Not just a normal comic book movie.

Rating: 10/10 (13 February 2011)

It is a very rare occasion for myself to anticipate a movie and have those already-high standards to still be exceeded by the actual movie. However, this was the case with The Dark Knight.
This movie was excellent on so many levels. For the dork in me, I love the Batman thing. Christopher Nolan did an excellent job leaning more on a realistic point of view with the Cape Crusader's back story in Batman Begins and he keeps in with the same themes in this one. This one, however, becomes a bit more desperate. It naturally adds to the tempo of the movie without being distracting.
The acting in this movie was impeccable. Maggie Gylenhaal replaced Katie Holmes which I thought was a good trade. In my opinion, Maggie is a far superior actress. But the person that stole the show was Heath Ledger. Heath was almost completely unrecognizable in his role as the Joker. I could barely tell that it was him sometimes. His timing, his voice modification, the makeup, everything about the character really took it to a whole new level with the story. Christopher Nolan did such a great job with the Joker story that the movie almost became a different kind of movie.
That is why it worked so well. It didn't feel like a comic book movie. It had the intensity of heat and with the acting of The Departed. It was not just a Batman movie. It was a crime drama with Batman undertones. No one thus far has succeeded so brilliantly with making such an animated character seem so possible and at times real. The only problem I see with the second was being able to top it when the third one comes out.