THE DARK KNIGHT

(Warner Bros)
Runtime: 2 Hours 32 minutes

From Gothic to Psychotic, Nolan has brought a new kind of superhero. The Dark Knight is very haunting, with chilling score from Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard and a perfect directing, no wonder the fans will scream for the third movie.

Joker’s diabolical scheme cost Batman’s sanity and in the end it left the viewers wondering about the amount of hard core nihilism and violence in this film. Surely this is not for children or the weak hearted.

The late Heath Ledger has stolen the show, and he stole it with grace. Throughout the film, he devises traps that force Batman (Christian Bale), Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) to make near impossible moral and ethical decisions. The transformation of Harvey Dent into Two Face also got a nice portion, viewers doesn’t feel that Harvey is just some addition in this 2 hours 32 minutes long film, Harvey, Batman and Joker are the triumvirate that makes this film alive. A small trip to Hong Kong makes this film realistic and Chicago plays a good role as Gotham.

Unlike most summer movies who sacrifice the story for the sake of mind-numbing special effect, The Dark Knight has a deep and poetic drama. It creates a world where being a superhero is at best a double-edged sword and no triumph is likely to be anything but short-lived. With this film, Nolan has surpassed ever expectation, and if there’s a third outing, better be more superb than this, because Nolan has set the bar for superhero movies higher.