Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #126 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-12-08
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, English, Italian, Hebrew, Icelandic, Greek
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 152 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Dark Knight arrives with tremendous hype (best superhero movie ever? posthumous Oscar for Heath Ledger?), and incredibly, it lives up to all of it. But calling it the best superhero movie ever seems like faint praise, since part of what makes the movie great--in addition to pitch-perfect casting, outstanding writing, and a compelling vision--is that it bypasses the normal fantasy element of the superhero genre and makes it all terrifyingly real. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) is Gotham City's new district attorney, charged with cleaning up the crime rings that have paralysed the city. He enters an uneasy alliance with the young police lieutenant, Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), and Batman (Christian Bale), the caped vigilante who seems to trust only Gordon--and whom only Gordon seems to trust. They make progress until a psychotic and deadly new player enters the game: the Joker (Heath Ledger), who offers the crime bosses a solution--kill the Batman. Further complicating matters is that Dent is now dating Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, after Katie Holmes turned down the chance to reprise her role), the longtime love of Batman's alter ego, Bruce Wayne.

In his last completed role before his tragic death, Ledger is fantastic as the Joker, a volcanic, truly frightening force of evil. And he sets the tone of the movie: the world is a dark, dangerous place where there are no easy choices. Eckhart and Oldman also shine, but as good as Bale is, his character turns out rather bland in comparison (not uncommon for heroes facing more colorful villains). Director/co-writer Christopher Nolan (Memento) follows his critically acclaimed Batman Begins with an even better sequel that sets itself apart from notable superhero movies like Spider-Man 2 and Iron Man because of its sheer emotional impact and striking sense of realism--there are no suspension-of-disbelief superpowers here. At 152 minutes, it's a shade too long, and it's much too intense for kids. But for most movie fans--and not just superhero fans--The Dark Knight is a film for the ages. --David Horiuchi

Special Features

• Gotham Uncovered – how Christopher Nolan and his team developed the new Bat-suit and Bat-pod and composer Hans Zimmer musically characterized The Joker’s reign of chaos.
• The Dark Knight IMAX® scenes: view these 6 action-packed sequences
• Gotham Tonight - 6 episodes of Gotham Cable’s premier news programme
• The Galleries: poster art and production stills

Synopsis
Director Christopher Nolan (The Prestige) returns to Gotham City with this sequel to the critically-acclaimed fan favourite, Batman Begins. In The Dark Knight, Batman (Christian Bale, – American Psycho) squares off against a new, completely psychotic foe: the Joker (Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain). However, the Dark Knight finds himself fighting a battle on two fronts when he learns that a prominent political figure named Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart, Thank You For Smoking) is concealing a dastardly alter-ego known as Two Face.

Stills from The Dark Knight

Customer Reviews

Disturbingly Dark
It is not often the case that the sequel is as good as, if not better than the original, but "The Dark Knight." is definitely a worthy successor to "Batman Begins". Words of warning though, pay attention to the certificate! Don't be one of those parents that let their eight-year-old watch this film and is then surprised that their child has nightmares. This is a very dark tale! Heath Ledger's well-deserved posthumous multiple awards, for his portrayal of The Joker, creates memorable and disturbing scenes, suggestive of deeply cruel violence; stealing every scene he is in. Christian Bale, as Batman, takes the story of our hero from triumph to tragedy; supported by excellent performances from Michael Cane and Morgan Freeman amongst others. But, of course, this is much more than intense drama. The special effects are stunning and the action will leave you breathless. The filmmakers have paid attention to every detail of the visuals and soundtrack to make this DVD worth watching many times over to pick up on everything that they achieved. If that is not enough for you, the second disk of features will probably give you all the information you could wish for about the making of the film. This two-disk release is well worth adding to your collection.

so much more than a superhero movie
The dark Knight a hype machine so revved up it seemed impossible to live up to the expectations but not only does it meet expectations it exceeds them.

A year has passed since the events of Batman Begins. Batman (Christian Bale) is rounding up the last escapees of Arkum asylum (including a cameo form Cillian 'Scarecrow' Murphy.) as the crime families of Gotham city are being brought down at an impressive rate. Batman teams up with old ally Lt Gordon (Gary Oldman) as well as new one D.A Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) to close the case on them for good. Out of desperation the mob turn to the Joker (Heath Ledger) who offers his services to get rid of batman for good. Batman must balance his intertwining lives as the love of his life Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) becomes romantically involved with Dent while trying to keep Gotham safe from the increasingly violent attacks by the Joker.

