The Dark Knight

Every comic-book superhero has to have a great villain, and in Batman's case, he has a great Rogue's Gallery of villains to pick from: Ra's Al Ghul, The Penguin, Catwoman, Hugo Strange, The Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, Scarecrow, Bane and Batman's most infamous rival, The Joker. The Joker was first portrayed by Cesar Romero in the 1960s live-action television series. In Tim Burton's Batman, The Joker was portrayed by Jack Nicholson who turned in a very maniacal performance which was very memorable. In the cartoon series in the 90s, The Joker was voiced by Mark Hamill. The Joker would eventually take to the big screen again in Christopher Nolan's sequel to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight.

The film opens during a robbery at a mob bank in which the mysterious culprit known only as The Joker(Heath Ledger) steals from the most notorious mobsters in Gotham City. Hours later, at a meeting between the Russian mafia leader and The Scarecrow(Cillian Murphy), Batman/Bruce Wayne(Christian Bale)shows up and apprehends not only Scarecrow, but a handful of copycats. Later we cut to a hearing in which Gotham City's new District Attorney, Harvey Dent(Aaron Eckhart)and Rachel Dawes(Maggie Gyllenhall, taking over for Katie Holmes)are attempting to put Salvatore Moroni(Eric Roberts)behind bars. Then, The Joker shows up again and people start dying left and right.

Much has been said of Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker. There's not much more I can say, other than he steals the show whenever he's on screen. Ledger just disappears into the role like no-one else. Make no mistake, Christopher Nolan's take on The Joker is a far more sinister character than Tim Burton's. Tim Burton's version was more of a manic kind of character. In The Dark Knight, The Joker is intelligent, brutal and merciless, all with a sadistic and twisted sense of humor. His complete lack of regard for human life makes him a far more vicious villain than Batman has come across before. The Dark Knight is darker and more violent than its predecessor and makes for more heightened drama, especially when Harvey Dent gets directly involved. Aaron Eckhart is absolutely incredible as Gotham's white knight. Michael Caine is in top form as Alfred as is Gary Oldman as Gordon and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. Christian Bale is stellar as always and his physicality brings an intensity to the role. If there is one weak link in The Dark Knight, it would be Maggie Gyllenhall as Rachel Dawes. Now, Rachel Dawes was never a really strong character to begin with, as she served as a love interest to Bruce Wayne, but Gyllenhall just doesn't sell it at all. Katie Holmes, I felt was a better fit. The action scenes have been stepped up. In the previous film, it was difficult to tell what was happening because the camera was too close to the action. Here, we can actually see what's going on, and it's brutal. The Dark Knight still uses the unique Keysi Fighting method introduced in the first film, but it's much more refined here. Each subsequent action scene just keeps building until the final confrontation between Batman and The Joker. Hell, there's a scene in which The Joker blows up a hospital. Christopher Nolan actually leveled a building for that shot. It's spectacular. Aaron Eckhart's transformation from Dent to Two-Face is fairly complex. His character gets half-his face burned off as a result of an explosion, and the results are grotesque. The burned half of his face is CGI, but it's very detailed. Some people have had issues with Dent becoming Two-Face so late in the game, but I think it fits in with the theme with that even the greatest person can be torn down. But I have to hand it to Eckhart for selling the character so well.

The Dark Knight takes what was awesome about Batman Begins and turns it up several notches. The performances are stellar all across the board, with Heath Ledger stealing the show. He was so awesome, that he was posthumously awarded the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. It's tragic that his life was cut short before The Dark Knight was finished, but I think he would be proud of how well The Dark Knight was received. The Dark Knight is currently regarded as one of the best comic-book movies ever made and Heath Ledger and Christopher Nolan helped make it so. Despite some niggling issues with the film, it gets a very enthusiastic 10/10 from me. It tops Batman Begins in every way and then some.