A darker knight

Just got back from seeing the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight" and on my way home, I was trying to think of a succinct way to put into words my thoughts about this flick.

Then I remembered a favorite expression of a good friend of mine, Kelly McLinden, which goes something like, "Holy CRAP!"

Personally, I haven't seen this movie get a bad review so you can believe everything you've heard about it. Simply put, this movie is amazing. It's definitely dark (both in the way it looks and in tone).

Two things stand out: this was a hell of a role for Heath Ledger to have as his final appearance on the silver screen. As far as I'm concerned , there's no comparison between Jack Nicholson's Joker and Ledger's ... Ledger's is much more realistic. If you know anything about the Batman comics, you know that the Joker character is a psychopath and a criminal. While Nicholson's Joker was psycho, he didn't really have the edge that Ledger gave the character. Tim Burton's two Batman movies were good, but they were a little too campy.

Chris Nolan's Batman movies (the last two made thus far), however, have much more of an edge and again, Ledger stole every scene he was in. He was already a star, but I really think this role would've catapulted him as made him a major film star.

The other thing that stood out was that during the last 1/3 - 1/4 of the movie, things happen (no spoilers here) that, for a change, do not leave it obvious that there will be another movie. The way this movie was written, there's a distinct possibility that this incarnation of Batman could be over, which would be kind of disappointing because Nolan has really done the Batman character justice.

So glad I saw this in the theater ... it's big, loud and a lot of fun to watch on a large screen.

Talking with a friend of mine last night and he said this movie was the best super hero movie he'd ever seen ... I totally agree and will take it one step further by saying this is one of the best movies I've ever seen, period.

Update: I've seen this movie twice now (can't remember the last time I did that) and if I could have, I would've bought tickets for the next show. I went with another couple and my wife, Kell ... she's not really into these kinds of movies but the next day out of no where she said, "Man, that movie really stays with you, doesn't it?" Yeah, it does.