The Dark Knight

I know . . . I am probably the last person in the world to watch The Dark Knight. This was the third time that the movie had arrived for me from the library. I gave up all hope of watching it with Ben and watched it in 1/2 hour increments whenever I had a moment without kids. This is probably not the best way to watch it, but it kept me in suspense as I had to wait until the next day to see what would happen next.

The Dark Knight is the sequel to Christopher Nolan's 2005 film Batman Begins. Truthfully I liked Batman Begins, but didn't think it was that fantastic (Ben liked it much better than me). I realize it was needed to set things up and allow The Dark Knight to be the excellent film that it was. I love Christopher Nolan's work, especially Memento. Memento ranks as one of my favorite movies. I also really enjoyed The Prestige. I can't wait to see what Nolan comes up with next.

The story of The Dark Knight follows closely after Batman Begins. Batman has worked with Lt. James Gordon to rid Gotham of different mob factions. Gordon and Batman decide to include DA Harvey Dent (now the boyfriend of Batman's love Rachel Dawes) in their crime fighting club. A new criminal (The Joker) is in town and his love of chaos is unlike anything they've ever seen. Batman considers Dent the "white knight" that can save Gotham and take his place, but the Joker has other plans for him. Everyone seemed to talk about how this was the Joker's film, but I thought it was really the story of Harvey Dent.

I thought The Dark Knight was an excellent film. The eery score and cinematography were excellent. The action sequences were top notch and had were not overly CGI as too many films seem to do these days. The acting was also excellent, especially Heath Ledger as The Joker and Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent. I loved the story and was kept in suspense thoughout with several "I can't believe they just did that!" moments.

My only negative was Christian Bale's raspy Batman voice. It was just irritating.

My only question is - why was this film not nominated for an Academy Award. While Slumdog Millionaire was a good movie, this movie was excellent and a much better movie. I am getting a bit tired of Academy snobbery where comic book films, sci-fi, comedy, etc are never considered. Sigh.

I could rave on forever about this film, but I'd like to get this posted so I'll stop now.