The Dark Knight (2008)

Overall: A+
Cast: B+
Plot: A+
Special Effects/Stunts: A+
Similarity to Comic: A
Director: Christopher Nolan
Comic Company: DC
Stars: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart
Rating: PG-13
See the IMDB page
See the Rotten Tomatoes page

The Burton Batman films set a great precedent and a foundation for all future Batman movies, the Schumacher films had their own unique charm too, 'Batman Begins' was good but definitely had a different feel to it that set it apart from the others, but this, 'The Dark Knight', is a totally new breed of Batman film.

The Good: Oh gee just let me think of one or two things that I like about this movie, how hard can that be?  Apparently super hard.  I liked the cast, I liked the costumes, I liked the stunts. I liked the action, I liked the plot.  But you know what I liked the most?  Heath Ledger.  We've all heard about how good he did and how sad it is that he died, but I liked him in this movie for a different reason; nobody thought he could do it and he proved them all wrong.  Do yourself a favor and look up articles that were released about the casting of this movie before it came out.  All people could talk about was how they cast Ledger all wrong and how this person could do better or how that person should have got the role and what does Ledger do?  He gives the performance of his life.  It's so good that you can hardly recognize him, and he shut those people up dang quick.

The hidden gem in this movie is the often overlooked Aaron Eckhart.  He played the modern Two-Face role pretty darn good.  We saw him go from golden boy to pubic enemy number one and not because he just decided to be evil one day or got in some weird accident and wanted vengeance like almost every other villain, but he turned evil for very human reasons.  He loved Rachel, he loved her so much that it killed a part of him too when she died.  He didn't care about how he looked, he simply wanted revenge for her, not him.  Eckhart portrayed that beautifully.

The Bad: I really am starting to dislike Christian Bale as Batman AND Bruce Wayne.  His voice is over the top, he doesn't look great in the Batsuit (although the new suit is an improvement from 'Batman Begins'), and as Bruce Wayne I get the impression that he's trying too hard to hide something, like any other character in the movie would be able to see right through him.

I also wasn't a really big fan of Maggie Gyllenhaal.  I can't tell if I just don't like her as an actress, if I don't like the character in general, or if I don't like the fact that they changed actresses between movies for the same character.  It's probably a mixture of all three, but I whatever the case, she bugged me.

The Interesting: No new famous Bat vehicles?  The batmobile turns into a bike, neat, but that's all we get, a batbike?  Batman is famous for his vehicles, and the new version of the Batmobile was a little too different for me anyway.  I mean come on even 'Batman Forever' had the batmobile, the batboat, and the batwing in it.

Again with love interest.  You'd think that someone like Christopher Nolan would want to show Batman for who he is in the comics.  He changed so much about the franchise but he couldn't allow Robin in his movies and always had to make Batman love some new made-up hollywood character?  I don't understand, just give the people what they want.

Conclusion: This movie is a nearly perfect piece of film, and that's that.