Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

20 American Carol, An
xx Australia
26 Babylon A.D.
24 Bangkok Dangerous
41 Beverly Hills Chihuahua
45 Blindness
57 Body of Lies
67 Bolt
63 Burn After Reading
58 City of Ember
15 College
82 Dark Knight, The
43 Death Race
15 Disaster Movie
43 Eagle Eye
58 Express, The
49 Family That Preys, The
57 Flash of Genius
36 Fly Me to the Moon
54 Get Smart
72 Ghost Town
28 Haunting of Molly Hartley. The
57 High School Musical 3: Senior Year
55 House Bunny, The
35 How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
65 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
57 Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
73 Kung Fu Panda
46 Lakeview Terrace
52 Longshots, The
53 Lucky Ones, The
61 Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
51 Mamma Mia!
31 Max Payne
43 Meet Dave
37 Miracle at St. Anna
35 Mirrors
34 My Best Friend's Girl
64 Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
39 Nights in Rodanthe
45 Pride and Glory
58 Quantum of Solace
53 Quarantine
36 Righteous Kill
53 Rocker, The
59 Role Models
19 Saw V
57 Secret Life of Bees, The
49 Sex Drive
63 Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The
49 Soul Men
36 Space Chimps
35 Star Wars: The Clone Wars
47 Swing Vote
60 Traitor
71 Tropic Thunder
56 Twilight
70 Vicky Cristina Barcelona
56 W.
93 WALL-E
27 Women, The
47 X-Files: I Want to Believe, The
56 Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

sort by name

sort by score

xx All of Us
53 Allah Made Me Funny: Live in Concert
57 Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela, The
64 Appaloosa
69 Ashes of Time Redux
68 August Evening
xx B.O.H.I.C.A.
62 Baghead
84 Ballast
54 Battle in Seattle
xx Beer for My Horses
75 Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
xx Billy: The Early Years
66 Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
56 Bottle Shock
55 Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
50 Breakfast with Scot
61 Brick Lane
43 Call and Response
62 Changeling
49 Children of Huang Shi, The
47 Choke
46 Choose Connor
84 Christmas Tale, A
41 Cthulhu
81 Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
xx Dostana
62 Duchess, The
46 Dukes, The
63 Eden
xx Eden Lake
66 Elegy
46 Elephant King, The
80 Encounters at the End of the World
26 Everybody Wants to Be Italian
64 Fall, The
69 Fear(s) of the Dark
26 Filth and Wisdom
28 Fireproof
52 First Basket, The
67 Flow: For Love of Water
37 Forever Strong
69 Frontrunners
82 Frozen River
43 Gardens of the Night
73 Girl Cut in Two, A
73 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
54 Good Dick
30 Guitar, The
84 Happy-Go-Lucky
44 Henry Poole is Here
31 Hounddog
27 House of the Sleeping Beauties
47 How About You
54 Humboldt County
72 I Served the King of England
70 I.O.U.S. A
40 Igor
64 In Search of a Midnight Kiss
78 I've Loved You So Long
63 JCVD
41 Johnny Got His Gun
xx Just Buried
62 Kabluey
63 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
25 Lake City
78 Last Mistress, The
81 Let the Right One In
xx Lower Learning
63 Man Named Pearl, A
89 Man on Wire
xx Mary
xx Matador, The
62 Mister Foe
84 Momma's Man
51 Morning Light
79 Moving Midway
33 My Name Is Bruce
59 Nights and Weekends
73 Obscene
40 Other End of the Line, The
34 Otto; or Up with Dead People
40 Passengers
xx Phoebe in Wonderland
55 Ping Pong Playa
75 Pool, The
77 Pray the Devil Back to Hell
82 Rachel Getting Married
56 Religulous
32 Repo! The Genetic Opera
xx Roadside Romeo
53 RocknRolla
56 Save Me
74 Secret, A
45 Shoot on Sight
57 Sixty Six
85 Slumdog Millionaire
56 Special
58 Splinter
79 Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
67 Synecdoche, New York
82 Tell No One
64 Thousand Years of Good Prayers, A
57 Towelhead
72 Transsiberian
83 Trouble the Water
43 Tru Loved
83 U2 3D
61 Universe of Keith Haring
84 Up the Yangtze
52 Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived
79 Visitor, The
61 Wackness, The
59 We Are Wizards
55 What Just Happened?
66 When Did You Last See Your Father?

