The Dark Knight

Home
Smell the Movies
Smell the TV

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	2008
Country of origin:	USA / UK
Director:	Christopher Nolan
Genre:	The Legacy Continues
Starring:	Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman
Rating:	5/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/
Tagline:	What doesn't kill you makes you stranger!
Favourite line:	"I'm gonna make this pencil disappear...."

Ranked number 8 on the IMDB best movies of all time list, can’t be that good, can it?

The plot:
The streets of Gotham have never been safer.
District Attorney Harvey Dent, Lieutenant Gordon and Batman himself seem to have control of the city, save for a few copycat vigilantes masquerading as Batman.
The only criminal element left to deal with are The Mob, and even they are well in hand. Then, from nowhere, a mysterious new threat appears, a master of chaos and anarchy, a man who knows no limitations and has no rules or boundaries:
The Joker. Targeting the very people that have made Gotham a safe place to live and work, The Joker’s intent is to destabilise the city once more, to plunge its inhabitants back into the world of fear and misery that was once commonplace and to ensure that the citizens lose all faith in their authorities.
Dent, Gordon and Batman himself must team up to defeat this new menace, and all will face loss and sufferance along the way.

And it is majestic stuff.
Eschewing the explosive excesses of the Schumacher era Batman as well as the Gothic tendencies of Burton’s reign, this instead focuses on the consequences to each person involved as all hell is unleashed.
The performances from all are great, though predictably Heath Ledger has to be singled out, as his personification of The Joker is simply astonishing, all simmering rage and broiling mania, not to mention his saliva in a Best Supporting Actor role.
Bale is excellent when in Bruce Wayne mode but, it must be noted, is unintentionally amusing when in the guise of Batman, his voice out Eastwooding even the mighty Clint for sheer gravel. It is too much, but the sheer quality of the rest more than compensates.
There’s action too, folks, and plenty of it, all handled in such a stylish, effective manner as to feel relevant, not shoe-horned in for the dribbling buffoons unable to keep up with the plot.
If Batman Begins redefined the Batman franchise, then The Dark Knight is the movie that raised the stakes when it came to comic book movie-making, and it is yet to be matched – though The Avengers came pretty damn close.
Peerless stuff, this.