O Cavaleiro das Trevas

Durante três meses, Hans Zimmer procurou o tom certo para expressar a loucura, a intriga e o mal do Joker. O motivo de uma única nota que provoca arrepios, juntamente com o desempenho de Heath Ledger, é um aspeto do filme tão forte como tudo o resto. Há alguns anos atrás, Warners esperava ressuscitar o seu ícone de banda desenhada meio-morta. Christopher Nolan não dececionou, com base nas boas críticas assegurou-se que tomava boa direção... e desta vez decidiu esforçar-se, pôr-nos de joelhos e tornar-se não o rei do filme de banda desenhada, mas um filme policial noir com raízes em banda desenhada. Este filme é um adesivo para Warners da ferida comercial de Speed Racer, e ficará durante muito tempo entre os títulos mais importantes da sua biblioteca. O Cavaleiro das Trevas é ainda mais dinâmico, polido, escuro e épico do que Batman - O Início. (17/08/2008)

The Dark Knight is a great film, but great doesn’t mean the best ever or the best in the last few years, and personally I have serious doubts it’ll be the best film of the year (it already has one competitor in In Bruges). Heath Ledger’s performance is clearly the one that has received the highest praise, his is the role that attracts most of the attention, but Aaron Eckhart is head-to-head with him and actually his character might be a lot stronger as a result. The plot moves forward very (sometimes excessively) fast, to the point that I wouldn’t have minded a longer runtime. (08/08/2008)

Endless chaos in the hands of one man, good and evil that lack boundaries, fantastic hi-tech toys, great actors, dry bon mots, one magic act, and most importantly two and a half hours of undiluted adventure where Nolan jumps from one peak to an even higher one to develop a meaningful plot, all while remembering the action that makes the weak ones wet. Since The Bourne Ultimatum, there’s now a film that resolutely rejects notions like "time-out" and "dead spot." And then there’s the oppressive music before the Joker does another number... I could go on forever. Film of the Year? Probably. (10/08/2008)

What Nolan sketched in Batman Begins leads to absolute perfection in this film. The scheme of the struggle between good and evil is dissolved, and Batman definitely loses his mythical essence and becomes a truly dark figure of a cursed outcast. Definitely the darkest comic book film ever, mainly thanks to Ledger, whose Joker is a brilliant materialization of elusive and indestructible evil. The only weakness is the somewhat overwhelming plot, which loses a bit of pace between the two climaxes. I salute the way Nolan was able to turn a comic book film into a captivating and raw thriller in the best tradition of M. Mann, Coppola or De Palma. In my opinion, The Dark Knight is truly one of the best Hollywood movies. Edit 2012: after my "obligatory enthusiasm" subsided, The Dark Knight lost a bit of its gloss - nothing has changed for me about its qualities, but there is something about its coldness, brilliant calculation and bulletproof planning that prevents me from losing myself in the film... The character of Harvey Dent also still seems as wooden and flexible to me as is required for the perfect trick at the end. Ta-da! I’m giving it one star less. (08/08/2008)

Turning a comic book adaptation into a fatal drama of almost classical proportions? Only Nolan can do that. I would consider the most problematic part of the story to be perhaps only the beginning (which is not so much the fault of the film itself as my unpreparedness for what the ride has in store for me), when the viewer is forced to jump on and swim for a while in an inflated plot that rolls forward like a tsunami, but once you tune in to the right wave, you are in for a delightful experience. The biggest plus of Nolan's film is the fact that the action on the screen is always one step ahead of your expectations and ideas, in other words, that it is constantly and continuously surprising (the Joker's stunts, the outcome of the dilemma on the ferries, etc.). And the Joker? Whenever he appeared, I would shit little bats with bliss (I would make a bedtime story out of his dialogue with Batman at the police station). Heath……And the Oscar goes to… (28/08/2008)