It is hard to say how much of this comes Ledger's transformation into the award winning Psycho-Genius Joker. For arguments sake, and for length reasons, I am stating here and now that Ledger's performance was superb but the rest of this will dedicated to every other piece of the puzzle. The performance ranks for many as one of the greatest of all cinema but that isn't to say that he's the only one to act well. The casts of all three Dark Knight movies were filled with Oscar winners. Much of the credit should also be given to Christopher Nolan and his co-writers because, for all the attention that Ledger received, he could only be as good as the material would allow.
There are people who complain that Nolan didn't do justice to Batman or whatever but I am not well read in the comic's history to talk about that. All I am interested in when I go to a movie is if I like it. The Dark Knight Rises seemed like Nolan and co were ready to move on to something new and the plot was sloppy. It moved around at a hectic pace, there were gaping holes, and felt like the makers of the film wanted to fit in more than a reasonably sized movie would properly allow so they skipped around and added a lot of unnecessary noise to distract the audiences. On the flipside, Batman Begins was well put together but didn't really move well enough. The point was to introduce the origin of Batman in detail but it felt stretched. Had the setup taken up half of the first film perhaps the third would've had an easier pace.
The Dark Knight was just right. It introduced Batman's arch rival, The Joker, in the first scene simply by putting him there and he takes control of the franchise the same way he takes over Gothem City. It sets up quickly but sufficiently the facts: Harvey Dent is the new DA of Gothem City, Everyone believes he will be the saving grace of the forsaken town, and until then the police have looked the other way and allowed the masked Vigilante protect the streets, something he does apparently very well because the mob has been practically put out of business. During his Bruce Wayne life our hero takes turns lusting after his childhood sweetheart, now conveniently in love with Dent, and using his Wayne corporation to get closer to the one last mobsters still in business. Perfectly on cue, the Joker (who wasn't getting enough attention from the Bat) complicates both of these missions. Batman is then forced to play the Joker's game- he likes that.
Forced into a game of Cat And Mouse, and after inadvertently leading to more deaths than a Shakespeare tragedy, Batman comes close to revealing his identity but is protected in the last seconds by Dent claiming himself as Batman. Then the fun really begins for the Joker who kills more people, blows up a hospital, and attempts to cause two boats full of people to kill each other. His crowning achievement, however, is to turn Dent into the same kind of cold blooded killer that he is.
Sure Batman saves the day in the end the way he has to but in under three hours the movie gives you action, suspense, love, loss, sacrifice, and makes you question (if you don't already) Government, society, the media, your perceptions of good verses evil, and even the validity of death (not quite Commissioner Gordon fakes his own death in a very true to life way.)
So that's it: 4.5 year and countless viewings after it's July 2008 release- My Dark Knight review. Hope you enjoyed it.
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