The Dark Knight

“The Dark Knight” is an interesting, blockbusting and must-watch movie in the year 2008. This movie is co-starring by ‘heavy-weight’ actors such as Michael Caine (as Alfred) --- an Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor in the movie “Hannah and Her Sisters” and a two-time Academy Award winner. Another one is the popular actor in the drama “Brokeback Mountain” by Ang Lee, Heath Ledger (as the Joker), who was honoured with an Academy Award nomination. Last but not least, the character District Attorney Harvey Dent is starred by Aaron Eckhart, who has earned Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominations for his role as an unapologetic tobacco lobbyist in 2005’s “Thank You for Smoking”.

“The Dark Knight” is directed by Christopher Nolan, together with his crew members: Jonathan Nolan, who is responsible for screenplay, David S. Goyer, who is responsible for the story and Bob Kane, who is responsible for the characters. The genres of this movie are action, crime and thriller. It is first released at 18 July 2008 in United States of America. Batman (alter ego Bruce Wayne), Lieutenant Gordon, and the newly appointed District Attorney Harvey Dent work together and successfully fight off most of the crime in the city of Gotham. Their superiority is being challenged when a crime mastermind known as the Joker appears and put the Gotham city into chaos.

Bruce Wayne, the billionaire who owns the Wayne’s Enterprise secretly funds the Research and Development on the Batmobile (Batman’s vehicle) and Batsuit. He gets his Batman’s prototypes and models from Lucius Fox. After the fall of the major crime organization in Gotham, the Joker kills the remnants of the bosses one by one and forms his own group in order to terrify the citizens of Gotham and put the city into chaos. District Attorney Harvey Dent, also regarded as the White Knight of the Gotham, a man who has bright future, has become the target of the Joker to put into chaos and sinful life in order to achieve his master plan. Lieutenant Gordon, who plays the role of the chief police officer, has also contributed to the twist of the fate of Harvey. Rachel Dawes, the lover of Harvey, is the main force for Harvey to continue his life and his job as the White Knight of Gotham city (lawyer).

The visual effects of the movie and the make-ups of the characters are really amazing and breathtaking. For an instance, the audiences really hold their breaths when they watch the scene where the truck driven by the Joker is flipped over by Batman. Besides, the detonation of timer-bomb at the scenes where Harvey and Rachel are being held hostages and the bomb blast which destroys Gotham General Hospital are stunning and hair-raising. The fearsome, disheartening make-ups of the Joker and Two-Face clearly depict the evil nature of the characters. The soundtrack also complement to the anxious and tense environment. The sound effects are so successful that they describe every single scenes of the movie colourfully. For examples, there are the fighting scenes, the explosion scenes and so on.

The big moment in this story is when Harvey and Rachel are being held hostages in two separate buildings where there are tonnes of explosive surround them. This put Batman into his predicament whether to choose to save Rachel or Harvey. One is the person he loves and the other is the important person for Gotham city. This incident ultimately creates a twist for the plot of the story.

In a nut shell, I would say that “The Dark Knight” is a worth-watching movie that is suitable for the categories between young teens and adults. I do not recommend this movie to children and those who have health problems as it contains violence and extreme action, e.g. Batman beaten up the Joker in the lock-up, bomb blasts, killings and so on.

Personally, I like the movie very much especially the plot of the story. The director Christopher Nolan arranges the plot in such a way that: Batman, Lieutenant Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent complement with each other to fight off crimes in Gotham city. However, when the Joker ruins one of them the co-operations among them no longer exist. They work individually. For example, in the operation to arrest the Joker Gordon’s SWAT teams mistake that the hostages are the clown guards. In order to prevent the hostages from being hurt, Batman has to stop the SWAT teams as well as the Joker’s men before he confronts with him alone. This incident makes the heroic traits of Batman more distinctive.

One thing that I did not like about the movie is the ending. Batman ends up being the culprit in the eyes of the citizens of Gotham but not Two-Face. The citizens of Gotham choose the White Knight of Gotham (Harvey Dent) to be their hero but not the Dark Knight (Batman).