I actually saw it the first day it was out in the UK but I think enough time has passed to be able to talk about it without ruining it for everyone. Still if you haven’t seen it, spoilers ahead.

Quite frankly it is one of the best films I have ever seen and hands down the best superhero movie ever. Yes even better than Iron Man, though I feel Iron Man was more fun. The Dark Knight had me entranced all the way through from start to finish. Everything worked so well and even the abrupt change of actress from Katie Holmes to Maggie Gyllenhaal doesn’t feel wrong. Bale, Caine, Oldman all play their respective roles brilliantly. The two people who steal the show are Ledger and Eckhart as Joker and Harvey Dent/Two-Face. I’ll go into more depth into them in a sec as I wan to talk about the plot a little. The best thing I can say about this film is that at points I had no idea what was going to happen, which just goes to show you the writers did a fucking excellent job. For example, the scene where after interviewing Joker and getting their locations, Batman races off to save Rachel and sends Gordon to get Harvey Dent, only to find Joker lied to him and finds Dent instead, leaving the Gotham P.D. arriving too late to save Rachel and her dying in a massive explosion. Then there’s the scene on the ferries, and the ending, where despite losing the battle for Gotham’s soul, Joker still manages to get a small victory in the corruption of Harvey Dent in to Two-Face essentially making Batman the bad guy. Never saw them coming at all and left the theatre in silence with my firneds until we started gushing mentally on every aspect of it.

Anyway, the real show stealers are Eckhart as Dent and Ledger as Joker. Partly it’s a shame that Ledger gets so much attention because Eckhart does a brilliant job, portraying an idealistic, charismatic, and incredibly human district attorney who is driven to insanity and violence by the Joker. It’s a shame they had to kill him off because I would have loved to see a movie fully devoted to Two-Face, but with the time they had they still managed to tell his story , make him a legitimate threat and a character you wish things had gone differently for. Watching this White Knight fall from grace you can’t help but wish something good would happen to him to make up for all the shit the Joker put him through.

Ledger though, this is the film he will be remembered for eternity, his is firmly placed in our hearts and minds as that brilliant actor who brought the Joker to life as one of the most murderous, entertaining, vicious, and incredibly intelligent villains to grace the screen. I am fully convinced that they will never bring back the Joker because no one else will be able to measure up this masterful performance. From the very first time he appears on screen in the mob bank at the beginning of the film you get this sense that this is no 1960’s prankster, this guy is a real threat and you never know what he’s going to do. The magic pencil trick will make you laugh nervously because it’s completely out of the blue, hilarious, but bloody scary at the same time. Then there’s the conflicting origins of his “Glasgow smile,” all of which you are convinced could be true, and his absolute spot on assessment of his foe Batman…every single scene performed with energy, wit, and honest to god brilliant talent. To be honest I could go on for a few more pages about this but quite frankly you have to experience the film to truly see how brilliant it is. If you don’t think that this Ledger doesn’t deserve a posthumous Oscar for this role, well you’re entitled to your opinion but nobody else will agree with you.

There’s only two things I could possibly criticise about this movie, and quite frankly they’re minor. Again Bale’s “Batman” voice just sounds like he’s got a sore throat, and the film could be short. However the latter is only with hindsight as while I was watching it I was enjoying it so much I couldn’t care less how long it was.

So, basically, go see it if you haven’t, and if you have go see it again.