The Dark Knight Reviews

Christopher Nolan is king of directors! Everything he does is awesome! 'The Dark Knight' is the best superhero movie since 'The Incredibles' and in actuality, the new superhero movie champion!

'The Dark Knight' sort of retells the second half of Tim Burton's 'Batman' which involves Batman (Christian Bale) saving Gotham from a new villain The Joker (Heath Ledger) who (before wearing makeup) killed Bruce's parents as a boy. Heath Ledger's Oscar winning performance is just amazing! It's just sad that he died before the movie came out and he never knew how well his performance was received!

If you remember in 'Batman Begins', Rachel was played by Katie Holmes and now she's played by Maggie Gyllenhaal! Sadly Rachel dies in this one never to be seen in Christopher Nolan's 'Dark Knight' series again!

'The Dark Knight' gave Christopher Nolan's trilogy its name! It's because it the best one! (I doubt I will find 'The Dark Knight Rises' better)

I have plans to see all of Christopher Nolan's movies to see if they're all good ('Man of Steel' has received mixed to positive reviews) and I'm not involving 'Transcendence' just because Nolan had nothing to do with it except produce it! If 'Transcendence' gets nominated for a Razzie for Worst Picture, it'll be Christopher Nolan's first Razzie nomination! Hope not!

I can't wait for 'Interstellar' to come out! I hope I will enjoy it! But that's Christopher Nolan! He makes good to great movies!

The best Batman film in The Dark Knight trilogy, and my personal favorite comic book film. Christopher Nolan's vision of Batman set in reality is brilliantly told with every frame.

Heath Ledger was amazing. Everything else smelt of Hollywood shit through and through. I cannot believe that intelligent people have been hoodwinked into believing this is an intelligent Christopher Nolan film, it's not. It's a long, uncomprehensable mess. Nolan is a hit or miss kind of director. This time he missed.

Now I don't think anybody cares for what I think of this movie, maybe because I'm hated enough on here anyway .. and the fact that the reviewers that everyone loves have already reviewed this movie, *rolls eyes*. But, I would like to share my thoughts on this movie and everything about it.

Alot on here people say this movie is overrated; which I have to say, I think it sort of is, to be quite honest with you I don't think any Batman movie can be made into anything more than an enjoyable superhero movie or whatever, as this movie has been dubbed a "masterpiece", "one of the best movies ever made" and/or "the best film ever, literally". It's been called that alot. I don't think this is at all, I think it's highly enjoyable for Batman fans or DC fans etc. but as this has grabbed so much media attention more and more others have went to watch this movie; people who aren't even batman/DC fans, and yet they expect more than that..? For crying out loud it's a BATMAN movie, you are not going to get anything else. I am a fan of DC and Batman, I watch the animated tv series (the original), so I was bound to like it anyway, expect if it really was just plain crap, Y'know. Now on the actual thing it's self, I had only TWO problems with this movie, and that was; Batman's voice was very very annoying, really annoying. Two; The story was changed a hell of alot from the original, really was. And that's it for me. But you have to think, when you went to the cinema or put the disc in or whatever, are you actually a Batman fan?.

I believe that it's mark on IMDb is absolutely absurd. Yes, it was a fairly enjoyable movie for fans of Batman. But I do not think it should have that rating and this amount of praise. I think people should say; If you are actually a Batman fan, then you will love it.

Unfortunately this movie attracted attention from others, non-batman fans, and they were expecting more!? How stupid, it's a batman movie so you will get Batman, end of. But, I have to say, its mark on IMDb is silly. I think people should just say; it's a perfect film for batman lovers and nobody else.

Overall, it's a pretty good Superhero film for superhero fans, but I don't quite see what non-superhero fans will get out of this. Nolan may be a good director, but I believe he's twisted Batman perhaps a little too much, and still my favourite Batman film is the 1989 film starring Jack Nicholson as The Joker - he was simply the best Joker in my opinion and Tim Burton easily made the Best Batman films, and Michael Keaton is the Best Batman there has ever been. Oh, and Bales voice for Batman, was extremely irritating and just awful. Ledger did pretty well too, it's a shame he's only famous for this role only, he could have gone far with his career tied with his talent, shame.

