The Dark Knight Movie Review

Christopher Nolan is responsible for movies such as Memento, Insomnia, and The Prestige. That explains why The Dark Knight is actually a psychological thriller. But it's more than that. It's raised the bar and shown the potential of comic book movies. And also it's the only must see movie of the year.

The story follows millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne who moonlights as caped crusader Batman. When Bruce was young, his parents were murdered by criminals in Gotham City. Bruce grew from a boy to a man, with a spirit of vengeance in his heart due to the psychological trauma of witnessing his parents gunned down. It's because of that, he hates guns and refuses to use them. It's because of that, he's created a fear based persona to fight crime. Hence, the Batman.

There is a movie Batman Begins that elaborates the back story if one needs it. Also see Batman, made in 1989 for an earlier version of the mythos.

The Dark Knight is the sequel. Christian Bale returns to play Bruce Wayne/Batman. Heath Ledger, in the last complete acting performance, plays The Joker. Aaron Eckhart is Harvey Dent/Two Face. All these characters are familiar, due to plenty of previous Batman films with box office success. One of the first questions is can Ledger, or anyone for that matter, top the performance of Jack Nicholson as The Joker. (I'll give you the answer later- keep reading.)

This is the greatest comic book movie. Ever. Yes, that includes Batman from 1989 with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. Or Superman or Superman II. Or the first Spiderman. And it's more mature than Iron Man. Better than previous attempts of grim and gritty (Blade). Even better than faithful translations of Sin City and 300. In fact, it supersedes being a great comic book movie, to being a great movie.

It's July 2008, and this is the best movie of the year. It's an epic movie. On the same scale of The Last Samurai, Braveheart, TheGodfather, and The Empire Strikes Back. If the concept of Batman and Joker were removed from the movie, this would easily be an Oscar contender in every category.