I'm sold.

Rating: 9/10 (22 July 2008)

So I just saw The Dark Knight. In a word, awesome. But where to begin?
First of all, I'm not going to say that this is the best movie ever like most reviews have done (it's actually ousted The Godfather as number one of all time on IMDb's top 250). Having yet to see The Godfather, I can't comment there, and I'm hard pressed to give any film the label of Best Ever.
I love the new design for Batman, and I love that it explains why he changes the design.
I'm finally starting to love Christian Bale as Batman. I didn't think Begins was as great as everyone says, and even though he's easily the best Batman in film so far, I still didn't like the film that much. Although it has been growing on me more. I never liked how insistent Hollywood is that everything has to be believable and explained. Batman Begins attempted to take Batman into the real world and make it totally believable, and I prefer the superhero movies that just embrace the characters and designs of the comics. I was weary of the way the Joker would be handled, again because I wanted to see the comics fully embraced.
Now, having seen Dark Knight, I'm sold. This film series may not embrace all the look and style of the comics (I would have loved to see an Alex Ross or Jim Lee style of thing with Batman big and epic and agile), but what they do embrace, and whole-heartedly is the essence of Batman, the character, the ambiance.
This film is dark.
Batman is a detective, a crusader, a vigilante. That's the Batman of this film. This isn't so much a superhero movie as a dark and deeply engaging crime drama. There are mob bosses, dirty cops, idealistic attorneys, a psychotic serial killer and in the middle of it all: Batman. And considering that, I loved it.
As to the Joker. This is what all the buzz is really about. Everyone is raving about how great Heath Ledger is as the joker and I think that this is due in part to the tragedy of his death. But that aside, the truth is that yes, Joker makes this movie. He is definitely the best part of the film. The Joker in this film is a villain easily on par with Hannibal Lecter in the sense that he is both evil, sadistic and yet strangely lovable as a character. You don't want to see him win, you just want to see more of him and his crazy, evil antics. As a character, Heath Ledger is to the Joker what Johnny Depp was to Jack Sparrow. He's funny, crazy, unpredictable. He has no origin story here, no explanation. He has no motive. He is a pure and glorious anarchist and a magnificent bastard. His introduction to the mafia bosses is arguably the best scene in the entire film. Also the scene with the infamous "Why so serious" tag line.
Gary Oldman continues in this film as the best Jim Gordon ever, and I'm really falling in love with Michael Caine as Alfred, especially toward the middle of the film.
Also great is the introduction of Harvey Dent. This film gives us Harvey Dent/Two-Face as a real character with an arc rather than just throwing him in arbitrarily. As the slogan says, you will believe in Harvey Dent.
As to the bad. There are a few moments that just can't work, specifically Batman jumping out of a penthouse window ten stories up without doing anything to slow his fall, yet somehow surviving after he lands on a car. I think they want you to believe that Batman just knows how to properly take a fall, but he takes some ridiculously impossible ones.
Also, even though I said I'm starting to love Bale as Batman, the way he does the voice is kind of silly at times. Specifically in a scene near the end, where he's supposed to be giving this touching soliloquy, but it just comes out comical (to the point that I really almost began to laugh) when . . . he just . . . can't . . . say more . . . than a . . . couple . . . of words in . . . a strangely . . . broken . . . sentence filled with . . . odd gaps of labored . . . breathing. It's like seeing a parody of William Shatner doing Batman, not even the actual Shatner, but the over-exaggerated parody of Shatner. Sure he's taken some damage by this point and would be out of breath, but he doesn't look hurt at all, and he's been doing this to some degree the entire movie.
Those are really my only complaints with an otherwise flawless Batman movie. Like I said before, I never thought Begins was as perfect as everyone else seems to, but this time around I'm sold and looking forward to what comes next. Here's hoping they bring the Joker back. Some people may call it disrespectful to Ledger to replace him after such stunning work, but the character lives on. I would love to see someone else take up the mantle and carry on the character in Ledger's style in the next film.