USA Today
4 stars out of 4 -- "THE DARK KNIGHT is a more thrilling, intelligent, morally complex and masterfully crafted film than any summer blockbuster in recent years. It's probably the best superhero movie to date." 07/18/2008Los Angeles Times
"Always a consummate professional, Ledger threw himself into a role he clearly relished, giving a transfixing performance..." 07/17/2008 New York Times
"Pitched at the divide between art and industry, poetry and entertainment, it goes darker and deeper than any Hollywood movie of its comic-book kind..." 07/18/2008 Entertainment Weekly
"[T]he movie exudes a predatory glamour that makes the comic-book films that have come before it look all the more like kid stuff." -- Grade: A- 07/25/2008 p.46-47 Empire
5 stars out of 5 -- "[A]n anarchic, malevolent fury of a movie....Ledger's Joker is pure, powerful, immense..." 09/01/2008 p.56 Premiere
"[A] sleek detective story....Bale and Eckhart centralize the movie's thematic concerns, causing the Joker's outrageousness to stand out." 07/18/2008 Sight and Sound
"This last development is a fine example of Nolan's flair for multivalent plot points....Nolan is aided by strong performances. Bale is focused, intense and committed to being terrifying..." 10/01/2008 p.59-60 Film Comment
"Working from Michael Mann's visual template and seemingly indebted to the hard-nosed savagery of THE DEPARTED, Christopher Nolan's second BATMAN installment has some thrilling moments..." 11/01/2008 p.76-77 Chicago Sun-Times
"The best of all the Batmans, Christopher Nolan's haunted film leaps beyond its origins and becomes an engrossing tragedy." 12/05/2008 Rolling Stone
Ranked #3 in Rolling Stone's 'Movies Of The Year' -- "[A] Batman movie that offers enough moral relativism to give you knightmares." 01/08/2008 p.116 Entertainment Weekly
Included in Entertainment Weekly's 2008 Films Of The Year -- "[A] triumph of comic-book relevance, starring Christian Bale as a superhero uneasy with his calling in a city anesthetized to matter-of-fact evil..." 12/26/2008 ReelViews 10 of 10
Consequences. In real life, these ramifications emanate from every action like ripples from a stone thrown into a pond. Often in movies, especially those that feature characters who don't play by the rules, such penalties are suspended. However, in Christopher Nolan's Batman universe, decisions and actions have consequences. The Dark Knight, arguably the moodiest and most adult superhero motion picture ever to reach the screen, illustrates this lesson in ways that are startling and painful. This is a tough, uncompromising motion picture - one that defies the common notions of what is expected from a "superhero" film. While there are plenty of action sequences and instances of derring-do, The Dark Knight's subtext has a tragic underpinning that would intrigue Shakespeare or the Greeks. It's about power and impotence, sanity and madness, image and reality, selfishness and sacrifice, and - yes - consequences...2008 may be the year that the superhero movie comes of age. Iron Man represents the best screen adventure of a Marvel hero. Now, D.C. has answered with The Dark Knight, a film so impressive in every significant facet that it makes one wonder why it took so long for the genre to reach this high level. Christopher Nolan has provided movie-goers with the best superhero movie to-date, outclassing previous titles both mediocre and excellent, and giving this franchise its The Empire Strikes Back. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
"Batman" isn't a comic book anymore. Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" is a haunted film that leaps beyond its origins and becomes an engrossing tragedy. It creates characters we come to care about. That's because of the performances, because of the direction, because of the writing, and because of the superlative technical quality of the entire production. This film, and to a lesser degree "Iron Man," redefine the possibilities of the "comic-book movie"..."The Dark Knight" is not a simplistic tale of good and evil. Batman is good, yes, The Joker is evil, yes. But Batman poses a more complex puzzle than usual: The citizens of Gotham City are in an uproar, calling him a vigilante and blaming him for the deaths of policemen and others. And the Joker is more than a villain. He's a Mephistopheles whose actions are fiendishly designed to pose moral dilemmas for his enemies...Something fundamental seems to be happening in the upper realms of the comic-book movie. "Spider-Man II" (2004) may have defined the high point of the traditional film based on comic-book heroes. A movie like the new "Hellboy II" allows its director free rein for his fantastical visions. But now "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 stories touch on deep fears, traumas, fantasies and hopes. And the Batman legend, with its origins in film noir, is the most fruitful one for exploration. - Roger Ebert
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