In 2005, we were given a much-needed reboot Batman Begins, that resurrected the series and became the dawning of a new era for the DC Comics hero. Three years later, we were awaiting the release of its sequel - The Dark Knight. The anticipation was high but the sudden and unexpected death of star Heath Ledger 6 months prior the film’s release, very quickly caught the public’s attention and perhaps became the most hyped film at the time. The Dark Knight may have served itself well as the sequel to Batman Begins, but compared to everything that we had experienced from the caped crusader, The Dark Knight literally went to a much higher level and became an instant global phenomenon that blew the minds of worldwide audiences and created a huge influence upon them.


Director Christopher Nolan had already given us dark but underrated hits including Memento, The Prestige, Insomnia and, of course, Batman Begins, but his work as well as his status in Hollywood rapidly increased down the same route as The Dark Knight itself whilst gaining the popularity and critical acclaim. Nolan very creatively exposed another side to Batman that Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher were never to pull off. He transformed this from what could have been comic-book action film into the violent, sinister and scheming world of gangsters and crime. Furthermore, the construction of the film was not in the world of Batman and comic book characters, but into our world and the filming of The Dark Knight, especially in the action scenes, were not overloaded with CGI effects popping onto the screen. Therefore, with all these brand new techniques, Nolan and co added much more raw human emotion into the series and, thus, more of a natural and realistic tone to it.


Whether the films within the series have become successful or disasters, the Batman franchise has always been recognised for the breath-taking ensemble casts and selection of characters. Christian Bale had already surprised us all with his fantastic performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman Begins, but he returned to the role in The Dark Knight. Once again, he was fantastic in the role and has illustrated a very different Batman on the big screen, but when as the caped crusader, he still had a needlessly annoying croaky and raspy voice. Whether he improvised on it in The Dark Knight Rises, we shall see. Oscar-winning legend Michael Caine made his presence known once again as Bruce Wayne’s butler, mentor and perhaps father-figure Alfred Pennyworth. Furthermore, Gary Oldman returned as Lieutenant (later Commissioner) Jim Gordon as did Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, in which both became more involved in this sequel than its predecessor. Maggie Gyllenhaal replaced Katie Holmes as Bruce’s childhood friend and love interest Rachel Dawes. Gyllenhaal perhaps did not quite capture the essence of beauty like Holmes, but she had captured the purpose of the character and created an emotional connection between herself and the audience.


Let’s face it, the tragic passing of Heath Ledger 6 months prior the release of The Dark Knight became the primary cause of the overwhelming popularity of the film and the remainder of Christopher Nolan’s Batman series. At 28 years old during this time, Ledger became the youngest actor to portray the Joker and in an Academy Award winning performance, the Hollywood heart-throb and Brokeback Mountain star surpassed Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of the character in the 1989 film by Tim Burton as he took the character to a whole new level. The Joker’s purpose is to bring terror and he takes great pleasure in emotionally and physically manipulating or killing his victims. Ledger became that terrifying, realistic and at times, mysterious psychopath that the world had been waiting forever to see. Nevertheless, the Joker is a very likable and inspirational character that is one of the greatest villains of all time and Ledger’s performance is one of the most controversial and mind-blowing performances in history. Aaron Eckhart portrayed District Attorney Harvey Dent/Two-Face in a very powerful but extremely underrated performance. Eckhart literally defined both character as he illustrated the handsome, intelligent and smart Harvey but the emotionally and physically scarred, psychopathic attitude of Two-Face. Eckhart’s performance is on a very close level to Ledger’s.


Overall, The Dark Knight was precisely everything that everybody expected it to be, but even more. Nolan showed that it is possible to transform a series of fictional comic books into the real-world and still create a huge reality effect upon the audience. Whether one finds The Dark Knight a wildly overrated film or not, it is perhaps the most successful sequel ever filmed and one of the biggest blockbusters in history. It has also boosted up excitement for The Dark Knight Rises, the finale of Nolan’s Batman trilogy, to an even higher extent.