Batman Begins pumped life back into the seemingly dead Batman franchise reinvigorating it with a harder gritter edge more in tone with frank millers comics but Begins is only a prelude to brilliance as the Dark Knight sweeps onto the screens.

Perhaps the quickest 2 and 1/2 hours of my life flew by watching this as co-writer/director Christopher Nolan brings a epic to the screen of proportions which no other comic book movie can match. This is dark and gritty its not an average superhero movie and bares little resemblance to its genre it's more of a hard boiled crime caper akin with Michael Mann's 'Heat' of martin Scorsese's 'The Departed', a world of corruption and decadence though it carries a 12A certificate it's one of the most mature comic book movies ever made (Also parents be warned its dark and violent), the script zigs and zags around creating a complex moral character driven drama.

As good as the script may be it would be nothing without its actors/actresses as everyone gives there all even if there only side characters like Michael cane or Morgan freeman. Maggie Gyllenhaal steps up to fill the role of Rachel after Katie Holmes declined returning to the role, she does an excellent job creating in equal if not better portrayal of the character. Eckhart shines in his pivotal role as Gotham's white knight as he begins to crack under the pressure of trying to reform as evil is ever present around him a good person trying to the right thing which makes it even more shocking as he sinks into the realms of madness when he becomes Two-Face , a dark foreboding scarred remains of a what he was a deep portrayal of a man who's lost everything which is perhaps overshadowed by Ledger's performance. Bale the hero of the piece continues to excel delivering the same quality of Begins as he yearns for a normal life and longing to hang up his cape to be with Rachel.

The late Heath Ledger gives an unforgettable performance of the Joker surpassing Nicholson's in Batman '89. Every second he is on the screen he owns it, a character so richly drawn you can't help but be mesmerised by it, manipulative, cunning, the one thing Batman Begins lacked was a central villain as it hopped from one to the next but not here, here we has a raging psychopath who knows no bounds and has no remorse. Like a force of nature the joker effects everyone's life he comes into contact with. an outcast who relates to our hero for that very reason as he plays his twisted games to see how much it takes to break a person how long it takes to abandon their morals. Ledger excels in the role. He is the joker less of a prankster played by Nicholson and more of raging killer with a sick sense of humour ( Eg, the disappearing pencil trick), a performance that will live forever and one that most definitely deserves an Oscar nomination.

Being a summer blockbuster Dark knight ups the ante with exciting action sequences directed with flair the stand out sequence being that of the attack on the prison transport truck by the joker and ensuing chase by batman as you'll find yourself unable to tear your eyes away from the screen.
However don't expect a glossy none-stop action roller-coaster about 20 -25 minutes of the 2 and a half hour film make up the action scenes, the rest is devoted to developing the characters a smart move which is where one of the films numerous strengths lie

Destined to go down as a classic, a tour de force of talent in front and behind the camera which delivers a as perfect as you can get comic book movie. Regardless of what you think about superhero movies check it out I seriously doubt there will be a better movie this year. A triumph in every respect- 10/10

The Joker Steals The Show
I gave this movie four rather than five stars because I think it suffers from being just slightly over long, its unsure whether it wants to be family viewing or just as sinister as it could be and I'm still not sure that Batman himself hasnt been miscast.

This is the second in the series of films which began with "Batman Begins", it is set years after the first film. Crime and corruption are still a problems in Gotham but pale in comparison with what they once where as a consequence of not just Batman's vigilante justice but some crusading politicians and cops.

Bruce Wayne is contemplating retiring Batman, partly for personal reasons (a love interest) but also because he feels the "state of emergency" conditions of the first movie, which had Rasa Ghoul contemplating liquidating the place, have passed.

Enter The Joker who steals the show from everyone, a psychopathic jack the ripper style character wanting nothing other than to indulge his homicidal and sadistic urges. The characterisation of The Joker is unsurpassed and is destined to become one of the archetypical film psychopaths like Hopkin's Hannibal Lector, unmistakeably unhinged, insanely compulsive and repulsive, any ingenuity in his scheming is pretty much unsurpassed by the sinister, sick nature of the same.

In the end circumstances leave no doubt that Gotham isnt ready for a world without Batman, although public attitudes to the same are changed for good, another film's set up but not in any way which detracts from this set piece.

The movie's great but I'm a fan of a lot of Batman comics, books and films and still feel that in these movies The Batman himself lacks prescence.