The Dark Knight: Critic Reviews

The Dark Knight should not be remembered as the movie that took Heath Ledger out. Thanks primarily to him, it should be remembered as the movie that propelled fantasy action-thrillers to a higher level.

The late Heath Ledger will be missed because of his ability to make a green-haired clown into the most terrifying sight in recent memory.

A triumph in comic book movies...the best Batman movie ever made. But it is Ledger's demeanor--his body language, eye contact, and delivery--that gets under one's skin.

It's the standard-bearer for the school of comic-book movies that confuses pompousness with seriousness and popular mechanics for drama.

This is the kind of movie going experience that people tell their grand kids about.

My question is can a third episode -- one lacking the unforgettable, superlative performance of Heath Ledger -- possibly top the magnificence of The Dark Knight? I predict a very interesting Oscars next year.

The Dark Knight is better than you have heard and as good as you had hoped.

[Gotham City] stands in for any of today's civilized nations and becomes ripe for thematic exploration. And Nolan wastes no chance to utilize this world for a tale about how fragile our morality is.

It's a movie about America, terrorism and the rule of law; about heroism and human nature. The dude in the bat suit is just window-dressing.

Tremendous fun.

A very good movie that falls short of greatness.

Whatever the causes, the effects of The Dark Knight are subtle and powerful. It's rejuvenating, it renews the faith.

Oh, and if skin-crawling performances, complex storytelling, and profound ideas don't do it for you...did I mention that the film is completely badass?

Director Christopher Nolan has crafted a Batman film of such devastating impact, it practically obliterates the memory of its predecessors -- including Nolan's own Batman Begins.

The Dark Knight resounds with a throbbing topical undercurrent, its superficially good-versus-evil setup slowly revealed to be a complex examination of the ways in which democracies can, and must, combat zealotry.

The Dark Knight illuminates courtesy of Ledger's brilliant interpretation of the madman.

The Dark Knight is a complex and violent tale of clashing egos. The disturbed verses the disturbing. And in the title, underline the word dark. Add an asterisk. Italicize dark's font. Make it bold and bigger.

The Dark Knight is a masterpiece, easily the strongest effort in the history of its genre and one of the best movies of the decade.

See this one on the biggest screen you can (IMAX, ideally), and experience both the magic of top-notch technical filmmaking and the bittersweet pleasure of watching a young actor, gone too soon, giving a performance that won't be forgotten.

The whole thing would be worthwhile if for nothing else than the late Ledger's brilliant and creepy performance as the unhinged, deranged villain. Hopefully, his achievement will be remembered when film-award season comes around.

As promised, Heath Ledger is terrifying. Cruelty plus cleverness is a fearsome combination.

Heath Ledger's Joker is, in many ways, symbolic of Nolan's overall success with The Dark Knight; subtle and restrained, but always two shakes shy of bloody holocaust and a masterpiece of cinema that time will verify.

I'm tired of the early Oscar talk too, but when you're talking the best performance in years, if not decades, it's worth talking about. The whole movie is worth the buzz. Christopher 'Slowly Revealing Myself To Be God' Nolan has done it again.

Ledger's performance reigns over Nicholson's by taking evil to a new level. If you don't see this in theatres, then you are missing out on one of the biggest and best films in history.

Ledger's Joker sports greasy, green-tinged hair and a permanent slouch. It's as if he had bad posture as a kid and things only got worse from there.