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Dark Knight, The
Warner Bros. Pictures


8.9

based on 39 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 1361 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and some menace

Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman

Batman raises the stakes in his war on crime. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the city streets. The partnership proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to reign of chaos unleashed by a rising criminal mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham as the Joker. (Warner Bros.)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Crime \| Drama \| Mystery \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Bob Kane (characters) David S. Goyer (story) Christopher Nolan (& story) Jonathan Nolan
DIRECTED BY:	Christopher Nolan
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 9, 2008 Theatrical: July 18, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	152 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Variety Justin Chang

Enthralling...An ambitious, full-bodied crime epic of gratifying scope and moral complexity, this is seriously brainy pop entertainment that satisfies every expectation raised by its hit predecessor and then some.

100

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Bale again brilliantly personifies all the deep traumas and misgivings of Batman's alter ego, Bruce Wayne. A bit of Hamlet is in this Batman.

100

Time Richard Corliss

Beyond dark. It's as black -- and teeming and toxic -- as the mind of the Joker. "Batman Begins," the 2005 film that launched Nolan's series, was a mere five-finger exercise. This is the full symphony.

100

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Christopher Nolan has provided movie-goers with the best superhero movie to-date, outclassing previous titles both mediocre and excellent, and giving this franchise its "The Empire Strikes Back."

100

Village Voice Scott Foundas

The Dark Knight will give your adrenal glands their desired workout, but it will occupy your mind, too, and even lead it down some dim alleyways where most Hollywood movies fear to tread.

100

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

Twisted, tortured, terrifying - and terrific.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

"Batman" isn't a comic book anymore. Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight is a haunted film that leaps beyond its origins and becomes an engrossing tragedy. It creates characters we come to care about. That's because of the performances, because of the direction, because of the writing, and because of the superlative technical quality of the entire production.

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Sensational, grandly sinister and not for the kids, The Dark Knight elevates pulp to a very high level.

100

Empire Mark Dinning

Ledger's performance is monumental, but The Dark Knight lives up to it. Nolan cements his position as Hollywood's premier purveyor of blockbuster smarts – and the Batbike is kinda cool, too.

100

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

With The Dark Knight, the cinematic superhero spectacle comes closest to becoming modern myth, a pulp tragedy with costumed players and elevated stakes and terrible sacrifices. It's the new gold standard for superhero noir.

100

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

That Ledger stands out in such a powerhouse ensemble is a tribute to his radically unhinged interpretation of a familiar character: The lank hair tinged seaweed green, the darting tongue and faint lisp that call constant attention to the ghastly rictus of his mouth, the nightmarishly smudged make up… taken together, they make previous Jokers feel like, well, jokes.

100

USA Today Claudia Puig

When was the last time you saw a blockbuster that was impeccably executed and simultaneously thought-provoking, audacious and unnerving while consistently being fun and entertaining?

100

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

succeeds as an action film, character study and metaphor for our own terrorism-obsessed time.

100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

May be the most hopeless, despairing comic-book movie in memory. It creates a world where being a superhero is at best a double-edged sword and no triumph is likely to be anything but short-lived.

100

Slate Dana Stevens

Nolan turns the Manichean morality of comic books--pure good vs. pure evil--into a bleak post-9/11 allegory about how terror (and, make no mistake, Heath Ledger's Joker is a terrorist) breaks down those reassuring moral categories.

100

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

The film's capes and cowls suggest one genre, but it's a metropolis-sized tragedy at heart.

NPR Bob Mondello

The real relationship here is between a Batman in existential crisis and a Joker who'd love to leap with him into the abyss -- tight-a--ed yin and anarchist yang in a fantasy franchise that Nolan has made as riveting for its psychological heft as for the adrenaline rushes it inspires at regular intervals.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

This comic-book movie is more disturbing, and has more freakish power, than anything else I've seen all year.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

At two hours and 32 minutes, this is almost too much movie, but it has a malicious, careening zest all its own. It's a ride for the gut AND the brain.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

The Dark Knight may not be a masterpiece, but it easily vaults to the top of any list of "best superhero movies."

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Pitched at the divide between art and industry, poetry and entertainment, it goes darker and deeper than any Hollywood movie of its comic-book kind.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The Dark Knight is dark, all right: It's a luxurious nightmare disguised in a superhero costume, and it's proof that popcorn entertainments don't have to talk down to their audiences in order to satisfy them. The bar for comic-book film adaptations has been permanently raised.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

No fair giving away the mysteries of The Dark Knight. It's enough to marvel at the way Nolan -- a world-class filmmaker, be it "Memento," "Insomnia" or "The Prestige" -- brings pop escapism whisper-close to enduring art.

