Movie Review – The Dark Knight – Jokertastic!

The Dark Knight

Batman and James Gordon join forces with Gotham’s new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, to take on a psychotic bank robber known as The Joker, whilst other forces plot against them, and Joker’s crimes grow more and more deadly.

Honestly I think Christopher Nolan can do no wrong….he’s only made 8 movies and 3 are in the top 250 on IMDB…and I’m guessing this will make it 4 (Memento, The Prestige and Batman Begins).

He’s back again to take us on another rollercoaster, Batman Begins was hailed as one of the best superhero movies of all time and it really returned to the roots of Gotham City..dark, brooding, nasty and violent. The character of Bruce Wayne was captured by a fantastic Christian Bale – he’s fast becoming one of the best actors around.

And this…The Dark Knight, just rocks in and blows you away. It’s sad, truly sad that Heath Ledger is gone and I would be surprised if he doesn’t nail an Oscar for his performance…he’s truly terrifying, unhinged and totally believable as the joker. It’s hands down one of the best performances in any movie I’ve ever seen. RIP Heath, you surely went out with a bang.

Heath Ledger as The Joker

This movie delves deep into the character of Batman and Bruce Wayne, his own flaws and how the Joker desires to make him look at himself and why he does it – does he have a deep down loathing for society? It’s a character study and a gripping one at that. The cinematography is perfect along with the sound-track – it really takes you there.

The Batpod comes out, and it’s awesome! Christian Bale is great as Bruce Wayne and Batman, although the spotlight isn’t on him so much in this movie.

Christian Bale as Batman on the Batpod

Maggie Gyllenhaal was better than Katie Holmes in Batman Begins….but still not the strongest player in the movie.

The rest of the regulars put in great performances (Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman). Not sure about Aaron Eckhart still..The Scarecrow made a very brief entrance too, but wasn’t really part of the movie.

The movie was long, and in places it felt it – this would be my one and only complaint. If not for that it’s near perfection. This is the most I’ve written about a movie for a long time and I definitely have to get a BluRay version of this to watch on a huge HD projector at some time in the future.

I give it a dark and dastardly 9/10, definitely close to being best movie of the year.

I still feel elite as I saw this movie on Tuesday…and IMDB still doesn’t have a rating because not enough people have watched it!

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20 Responses to Movie Review – The Dark Knight – Jokertastic!

  1. Robb July 17, 2008 at 5:25 pm #

    let’s put a SMILE on that face!!! 🙂

  2. joshuaongys July 17, 2008 at 5:35 pm #

    why so serious?

  3. vveijie July 17, 2008 at 6:32 pm #

    haha ! cant wait to watch it . 😀

  4. KY July 17, 2008 at 6:46 pm #

    You forgot to mention edison chen. 😛

  5. davidlian July 17, 2008 at 7:37 pm #

    Lol! KY, you come up with the most inappropriate remarks.

  6. McGarmott July 17, 2008 at 8:03 pm #

    Actually tens of thousands of people have seen it before today via preview screenings and press junkets. Just that IMDb doesn’t update the ratings until at least the US date of release of the film – which is tomorrow (July 18th).

  7. Huai Bin July 18, 2008 at 12:06 am #

    I just came back from watching The Dark Knight! It was absolutely fabulous! I love the ending, especially the bit with the two ships.

  8. aronil July 18, 2008 at 3:29 am #

    It is the best movie i have seen so far this year. And yeah my thoughts exactly.. it’s an extreme waste.. me and my friend still can’t believe he’s dead.. 🙁

  9. B.H. July 18, 2008 at 3:50 pm #

    I definitely think this qualifies for movie of the year. For once a graphic novel adaptation has shed the stigma attached to it and combines great cinematography, compelling performances and awe inspiring special effects.

    Yhe only thing that comes close to this is Edison Chen’s unseen opus.

    B.H.

  10. kenny July 18, 2008 at 4:07 pm #

    i think this show is more about the joker … havent watch it cause cant get the tickets at the moment … but i heard the actor of the joker is dead .. izzit true ? i think so cause read some comments above .. too bad … we will miss him but he left us with a great movies …

  11. DiasFox July 18, 2008 at 4:59 pm #

    This is the best Joker i ever seen in all batman movies

    Its sad that the actor passed away…. I wonder if there is any person can act as Joker better than him.

    “Do you wanna know how i got these scars?”

  12. Reta July 18, 2008 at 5:46 pm #

    did you realise that they first censored Harvey Dent’s face in the hospital but later on he showed his face anyway? weird. and did u realise that there were no background music sounds accompanying the IMAX action sequences?

