Review of The Dark Knight (2008) by Pauljohnson — 23 Nov 2011
An almost flawless film. This did not in any way feel like it was 2 and a half hours long, it was the fastest and most exciting two and a half hours I've spent at the cinema, and at home watching this on DVD.
If you want a tightly woven story, replete with character threads, themes and actions that have serious consequences, this is definitely the film for you. Heath Ledger is most certainly the star of this film, delivering a solid and menacing performance, that makes you feel like you wouldn't want to cross this guy in real life.
Also worth of high praise are Aaron Eckhart and Gary Oldman, both of whom deliver solid, dramatic and emotive performances. I can't understand how people can watch this film and say it lacks plot depth and texture, seriously, most of the people I know who reviewed this thing had to watch it multiple times to finally grasp and coherently understand all of the themes that permeate this movie, from escalation, terrorism, criminality, evil's triumph over good, there is a lot more to it than the negative reviews seem to be wanting to notice.
The editing keeps a fantastic balance of drama, character development and action, and there is never too much of one over the other. A lot of the negative reviews I've seen seem to boil down to either "over hyped" or "too long".
If you're not going to review the film on an objective level, then you may as well just not post a review. The only criticism I'd give of the film is the post-Rachel death scene between Alfred and Wayne, which was a missed opportunity and fairly unconvincingly acted by Bale.
Other than that, the film is a must see.
This review of The Dark Knight (2008) was written by Pauljohnson on 23 Nov 2011.
The Dark Knight has generally received very positive reviews.
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