Batman (New)
Batman Begins The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight -
Overview
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Brief Review
Christopher Nolan returns to the fantastic revival of the Batman series with 'The Dark Knight' and one of the best superhero movies of all time. Harvey Dent and Joker are two of the best villains on show with some fantastic acting and a brilliant script to follow. From start to finish this is an adrenaline fuelled action packed rollercoaster and one you most likely won't want to finish.
Full Review
Batman Begins was a huge success and it was only a matter of time before Nolan returned with the sequel, 'The Dark Knight'. The film sees the three heroes, Harvey Dent, Batman and Lieutenant Gordon all pushed to their limits by the criminal mastermind Joker.
The story starts with a bang and sets the tone for the rest of the film with the capture of Scarecrow. As Harvey Dent arrives at Gotham, he proceeds to lock up most of the criminals in town. Unfortunately, a new super villain rises, Joker, who causes all kinds of trouble around the City making their lives a living hell. What works so well with this story is the believability from the acting.
Christian Bale returns as Batman and although his acting is still very good, his Batman just doesn't add up to the charismatic and outstanding performances from both Dent and Joker. Both are phenomenal here and its a shame that Dent doesn't get more recognition for his talent. Joker is the stand-out by far but Dent isn't far off. His portrayal of the fall of Harvey Dent and his transformation to the sick and twisted Two-Face is fascinating to watch and unexpected.
The two super villains cause Batman all kinds of grief and its here that we start to see cracks in our hero. This is a film filled with inner conflict and its easy to see in Bale's portrayal of the Dark Knight. This middle part of the proposed trilogy is a brilliant film and the conflict and tension is slowly built up to an unbearable level as the film progresses and in the midst of it all, Joker dances alongside it.
The action is a step up from Batman Begins with more variety of scenes including a car chase, hand to hand combat and plenty of explosives. One of the best action scenes is the opening bank scene which is ingenious and very clever. It sets the tone for the entire film with the robbers killing each other and then finding out Joker is one of them. This was just the icing on the cake and epitomises how clever this film is.
My biggest complaint with this film and the one that stops it from getting the 5 stars is the film's sound design. The horrendous sound levels are all over the place with ear-piercingly loud sections and then quiet bits that need a volume adjust. For a film of this calibre I was disappointed with this and although the DVD version is slightly better than the film release, its still noticeable.
The make-up department deserve special mention here as well with an edgy and sinister look to the mastermind Joker and some brilliant work was also done to Harvey Dent as two face. Although his make-up was a mixture of CGI and regular make-up, his edgy character is made all the more terrifying by some shockingly realistic work. Hats off to the department on this one as they really stepped it up.
So overall then, Dark Knight is a worthy follow-up to Batman Begins and together are the films the originals should have been. The edgy and dark tone set by Batman Begins is escalated here with the criminal mastermind Joker and the sinister Two-Face who together are the stand-out actors in the film by far. The whole film is a master class in how to make a superb superhero story and Marvel would do well to sit up and take notice of this film. THIS is how a superhero film should be. Fantastic.