The Dark Knight (2008)

Including the 1966 Adam West starring movie there has now been seven live action Batman movies brought to the big screen. Despite Batman Begins being very good and even Tim Burton's 1989 Batman being pretty solid entertaining summer blockbuster, it is now with The Dark Knight that we have been introduced to a flick about the brooding caped crusader that can honestly be hailed as a cinematic masterpiece.

A truly amazing experience. The Summer blockbuster of 2008, easily. Unfortunately hyped and promoted with the very sad an untimely death of Heath Ledger in his final and career best, if over hyped performance as The Joker, Director and co writer Chris Nolan as presented as with a truly exhilarating piece of modern cinema.

Not wanting to play it safe like most of the hoards of super hero flicks that grace our screens over and over again, such as all three spider-man movies being pretty much structured the same and offering nothing new other than a different baddie, from the gripping opening scene, which is probably the craziest bank robbery you will ever see, Nolan, forced me to only use the edge of my cinema seat and grabbed my comfort zone and took it back to the popcorn stand. The Dark Knight hasn't just broke the mould of super hero movies but shattered the thing to tiny pieces. So bold and dark, it often feels like it has more in common with disturbing phsychological thrillers such as Silence of The Lambs than it does with movies about men running around in funny costumes. And it works extremely well, making it as realistic as it can with a host of brilliant and complex characters. It is often quite funny and the action sequences are second to none. The broody and heroic yet unnerving score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard compliments the movies frightening and disturbing atmosphere perfectly. The movie builds such an unrivalled momentum, 60 odd minutes in and my heart was pounding and I was right there in the heart of the movie where Nolan wanted me to be. The movie had just gone form strength to strength, introducing us to new characters and opening several subplots. A superb cast giving top notch performances, one highlight being the often dismissed in his role as Harvey Dent, Aaron Eckhart, who's performance and character is the real centre of the movie and what carries Batman's good on one shoulder and the Jokers evil on the other. I was disappointed with Maggie Gyllenhaal's underused talent as Rachel Dawes. Bale and Caine were brilliant again and have a magnificent screen bond together and of course Ledger, of whom was very good but in my opinion not better than Jack Nicholson's performance of the clown prince of crime, just different. If he wins an Oscar, I am sure it was a sympathy vote.

I remember sat in the theatre during the movie, thinking to myself that I was experiencing something very special, a lot of hard work and talent had gone in to making sure this movie wasn't just another action fantasy super hero movie but a movie that people of all ages could enjoy and would be talked about for a long time. I remember thinking this was shaping up to be one of the greatest cinematic movies I have ever seen, a blockbuster that was simply kicking all others out of the competition. It is by far the biggest grossing comic adaptation of all time and deservedly so. It is a dark and mature solid piece of entertainment that just about holds onto it's 12a certificate, because of lack of blood but that is where the movie kind of works at is best, not at its gore, but its solid threat.

Yup you guessed it, I was pretty blown away by this amazing motion picture.....but then it went wrong...

sadly just before the third act the movies momentum hit it's peak and a masterful climax, I was sure in my head it was nearly finished but the movie kept going. It started to get confusing, a few plot holes appeared and the new subplots and set pieces just weren't as gripping and entertaining as the movie had shown us it was more than capable of earlier. This was extremely disappointing. One of the story threads, that of Harvey Dent, carries the third act OK, but I found by this time, it wasn't strong enough to carry the excellence that we had been treated to up to this point. Had the movie have been 30 minutes shorter it may not have had this problem, or maybe if the first 2 acts weren't so accomplished and brilliant, the 3rd act wouldn't have felt so deflated.

I went a couple of weeks later to see it in the cinema again and only found my first opinions of the movie confirmed. This movie really must be seen and experienced to be believed and no doubt about it it has something very special going on but sadly can't keep up the pace and thrills for the full duration of the movie, if only the ending could have been reworked, it would have easily stormed into my top 10 movies of all time. Instead, it remains in my top 30 and the best Batman movie to date for what it has to offer and what it starts, just a complete shame it couldn't finish it too.

The Dark Knight "A truly masterful, epic and deeply atmospheric summer blockbuster with a blistering score and superb action sequences and sturdy performances, just sadly disappointingly flawed" ****