Film Review: The Dark Knight

As the sequel to the 2005 movie ‘Batman Begins‘, ‘The Dark Knight’ is Batman’s latest movie venture. With director Christopher Nolan and lead actor Christian Bale both returning, as well as the introduction of the late Heath Ledger as The Joker, this movie looked like one of the best of a very good summer line up.

Compared to Begins, The Dark Knight seems a little shallow. The insight into Bruce Wayne/Batman’s character has been replaced with maniacal laughter, constant moral dilemmas, and big explosions. Still, this isn’t a bad thing, because it makes the film incredibly entertaining. Maybe I’m just a sucker for mindless violence and brutality. While The Dark Knight isn’t quite as deep as Begins, it’s definitely darker, and this is thanks to Heath Ledger’s incredible portrayal of the Joker. Batman’s arch nemesis has never been quite so insane and erratic, and he’s genuinely funny as well as disturbing. He’s absolutely brilliant to watch, and easily one of the best villains I’ve ever seen in a movie.

The appearance of Two Face (Aaron Eckhart), albeit late in the movie, was also excellent. Nolan’s interpretation and design of Two Face is superb, and works incredibly well with the tone of the new series. As well as being an incredibly dark character, there’s also a lot of symbolism surrounding Two Face, as a tribute to the old comic books, which I appreciated even as a relatively new Batman fan.

The performances in general are superb. Special mention has to go to Ledger, Bale, Caine and Eckhart, who were all, as you would expect, top quality. Ledger in particular should be singled out for a flawless performance as the Joker, and I’ll be genuinely stunned if this performance doesn’t earn him an Oscar nomination. Maggie Gyllenhaal, who replaces Katie Holmes as love interest Rachel Dawes, was the only member of the cast that left me feeling a little under whelmed, as she put in a fairly average performance.

Now that most of the summers heavy hitters have come and gone, I think I can safely state that The Dark Knight will be the film of the summer. It’s superbly dark and gritty, and while the lightning fast pace of the plot seems to have been written at the expense of a deeper story, it’s still the best film I’ve seen at the cinema for a long time. If you haven’t seen a movie yet this summer, go out and see this one, even if you’re not a Batman fan. You won’t be disappointed with what The Dark Knight has to offer.

5/5

See the trailer here