Movie Review - The Dark Knight

I used to write for a movie site called "The Trades". The writers were a group of amateur enthusiasts covering the world of entertainment, covering box office grossings to TV shows. Whenever I had the chance I would write movie reviews for the site, especially if the film was opening in Hong Kong before it opened in USA, where the website is based. I stopped writing a few years ago - mainly because I didn't have time to go to the cinema to catch the first screening of a movie and then immediately write about the quality of the acting but mostly because I started to become more dispassionate about the quality of films. I would constantly hype myself up about a film only to be disappointed. I should stop watching too many Hollywood films and turn my attention to other world areas but it is difficult to find these films.

On Wednesday I finally found a film that lived up to its hype - "The Dark Knight". You may have heard it broke all box-office records but it doesn't say anything about the quality of the film. It is one of those films I would go back to see in the cinema again. Christopher Nolan has broken all the rules - he's made an action film with intelligence, a sequel far superior than its predecessors and a summer blockbuster which could vie for best movie of the year. Forget about Oscar nominations for Heath Ledger, you could start dishing out nominations for the film itself as Best Picture and Christopher Nolan as Best Director.

Much has been lauded about Heather Ledger's performance as the Joker. A very deep psychotic performance compared to the wacky, insane approach by Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger totally dominates the movie. Forget Best Supporting Actor, Warner Bros. could seriously push him for Best Actor. It's a good thing they didn't try to explain the Joker's origins, which helps with the mystery.

That's not to say the other actors performances were poor. In any other film, Aaron Eckhart would be lauded as Harvey Dent whilst Maggie Gyllenhaal was radiant as Rachel Dawes. Christian Bale continues to represent Bruce Wayne/Batman well whilst you cannot fault Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine when they were on screen.

With "The Dark Knight", Christopher Nolan has truly flexed his muscles and shown he can direct and write well. The plot and storyline are intelligent down to the finest details whilst the dialogue and directing are spot on, with nothing too cliched.

See this movie, because it is the only good movie out there.