Review of The Dark Knight (2008) by Harry210 — 26 Jan 2011

The Dark Knight is an entertaining movie that definitely does the comic book character, Batman, justice. The movie keeps its dark, realistic tone from the previous Batman movie, Batman begins rather than the campy and light-hearted look of Batman and Robin.

The plot was interesting and gripping, wasn't plagued by too many boring scenes and the story runs at a suitable pace. It continues on from Batman Begins as the vigilante known as Batman continues to fight crime in Gotham City.

Now I wouldn't have thought that the movie would be too long or not as long as Batman Begins because of no need to explain how Bruce Wayne became Batman but I obviously thought wrong. It's a long movie, maybe too long but at least it's a good movie to sit through rather than a pain numbing boring one.

It's a typical superhero action movie with a dastardly villain causing chaos and killing innocent people. This villain in the movie is none other than the Joker. The Joker is played brilliantly by the late Heath Ledger.

He nailed the Jokers personality with the way he acts and that make up he wears is freaky! He's a psychopath and a dangerous person but comes across in some scenes like the "Magic Trick" scene where he slams some goon's forehead (or eyeball?) into a pencil and makes it disappear - just like the Joker said he would do - as somewhat funny.

I like when he's dead polite in the "Party" when he greets the party guests and wielding a shotgun and helps himself to a glass of wine (or some alcoholic liquid), picks it up, accidently tosses the wine out of the glass and drinks from it anyway! It's no Matrix in terms of it's fight scenes but they are good and well edited (unlike the last Batman film where most of the fight scenes were shot in extreme close up).

The action scenes like the chase scene where the Joker is trying to chase down the truck transporting "Batman" was exciting to watch. The other villain, Two-Face is introduced pretty quickly and at least doesn't take too much time out of the running time of the film.

The visual effects on Two-Face are authentic and make him seem more threatening. I noticed when seeing this film, there's 2 scenes that reference 2 scenes from the 1989 Batman and it was great that director Christopher Nolan referenced those 2 scenes in this movie.

The Batcycle is cool and the Batsuit that Batman wears matches the dark stylish look of the movie. The music is dramatic and suits the film and sounded more epic in the cinema than at home. I know he talked like this in Batman Begins but why does Bruce Wayne as Batman, have to talk in a dull, broken and grouchy voice? Yes I know he's doing it to conceal his identity, but in the 1989 Batman movie, Bruce Wayne talked in the same tone while he was Batman rather than a different voice.

Also one scene, which may seem epic, is very bright and may cause seizures! This is just a short review of a movie that I really enjoyed and I consider it to be one of the best if not the best superhero movie I've seen.