I have never been a fan of the superhero genre, possibly because of the pre-'Batman Begins' drought of good superhero films, only broken by the 'Spiderman' trilogy.
'Batman Begins' was already a good film, but its sequel burst into the box office to critical and commercial success, and its not hard to see why. It is a superior film in many ways to its predecessor in that it is more thrilling, clever, suspenseful and action packed than 'Batman Begins'. The strength of this film, not surprisingly, comes from the villain, played by Heath Ledger in his Oscar winning role. Ledger was sinsiter and completely unrestrained as the psychotic 'Joker', and is terrifying, but oh so enjoyable to watch. It is true that he steals the show from Christian Bale as 'Batman' himself, but this really isn't a negative.
The film has a fantastic script and a wonderful musical score, and many other positives, including an excellent technical production as well. It has restored my faith in the superhero genre, along with the other 2008 hit, 'Iron Man', and is not just a great superhero film, but one of 2008's best films overall.

Imagine a huge ship. OK, we will take The Flying Dutchman in this case. Now imagine some mutineers. Take 3 of them in particular and name them Tim Burton, Sam Raimi and Christopher Nolan. First Burton made Batman, the king of superhero movies but he was made to walk the plank after when Raimi came up with Spider-Man 2. A new leader emerged but he was silenced quickly but Nolan's near-to-perfect The Dark Knight. Not only was Raimi made to walk the plank but he had him shredded and fed to the sharks. Looks like this leader, this Nolan, won't be shaken for a very, very, very long time.

Every genre has that game-changer, that spell-binder, that ultimate justice and this is that film. Gone are the quirkiness of the Burton movies, the gayness of the Schumacher disasters and the weepy-melo-drama's of Raimi's. This is how a superhero movie should be done; Unforgiving, gritty and totally in-your-face with a heavy dose of reality. Those who were used to to the colourful presentation and one-liners of the previous superhero movies were bought down back to Earth, none to lightly, by the matureness and seriousness of The Dark Knight. Not only is it effective but makes you think that it can happen, given the right amount of craziness and the world is currently witnessing that craziness at the moment... If you actually read the news rather than flip the pages until you've found the funny pages, you will know what I'm talking about!

This film also started an albeit-serious issue between YouTubers: Is Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker better than Jack Nicholson's back in 1989? The answer is: both are better. I may not know much about comics and the character but what I know from the surface is that The Joker is a sort of a-character who can become a mischievous, wise-cracking psycho one day and a murderous, unpredictable freak the next. Nicholson played the former and Ledger played the latter. Both were extremely impressing in their roles. Now see, Burton's main intention was to make it dark but funny and so he wrote the script for the character that way. And it worked. Whereas Nolan wanted unpredictability and steadiness and a better understanding to the character and therefore he wrote the script which better suited the realistic nature of the film. Had this been a remake then I would've participated in this debate but since it's not, I agree that both were excellent. Despite the fact that The Joker was a strong addition and it pleased thousands of fans world-wide, I didn't think it had the dominating power and the screen-charisma of Liam Neeson, who plays R'as Al Ghul, the primary villain of the previous film, Batman Begins. Maybe I'm being a little harsh because Liam Neeson is a very talented actor and by the time Heath Ledger made his mark on movies, Neeson had already appeared in great movies, giving great performances but still... it all lies in different view-points.

All in all, a very impressive movie with an excellent cast and a great trend-setter. If you're expecting sobbing and chit-chat, then you've got another thing coming...

