In this, the last performance he completed before his death, Ledger had a maniacal gusto inspired enough to suggest that he might have lived t...
Now you see it, now you don’t.
Nolan wants to prove that a superhero movie needn’t be disposable, effects-ridden junk food, and you have to admire his ambition.
Christopher Nolan wanted to make an action movie that was different from other action movies – darker, more twisted, more despairing, more ble...
You come away impressed, oppressed, provoked, and beaten down, holding on to Ledger’s squirrelly incandescence as a beacon in the darkness.
TimeOut November 24, 2011 The Dark Knight is a film that’s fantastic on the action front, seeds its acrobatics in its own reality, and always feels relevant even...
While the film may be a hell of a ride, it takes a hell of a long time for the ride to grind its way out of first gear.
It’s one of this year’s most haunting cinematic experiences.
Independent August 20, 2014 Among the great strengths of The Dark Knight is the way it combines hardboiled naturalism with the kind of stunts and setpieces you expect in summe...
I previously have had my own auteurist doubts about Mr. Nolan’s work, but after The Dark Knight, I may have to rethink my past reservations a...
Decent Films July 18, 2008 Delves so deeply into the darkness that lurks in the hearts of men that it comes almost as a shock, bordering on euphoria, to find that it mai...
An explosively provocative [film]… Exhilaratingly straightforward action sequences matched by moral complexity of a sort not usually associate...
Globe and Mail July 16, 2008 Mixing bravura filmmaking with flat clichés in about equal amounts, The Dark Knight is all about dualism. Appropriately, the movie’s half-ins...
Shakespearean but overlong, The Dark Knight is two hours of heady, involving action that devolves into a mind-numbing 32-minute epilogue.
Where Batman Begins was largely about the considerable personal toll exacted by its hero’s decision to fight back against the forces of evil...
Independent July 25, 2008 You will exit the cinema with an enhanced respect for Nolan’s intelligence, for Wally Pfister’s pin-sharp cinematography, and, sadly, f...
Rolling Stone June 25, 2008 The haunting and visionary Dark Knight soars on the wings of untamed imagination.
Slant Magazine July 17, 2008 The Dark Knight resounds with a throbbing topical undercurrent, its superficially good-versus-evil setup slowly revealed to be a complex...
Watching the first dizzying, vertiginous overhead shot of the glittering skyscrapers and minuscule streets, I literally forgot to breathe for ...
New Statesman June 2, 2017 Too much psychology and not enough pop. It’s possible to be too serious, you know.
The Dark Knight is noisy, jumbled, and sadistic.
Shouldn’t Nolan, marvellous as his directing here is, be creating original films rather than rebooting and retooling franchise fare?
RogerEbert.com July 16, 2008 Iron Man and even more so The Dark Knight move the genre into deeper waters. They realize, as some comic-book readers instinctively do, that these...
It’s a comic-book movie, but it’s also a dark and highly complex drama.
New York Post July 15, 2008 Batman takes a fierce stance in favor of untruth, surveillance and (but?) the American way. Bruce Wayne says, 'Batman has no limits,' and ther...
Independent August 20, 2014 This is an impressive film in many ways, and Nolan directs with real confidence, yet the overall result feels cumbersome.
The Dark Knight is probably the smartest and most stylish action movie since the "The Matrix." It thinks and philosophizes. The subject it thi...
To see it is to understand that Nolan and his co-writer brother Jonathan saw a chance to go deeper into familiar characters and mythology, a c...
Chicago Reader July 17, 2008 Christopher Nolan’s second Batman adventure is the rare blockbuster that left me engaged and thoughtful instead of bored and bummed out.
The Dark Knight is 152 minutes long but is transfixing and all-enveloping, rather than arduous.
Nolan has provided movie-goers with the best superhero movie to-date, outclassing previous titles both mediocre and excellent, and giving this fran...
The symbiosis of good and evil is the film’s philosophical core, and images of duality and cloaked identity are strewn through it like shards...
[Ledger’s] manic zest gives the film its energy.
While The Dark Knight has all the visual flair and breathtaking action sequences you’d want in this kind of movie, the screenplay by Nolan an...
This may seem like faint praise, but about the highest compliment I can give Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight right now is to say that the...
For all The Dark Knight’s occasionally bombastic excess, it sort of does top them all, and not only in star power and sheer number of things...
An exceptionally smart, brooding picture with some terrific performances.
You will feel utterly numb after the screening of The Dark Knight. The film is bleak and brilliant.
online.wsj.com July 18, 2008 Christopher Nolan’s latest exploration of the Batman mythology steeps its muddled plot in so much murk that the Joker’s maniacal nihili...
Toronto Star July 17, 2008 This film is not only one of the year’s best; it may well end up as the finest of 2008. At the very least, it deserves consideration for...
ieweekly.com July 18, 2008 I’m betraying my childhood to concede this, but Nolan has finally topped Tim Burton’s two twisted spectaculars.
[Ledger gives] a fine performance regardless, and I wish the movie around it were more deserving.
It has chases and crashes and fight scenes, including a somersaulting truck, but when it is over it is the wrenching choices, the internal con...
The film is so relentlessly bleak that, paradoxically, its blackness is not given its full due. But this comic-book movie is more disturbing, and h...
Whatever trepidations Ledger may have had about taking on such an iconic role, he blows past them brilliantly, carrying The Dark Knight along with...
The ideas here are not new to the movie world of cops and criminal, but in the context of a comic book movie, they ring out with startling cla...
This is not merely a Batman movie. It is not merely a comic-book movie. It is not merely gripping summer entertainment. It is, with Wall-E, on...
It’s still too long, especially for a comic-book movie. But with Ledger’s last performance director Nolan was blessed with the gif...
Twisted, tortured, terrifying – and terrific.
It’s jam-packed with flawlessly designed set-pieces and skullduggery, sure, but it’s also shrouded in grim portent, overlaid with ...
This movie is grim and jammed together. The narrative isn’t shaped coherently to bring out contrasts and build toward a satisfying climax. Th...
The Dark Knight is insurmountable fun.
Christopher Nolan is much, much smarter than your average filmmaker.
As promised, Heath Ledger is terrifying. Cruelty plus cleverness is a fearsome combination.
It’s a hugely entertaining bit of eye-candy.
Village Voice July 16, 2008 The Dark Knight [sounds] like heavy stuff – and it is. But I should add that Nolan also delivers the kick-ass goods, from an opening bank...
To talk of Heath Ledger’s performance is difficult, merely because, as gigantic as it is, it is only one important feature of an intricately...
