Joe’s Review: The Dark Knight

I’m sure that you guys have read tons of reviews of The Dark Knight. Yes, I should have had mine up earlier, but I guess I’m not supposed to provide opinions on movies before they come out because of the privilege I have of seeing them before they come out. But back to the reviews. Do I agree with the majority of them? Let’s sum up what they mainly say:

• The Dark Knight is awesome.
• Heath Ledger did an incredible job as the Joker.
• This is the best movie of the summer so far.

Uhhh.. YEAH. Those words definitely sum up what I thought of The Dark Knight. Honestly, it was a really incredible movie, very well done. DC comics has a definite hit in this movie, and it made the numbers that Iron Man put up look like nothing. Yes, The Dark Knight has set record after record, and I really feel that it deserves it.

This film picks up where Batman Begins left off. Gotham City, once overrun by crime, is starting to get some sense of order. With the help of Batman, the Mayor, Lieutenant Gordon, and the new D.A. Harvey Dent, the war against crime has an end that everyone can see. The mob’s money is being tracked, Batman is bringing people to Justice, and Dent is putting them away for good. Everything seems to be working out just fine, until a crazy guy who just goes by “The Joker” begins starting his own havoc. He doesn’t even seem to have any goal, he just wants to cause crime.

In steps Batman. He’s never faced an enemy like the Joker before, and has to use all his resources, and bring himself to the edge of his own morals to decide what to do.

I really really don’t want to spoil this for anyone, so I’m sorry if the synopsis I have there is a little lacking. What I can say is.. this movie is definitely worth seeing. There’s going to be a lot of talk about who is the better Joker, which one will really make more money, and which Batman movie is the best, but I’m not going to go there right now. I will definitely encourage you to make the trip out to go see it. The dark vision that Christopher Nolan was going for really worked. What this new franchise is providing is a deeper look into “who is Batman?”

Not everyone will agree with me, but for a character actor, Christian Bale really does Batman well. I’ve enjoyed his performances in the past two films, and I do hope that he continues in the franchise. I’m also going to say that I think Heath Ledger had a wonderful performance, and is deserving of all the talk of a potential post-mortum Academy nomination. You may not agree with me on that point either, but I would like to hear why, because I think he did a fanatastic job. It was scary how good that performance was.

If you’ve seen the movie, what do you think?

Rating:

- Best movie of 2008 so far!