I’m a bit late posting this review, but I gotta tell ya, I’m ok with it and I’ll tell you why.  Going into this movie there was an incredible amount of hype.  Early reviews were surfacing with what seemed to me like outlandish claims about the superior quality of the film.  Everyone claiming the possibility of the late Heath Ledger receiving an Oscar for his performance and it quickly entered my mind that if he was still alive, would the hype still be so strong? Answer being yes.  Days prior to the official release or TDK word again surfaced about screens being sold out across the U.S. for two weeks straight.  And in my mind I’m saying to myself “that’s crazy”.  If you know me well than you know that I get super pumped about movies.  Everyone gives me flak for it but I enjoy my enthusiasm for movies and it doesn’t in the least ruin my experience.  So as you could guess my energy was up for TDK regardless if early reviews were good or bad.  So today I sit here writing and asking myself “what is the one thing you expect to happen when you leave a movie theater?”  For me, I expect to leave happy and thinking about the movie and it’s similarities to our reality.  Well, did I leave happy? ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY!  That’s not really a word but hell, if anything can make it one, it’s The Dark Knight.

What I Liked:

1) First, this movie as a whole rocked my world.

2) Heath Ledger’s Joker is my sick idol, and everyone has one so don’t give me no gut you swine.  In fact I’d go so far as to say Joker is now everyone’s new found love interest.  Whenever The Joker is on screen, it’s
nearly impossible to turn away from the screen, never mind blink.  At first I was as I’m sure most fans were a little weary of Ledger playing The Joker, but holy shit did he completely take me by surprise!  Whatever flaws there are in this film and I can count them on one hand Heath Ledger’s performance completely holds it up and says, “Fuck you, I’m The Joker, look at me in all my glory, I rule you” and dammit he does.  Nice job Mr. Ledger, we are all sorry that you are not with us anymore.

3) The first ohhh, two hours I’d say completely run through without hiccup and I love it when movies do that.  I hate when things slow down for a pedestrian and this thing has you until the end.  The last half hour or so let me down… But we’ll get into that.

4) I love Aaron Eckhart.  He’s got a quick mouth and sharp words.  And you can so see this with his portrayal of Harvey Dent.  If you haven’t already seen “Thank You For Smoking” go pick it up or rent it.  I would tell everyone that I think it’s the reason he got the part of Harvey Dent.  The guy knows what he is doing and certainly held up his part in the film amongst the glory of the Joker.  And his face as “Two-Face” really freaked me out.  What a damn good job with that.  It looked perfect, disgusting, and certainly dark and gritty like the movie.

5) I have a swinging scale when it comes run time for movies.  I’ve heard people say that all movies should be 90 minutes long.  And well, I can and cannot agree and I’ll tell you why.  If the movie is entertaining and people in the theater aren’t yawning, by all means please give us a 3 hour movie and I’m there with ya homie during your masterpiece.  If you plan on giving me shit, and you as the director and producer know it’s going to be shit, please don’t throw stinky poop in my face, end the fucking movie before I pee on the screen.  As with that I have to say I liked the run time for TDK the first 2 hours were perfect, and even though I have mixed feelings about the last half hour it was definitely a nice little bonus.

6) I loved the feel in the movie the entire way through.  It wasn’t a campy cheesy comic book movie in tights albeit a few cheese moments but nevertheless mature.  What I mean is that it really felt like an honest dark
crime movie, and when you saw Bale in the Batman costume it brought you back down to “this is a comic book movie” if you took out the batman costume but left the joker, you would have yourself one hell of a movie, nothing more or less than what it is now.  But all I’m saying is it was so good, you could take the bat suit out all together and you would totally be satisfied with the story and what was going on.

What I Did Not Like:

1) ***Possible Spoiler*** ok I’m going to talk assuming that you already have seen the movie so if you haven’t don’t read on.  The last half hour set me back half a point.  Don’t get me wrong, I liked the ending and the last half hour of the film, I just don’t think it was all that incredibly necessary.  I love when movies give you enough to keep your pallet wet until the next installment and at the same time I hate being dropped out of the sky without warning.  But the whole two face story at the end could have been held until the third installment. 

2) The fucking joker story just ended, it just ended, with him hanging there, I mean c’mon…”what happened!” I want to see him going to Arkham Asylum and chillin in his cell without his make up laughing.  I would have much rather seen that happen than the half hour extra of Two-Face.  After the hospital scene, I think that should have been it for two-face, and leave it a mystery. 

Overall:

I loved this movie, and it’s already in the back of my mind as being a DVD purchase when it comes out.  I love the fact that everyone I talk to about this movie has seen it and everyone loves it.  Even people that hate going to the movies or have no idea what a batman is like this film and I think that all directors and writers should take note of this as how to correctly make a movie.  If every movie produced gave us such a keen sense of satisfaction it would be a perfect world.  But it’s not and with a few flaws in my opinion I still think this movie might be… to me… maybe others…my opinion… the most incredible movie I’ve ever seen. That might be just a current feeling but it’s a feeling the movie gave me nonetheless and I know a ton of people thoroughly enjoyed this movie.  It’s not all that violent like people claim, and I think it’s a perfect PG-13 rating. I recommend everyone go see it.  I give The Dark Knight a 9.5 out of 10