9.0/10

Batman Begins made a believer out of me. The blinders were lifted from my eyes, and I not only understood why a billionaire would transform himself into a bat-inspired superhero, but felt compassion toward both the man inside the costume and the Batman. What other Batman films had failed to do, Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale achieved in 140 minutes. But after delivering one of, if not the best, comic book-inspired movies of all time, could the team top it with The Dark Knight? The answer is a resounding yes.
The Dark Knight is a brilliant follow-up to Batman Begins and the definitive Batman movie to date, which makes you wonder what Nolan will accomplish if he decides to do a 3rd Batman film. The Dark Knight takes place in a world where the line between good and evil is drawn in pencil. The screenwriting duo of brothers Christopher and Jonathan Nolan turned to the dark side for their 2nd Batman movie (although Batman Begins wasn't exactly light fare), with The Joker's lunatic smile and gleefully malicious manner setting the tone for a wild romp through a world gone mad. Batman's universe is teetering on the edge and the conflicted superhero is trying to unravel the puzzle of how best to protect Gotham City while believing he's not the savior his city deserves.

The Story

Gotham City's falling to pieces and Batman is both the problem and the solution. The caped crusader has taken down a king-sized helping of bad guys, although he's not working on his own. Ordinary citizens have taken up his cause, donning their own Batman costumes and patrolling the streets. And now the mobsters left in town have joined forces in order to keep the real Batman at bay.

Fortunately for Gotham City, the newly elected district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) is a real hard-ass on crime. Even Batman approves of this steely-jawed White Knight, and getting the superhero's stamp of approval wasn't easy since Harvey is spending lots of time with Batman's ex, Rachel (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Rachel couldn't handle Bruce's covert nighttime activities and now keeps company with a man unafraid of the spotlight.


Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel and Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent.

© Warner Bros Pictures
However, the local mob and Rachel's preference for a non-costumed boyfriend aren't Batman's biggest problems. A new villain has emerged on the scene and he's not playing by any rules. Sporting smeary clown makeup that emphasizes a smile carved into his flesh like a pumpkin on Halloween, the maniacal character known as The Joker (Heath Ledger) is ready to take over as the leader of Gotham's underworld. The Joker's single-minded in his desire to inflict pain and unmask Batman. The formidable though strictly unofficial team of Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), Harvey Dent and Batman must take down this sick clown before Gotham City turns into Slaughter City.
The Cast

2005's Batman Begins introduced Christian Bale in the dual roles of Bruce Wayne and Batman, and The Dark Knight serves to cement the fact he is the perfect casting choice to shoulder the lead in the Batman film franchise. At this point Bale has to be included toward the top of the list of actors who've taken on the task of playing a superhero in a feature film.

We don't see as much of Bruce the man as we do his costumed alter-ego, which means Bale has an even more difficult task of bringing out the human behind the superhero this time around. Even though the redesigned batsuit allows him a little more freedom of movement, Bale's expressive face is covered beneath a bat mask. Yet he's able to convey everything he needs to with just the lower portion of his face, piercing eyes, and menacing voice. Bale is Batman. Period.

No disrespect meant to Jack Nicholson but this is the performance of The Joker everyone will remember. Nicholson's Joker in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman fit perfectly with the tone of that movie. In The Dark Knight, it's Ledger's Joker the rest of the cast needs to keep step with. This Joker is nasty-scary, a greasy, grotesque creature lifted straight from the nightmares of coulrophobics. Even those not given to fearing clowns are going to recoil in fright from Ledger's mesmerizing performance.
Ledger came up with a series of tics - licking his lips, sucking on his cheeks, carrying his entire body in an off-kilter way - to define the character of The Joker. He also created a voice and manner of speaking that's inimitable and perfect for a homicidal maniac who gets off terrorizing his victims. Ledger will long be remembered for bringing to life one of the best villains ever in a comic book-inspired movie. With his last completed performance before his untimely death, Ledger left behind a Joker who's one of the most disturbing villains on film.

Aaron Eckhart's movie star good looks fit snugly with his character DA Harvey Dent. Eckhart nails the part of a knight in shining armor come to slay the dragon and save his city and his fair princess. Although his performance isn't garnering the attention of Ledger's, it is nearly as impressive. Dent's a major player in The Dark Knight, and if Eckhart weren't believable, then The Dark Knight would suffer greatly. Eckhart knows how to wrestle his way through playing morally conflicted characters and does so again with gusto as Harvey Dent.


