With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the city streets. The partnership proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a rising criminal mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham as The Joker

As much as I love Christian Bale and very much like both Maggie Gyllenhaal and Aaron Eckhart, Heath Ledger was the best part of Dark Knight, which is saying a lot because the whole film was fantastic! Ledger’s Joker character was wholly believable, funny and much better than Jack Nicholson’s portrayal in Batman (1989).

First off, I really liked where they have gone with this new series of Batman films, starting with 2005′s Batman Begins. Batman Begins takes us on a somewhat spiritual, adventurous and emotional journey of how and why Bruce Wayne becomes a superhero. The journey is long, arduous and more believable in that it’s less “comical” than the original Batman films with Michael Keaton and perhaps a little darker.

The Dark Knight explores Wayne’s struggle with continuing to be a superhero when he’s faced with a villain (the Joker) so immoral, he questions whether he has to cross the line of morality to defeat him. It’s the classic struggle between inner good and inner evil, outer good and outer evil. Love it!

The Joker, in a sense is a classic and believable sort of evil in that he has no moral code. Where most villains are motivated by money, power and/or sex, the Joker simply wants to “watch the world burn”, as Wayne’s faithful butler, Alfred, explains. Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker is smart, humorous, eerie and wholly engaging. It breaks my heart that we’ll never see Heath Ledger act in another film again. But, I do believe he has been marked in cinematic history both for Brokeback Mountain and now The Dark Knight.

As for the rest of the cast, perfect! I’m not at all a fan of Katie Holmes and was delighted that she is not in this installment of Batman as she was in Batman Begins. I really like Maggie Gyllenhaal because she’s relatable, genuine and has a certian something on screen. Her Rachel Dawes character was great.

A nice surprise in the film was Aaron Eckhart truly memorable portrayal of Harvey Dent/Two-Face. Much less “comical” and silly that Tommy Lee Jones’ Two-Face in Batman Forever. Eckhart looks like one of those actors who could have easily skated on his “rugged good looks”, but he too has a certain something and strong screen presence. His Harvey Dent was genuine, compelling and evoked empathy even when Harvey Dent turned into Two-Face.

Gary Oldman reprized his role as Lt. Jim Gordon, and as usual he was great. The man can do no wrong!

Christian Bale, as always was great. He’s so far my favorite Batman to date. Though, I did like Val Kilmer’s Batman in Batman Forever even if the movie wasn’t that great. Anyway, I do have to say I like Bale’s Bruce Wayne more than I liked his Batman only because his voice was very strange. As Batman, he was made to drop his voice a couple of octaves as if talking through a speaker or something. Which, really is believable in that if you’re trying to hide your true identity you would of course have to hide your normal voice. I think what was wrong with it is that because Bale was obviously trying to hide an accent on top of have a slight speech impedement because of the way his teeth are set, it was a bit strange. Nonetheless, and it’s not to say I don’t like Bale’s Batman, ’cause I definitely did.

So, I would highly recommend The Dark Knight as a smart and well done contemporary and refreshing take on the Batman comic books. The film was very well directed, great cinematography, smart writing and perfectly cast.

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