Eleven Years On, The Dark Knight Is Still A Masterpiece

Analysing the best superhero movie

Photo by Andrew Rice on Unsplash

I remember the anticipation building up inside of me in the months before the release of The Dark Knight in 2008.

I had thoroughly enjoyed Christopher Nolan’s first offering in his Dark Knight trilogy, Batman Begins. It was a world away from the more fantasised offerings of previous Batman films by directors such as Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher.

Nolan’s Batman felt more visceral, more real and more relatable. I could hardly wait for the film to be released.

The hype behind The Dark Knight is unlike anything I ever experienced with a film before. The only comparison I can make is with the recent Star Wars films, but I still don’t feel they compared to the hullabaloo associated with The Dark Knight.

A lot of this was due to the tragic death of Heath Ledger who played Batman’s arch-nemesis, the Joker, in the film. There was constant chatter that Ledger had put in a performance for the ages during filming. When it was reported he had died of an overdose six months prior to the film’s release, this talk went into overdrive.

In some ways, Ledger’s death only added to the hype surrounding the film. The tragic death of the young actor sent the media into a frenzy and…