The Dark Knight (2008)

The Dark Knight casts chaos on the entire system of social values, democracy, and security. When watching the movie, you can get almost unforgettable feeling of augmented reality that pops out from the screen. No wonder why The Dark Knight received international critical acclaim and broke all box office records to become a number 1 film during its theatrical run.

Directed by Christopher Nolan, as well as Inception and Memento, the film carries on the idea of Batman Begins and transforms it to darker shades. While the first film shows Batman, who learned to cope with his own fear, in this sequel the character has to face an existing, unmanaged and overwhelming chaos. The Joker is a real embodiment of chaos. This is the last character played by Heath Ledger, who indeed looked frighteningly convincing in this role.

Corruption, crime, terrorism, personal freedom restriction to fight real or phantasmal battle against terrorism… These are all the realities of today's world. The intentional realism of The Dark Knight has made the film even more effective. Gotham is depicted as a living being. The city has never interested filmmakers more than just a colorful background for endless mysterious battles between Batman and criminals. Nolan manages to vividly convey all the overwhelming horror that strikes the city after the threats are voiced on television by a clearly insane human creature with paint all over his face.

In his film, Christopher Nolan creates a completely different world, his own vision of both Gotham City and Batman (played by Christian Bale known for his role of Alfred Borden in The Prestige and John Connor in Terminator Salvation). Apart from astonishing atmosphere and intense actions, the director manages to perfectly capture the atmosphere of panic among people whose lives actually depend on two people - Batman and the Joker. Have you ever thought how would you feel like if you knew you were nothing but pawns and pieces in a big tricky game, where your life was at stake?

Nolan's Joker is no more a comic's character (like the one in Burton's film). He is quite a real psychopath, a criminal who makes experiments on the entire city. In various ways, the Joker makes fun of the clichés of the genre, distorting the story of how he got scars on his face. He makes fun of Batman and the audience and make us realize that we are simply unable to understand this man and predict his next steps. The Joker has a very unusual goal for a comic book character, and the manner he does bad things is terrible in itself, although is quite attractive.

As a present-day drama, The Dark Knight revolves around vital questions and tries to get the answers. One of the key questions here is if the White Knight (district attorney Harvey Dent played by Aaron Eckhart) can stop the Joker. In other words, is there any chance that a man strictly following the law can stop a psychopathic criminal, who knows no laws and rules? It becomes clear that the answer is negative. You have to be a criminal to stop criminals. Or at least the dark knight who holds his own court. This explains the final film's scene that seems quite logical. "Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded," says Batman and his is quite right.

The Dark Knight is perhaps the first classic comic book adaptation where sophisticated characters are engaged in complex philosophical dialogues and represent unordinary ideology and worldview. While the previous films were a physical clash between the Good and the Evil, The Dark Knight is a clash of worldviews, with people's souls as the battlefield. Eventually, the main battle spreads like fire in Harvey Dent's soul.

The story line is very intricate, and there are several sharp turns that seem to move us in quite an opposite direction. The film has many moments when you cannot predict the next actions, and when something finally happens, you may be overwhelmed with emotions. This is definitely the best adaptation of a comic book, that is quite memorable and worth watching!