Why So Serious? -- A Movie Review of "The Dark Knight"

Last Sunday my kids and I went to watch the newest Batman movie, The Dark Knight. Wow! What an incredible film. The recent hype about Heath Ledger's role as the Joker was right on target. Ledger played a perfect psychotic lunatic as Batman's most feared nemesis. I really do think he deserves a posthumous Oscar nomination. Ledger literally gave me the creeps. Another actor I hope gets an Oscar nod is Gary Oldman, who plays Lt. James Gordon. Oldman does an excellent job at the embattled head of the Major Crimes Unit of Gotham City and later (SPOILER) as the new Commissioner of the Police Department. Christian Bale once again performs adequately as Batman and Aaron Eckhart does a great job as the District Attorney, Harvey Dent turned Two-Face the criminal.

The movie is full of suspense and action right from the start. One the great parts about the film was the "whining" noise you hear every time the Joker appeared or something bad was going to happen. It just added to the extremely dark nature of the film. My son, age 13, loved the film and was only "freaked out" a little. My daughter, age 11, had to turn away from the very intense scenes several times, but admitted that Ledger's portrayal of the Joker was "so good it was bad, very very bad." I do agree that the movie is to "Dark" for kids under 13, thus the PG-13 rating; however, there was very little graphic violence. Most of the scenes cut away from possible gory moments at the last second, which added a "what is not seen, only makes your mind wonder even more," effect.

The only down side to the movie was its length. Despite the action and drama, there was just enough slow moments in the film to give you time to look at your watch and wonder, "Man, how long have I been in here!"

I think I may add this movie to one of my top 10 films of all-time. Look to my Favorite movie list to see if I make any changes. I rate this movie 5 out of 5 Stars, or an A for overall greatness.

On a cool note: This review garnered a "Genius" rating on my Blog reading level. : )