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The Dark Knight has been getting rave reviews from seemingly everyone on the planet, and today, I set out to figure out if its just hype or the real deal. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you might know that Chris Nolan is one of my favorate directors, from Memento, to The Prestige, the guy is amazing. So I was extatic to say the least when I heard he was taking on the Batman series with Batman Begins, which I thought was an unbelievable re-invention of the franchise and did everything the way I always wished a Batman movie would have been like. He succeeded the first time, but does the sequal live up to the hype? Find out inside…

Short answer? Yes, but this wouldn’t be much of a blog if I didn’t get with the long answer, and this movie isn’t perfect, so maybe it’ll be worth the read. The movie is excellent, and certainly one of the best, if not the best, comic book movie of all time. Chris Nolans direction is once again phenominal and seemingly at all times you are getting something visually astounding. Gotham city looks better than ever, and you can credit that to Nolan and his crew. Let’s forget the directing, in all honesty, there isn’t much to nitpick. So lets move on to the characters and plot of the film.

This film might have been called “The Dark Knight” but its very clear throughout, that it could just as easily been called “Joker” because the movie centers around this character just as much as Bruce Wayne/Batman or any other character. I guess thats a big reason why its getting such amazing reviews, we all love a horribly menacing villain who leaves unable to forget the character and the performance, and thats clearly the case here. The Late Heath Ledger is already gaining support for a posthumous Oscar Nomination, and after seeing the movie, its really hard to disagree. His portrayel of the Joker is sadistic, outrageous, and downright spinetingling. He truly delivers on making the character a complete and total psychopath fully capable of anything and everything without any remorse or worry about consequence. There are times when you will grimmace when he’s on screen, but at the same time you are sitting there soaking it all in, and loving every minute the Joker is on screen. It might be the single greatest Character/Character Performance combo I have ever seen. The voice, the laugh, the mannerisms, its all unbelievably spot on and better than any expectation you have going in, which is saying a ton considering the amount of attention and praise this performance is getting. The Joker, will NOT dissapoint, and it will leaving saying “Jack who?” Seriously. Sorry Jack.

Christian Bale returns as Bruce Wayne/Batman, and I honestly couldn’t ask for a better actor to play him. He fills the role perfectly, and is a skilled enough actor to pull the dual role off perfectly. As for this installment, my only gripe is the the character progress for Wayne was nearly non-existent. In Batman Begins, the movie was completely about character development, so I understand why this one would have less, but I thought it could have used a bit more. Honestly this seems like more of the supporting role, than the lead role in the movie. The main duty of Bruce/Batman in this film is to keep the movie plugging forward, but in a movie with the Joker, and especially this version of the Joker, you can’t really complain too much because you are just wanting to see him more and more each time he leaves the screen anyway.

Harvey Dent comes in as the new district attorney, and again, this performance is getting some good reviews, although I’m not sure I agree completely. Don’t get me wrong, throughout most of the film the character is performed nicely, but nearing the end of the movie, (If you don’t recognize the name Harvey Dent, and don’t want to be spoiled, skip to next paragraph) he gets put in a bad predicament and has half his body and faced burned, and thus becomes the character you should know called “Two Face” or “Harvey Two Face.” Anyway, while in the hospital the Joker pays him a visit and rather simply turns his head around and basically he becomes a bad guy. This is where I don’t agree so much about the performance aspect. Although not horribly bad, it just wasn’t a convincing job of making him a villain in the film. First of all, the short scene with him and the Joker is just really too simple and just doesn’t do it for me as far as convincing him to seek revenge. From that point on the performance seems a little forced and not quite as believable. Overall though, its not so bad that it gets in the way of the end of the film, but was enough for me to bring it up.

Another small complaint I’ve read was about the new Rachel Dawes, Maggie Gyllenhaal. I wasn’t a big fan of Katie Holmes performance in the first movie, so for me, it wasn’t a bad replacement. Her performance was forgettable compared to the rest of the cast, but I felt like she did a good job of taking a role played by another actress and improving upon it. To me she just seems a bit more believable in the role, and does a good job of basically staying out of the way and letting the boys play, which is what we all wanted to see.

Overall, The Dark Knight was an Excellent movie, terribly entertaining throughout, has unforgettable performances, and will keep you on the edge of your seat for the entire length of the film. Aside from the few minor complaints, this movie definitely is deserving of all the accolades its getting, and is definately worth the $5-$10 bucks you can spend on the ticket to go see it this weekend. I’m giving it 4 and a half stars out of five, and complete and total recomendation to see it opening weekend. Heath’s performance as the Joker is just about the coolest portrayel possible for the Joker and you’ll definately be entertained and I seriously doubt dissapointed. Go see this flick.