  13. ShaolinTiger July 21, 2008 at 6:53 pm #

    Robb: Hehe evil.

    joshuaongys: Cool catchphrase eh?

    vveijie: Film of the year aye!

    KY: Ahahah, he was bokehed.

    davidlian: Well HK press are claiming he played some big part in Batman….fact is you can’t even really see him LOL.

    McGarmott: Heh yah that’s true…but well I’m still amongst the first tens of thousands out of 6 billion – that’s not bad!

    Huai Bin: It’s awesome, hope I get time to catch it again.

    aronil: Yah definitely, it’s sad but at least he went out on one of the most fantastic performances of all time.

    B.H.: Hahaha, many people seen that one already…too hairy.

    kenny: Yah it’s a lot about Joker and yeah Heath Ledger is dead, very sad.

    DiasFox: I think they’d be foolish to try and put someone else in to play Joker…I hope they just leave him out.

    Reta: Yah I found some of the censorship a little odd. Didn’t realise about the music.

  14. Nicholas Leong July 22, 2008 at 5:58 pm #

    They can’t leave Joker out! No matter how difficult it may be to find a replacement. The Joker is one villain that Batman movies cannot do without. Even Batman Begins had to hint at Joker 😛

    The Singaporean media should be having a jolly good time since the Singaporean actor had more screen time than Mr Edison Chen 🙂

  15. racoon July 22, 2008 at 9:23 pm #

    The movie is AWESOME…I’m gonna watch it again this Sat…this time on IMAX!! 😀

    yeah..poor edison, my friend still couldnt figure out which scene did Edison appear in. No matter how i described..she couldn;t rmb….poor edison..

  16. ShaolinTiger July 25, 2008 at 5:04 pm #

    Nicholas Leong: I don’t know what they’ll do then because I don’t think they can top Heath!

    racoon: Yah would like to watch it in IMAX too.

  17. Oliver July 29, 2008 at 2:51 am #

    Reta:

    YES the car chase sequence — no bg music.

    Was wondering what happened??!??!?!?

  18. B July 29, 2008 at 8:22 pm #

    Clearly you have no idea how the Oscars work so please prepared to be “surprised” cause Heath Ledger will NOT (yes I repeat for all you so called movie buffs), he will NOT be getting an oscar. There’s plenty of reasons to support that claim and if one actually knew the process and concept of Oscar one would see it. There is absolutely no doubt on the quality of this movie but to think just because the late Heath’s role and his death will get him a posthumous oscar it is an awful disrespect to many things. Just because a great actor passed away does not qualify him for an “oscar nomination” what more a win. Here are the facts:

    1. “Batman” isnt the kind of movie that the oscar people or committee go into… its just the wrong genre.

    2. The movie title is “The Dark Knight” not “The Joker” which means Heath Ledger not only has to share already limited screen time with Batman, but also Bruce Wayne (yes 2 separate entities), Batman gadgets (Batpod etc), Harvey Dent PLUS the very smooth Morgan Freeman. There is no way in hell he would ever get enough screen time to even be close to a nomination.

    3. One must also “hope” that the rest of the movies release from now till January are rubbish qualities that will make “The Dark Knight” look even better than before. Memory and attention span is something one cannot control and come Oscar nomination day, you can be sure Heath will be “forgotten”. It would be good if he gets a lifetime achievement award though.

    4. In the past, there has been many more “spectacular” posthumous movies but they never even got close.

    Why am I so “serious” about this Oscar “thingy” (pun intended)? Its because its very disrespectful to the many other people who are still alive and creating good movies and excellent portrayal of roles in this world that people are just screaming everywhere “Heath deserves an Oscar”. Much as I thought his performance was top notch, spot on, and just downright superb… it would not be good to give him an Oscar just out of “sympathy”. And the Academy Awards organisers will definately steer clear of that…that I am pretty much sure about.

    ps: IMDB ratings are just awfully… skewed. To say “The Dark Knight” is better and higher rated than some of the classics is a pretty long shot. Perhaps… but just perhaps had Heath stayed alive and got to reprise his role in the next Batman movie where less character development is required (which gives him even more screen time)… perhaps just then will the Oscars consider this “genre” in its nomination. Until then, RIP Heath Ledger and let not the fanatics assume this was your best role ever…

  19. ShaolinTiger July 30, 2008 at 6:15 pm #

    B: Indeed, I do have no idea how the Oscars work and don’t claim to 🙂 Nor am I a movie reviewer or critic. IMDB takes some time to stabilise, but I do believe this movie will stay in the top 20.

 
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