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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
