The Dark Knight manages to do what few sequels do: be better than the first (the brilliant Batman Begins). Like Iron Man, super hero movies are maturing and moving into new territory. Maturing doesn't necessarily mean darker (as some seem to reflexively think), but rather deeper.

All great movies start with a great script, and Christopher Nolan has teamed up with his brother, Jonathan (the team who brought us the classic movie, Memento), to provide a script with a depth and denseness. The drama affects us, comic book fan and non-fan alike, because the special effects don't trump the performances or the story. Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale) is clearly a troubled individual who struggles with his own humanity in the face of the war he wages. Now he becomes haunted by an adversary who wants him to shed his values in order to beat the devil at his own game.

Spider-Man 3 illustrated for us the folly of trying to cram too many origin stories into a movie, especially if knowing isn't especially germaine to the storyline, character development, or theme. While several masked villains make appearances in The Dark Knight (Scarecrow, Joker, Two Face), we only see a "full" origin of Two Face (Aaron Eckhart). Continuing the pattern of forgetting about the previous series of movies, The Dark Knight corrects the travesty done in Batman Forever. In that film, Joel Schumacher portrayed Two Face (I absolved Tommy Lee Jones of blame) as a mere henchmen, as opposed to his position as Batman's number two nemesis (and, thematically, what Batman could become if he strays from his path). Only now do we get a serious examination of Two Face and in so doing, an examination of Batman, his mission, and his methods.

"In their desperation, they turned to a man they didn't understand." --Alfred (Michael Caine)

On the other side of the villain coin is anarchy's clown prince, The Joker. Heath Ledger mesmerizes with his hopefully soon-to-be-Oscar-nominated, Jack Nicholson meets Johnny Depp performance as The Joker. The first thing you have to wonder is why anyone would want to be one of The Joker's minions; after all, your time with him is always subject to random whims (read: being killed). Granted, there is a coercive element to joining his team which doesn't command exactly loyalty or sacrifice. Also, he draws henchmen much like himself: psychotic, paranoid schizophrenics. However, The Joker is far from commonplace insanity.

"The only way to live in this world is to live without rules." --Joker

We see a darker Joker than we've come to know, a truly frightening vision who sees himself not as a monster, but merely "ahead of the curve." As Alfred points out, we're dealing with someone who "can't be bought, bullied, or negotiated with. They just want to watch the world burn." A fractal personality, sort of a postmodern insanity, he creates a new persona and history each day... with no name, no alias, to deal with the pain, contradictions, unfairness, and insanity of this world. A super genius, The Joker is simply the embodiment of man's capability of evil, the monster we're all capable of being. In fact, that's his motivation: he wants to expose everyone as being no different than him.

"It wasn't what I had in mind when I said I wanted to inspire people." --Bruce Wayne

And yet The Joker is a reaction to Batman. The rise of costumed super villains in a lot of ways is simply a matter of evolution. As good stands up to evil, evil in turn won't go quietly into the night. With the arrival of Batman in Gotham City, the brand of criminals seem to rise to the challenge. The everyday muggers and mob bosses have to adjust to life among "a better class of criminals."

The Dark Knight is not a simple meditation on good and evil. It's a complex tale that reminds me of another story that examines the nature of good and evil, why bad things happen and how we choose to respond to them: the biblical story of Job. In the story of Job, Satan goes to God and tells Him that people only worship Him because He blessed them. So God gives him permission to test the best of us, his servant Job. First his wealth is taken from him, then his family, then his health. In the end, he chooses to keep his faith in God though he does have a few choice questions for God in the end.

Which brings us to The Dark Knight.

"Their morals, their code, is a bad joke." --Joker

The Dark Knight follows a Batman: Year One meets the classic comic, The Killing Joke, storyline. In it we have a battle for people's souls. The Joker, much like Satan, has a simple thesis: our morals, what we cling to as laws in our polite society, are matters of convenience which go by the wayside when times get hard. In short, everyone would be like him if we simply had a bad enough day. The Joker hopes to show the schemers—all those who seek control and make plans for their lives—how pathetic their attempts to control the events around them are. He takes the plans of those around him and turns them on themselves. He's a walking social experiment, an agent of chaos. He continues to devise situations that test the fabric of the morality of Batman, the police, the law, and society in general, humiliating them in the process if he can.

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