The Dark Knight Earns T.I.M's First "A"

The Dark Knight
Seen July 18th @ Midnight
Clearview Cinemas in the Preakness Shopping Center

By Daniel Scillieri
Personal Grade: "A"

Hello Again! The critics here at Talkinginmovies are back after taking an extended break. We apologize to our fans for the lack of reviews in the recent months. To kick off our return, I am going to review the new champion of the box offices, arguably the best superhero film ever and the FIRST "A" grade on our website, THE DARK KNIGHT....

Christian Bale returns to the screen as Bruce Wayne in this HIGHLY anticipated summer blockbuster. Director Christopher Nolan adds Maggie Gyllenhaal (Rachel Dawes) and Aaron Eckhart ( Harvey Dent / Two Face) to strengthen the cast of Batman Begins' Sequel. But without a doubt, the most talked about addition to the film was Batman's arch-nemesis The Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger. The story takes place 1 year after Batman launches his crusade to clean up the streets of Gotham City. Crooked cops, city officials and lawyers are running for the hills as Batman, Commissioner Gordon and newly elected district attorney Harvey Dent take the fight to the criminals. The fight on crime appears to be gaining momentum in favor of the heroes until The Joker decides to give Gotham a new type of criminal. From the opening scene of the movie, there is action, adventure, and everything you would expect from two titans of the DC Comics universe.

The Pros:
This paragraph may be long...The Dark Knight earned it's "A" grade on so many levels. As stated earlier, from the moment the movie starts until the end credits show up, the film just keeps getting better. Besides the amazing action sequences and death defying stunts, The actors are what really gave this movie its greatness. Christian Bale not only plays Batman well, he also presents the stuck up playboy Bruce Wayne better than ever before seen. He arrives late, to his own party, in a helicopter with 3 beautiful women on his arms. That is vintage "Prince of Gotham" for those comic readers out there. Next, Aaron Eckhart's performance as Harvey Dent and eventually Two Face really showed the type of actor he is. He goes from the proclaimed "White Knight" character of Harvey Dent, to the split personality madman known as Two Face. He really plays both extreme parts so well, it was like there were two different actors. Now for the real deal. Heath Ledger was criticized and openly bashed after being selected to play the role of one of comic's greatest villains. One of the biggest arguments was "how could he compare to Jack Nicholson" who played the Joker in the first Batman movie. This was said to be impossible and fans doubted the success of the movie and Christopher Nolan's skills as a director for this alone. In my opinion, Christopher Nolan wasn't trying to replace Jack Nicholson's amazing Joker performance. Instead, he redefined the type of character the Joker really was. Instead of the killer clown who had a permanent smile from an accident involving chemicals, this new Joker had scars that represented a smile. The character was much darker and screamed the demented psychopathic killer that the Joker really is. These movies are presented not from the comic book aspect, which Jack's Joker nailed perfectly. Instead The Dark Knight presents what a real life Joker would be, a deranged madman who gets his laughs from inflicting the most pain and destruction on an already crippled city. Heath Ledger's performance should get an Oscar nomination and anyone who says differently has not seen the movie. Now there is so much more about the movie I can try to explain, but it won't do it justice, a perfect example of this is the "Magic Pencil Trick" scene. For those of you who saw it, you will understand.

The Cons:
For our first "A" movie, this film had almost ZERO cons... The one thing I would of liked to see more of was the Joker laughing a bit more. Some scenes he breaks out the classic laugh and I openly said to my friends "that is perfect joker!" Another minor detail, which didn't really hurt the film in my opinion, was the choppy fight choreography. Some fight scenes seemed very staged and didn't have the fluid movement that the protector of Gotham has. All In All, those are just two personal opinions that barely, if at all even, effect this amazing movie.

In Conclusion:
Go See it! Finish reading this review and go see it yourself, then post a comment. Christian Bale signed on for at least 2 more Batman movies and is taking the character to a whole new level. This is my vote for the best movie of the year, it is the highest grossing movie during its opening weekend, passing the former champion Spiderman, with a massive 155.3 Million Dollars... GO SEE THE DARK KNIGHT!!!!!!!


Heath Ledger,
you redefined one of my favorite villains, your death is truly a tragedy that I didn't feel until the end of the film. It saddens me to think you can not continue to play The Joker...Rest In Peace.