Anyone who knows me will tell you it takes a lot to shut me up; this film managed to though. Sleek, sophisticated and swift-moving (just like the Batmobile), it left me literally speechless.
It is visually stunning, the plot is smart and full of twists, and the action is well choreographed and packs more than a few punches. It is a brilliant action film; and yet it is so much more than that.
The issues it deals with are simultaneously profound and profoundly disturbing, and the whole film is drenched in a humour so black it almost gets swallowed up into the deepest shadows of Gotham City. Expect some classic one-liners. As you would anticipate from such a star studded cast, everyone gives a top-class performance; Maggie Gyllenhaal fits snugly into Katie Holmes’ old role, and Christian Bale and company keep up the good work from ‘Batman Begins’. A special mention must go to Heath Ledger’s chilling interpretation of the Joker though, which pretty much dominates the whole film. His presentation of a deeply psychotic and anarchic super villain is made even more disconcerting by the fact that he is of course actually dead now; it is both strange and fitting that this superbly complex creation should have been his final role. The talk of a posthumous Oscar is well-merited. ‘The Dark Knight’ achieves what a sequel rarely does; it lives up to and even betters its forerunner. “It’s about sending out a messageâ€, the Joker says at one point, and this film definitely does that. Don’t miss it.