it again if you've already seen it. Best Movie Ever. 10/10