Heath Ledger as The Joker in 'The Dark Knight.'

© Warner Bros Pictures
Supporting players Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are a joy to watch in their limited time onscreen. The same goes for Maggie Gyllenhaal who takes over the part of Bruce Wayne's ex from Katie Holmes. Gyllenhaal's a wise choice to step into the role which seemed a little above Holmes' level of maturity in Batman Begins. Gyllenhaal plays her tough yet vulnerable, and her one scene with Ledger as The Joker shows exactly why director Nolan sought her out to be Rachel.
The Bottom Line

The Dark Knight's action sequences are controlled chaos with cars and motorcycles and Mack trucks careening down city streets, and the film's quieter moments are equally as engaging. There's just so much to say about The Dark Knight, so much I want to analyze and discuss, but expanding on a review of the plot would lay out potential spoilers and it's best to go into the film without any knowledge of the storyline other than the bare minimum. Nolan and company have surpassed what they accomplished the first time out, and The Dark Knight is everything you'd want from a superhero movie and much, much more.

Borrowing a line from Jerry Maguire, The Joker tells Batman, "You complete me!" Let's hope writer/director Nolan doesn't share the same sentiment about The Dark Knight in terms of the Batman franchise. Nolan needs to return at least once more to revisit the characters he's reinvigorated on film. Batman #3 is set up to feature an even darker and more disturbing world, and Nolan must be the director to take the franchise there.

The Dark Knight, in my opinion, was the most remarkable action movie I have ever seen. The storyline, action scenes, make-up, and actors make the movie feel like it’s not a movie at all. It’s real life. The storyline is creative and memorable. The beginning has a great hook, and makes you suspicious. At first I found this movie to be kind of scary and dark, only because I'm deathly afraid of clowns. But, as the movie progressed, I began to fall in love with it. The action scenes in this movie are so fantastic, there’s no word to describe it. The Joker constantly comes up with new ""games"" and adventures. My favorite scene was when the Joker was driving the truck, and Batman flipped it over. I have never seen anything like that; it thrilled me to finally see something new. I love how scary parts and snuck into the movie; I never saw any of it coming. The make-up in this movie was outstanding. The Joker looked very creepy. I couldn't even tell that Heath Ledger was underneath all that. Everything looked natural. The actors were the best part. They really got into character. The Joker is humorous and Batman is the dark hero he's meant out to be. Harvey Dent plays a great two face. He falls into the villain he's supposed to be once everything he had was lost. His story was one of a kind. The Dark Knight was the perfect action thriller movie I have ever seen. Watch it and you'll fall in love with every second of it. This movie is like magic, the way it draws you into it. So if you really want to see a magic trick, watch the movie. You won't be disappointed!

Plot
Batman (Bale) hopes to hang up his cape and hand over crime-fighting duties to District Attorney Harvey Dent (Eckhart). But the arrival of clown-faced master criminal The Joker (Ledger) forces the masked vigilante to question everything he stands for.

Review

The hero is a billionaire industrialist who likes to beat people up. The only good cop in the city employs dishonest ones. The psychotic terrorist torturing civilians and chopping up criminals… Well, he’s just about the most charismatic character you’ll ever meet. Welcome to Gotham, where no good deed goes unpunished. And welcome to The Dark Knight, an anarchic, malevolent fury of a movie that takes a switchblade to the face of summer conformity and carves a work of twisted beauty out of it.

Anticipation and escalation were the key words in the build up to, post-Indy, 2008’s most hyped and combustible blockbuster. Director/co-writer Christopher Nolan has talked of making a bigger, bolder picture, unfettered by the origin-construction constraints of the still-excellent Batman Begins. The marketing has been masterful: a lesson in tease and please from 42 Entertainment (earning what must surely be the only mention of a movie’s PR firm in an Empire review; whatever, they deserve it). Then, just as the Sturm und Drang around The Dark Knight built to a frenzy came the January death of Heath Ledger. Peeks at his performance as the Clown Prince Of Crime had already prompted whispers of Oscar, of the birth of an icon. Cynics suggested his passing would boost the box office; pessimists griped that a comic-book movie could never serve as a suitable epitaph to the Brokeback Mountain star.

