Everything a movie should be

Rating: 10/10 (19 July 2008)

The Dark Knight is so much more than a super hero movie. It is in every sense a generally pleasing movie. It is dark and disturbing yet extremely believably realistic. It takes all the elements that a fined tuned thriller should have and then takes them to a whole new level.
The acting is all around phenomenal. Everyone goes straight to Heath Ledger, which is completely understandable, considering his performance is brilliant and without a doubt the best in the movie. However the other stars of the film have notable performances. Each person makes it so that after you have watched a scene with them, you want to see more of them. Christian Bale excels in his reprisal of Batman. While Maggie Gyllenhaal is outstanding as strong-willed Rachel Dawes. No what, I'm going to stop myself here because quite frankly there is too much to be said about the cast. Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Morgan Freemon, and Gary Oldman all also succeed in making us believe that these characters and this world is real.
The direction of the film by Christopher Nolan is everything you could ask from a director and oh so more. He brilliantly makes the stakes high, the action literally explosive, and the story dark, gritty and real. Each sequence builds on the previous to the point where you begin to ask yourself, "How are they going to top this?" Yet Nolan succeeds at making each sequence better, fresher, and more exciting than its predecessors.
If I may be so arrogant, I believe it is a prime contender for Oscar nominations, not just for Ledgers performance, but also for best picture. The Academy should look past the fact that it is a super hero movie, and see the truth that it is an amazing movie with so many elements to take note of that it could be analyzed and discussed for decades to come. Even if you don't agree with this belief of mine, you should still agree its merits are noteworthy and that the film is definitely worth seeing. One of, not just, the Summers, but the years, best films.
10/10. How could anyone give this a one. It at least deserves a 7 or higher.