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Its finally here. The long awaited sequel to Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins has arrived in theaters and is expected to bust box office records left and right. But does the film really live up to the hype? The answer is yes, and I’ll attempt to explain why.

From the beginning of the movie during the bank heist, Heath Ledger’s presence as The Joker is magnificent. I cannot say that there was a single moment during the movie where I found his character boring or uninteresting. Heath Ledger takes the character of The Joker to a completely new level, making Jack Nicholson’s Joker look like a cross dressing comedian with really bad plastic surgery. I know I’m just reiterating what a lot of you have already read, but Heath’s Joker is maniacal, disturbing, insane and captivating all at once. I walked out of this movie feeling as if it was The Joker’s movie and we just happened to have Batman trying to bust him. Heath is that good.

But lets not forget everyone else in the film as well. Michael Caine returns as Bruce Wayne’s geriatric butler Alfred, Gary Oldman as the (now) commissioner of Gotham City James Gordon, Morgan Freeman as Lucious Fox, Bruce Wayne’s go-to gadget guy and also Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachael Dawes who was played by now Scientology prisoner Katie Holmes in Batman Begins. There is also a surprise cameo from Batman Begins’ Scarecrow Cillian Murphy, but its brief (thankfully). One would think with all of these different characters playing powerful roles would clutter the movie, or make you feel as if there’s too much. The Dark Knight has none of this, as each character stands out and has a very large impact as a whole on the movie.

The plot of the movie once again centers around Gotham City. The difference this time around is instead of the villains wanting to destroy the city so it may rebuild itself and start over, The Joker aims only to cause as much violence and chaos as he possibly can.  To say he achieves this is an understatement. You will find yourself feeling the same anxiety and apprehension everyone else in Gotham plus the police and other characters are feeling.

And to me, and a small group of friends I discussed this movie about with, all feel as if Harvey Dent, or “Two Face” as played by Aaron Eckhart, was the real surprise in this film. Harvey Dent is Gotham’s district attorney who has been cleaning up the streets of Gotham since the first Batman Begins movie, and is heralded as the “White Knight” of Gotham, the real hero that Gotham needs to clean up the violence and crime, whereas Batman is still revered as a vigilante criminal who must turn himself in. But through his schemes and workings, The Joker manages to break down the armor and perseverance of Harvey Dent and drag him down into his own version of hell. This is where Harvey Dent ceases to be himself and turns into Two Face. I will not show you what he ends up looking like, as that is a nice juicy surprise in itself.

So with all that being said, if you haven’t already seen the brilliance that is The Dark Knight, go see it right now. And for those people who insist on bashing the movie and calling it empty, bleak, or any other words you are using to describe what this movie is not, go jump off of a cliff already. You all know that the only reason you’re hating on the movie is because everyone else likes it. There’s always got to be that one douchebag right?

FrankieB gives The Dark Knight a 10/10.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 12:33 pm and is filed under Movies, Reviews. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.