And — yes — as was, perhaps, always inevitable, The Dark Knight is Ledger’s movie. It is a towering performance. From his menacing, pencil-packing greeting to Gotham’s Mob fraternity (one of the most economic and effective character introductions ever), to the threat and fire he conjures in exchanges with Maggie Gyllenhaal’s sexy, sophisticated brief and “The Bat-maaan”, to the Sophie’s choice surprises of the third act, he is pure, powerful, immense. A force of fucking nature. Informed by Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke and Jeph Loeb’s The Long Halloween, Ledger’s Joker is anarchy in a three-piece, a ruthless villain who cares for nothing, not even himself. His function, crafted in the hive mind of the Nolans and as Ledger plays him, is to cause chaos, to question everything, to push everyone to extremes, to show Batman there are no rules to this game.

This doesn’t mean Christian Bale is sidelined as either Bruce Wayne or his suited, re-booted vigilante. There’s no repeat of Keaton’s eclipse by Nicholson’s “I’d like eggs with that” Joker turn in Burton’s Batman. Bale is too muscular and committed for that, the Nolans’ script too evenly interested in every character in its universe. So, Batman is more conflicted than ever, still clinging to his parents’ memory but minus the scowly brooding that can make DC’s darkest hero feel like a moody teen. Now his concerns are much more immediate: how to neuter a threat that could destroy a city, how to empower a new DA without blowing his cover, how to work outside the system without bringing it down. He’s Dirty Harry with a conscience: a conscience The Joker plays like a violin.

Pre-release presumptions about The Dark Knight being the comic-book Heat are valid, if not all-encompassing. Visually the comparison is spot on, and regular Nolan cinematographer Wally Pfister deserves props: ironically The Dark Knight brings Batman out of the shadows, through a burnished, Michael Mann Chicago into a daylight noir. But while The Joker and Batman are both costumed “freaks”, they don’t completely share the McCauley/Hanna dynamic. De Niro’s criminal, for one, had principles; The Joker has none. And Mann’s film was as much about being a professional as being a cop or a criminal, meaning the characters that are most thematically similar are Gary Oldman’s hard-working lieutenant and Aaron Eckhart’s idealistic lawyer (yes, they do manage to pull off that oxymoron), who are trying to change their world without recourse to gadgets or PVC underpants.

And so on and on (it runs an epic 152 minutes), Nolan navigates through a moral maze and some pointed politicking, but without ever stinting on stunts or explosions. It is thoughtful but never dull, and the OTT action and expansion — underscored in IMAX sequences which will no doubt look spectacular on the enormo-screen (Empire reviewed from a 35mm print) — are generally to its benefit, even though Nolan still appears more comfortable and engaged with interacting people than trucks and Batbikes. After a blistering opening, there’s a second act lull and a story shift not quite as elegant (or, some might argue, even coherent) as you’d expect from the director of The Prestige. But The Dark Knight is spectacular, visionary blockbuster entertainment: pretty much everything you could hope for and then some. It isn’t perfect but then, like its hero, like his late co-star, and as Nolan’s fitting tribute so ably observes, nobody is.
Verdict
Ledger’s performance is monumental, but The Dark Knight lives up to it. Nolan cements his position as Hollywood’s premier purveyor of blockbuster smarts – and the Batbike is kinda cool, too.


Reviewer: Mark Dinning

The Dark Knight is an excellent film. While watching it you totally forget that this is based off of a comic book and you get completely absorbed into it. The characters of Bruce Wayne, The Joker and Harvey Dent are captivating and the story is one that will keep you entertained and anticipating what will happen next. The re-watch value of the film is high, mainly because the viewer gets to really analyze the depth of the characters and the decisions that they each make. Highly recommend this film.