The Dark Knight (2007)

Long awaited

Muggins from Shoeburyness [Highly rated reviewer] , 31/05/2008

Trailer looks awesome, and critics say film good, cant wait

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the wait is nearly over

keithflavell from Neath [Highly rated reviewer] , 26/06/2008

i have seen all nine trailers of this movie and like the critics are saying it looks like it is going to be the film of 2008

heath ledger is amazing as the new joker.he looks and sounds evil as hell.

on that note i have just one thing to say to you all.....WHY SO SERIOUS.

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At last, an action film not just for American teens

Katherine from London [Highly rated reviewer] , 22/07/2008

Iron Man, Indiana Jones, Spiderman... ok films but all left the same sensation that something was missing.

This film absolutely delivers. It's very very impressive indeed. Some of the action sequences are excellent, really next generation stuff. Bale shows that he's got the skills to handle this role like a trained martial artist as opposed to an actor... (You might want to see Equilibrium, where Bale kills over 300 people, Stallone didn't make it to 100 in the new Rambo)

But never forget that he's also a properly trained actor unlike say, a Cruise (The Machinist for example where he is superb). Alongside Ledger, whose performance you will hear a lot about for some time to come, this film reaches the next level for action films.

It is a shame that Harvey Dent's character is filled by Aaron Eckhart, who isn't really believeable and tends to distract from the Good (or am I ) V Bad (or am I) storyline.

Maggie Gyllenhal, as always, is great and an improvement on Katie Holmes.

If you have any interest in any type of action film, you will watch this film no matter what i say,... i would suggest though... that you watch it at the cinema and make something special of it because these films don't come around very often... an action movie with a soul, with a purpose... with a point.

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tdk

A customer from Belfast/derry , 07/07/2008

i have seen tha first 7mins f this film.and it wil blow ur mind.classic.its up ther with tha matrix.fight club.superman.momento.etc etc.plus ther r sum serious insider hollywood talk f ledger 2 getan oscar 4 best supporting actor!!!

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Gotham city gets a better class of criminal

Northernsky from Halifax [Highly rated reviewer] , 10/08/2008

The Dark Knight is the first Batman film that doesn’t actually mention Batman in the title which is kind of apposite as this film is unlike any Batman film you have seen before. Indeed it’s completely unlike any superhero film made before. Taking this further The Dark Knight is more like a complex urban crime drama with better gadgets , bigger themes and enhanced characters .It’s like “Heat” ( Director Christopher Nolan cited “Heat” as a major influence on this movie) meets “Silence Of The Lambs” via “Serpico” but it’s actually way more complex than that. Director Nolan along with co-writers brother Jonathon and veteran David S Goyer has delivered an epic, riveting , tense and exciting examination of extreme psyche’s in the form of a big blockbuster .

It’s some months on from the end of “Batman Begins” and Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is holed up in a penthouse apartment while an underground bunker serves as the Bat cave while Wayne mansion is being re-built. He is having to deal with a slew of copycat vigilante’s . “What’s the difference between you and me?” one asks him. “I’m not wearing hockey pads” he deadpans back.

Organised crime is bring attacked on two fronts. New D.A. Harvey Dent( Aaron Eckhart) is not only the new “White knight” of Gotham City , he is also the new man in the life of prosecutor Bruce Wayne’s true love Rachel Dawes( Maggie Gyllenhaal replacing the bland Katie Holmes) He is assembling a water tight case against the mob , especially mob-boss Salvatore Maroni( Eric Roberts) Then there is the loose canon The Joker( Heath Ledger) who robs the mob of a large amount of money in a daring bank raid where he wipes out all his accomplices. “What does,nt kill you makers you stranger” he says. But it seems this was only a ruse to get the mobs attention. He wants them to go after “The Batman” . This guy is seriously psychotic , after all he wanders into a meeting of all the various mob factions big -wigs after ripping them off. But he has got their attention. Killing one of the goons with a pencil helps in this regard.

So begins The Jokers sustained dramatic assault on Gotham . Batman along with his accomplices , Lt Jim Gordon (Gary Oldham) Lucius Fox ( Morgan Freeman) and faithful butler Alfred ( Michael Caine) must do their best to stop the clown faced lunatic . But he has one advantage , well two actually .He is a complete fruit loop and he doesn’t have people he cares about to protect. “Why so serious? “ he asks several times. It seems he is more interested in causing chaos than making money. “Gotham deserves a better class of criminal “ he tells another mob boss after igniting a huge pile of cash .

As if all of this wasn’t intricate enough there are sob-plots involving Harvey Dents transformation into “Two Face” which becomes the central precept of the film( as the Joker points out it’s Dent who is the moral opposite of him , not Batman ) , the Wayne -Dawes thing and a Wayne employee discovering who Batman is by doing the accounts . Amazingly none of this bogs the film down. It all blends together seamlessly and while the film has been criticised for it’s excessive length - I personally felt a couple of scenes could have been edited - it’s not so elongated that it palls. The last act is central to the films thematic hub and the sacrifice that Batman makes.

It ,s also interesting that the director has chosen to shoot the film in a real city (Chicago) rather than create some elaborate gothic influenced set , as he did for Batman Begins . It’s as if Nolan wanted to ground the film in a more prosaic reality in order for the audience to really empathise with it’s themes. Either that or it was cheaper,

Much has been made of the performance of Heath Ledger as The Joker and it must be said that all the hyperbole about it is fully deserved. He is spookily good, nailing the subtle nuances and tics of his insane character . He is dangerous, charismatic and utterly believable Ledgers commitment to the performance ( He secreted himself away in a hotel room for a month to get a grip on the characters psychology ) is stunning. Even given the publicity it’s a revelation.

It’s a film of great performances though . Ledger is the standout ( By the way it puts into perspective Jack Nicholson’s wildly over praised portrayal of The Joker ) but every performance is terrific . This is stunning visceral but cerebral movie. It seems Gothams better class of criminal has given the audience a better class of movie.

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The Greatest Film Ever

Jamiesan92 from Newcastle upon Tyne , 11/08/2008

This Film is perfect. The way I judge films is on how they stand against The Godfather. Never have I actually seen a film that is better until now. And that film is the Dark Knight. After seeing this, I decided I would go back and watch the four batman films before begins, and while reading the blurb from the disasterous Batman and Robin, I noticed a line that fully sums up the difference between Joel Schumacher's Batman films and Christopher Nolan's Batman films; 'George Clooney is the caped crusader in the new fun adventures of Batman and Robin.' And that is what made Batman and Robin a terrible film, but with Batman Begins, Nolan made a dark, sinister film that was better than the four previous outings in every single department. And with The Dark Knight, he managed to surpass Begins by a mile. It is absolutely the most brilliant and well-made film I have ever seen, and the acting is faultless. Christian Bale and Aaron Eckhart are two of the best actors in the world at the moment, but the really brilliant performance is by Heath Ledger. When watching his performance of the Joker, it is impossible to see that it is actually Heath Ledger under make up. His voice is consistent and strange, very different to that of Jack Nicholson's Joker. The plot is excellent; not too far fetched, despite being a Batman Film. I went to the cinema to see this film 4 times at the time of writing, and I know I will see it more.I would reccomend anyone to see it.

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