TDK is an instant classic that immortalized Heath ledger to a generation. To this day, I cannot recall a blockbuster movie with better writing or acting. Joker, Dent, Wayne, and Gordon are written and acted perfectly.

Another point that makes this stand out so much is that the Joker has no 'grand plan'. He just keeps doing shit, trying make Batman crack and prove the Jokers point in the eyes of Gotham's people. The ferry scenes have relatively few lives at stake compared to most superhero finales yet feels so tense.

Yeah, that is true. It is an anti-sequel in that regard. Usually sequels go for bigger and louder. But Begins' stakes were so much higher than what The Joker does with the ferries in terms of lives at stake. Just goes to show that bigger, faster, louder isn't always the right choice.

The hype for the bitch was real. Watch the end of these videos of the trailers from Iron Man screenings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I28TblCBQyw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdj-0ZVgYCs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C3bTHe_nyQ

Actually the genius of Joker as a character is he DOES have a grand plan. He just goes about things in such crazy, unpredictable, and random ways, that is seems his actions have no though behind them. He also gives a very strong impression in the movie that he has no plan. Thing is, Joker wanting to throw society into total chaos...that IS his grand plan.

What's illuminating is Joker's speech near the end of the movie. He illustrates to Batman how he outsmarted him with the turn of Harvey into Two-Face. Joker mentions having "an ace in the hole". That is not a man without a plan. It's genius how Joker fools virtually everyone in the film, and much of the audience into thinking he has no plan.

As a whole though, yes this movie was a force. Truly a gift to humanity from Chris Nolan and all involved.

One of the best marketing campaigns I have ever seen for a film. Ever. The viral marketing was absolutely genius. That, combined with an extremely strong mainstream marketing campaign. Excellent posters and tv commercials, some of the best trailers ever made.

To me, the movie itself though is almost perfect. It's so visceral, yet so grandiose and ambitious, yet also so small scale and intense and intimate. Hard to fully describe in words. Nolan's awkward fight scenes aside, it is just a spectacular film. Let's not forget that incredible soundtrack as well.

Also for such a dark and serious film, this had one of the most incredible box office runs I've ever seen. It hit a billion worldwide. Without 3D. Without China. In 2008. Also this was before many overseas markets had really exploded in terms of box office. It achieved a 3.38x final multiplier from a then-record-breaking OW domestically. Then the cherry on top, the film had out of this world home video sales.

Rewatched this on the plane and I forgot how well-edited it is. Flies by (no pun intended) even though it's over 2.5 hours.

It's CORNY though. Like, way more than I remembered. Every scene with Harvey Dent was cringe, and the guy at the beginning, "criminals in this town used to believe in something, what do you believe in???", wow. And the speech at the end too. What was all that talk about hyper-realism? This seemed as much of a cheesy comic book movie as most of the MCU.

Also I felt bad for Maggie Gyllenhaal, she's great and did fine in her (rather limited, Nolan can't write women) role, but that scene where the Joker keeps calling her so beautiful is kind of awkward...

Also, the scene where the Joker forces three black guys to murder each other would not fly at all nowadays, lol. Let's hope the Twitter crowd doesn't ever catch wind of that and try to 'cancel' the movie.

Still incredibly entertaining and well-made, and deservingly in the upper tier of comic book films.

Still second best comic book ever
A+

There has been enough said about this movie but damn it still works so well. Everything has a purpose and meaning and all things close out neatly. The only few things that I have a problem here Dent's turn, Joker's excessive plans (working in conjunction), and excessive use of music at times makes it one giant climax. Finally the connection to last movie is only Batman in here.

One of the best superhero movies made.

My second favorite Batman movie after Batman Returns. All Batman movies I've seen have had pacing issues, but this film feels like it ends around the 1:30 mark, then again around the 2:00 mark. And then there's still another half hour. But it's far more exciting than any other Batman film to date, even if I prefer the tone of Returns.

I didn't love this when it came out, it just wasn't able to engross me and I've considered it lesser than Batman Begins. Over the years I've seen a clip again here and there and after Rises I thought I may like it more than the first viewing. But I rewatched it again for the first time in full and it's still not doing that much for me.
Some things about are great, the opening and Ledger's performance. Those are some of the best of it's kind, but other than that, this is just not enamouring me that much. So while the Joker is great, truly one of the best villains in film, it comes at the cost of Batman I think. While I felt Begins has a great lead with a great supporting cast, here the latter does not pop as much too. Starting with Gyllenhaal as Rachel, maybe I got too familiar with Holmes in the role but Gyllenhaal is quite wooden. And Eckhart gives pretty much a career-defining performance as Dent, but he's not as good when Two-Face and the whole relationship between him and Gyllenhaal feels awkward to me.
So those things bring the film down for me, but ultimately this does have a lot of good stuff still. I love seeing Bale in the role as Bruce and Batman and the dark crime setting works for the film. And while I also feel it doesn't fit the film at all in a way, it was fun to see Batman venture out to Hong Kong. There's a bit of an anti-china sentiment in the film too which I didn't remember.
Nolan is a master of atmosphere and he applies it nicely to take us into this Joker terrorized world. But this film and the whole Dark Knight trilogy show me that his talent is just more suited for the non-comic world. So while I don't get the overall plaudits this receives from most, it's still a very good film in it's own right.

B+

I do think this is a great film, an A from me for sure, but not an A+. I think it kind of slogs at times and feels like a TV crime drama at times. I think how seriously it took itself is why this film is out on such a pedestal. Still its relevant commentary for 2008 keeps it as well above average coupled with an absolutely amazing villain catapults this to an all time great, but not a masterpiece for me.