Batman and Robin which featured George Clooney as Batman was directed by Joel Schumacher who almost killed the franchise stone dead by insisting the batsuit had nipples as he turned Batman into a camp figure to suit his vision of the character.
Eight years later and Batman Begins was made which re-invented the franchise and made it into a grittier more realistic story and told the tale of how Batman became who he is.
Batman Begins spent half the movie telling the story of Bruce Wayne, Batman didn't feature until the second half of the film which was a brave and bold move by director Christopher Nolan.
The film succeeded on every level and paved the way for the inevitable sequel three years later.
Flming began in April 2007 and six major action heavy scenes were shot using the IMAX 70mm format which provides a more detailed and sharper image although the majority of the film was still shot on 35mm film.
The death of Heath Ledger on January 22nd 2008 was a shock to everyone in the film world and to fans around the world and the joker would become his penultimate film role.
The film has became one of the biggest box office hits ever grossing over a billion dollars worldwide.
Film Plot
Batman sets out to destroy organized crime for good but a new threat emerges in Gotham City and Batman along with Harvey Dent and aided by Lt. Jim Gordon are forced to deal with the chaos unleashed by an anarchist known only as the Joker.
Friendship and love are put to the test and sacrifices must be made in order for good to triumph over evil.
Positives
This film features a tour de force in acting by Heath Ledger who dominates everyone when he is onscreen and when you consider the acting talent involved in this film thats a very bold statement to make. He is that good though.
Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent is also excellent in his role and holds his own among a great cast.
There is some fine action set pieces and good cinematography and Batman himself has more gadgets than 007 could possibly dream of.
Picture quality is good on this blu ray release with high levels of detail on display in particular during the IMAX shot scenes but check the negatives for further information on this as there are some issues.
The sound quality is good with strong bass levels and mostly intelligible dialogue and the music score is engaging and enjoyable. Some nice split surround effects throughout the film.
Negatives
There are instances of edge enhancement throughout the movie which is a sharpening tool generally used for DVD releases to give the illusion of a sharper image on small screen televisions and it results in thin or thick halo's around objects or human outlines and it is not needed for high definition which has enough detail to not need sharpening.
The Dark Knight was scanned from a 35mm InterPositive at 4K to make the IMAX print, then the DMR processing which is a grain reduction and sharpening tool was applied, then it was recorded back out to an IMAX negative for creation of the IMAX prints and it is very likely this print was used for the Blu Ray edition.
Shooting the whole movie in 70mm would have avoided issues with edge enhancement and grain reduction would not have been needed and detail levels would have been superb.
I think the movie is a little bleak and negative at times.
Regarding sound quality i would have liked more discrete split surround effects and at times Batman's voice can be hard to make out but overall the sound mix is good.
Danny Elfman's music for the original is better.
Christian Bale and the director chose the gruff voice so it's part of the production and as such is not a fault on the soundtrack. He was easier to make out in Batman Begins.
I think Michael Caine had better and funnier more sarcastic lines of dialogue in Batman Begins and was underused in this movie and i also think Maggie Gyllenhaal was miscast but once again this is minor nitpicking and it does not detract from what is a very well made and enjoyable film.
Final Thoughts
I found this to be an engaging and thoughtful movie with some great action set pieces. I don't think this is your typical Hollywood Superhero movie and you never get the impression that everything will end happily ever after thus this adds danger and excitement to the film and keeps you watching until the very end.
Heath Ledger proved with this film that if given a meaty role he can sink his teeth into it and his character really dominates every scene he is in. This is quite a long running film at 152 minutes but the time just flies by and thats always a sign of a good movie.
Be aware that the image onscreen changes aspect ratio a few times from 1.78:1 to a wider aspect of 2.40:1 – Do not adjust your sets this is normal and due to the fact some scenes were filmed in 70mm IMAX while most of the film was shot in 35mm format.
I hope Catwoman is introduced in the third installment and if they decide to shoot that one in IMAX then i hope they shoot the whole movie in that format or use Super Panavision 70.
Click here for full HD screencaps from The Dark Knight.
Technical Disc Specifications
Releasing Studio – Warner Bros
Film Running Time – 152 minutes ( approx )
Disc Format – BD-50
Encoding – VC-1
Film Aspect Ratio – Variable 2.40:1 & 1.78:1 ( IMAX sequences )
Blu Ray Resolution – 1080/24
Audio Format – English 5.1 Dolby True HD 5.1
Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman
Directed by Christopher Nolan
This is a region free release
Film Entertainment Rating – 8/10
Transfer Quality Rating – 6/10
Sound Mix Rating – 8.5/10