The new person to envy: Tim Bisley. Tim is a scooper over at AICN who has seen The Dark Knight and written the first review. Basically, the film is amazing and we’re all the poorer for not having seen it yet.
Some of Tim’s thoughts:
"Heath Ledger's performance of the joker is truly one for the books… The Joker is almost more of a terrorist than criminal. He is not motivated by money. He wants to see people suffer… Its a damn shame that this was Heath Ledger's final major performance as it shows a whole different side to him as a performer and I now know that he was endlessly talented…Best supporting Oscar anyone?
"If [Batman Begins] was about fear then TDK is about hope and is relevant in today'stimes. Harvey Dent is a good honest man who is willing to bear the weight of bringing down all the criminals on his shoulders and what that means for his own life and those he loves. In terms of his transition to Two Face all I will say is that everything online that I've seen is fake.
"The film feels more like a crime drama in a grand city scape than a typical comic book movie. It feels like Heat except Batman is Al Pacino and The Joker is Robert De Niro and just like in that film we have a great scene between Heath Ledger and Christian Bale across a table. There is also an element of a Greek Tragedy.. There is a vast sense of morality at play within the film."
He also compares the feeling of the film to The Godfather II (a sequel that doesn’t feel like a sequel), says that Christian Bale “owns” the Batman role, and that “There is a prestige moment within the film that is a true Chris Nolan moment” (although I’m not sure if Tim means the Christopher Nolan film The Prestige or something else).
The review has a number of spoilers, so if you want to walk into the theater in a virgin TDK state of mind, skip this and just wait three weeks. Three loooong weeks…