Reference: |
Reviews: Roger Ebert | IMDb External Reviews | Rotten Tomatoes 95% | Metacritic 82%

Wow! The Dark Knight was so good I would have wanted to give it 5.5 Dale-heads out of 5. But, its whopping 2.5 hour length, and the fact that I don’t have a graphic for 5.5 Dale-heads, pulls it back to a meagre perfect 5 out of 5.

I quite enjoyed Batman Begins (2005). The Dark Knight was even better. In this instalment, Christian Bale‘s Batman, Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman ) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) had been making significant strides in reducing the crime-ridden Gotham City we encountered in Batman Begins until a new arch-villain, The Joker (Heath Ledger), rose up to challenge them. And challenge-them he does.

Heath Ledger as the Joker was spectacular and is a shoe-in for Best Supporting Actor. He steels the show from Christian Bale, though Bale’s performance was very good too. Ledger’s creepy, nuanced performance of a sociopath is acting at its best.

New mom Katie Holmes was replaced with Maggie Gyllenhaal as Batman’s love obsession, err, interest (Holmes cited scheduling conflicts as the official reason). The movie benefited from it. Gyllenhall (a superb actress) has more of the gravitas needed to credibly play a district attorney than Holmes does. Aaron Eckhart , best known for his enjoyable performance in Thank You for Smoking (2005), was also very good as the incorruptible, symbol of Gotham justice.

Once again Gary Oldman as Det Lt. James Gordon impressed me so much that I am actively seeking out his older movies to get a better look. Hitherto now, I had not been impressed enough to take much notice of his work. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman reprised their roles as Alfred and Lucius Fox. Each of their performances were fine.

The special effects, directing, cinematography and production values generally were the best of best and will certainly be recognized as such with numerous Oscar nominations and awards.

I need to see this movie again to fully understand the story. Perhaps its my age or my addiction to TiVo and AppleTV. I need to pause and take time to think about complex, twisting plots like this one. You can’t do that in cinema. I can’t wait to see it again when it comes out in HD on AppleTV or on Blu-ray.

This movie is a must-see movie that could very win Best Picture of 2008. It will certainly be nominated.