The Dark Knight is a masterpiece!

Rating: 10/10 (19 July 2008)

After 3 long years of waiting, I saw The Dark Knight and left the theater amazed and awed. This film, filled with realism, maturity and incredible performance, is not just a sequel but a masterpiece in film-making! The Dark Knight shows a Gotham City with escalated crime led by the Joker, who is graced with the amazing performance of the late Heath Ledger (he's truly one-of-a-kind). Because of this, law enforcement has been pretty busy and fortunately it has Batman and district attorney Harvey Dent leading the fight. As the film moves on, the plot gets much, much deeper with story twists and surprises that you must see.
Character development is astonishing, in fact The Dark Knight scores multiple gold medals on this field. Graced by the talented Christian Bale, we see Bruce Wayne getting more concerned than ever on state of the city's society. He acknowledges that being Batman may not be enough to completely eradicate crime and that only local authorities have the resources to fight on the long term. This is the reason why he feels that Dent, who is doing a great job, should be the face of justice. Dent however has some character flaws like playing by chance (with his flipping coin) and controlling his emotions. His transformation into Two Face will make you realize those flaws.
The Joker is a madman in every sense of the word. For him, society needs to "loosen up" and in his view having a society led by a powerful justice system is very much like fascism. He is the anarchist and easily the complete opposite of Batman. While Batman and the Joker represent extreme ends, you will notice that the people in the middle suffer a lot and this is the whole point of the film.
If Batman Begins' theme is the conflict between vengeance and justice, The Dark Knight is about justice and corruption, and order and chaos. It is a fact that the people we look up to commit acts of corruption just to get their jobs done or to satisfy themselves in return of service. Along the way, someone starts a rampage of disorder to intimidate both the people and their authorities. Batman and the new commissioner Gordon are both incorruptible, while Dent, despite his achievements, is not. The Joker complicate matters by turning Gotham upside down.
The film's cast is excellent, in fact I give it an A+ for its grade. Maggie G. does make a nice replacement as Rachel D., but I'll bet you will miss Katie H. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine add depth to the Wayne portion of the story. The production values are very high (boombastic action scenes, great locations and balanced use of CGI) and director Christopher Nolan deserves praise for crafting what is probably the best comic book movie ever.
Overall, The Dark Knight is a masterpiece. I highly-recommend this film to everyone.
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