Very often in films of this genre, no matter what happens, no matter the dangers our hero has to face, we know he won’t die because he’s the hero of the tale, right? Well, The Dark Knight is one of those rare cases where you genuinely fear for the life of the main character and the (innocent) people around him. It’s one of the key strengths of the film that no one is safe, no matter how established they may be within the story or in the hearts of the comic book fans; you just never know what will happen next and to whom. There’s a certain unpredictability at play here, the likes of which we’ve rarely seen in modern movies, especially those based on comic books.
Aside from The Joker, who I can’t say enough amazing things about, the biggest addition is Aaron Eckhart as “Gotham’s white knight” Harvey Dent. This goes to prove that you can have multiple storylines, or more specifically multiple villains, in the same film and make it work. It could be argued that they should have had the whole film about The Joker and left the character of Two-Face for the next one but I would argue that the two go hand in hand, at least in the way the story is handled here. Some very detailed problems with the conclusion of the two characters' stories aside, as a fan of the characters and the whole mythology I was in utter heaven experiencing a film that includes three of the comic book universe’s best characters.
One of the complaints about Batman Begins was that the fight sequences weren’t done as coherently as people would have liked. Even as a fan I still can admit that there was a bit of the annoying shaky cam going on and it did draw you out of the experience of the scene rather than involve you as it should have. Well Nolan has successfully remedied that flaw here as the fight sequences are very much coherent, in full view and more engaging than you could hope for. It reminds us of the fact that Batman is supposed to be one of the best hand-to-hand combat fighters in the world and boy, does he show it here. It’s not only got all of these elements which are a lot more unique than you’d expect but there are also just the kick-ass action sequences to fall back on to.
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