Film: The Dark Knight
Director: Christopher Nolan
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Principle Actors: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Length of Feature: 152 minutes
Release Date: 18 of July 2008.
Rating: 14+ for intense sequence of violence and some menace. 

Reviewed by: Jennifer Chang (Vancouver Correspondent- Canada) 

The Dark Knight is presumably one of the most highly anticipated blockbusters of the summer. After all, when was the last time you were rooting for the villain in a superhero action film? In the theatre, it is as if you could cut through the clouds of anticipation with a knife, as Joker (Heath Ledger) puts it, "it savors the moment."

The film opens up with a perfect bank heist executed by a gaggle of clown-faced bank robbers working under the classic Batman criminal, the Joker. And so it begins. This film carries the debate of the complex realities of good and evil, on the heavy shoulders of those fighting for the good. "I don't want to kill you," as the Joker tells Batman, ‘you complete me."  This is the only time in the film when the Joker is not joking. 

The trouble here is that Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) a billionaire playboy who moonlights as Batman, is sick and tired of being the charming white knight. He is pissed at the public perceiving him as a vigilante. He attempts to leave the heroic deeds to the district attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and stop the DA from moving in on Rachael Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), the lady love and his only hope for a normal life.

The Joker, is the most well-developed character of the film. Ledger astonishes the audience with the best performance of his career; he is mad brilliant as the Joker and perhaps, has revolutionized the Joker role. Distinctive from Jack Nicholson's broadly funny take in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, Ledger leads the role into complete darkness; he has no gray area. In Ledger's work that makes the audience forget the actor behind the moldy white makeup that highlights the red scar grin? So complete and frightening is his immersion to the role.   

Perhaps, it is because Ledger's role is so distinctive that made Bale's role seem ordinary and nothing spectacular. It is as though Bale himself is less of the central figure than ensemble player. Nonetheless, Batman's butler Alfred (Michael Caine) remains as classy as ever. Without a doubt, The Dark Knight is the most talked-about blockbuster of the summer.