Batman: The Man Who Laughs

For many, many years, TDK was my second favorite Batman film behind Batman '89. I decried critics and claimed that every frame was perfect. I watched it probably 50 times or more when I was in college, because it was just so great. Unfortunately, I burned myself out on it so much that I didn't watch it until about a year ago. When I did, it wasn't the perfect masterpiece I'd remembered. Sure, it was still great, but jokes didn't land like they used to for me, and something just wasn't as fun as I'd remembered.

Ryantology found the answer to that problem. He took a film that is arguably already a masterpiece (despite my jaded 50+ viewing outlook on it) and made it EVEN BETTER. The unnecessary jokes are gone, slow, dragging moments are tightened, some neat new additions are made to the score, and the removal of that hammy monologue at the end is just perfect. This is officially replacing my blu-ray copy as my go-to version of the film.

The character that benefits most from these nips and tucks is Harvey Dent. Despite having the least amount of screen time cut out of any character in the film, the removal of sillly jokes and slow, unnecessary scenes/lines from other characters makes them more human, giving Eckhardt's performance more room to breathe among less talented peers. I'd also like to mention how seamless and absolutely wonderful the use of the alternate voice takes for Ledger's Joker are. I always liked the alternate delivery better, and man, it really works.

10/10, A++, highly recommended. Probably the definitive version of this film.

It was a masterpiece,:)