Overview / Story: The movie kicks off with several clown-masked criminals robbing the Bank of Gotham. You are quickly introduced to the mischievous Joker. Unlike all of the previous Batman movies, the villains of Chris Nolan's adaptation are much more real and gritty. The Joker's way of conducting mayhem is very much the way that modern day terrorists strike fear into the hearts of many. His cruel personality is truly a terrifying look into the human soul that has gone off the deep end. Although he is the main villain in the film, there are plenty of others who take the back seat to him. The Scarecrow makes an extremely brief appearance and is quickly taken care of. There are also plenty of thugs in Gotham who are the "lower class of criminals". The highlight of the villain food-chain for me was definitely the appearance of Two Face. I won't go into a lot of detail to save from spoiling the story, but I will say that any Batman fan, no matter how big or small will totally enjoy the storyline of The Dark Knight.

Story Rating: 10.0

Special Effects / Stunts: On the special effects front, there isn't much to say. There weren't really many special effects in the film. I actually preferred it that way. There was no CGI created Gotham. They shot everything in REAL places. This added to the realism of the film. Gotham looked like an actual city that you would see here in the states. There were plenty of explosions and choreographed fight scenes to please all. The stunts performed in the film were a little less than extraordinary. The positive was that Christian Bale aka Batman did do ALL of his own stunts. The problem with that was that he wasn't doing over-the-top flips or jumps during an altercation. It looked like a completely human version of Batman fighting against other completely human villains. So I guess, that's what they were going for. I believe that Chris Nolan wanted to make Batman more human. Not the Super Hero that we have known in the past with super-human strengths and powers.

Special Effects/ Stunts Rating: 7.0

Sound / Music: The soundtrack to The Dark Knight was completely epic. Every composed piece of music fit the scene's dramatic tone to a tee. At points, the music completely took over and boomed throughout the theater. The boom went all the way to the very core of your bones and made you pay attention. At other times, complete silence took hold and engulfed you in the intenseness of the plot. They definitely knew what they were doing when they edited the film and music together. Bravo!