The Dark Knight

A Review By Taylor Anthony

First off, before I review this movie, I would like to say that I had too much hype built up in myself before I saw this movie. Virtually everywhere you would look, you could see a Dark Knight poster or ad. I'm not saying this is nessisarilly a bad thing but, it somewhat let me down.

Christopher and Jonathan Nolan are the two men behind this unique, dark film, they also brought you Batman Begins and The Prestige, but did they deliver an amazing classic, or did they only do enough for the fans to enjoy?

The film is about Bruce Wayne, also known as Batman, but this time around, other than just focusing on Bruce, they also put the spotlight on The Joker, Harvey Dent, Rachel Dawes and James Gordon. I will say this, the Nolan Brothers did do a way better job on this film than Batman Begins (2005). But, not all things were perfect with this film. One of my major problems about this film was how long it was. I mean, yes, most movies at this standard need a lot of time to express the story fully, but almost three hours of the caped crusader was too much for me. On the positive side, I think that Heath Leger pulled off one of the best characters ever acted out on screen. Heath Leger as the Joker is pretty much why I saw the movie, I was never a HUGE Batman fan, but The Joker made the movie for me. The Joker's twisted and sinster ways were laughable and disturbing at the same time. Not only did I think Joker the "best" bad guy in movie existence, he was also the funniest. But enough of the Joker, this review is about BATMAN...(sigh).

I don't know what it is about this movie, I guess they were trying to make this as realistic as the comics, but like, did Batman's voice really need to be so low, distorted and annoying as it was? I know he had to make it different so no one would reconize him but he sounds like he has a throat infection or something. But, getting past that, Batman was pretty badass in this one, while interagating some random guy,(I forget who it was), he breaks the guys ankles by throwing him off of a balcony! Yes, Batman did that, it was awesome. And at one point in the movie, Batman full out beats the living crap out of The Joker while interrogating him. I must say, Batman, (not Bruce Wayne) was pretty awesome in this movie, the reason I put Bruce Wayne in brackets is because Christian Bale did a horrible job at acting out the part, he was boring, it was awful.








So overall, the story was great, characters over all could have been way better, it seemed like Heath was the only one who actually tried hard, the visuals were awesome, sound quality was outstanding. I would say this is one of my favorite movies, not in my top ten, but its up there, Heath Leger's performance was my favorite of all time. So, I give this movie 9.0 out of 10, only because the length was too long and Bale's acting could have been a lot less stale.





Heres some interesting trivia about this movie for you, enjoy! :)

  • Set a new record for the biggest opening-day gross at the box office with $66.4 million. Former record holder was Spider-Man 3.
  • The film was delivered to some theaters under the name "Oliver's Army".
  • To prepare for his role as the Joker, Heath Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character's psychology, posture and voice (the last one he found most difficult to do). He started a diary, in which he wrote the Joker's thoughts and feelings to guide himself during his performance. He was also given Alan Moore's comic "Batman: The Killing Joke" and "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth" to read. Ledger also took inspiration from A Clockwork Orange (1971)'s Alex and Sid Vicious.
  • An explosion was filmed at the Battersea Power Station in London. The fireball created calls from panic-stricken local residents, who assumed a terrorist attack had occurred at the out-of-use Station.
  • Despite the PG-13 rating, no blood is ever seen on-screen; most of the violence either occur off-screen or is obscured by camera angles.





    Note: Trivia information taken from www.imdb.com