The Dark Knight
I can honestly say when it comes to comics (which I am far from an expert) I tend to lean more towards the Marvel side, rather than DC. I just think think the characters are more interesting and with the movies that have been made (X-men, spiderman, and Iron Man), Marvel has really done a better job with the movies that are out.
That has changed.
It began with Batman Begins which was a very good, and much needed reboot of the Batman movies. The older ones got so sad and rediculous that they became laughable. So when you heard that Heath Ledger was playing the Joker you could not help but wonder if there was some sort of mistake. It isn't that I thought he couldn't act, but this was THE JOKER we are talking about. But then the images starting popping up on the internet and oh my lord were they disturbing. It was hard to even imagine that it was in fact Heath Leder doing that, and I can say that maybe I had underestimated him a bit. I get the feeling I was not alone in this.
Sadly, he passed away before the movie came out. It would not shock me if he won an oscar for his performance.
The movie itself was gritty, dirty, disturbing, dark, and so many other words that I cannot even think of. Nolan did such a great job of writing/directing this movie. The movie was two and a half hours, but it never felt like it. That is a hard thing to do at this point. Keeping us interested in anything for an extended period of time is something that directors have to deal with now.
Christian Bale does a good batman, although his voice is a bit annoying (as batman). I am not going to go into too much about the story, just that this movie was all about The Joker. Ledger stole the movie with his amazing performance of how creepy the Joker should be. As great as Nicholson was in the original Batman, Ledger was AMAZING. The supporting cast was very good as well. I especially loved Maggie Gyllenhaall over Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. She added so much more depth to the role (not to mention Katie Holmes just cannot act that well).
Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, and Gary Oldman as Gordon, and Morgan Freeman as Fox were also very good. The cast was amazingly well done overall. They seemed to fit in a great way.
So, the movie was an impressive achievement and the main thing it did was to tell Marvel that DC was joining the game. Will Marvel step up in return?