The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight is a blast. Great acting, amazing effects, and a much better plot make this a big improvement over Batman Begins. While not perfect, it comes about as close as a comic book movie can.
Much like its predecessor, The Dark Knight is a rather talky movie. For the most part however, this is not a hindrance to the film's pace. Batman Begins takes a fairly philosophic stance at times and some of the soliloquies can be overwrought. The Dark Knight does a much better job of reigning in the dialog and when the characters, especially The Joker, do start filibustering it is more often fascinating than boring.
Speaking of The Joker, he is easily one of the best characters in movie history. Creepy, funny, and sinister, you can't take your eyes off him whenever he's on the screen. Heath Ledger's performance is perfect and combined with excellent writing makes for a fantastic experience. The rest of the cast holds their own as well in spite of having to work in Ledger's shadow.
If I have one criticism of The Dark Knight it is that it could have been tightened up a little bit. At around 2 hours & 30 minutes the plot is very broad and seems to go on and on at times. I think things could have been simplified a little bit, or perhaps some of the minutiae removed to allow for a bit more depth. This is a minor criticism, but I felt that the movie lost steam toward the end. In The Dark Knight's defense however, the first two-thirds are so strong that it really has nowhere to go but down.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed The Dark Knight. I am a big Christoper Nolan fan and his extensive use of in-camera effects and excellent cinematography create fantastic atmosphere. Easily one of the top three comic book movies I have seen. Can't wait to see it again. 4.5/5
Comments
Posted by: Phill
Posted on: August 11, 2008 06:27 PM
I'm really looking forward to seeing this Batman as its just launched recently here in the UK.
I'm also a fan of Christopher Nolan - Memento and The Prestige are two cracking films and testament to Nolan's amazing Directing talent. If the film lives up to the last one – that’ll do me!