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What is there to say about The Dark Knight that hasn’t already been said or can be interesting enough for you to want to read yet another review? If you’ve been living on Jupiter for the past couple of years and haven’t even see Nolan’s Batman Begins on the in flight movie channel then this may be of interest to you, and even if you have I hope you are compelled to read on.

To quickly summarise the movie for you Batman thinks he has found the hero to replace him, one that doesn’t wear a mask, one Gotham can admire and that man is Harvey Dent. Batman and Gordon have been cleaning up the streets from the mob and have them on the back foot, scared to meet at night and all the gangs and families now meet as one. But there is someone still not afraid, someone who lives only to cause anarchy. The Joker.

The praises of this movie have already been sung, the fact it’s still making money on repeat viewings and the DVD release, not to mention they plan to re-release the movie in cinemas just before the Oscars. The amount of money this movie has made is incredible and I have to question how it is doing this? We all knew that interest was high going in, the death of Heath Ledger will have had an impact too but there must be something else that underlines this success.

Well the film is beautifully shot, there is a lot of intense action, the acting is sublime, even if Batman does suffer from the deep voice time to time. This isn’t your regular superhero movie, this isn’t even a superhero movie although it does feature a man in a cape. Batman is a vigilante, a symbol, he’s not Superman, he has limits as pointed out by Alfred. This is more of a crime drama, this has been touted as being like Heat and in many ways it’s exactly that.

The performance from Heath Ledger is just as everyone has said, incredible. He became this character, locking himself away to practice getting the voice perfect, getting inside his head. This is a different sort of Joker, this is one without remorse, without any care or morals. He becomes a part of Batman, the final scene he talks of how they are a part of each other, how they can’t kill each other because they are destined to chase each other forever.

Of course there are some negatives, the plot holes, the gravely voice, the run time which could have been trimmed by ten minutes or so but really doesn’t suffer. My biggest quibble with the movie was it was incredibly dark in tone and context but there were a number of situations which were shown off screen or alluded to, that could have used that darkness and gone to show the situation. Such as the Joker giving people the Chelsea-Smile, things could have been a tad more violent, tad darker (that seems wrong saying that), even if it meant bumping up the certificate a notch I have no doubt the movie would still make as much money as it has.

Overall this is an experience that shouldn’t be missed and I highly doubt there is anyone left who is still yet to see this. DVD features are a little slim, some featurettes that go into details but there is no commentary track and no deleted scenes. There was a live commentary with Christopher Nolan over BD Live but that is all. I have a feeling there will be another edition out sometime in the future that will rectify this, but I said that about Kill Bill and I’m still waiting.

This is by far the best film I’ve seen in a long time and it’s going to be hard to top. Questions of if the Joker story should continue, if Heath can be replaced and what next for Batman are all best left to the web forums. The Dark Knight should be consumed as it is, standing alone, fighting for justice on its own. If you’ve not seen it I strongly recommend taking a trip to your local IMAX or waiting until it’s re-released in cinemas, failing that pick up the Blu-Ray copy which is stunning.