The Dark Knight: Review and Commentary

I just returned from seeing the newest installment of the current Batman film franchise, The Dark Knight. Let me just start off by saying that I absolutely loved this film and will see it again while it's at the theater. It is action packed and there is plenty of interesting plot activity to keep you interested from beginning to end. At 2 1/2 hours long, it is a long movie, but rarely seems to drag.

The movie is heavily focused on the Joker, as portrayed by the late Heath Ledger. I remember when I first heard that they were not bringing Jack Nicholson back to play the part I was very displeased and had no intention of going to see the movie. When I heard that Ledger was going to play the Joker I was even more against the film. Jack had done such a great job in his portrayal of the Joker back in 1989 that I could not envision anyone else doing the character justice. I vehemently despised Ledger being cast and was fairly vocal about it. After I saw some of the previews I came to appreciate what they were trying to do in reinventing the character for the darker tone of Christopher Nolan's Batman series. Now having seen the movie I can say that Heath Ledger's performance in the film is nothing short of brilliant and I retract everything negative I said about his being cast for the role.

The only thing about the film I did not like was the recasting of Rachel Dawes and Maggie Gyllenhaal's performance of the character. She does not do as well as Katie Holmes in the role from the previous film and it is unfortunate that she declined to reprise the role, although the fact that she made the decision because she did not want to spend too much time away from her new family is respectable.

Overall, I give the film an A+, 2 thumbs up, and I recommend that you all go and check this movie out. It is the best movie of summer by far, so far. For the sake of those that have not seen the film yet, I will not post any spoilers and I request that if anyone comments on this post that they do the same. Thanks for reading and feel free to leave any questions, comments, and/or concerns after the beep.

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