The Dark Knight

I went into this movie expecting greatness. I had read the early reviews. I had read the reviews of some of my fellow bloggers who were lucky enough to see the movie right away. Each and every one of them had nothing but good things to say about this movie.

Well, I am here to tell you something.

They were absolutely right.

My lone negative of the film is I was left wondering, but those questions could be answered in the absolutely has to happen sequel, or in another one down the line.

I found myself looking at my watch, not because I was bored and the movie was too long - but because I was hoping the film would last longer.

Right from the start, the introduction of The Joker, I was immediately into the movie. Heath Ledger does have another film on his resume that will be released after The Dark Knight, but this is a movie that if you have to go out - you want to go out with a performance like this.

I didn't even know he had it in him. Sure, he was an amazing actor - but this shot him into the likes of Tom Hanks in my book. Amazing performance, he truly made The Joker his own - and it was spectacular.


I wasn't sure how they were going to handle the villain aspect of the movie - I had heard rumors about the inclusion of Harvey 'Two-Face' Dent, but was under the impression that it would be a quick cameo in order to setup the next film (sort of like the joker card at the end of Batman Begins). The older Batman films got a little out of hand with so many different villains on the scene at once, much like Spiderman 3 sort of got a little too jumbled.

*SPOILER* Director Christopher Nolan did a tremendous job including two villains in the same movie, without really going over the top. This movie, as it should be, was devoted mostly to The Joker, but the introduction of Two-Face was done very well, and it worked with the film's overall premise.*SPOILER OVER*

Before heading to the theater, I re-watched Batman Begins and I have to say the flack that Katie Holmes received for portraying Rachel Dawes was a little unjustified. I felt she gave a pretty good performance, but nevertheless, she wasn't totally missed in the sequel as Maggie Gyllenhaall did a marvelous job picking up where Holmes had left off.

Morgan Freeman's Lucius Fox wasn't a central piece in this film, but his performance was, as almost always, very top notch. Michael Caine's Alfred was very well done - and I enjoyed the little back-and-forth that his character shared with Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne.

Finally, I have always been a Michael Keaton as Batman guy. I was not too happy when he was replaced by Val Kilmer, then again by George Clooney. But, Bale has done a stellar job portraying the Dark Knight. As others have pointed out, I am not a huge fan of the deep, throat-like voice that he uses when in the Batman suit - but that is not that big of an issue for me.

This film was easily the best superhero movie I have ever seen. I do hope they continue to make Batman films, but I hope they continue at this current depth - the original films sort of lost their place after the second film, I would hate for history to repeat itself.

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