The Dark Knight (2008) ***½

The most highly anticipated superhero movie in a summer chock full of them, The Dark Knight continues the reboot of the Batman franchise which began with Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins and it certainly doesn't disappoint. This film, which serves as the last movie Heath Ledger completed before his untimely death, has set the future of the revitalized franchise firmly in stone as less than a week after its premiere, talks of what the third installment will be are already flooding message boards around the world. Unlike most films with extremely high fan expectation, The Dark Knight meets and even exceeds those in almost every aspect of the production and the only sad realization that comes with the finale is that we won't get a chance to see Ledger reprise the role he so clearly made his own as Batman's most famous and deadliest arch enemy.

Unlike the first film with its multiple antagonists, the film wisely decides to build up the complex relationship between Batman (Christian Bale) and the Joker (Ledger), as one seeks to bring order to the chaos of Gotham City in order to combat the guilt and pain of his parents' senseless murders and the other who only seeks to being chaos to Gotham because it amuses him to do so. The two embark on a struggle of epic proportions for the soul of Gotham City. The Joker firmly believes that no matter how moral or ethical a person may be, when the chips are down and their lives are at stake, the true nature will take over and that is one which will do anything in order to survive no matter the cost. Batman continues his campaign that the people of Gotham are not incapable of being saved that he set out in the first film, however throughout the film it's as if he is fighting an uphill battle as the city further deteriorates into hysteria with each new attack by the Joker.

The entire film is laced with a paranoia and sense of impending danger as the audience feels like members of Gotham City. The Joker can strike anyone at any time and no one is safe from his lethal exploits. No other Batman film, or even superhero film, has such a tense atmosphere that permeates throughout the entire film and it's a credit to both the writers and the superb portrayal of Ledger is what will most likely be his iconic role. Having the film rated PG-13, as opposed to R, works in the film's favor as the violence and brutality are never glorified and are always of a shocking and abhorrent nature. Not being able to revel in the gore, the film is always scarier for what is not shown. In fact any time the Joker is on screen, anyone around him could be killed without a second thought which adds to the fear and reverence of the character.

Not to be completely outdone by the Joker, the film also introduces the character of Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) who is destined to become the villain Two Face. I wish we had gotten to see more of Dent as the District Attorney of Gotham before his transformation. He is constantly being credited as the "White Knight" or savior of Gotham City and that is a hard mantle to bear. If the struggle for him to live up to those expectations had been more clearly depicted it would have enhanced his ultimate fall from grace at the hands of the Joker. He certainly suffered an unbearable trauma coupled with his own personal tragedy which fueled his transformation and Eckhart's likability in the role never makes the character truly despicable even after he starts to commit the same crimes as those he used to prosecute. Of course I only wish Dent's role had been expanded more before the transformation as his inclusion to the franchise was a superb addition to the already fantastic supporting characters that populate the film series.

The most impressive aspect of the production will be, not surprisingly, the tour de force that is Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker. The Joker is an epic role, a homicidal maniac while also a criminal mastermind, who constantly shifts the players in Gotham City like pawns on a chessboard. Ledger's immersion in the role never contains a touch of camp or over the top acting such as the previous on screen portrayals of the Joker, Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson's own classic performance in Tim Burton's Batman respectively. Ledger had a daunting task in taking over a role which has seen dozens of incarnations over the years and he succeeds admirably with making it his own from the beginning. The masochistic and chaos-driven nature of the Joker had rarely been touched upon on screen, but they're folded perfectly into the psychological make-up of the newest Joker to haunt the streets of Gotham. The seething rage that sits just below the surface and the fits of hysteria add immeasurably to the atmosphere of the film and it is with great sadness that the role must be re-cast if the character were to make a return appearance.

Favorite moment: The Joker's admissions of his not wanting to kill Batman and that he completes him show the true nature of the relationship between these two dark personalities. The Joker would not enjoy his crimes if he was not one-upping his nemesis while completing them and he sees his struggle with Batman as that for the soul of Gotham City. He waits for the day when Batman himself will fall from his moral high horse and take a life willingly, something he has vowed never to do. He brings chaos to order and his ultimate accomplishment would be to pervade the Dark Knight just as much as he does to the White Knight.