STUDIO: Warner Brothers
RELEASE DATE: July 18, 2008
STARRING: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Eric Roberts, and Michael Caine
WRITTEN BY: Jonathan & Christopher Nolan
DIRECTED BY: Christopher Nolan
GENRE: Action
RATING: PG-13

More than enough comic book movies have asked the important question of what it means to be a hero but they've almost always kept it within the context of the particular man in tights. Peter Parker feels bad for letting his Uncle Ben die and Wolverine has anger issues associated with his heroism, but it's mostly about them. The Dark Knight takes the question a complex but logical step further. What does it mean to everyone else who lives in a world of heroism and villainy? When chaotic evil meets relentless good what happens to the average men and women caught in the middle?

As you might have heard, The Dark Knight is not your average summer movie. It's one of the most ambitious films of the year. Critics have marveled at Pixar's willingness to make cartoons more for the parent than the child and now, mere weeks later, co-writer/director Christopher Nolan has done something arguably more remarkable by taking the traditionally dumbed-down world of superheroes and made one of the most complex examinations of heroes and villains in the history of the medium. You've probably heard the comparisons to The Empire Strikes Back and even Heat and The Untouchables and wondered if they could be true. Someone asked me the other day, "Is it really that good?" Without hesitation, I replied, "No, it's better."

The camera pans over rooftops to a dark skyscraper window that suddenly shatters. Men in clown masks shoot a zip line to the roof across the street and a daring bank heist is underway. We cut to the back of a man holding a clown mask and a bag perfectly still. Instinctively, we know this is not another criminal. It's THE Joker. As the camera reaches his back, a car screeches up and he's off. He won't really be as still as that awesome opening shot again in the entire film. Over the next six minutes, The Dark Knight makes its bleak intentions known. The Joker's plan is to rob a mob bank, where bad men keep their cash. To do so, he puts live grenades in the hands of hostages and instructs each of his cohorts to kill the person just down the food chain after they've completed their job. Immediately, The Dark Knight is violent, dark, chaotic, and riveting. It will be so for the next two-and-a-half hours. Don't expect a comfy ride. This is escapism at its bleakest, but also its more rewarding.

After the heist, Nolan and his co-writer/brother Jonathan Nolan pull a trick from the magic bag of many a comic book writer, wrapping up a few dangling plot threads from the previous film. So, we spend a little time with the Scarecrow, who is still trying to scare people and has actually convinced some of his team to dress up as Batman. One heist with "fake Jokers" followed by a scene with "fake Batmen". It's not a coincidence. The Nolan brothers' Oscar-nomination-worthy screenplay will focus on duality - black and white, good and evil, Joker and Batman, Two-Face - throughout.

It turns out that Gotham is still living in fear. No one is quite sure what to think of the vigilante who dresses like a Bat and there's been a power void since the death of Tom Wilkinson's baddie in Batman Begins. The Joker (Heath Ledger) isn't so much interested in filling that vacuum as he is in exploiting its existence to create chaos. Only one man represents pure order, the city's "White Knight", D.A. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). Dent is completely fearless, unafraid to confront the scum of the Earth in the courtroom and take them down. He also happens to be dating the lovely Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), which brings both his personal and professional lives in touch with Batman/Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale). Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman, who has a much more developed part than in the first film) stands by both of their sides, recognizing that it takes all kinds of heroes, vigilante and legal, to keep a world like this in order.

Like the best "Part II"s (and The Dark Knight is more a "Part II" than most franchise sequels), Nolan's film takes what was set up in Batman Begins and enriches it. Anyone can make a "bigger" sequel (just ask Joel Schumacher) but the best sequels know that more isn't always the answer. At its core, The Dark Knight is actually much simpler than Batman Begins, a film that had to tie together several variations on the origin of the legendary hero, take him from exile to hero, build a very realized world in Gotham, and give action fans what they want, all in a shorter running time. DK is really only about four people - villain, hero, cop, and lawyer. But, thematically, it's so much more than that. The great movies grow richer and deeper in memory and The Dark Knight will linger with you for much more than just a "gee-whiz" action sequence or a wicked special effect. Although, of course, that stuff isn't forsaken...action fans won't be disappointed. What's remarkable is that neither will drama fans.

Almost 1000 words in and I haven't even touched on what everyone is talking about when it comes to The Dark Knight, the performance of Heath Ledger. It deserves all the hype and more. Every single decision made by Ledger, from his vocal inflections to the way he moves isn't just perfect, it's the kind of choice that you know only he would have made. Losing Ledger is one of the saddest events in the movie industry in many years, but it should be recognized that most actors will live decades and never give a performance anywhere near this good. What's even more remarkable is that Ledger seemed to raise the game of everyone around him. Sure, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman can't get much better, but the real surprise here is Aaron Eckhart, who gives the best performance of his career in a role that's arguably the most challenging, and arguably the central focus of the entire film. Ledger is a shoo-in for a Supporting Actor nod, something old-fashioned critics have already started to deride, which means Eckhart joining him in the category is damn near impossible, but it would be deserving.

Instead of piling on more reasons that you should see The Dark Knight, I'll just close by laying it on the line - this is the best superhero movie ever made. By far. Not even close. And that's coming from someone who put the great Spider-Man 2 in his top ten of its year. I still love that movie but The Dark Knight is on another level, a masterpiece of good and evil with Oscar-worthy performances and technical accomplishments that has the potential to impact the genre more than any film since Christopher Reeve put on red tights.

When I was thirteen, I went to see Tim Burton's Batman three days in a row - the Friday it opened and the Saturday and Sunday matinees. It's taken two decades, but here I am again, anxiously anticipating seeing a Batman movie for a second, third, and fourth time. 2008 may still be an awful year for film but, no matter what happens in the next six months, it's given us two instant classics (this and Wall-E), films with very high expectations that their talented filmmakers launched over into movie history.