The Dark Knight

7/10 (8/10 for genre). A sound successor to the first installment and well above average for its genre. Ledger’s performance as the Joker is indeed spellbinding. However, to my mind, the film was not as amazing as some of the reviews had made out. In particular, it made the classic error of many modern action blockbusters in delivering a smash-bang action sequence with such monotonous every-10-minute regularity that it undermined their impact while simultaneously starving plot and characters of the room to develop. Thus, despite its dark tone, Ledger’s undoubted menace and terroristic theme (which some have gone as far as to interpret as grand statement), this was more the classic mindless blockbuster – albeit mindlessness of a very high order! – in which crash, bang, wallops were strung together by (an often rather skimpy) plot.