New York Post Kyle Smith

The highest praise I can give a superhero movie is that it makes me forget about its 10-cent-comic-book soul.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Because make no mistake: The Dark Knight is many things, some of them deliriously fun, some of them deeply impressive, and some of them puzzling and frustrating. But most of all it is dark.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The moral dilemmas are perfectly fused with the amped-up action and outsize characters, but they're impossible to miss: like all of us, the people of Gotham have to protect themselves from evil without falling prey to it.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

You come away impressed, oppressed, provoked, and beaten down, holding on to Ledger's squirrelly incandescence as a beacon in the darkness.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Shakespearean but overlong, The Dark Knight is two hours of heady, involving action that devolves into a mind-numbing 32-minute epilogue.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Mixing bravura filmmaking with flat clichés in about equal amounts, The Dark Knight is all about dualism. Appropriately, the movie's half-inspired, half-frustrating.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

An action blockbuster extravaganza that's sadder than sad and never pretends otherwise.

Premiere Eric Kohn

Nolan's strong suits are maniacal schemers and moody character-driven intrigue, both of which make The Dark Knight a sleek (if, at close to three hours, somewhat distended) detective story.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

You keep waiting for the movie to clarify, to settle down to its archetypal purity: icon of psychotic evil against icon of neurotic good. Music by Wagner in his "Götterdämmerung" mood, screenplay by Nietzsche, with additional lines by Babaloo Mandel. Oh, what a great big movie wallow, what a transformational blast of cine-pleasure. It never quite arrives

Newsweek David Ansen

You may emerge more exhausted than elated. Nolan wants to prove that a superhero movie needn't be disposable, effects-ridden junk food, and you have to admire his ambition. But this is Batman, not "Hamlet." Call me shallow, but I wish it were a little more fun.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Christopher Nolan's latest exploration of the Batman mythology steeps its muddled plot in so much murk that the Joker's maniacal nihilism comes to seem like a recurrent grace note.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

A handsome, accomplished piece of work, but it drove me from absorption to excruciation within 20 minutes, and then it went on for two hours more.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The novelty wears off and the lack of imagination, visual and otherwise, turns into a drag. The Dark Knight is noisy, jumbled, and sadistic.

The New Yorker David Denby

The Dark Knight is hardly routine--it has a kicky sadism in scene after scene, which keeps you on edge and sends you out onto the street with post-movie stress disorder.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

The only thing here that feels truly, utterly alive is Ledger's maniacal, muttery Joker. The last laugh is his and his alone. It's enough to make you cry.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Nolan may want us to believe in the darkness that lurks within each of us, but instead of leading us to it visually, he chops it up and sets it out in front of us, a grim, predigested banquet.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 1361 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

William M. gave it a10:
Probably the most captivating movie experience I've ever had. Ledger was absolutely brilliant and compelling in his role. The contrast between hero and villain makes this movie more than a superhero movie. Truly causes one to pause and question the direction of their own moral compass.

R.J. L. gave it a10:
Enthralling and truly amazing!! The Dark Knight is one of the best super-hero movie ever made. The amazing acting and directing and visual effects makes this one of the best movies of 2008. The Dark Knight beginnings where Batman begins leaves off with the Joker causing turmoil and pandemonium in the crime infested Gotham city, the clown prince of crime soon becomes a throne in Batman side as he tries to battle the Joker and his conscience of whether or not to kill the Joker or put him away. Which bring all viewers to ask one question how far will batman go to get rid of the Joker and crime? Christoper Nolan gives us a look at the darker side of Batman and the Joker like no one has ever seen before, all adding up to the wildest and darkest superhero flick ever made. I very highly recommend this movie

Mark gave it a10:
By far the best comic book film to date. Not too many special effects. Excellent acting, especially from Ledger. Amazing score. Very dark and haunting.

B Martin gave it a9:
Darker and more complex than Batman Begins. This is one hell of a movie that will leave you exhausted but eager to see it again.

Scraglow worst reviewer ever gave it a9:
Once again Michael scraglow is on the bottom for low vote against a good movie. Why in hell does this guy still have a job as a professional critic, he's completely clueless. He's given some of the best movies out there horrible ratings and then given complete stinkers high scores. He's like a crap barometer, if Scraglow likes it, then it's crap, complete and utter fly infested maggot ridden crap. Batman was great by the way.

Stanley K. gave it a1:
Totally OVERRATED. Boring film, poor idea. Nolan should not continue Batman like this. Heath Ledger's performance was good, but he was not The Joker we all know.

Zeek S. gave it a10:
Truly amazing, sound and visuals make this movie one of the best ever. Astounding production with breath-taking performances.

Dark Knight, The Warner Bros. Pictures

Dark Knight, The
Warner Bros. Pictures