Plus this is the Joker as he should be; maniacal, completely amoral, menacing and with a wicked, twisted sense of humor. Which, by the way, is big part of the reason I must say that this movie is NOT for kids. I know there are toys and cereal boxes and all kinds of merchandising aimed at kids for this movie, but it is not a kid-friendly film. Just because the hero has a cape doesn't make it something for the whole family. The Joker starts off dark and violent and only gets more so as the film goes on. Treat the PG-13 rating seriously; in fact, think of it as a very mild R-rated film when thinking about who you would take.

Finally, there's Aaron Ekhart as Harvey Dent/Two-Face. Finally, someone figured out what this character is all about and was able to portray him on the big screen properly. This is not the Tommy Lee Jones Harvey/Two-Face (blerg, no offense Tommy), but rather the tortured, divided character from the comic books. Ekhart perfectly portrays the Shining Knight of Gotham as DA Harvey Dent, and the twisted, angry, conflicted monster known as Two-Face. If there's one major disappointment in this film [Here comes the spoiler I warned you about] it's that he dies at the end. I would have really enjoyed seeing an entire film with Two-Face as the villain. Just as fascinating as the Joker was here, another movie with Two-Face as the main criminal element would have made a fantastic follow-up. I understand why it had to happen in this movie; there wasn't really another way to resolve things. But it still would have been nice to keep him alive for another film. His look was perfect, the reason he flipped his coin was perfect, everything was just as Harvey Dent and Two-Face should be. I wanted more.

I won't go on less I ruin anything more. The Dark Knight is quite simply a film that needs to be experienced. It's one of those rare films, like The Lord of the Rings, that transcends its genre and becomes something more, something special. It's also one of those rare sequels that surpasses the first. Batman Begins may have been shorter and had tighter pacing, but The Dark Knight was wise enough not to rush through its epic battle of world views, and its expansiveness suits the epic story it is telling.

There's a lot of talk about Oscar for Ledger, and I agree it's well deserved. However, I'd go so far as to say that like The Return of the King, The Dark Knight is one of those rare genre films that's worthy of an Oscar itself. It's beautifully shot, excellently performed, hauntingly scored, and breathtakingly tense. It sucks you in and won't let go until the final moments of an epic monologue that explains why its title is The Dark Knight. This isn't just another event film, it is THE film of the summer, and really of the year so far, to see. And that's not just coming from a huge Batman fan (because I am), but from someone who loves movies and really loves it when movies do something special and unexpected

Continue: 1 2 3