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The Dark Knight Review
Making a sequel always seems to be more difficult looking in from the outside. If you’re getting a sequel chances are the first movie did well, and Batman Begins was one of those movies, a major success and highly regarded as a great re-invention of the series. Chris Nolan stamped his authority all over the Batman Franchise with some great scenes and an overall dark tone rooted in realism that The Dark Knight continues with. Bruce Wayne once again is played by Christian Bale who is now a little more settled and confident, Rachel Dawes this time round is played by Maggie Glyenhall and has found a new partner in new Gotham City D.A Harvey Dent, played by Aaron Ekhart. Dent is holding the hopes of Gotham City in his hands, trying to bring down the various organizations of crime rife in the city. At the same time Heath Ledge playing the Joker appears not by any mistake on the scene and is soon hired by the underworld crime bosses to get Batman off their backs while they are already taking heavy casualties from Harvey Dents current parade on crime. It’s a beautifully woven story and it holds all the characters together in the movie, shifting and changing as things go on.
The tone of the movie is just as dark as Batman Begins, in fact The Dark Knight is darker still, completely devoid of any laughs, where even Batman Begins had a couple of chuckle moments. Again the cast are outstanding, Bale is great in the Batman role and while having less to do in this movie he still pulls of a good performance. Maggie Gylenhall is prefect as Dawes and slips perfectly into the role previously held by Katie Holmes in the earlier movie. In fact is hard not to mention everyone because there are no weak links, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman are all great. Heath Ledger shines though as the Joker adding a scarily maniacal outlook to the character that makes the movie all the more dramatic.
With some amazing set pieces and scenes The Dark knight walks the line of sequel dom in fine form, being all the more epic than the first movie and still managing to hold it all together. I found the tension in the movie to be quite high and pretty consistent, and while the movie is called the Dark Knight it’s really also about the Joker, and that’s not a bad thing. Highly recommended for all movie fans, not just comic book aficionados.
