The Dark Knight

(let the link fully load and watch the trailer)

Queen Tiger and I had a date night last, and took in the latest in the Batman saga.

It was dark, really dark, I mean verrrry dark in that movie.

Somewhere I read that the Batman movies are/were judged by their villains. The first with the Joker was more about Jack Nicholson and his scenery chewing than Michael Keaton. The next forgettable "Batman Returns" with The Penguin and the Catwoman was repugnant.
Val Kilmer and Chris O'Donnell were outclassed by Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carey in "Batman Forever" although Kilmer did have a certain weirdness that almost made him believable as Batman.
George Clooney while painfully bad as Batman was only saved by having to act against Chris O'Donnell, what-her-face (Fatgirl?) and the combo of UmaThrman/Arrrrnold - "I AM Mr. FREEZE". This movie was so bad that I actually turn it off when it comes on TBS and thats saying something.

What was interesting about "Batman Begins" w/ Christian Bale was that the movie was really ABOUT BATMAN! The villain was secondary and the story about how this guy decided to run around wearing a bat suit fighting crime almost made sense. It set up the next movie and apparently really stuck to the graphic novel's sense of darkness and forboding.

In "The Dark Knight, the villain comes back to the forefront and man-o-man is he nasty. Heath Ledger is as creepy a bad guy as I have seen on screen in a very long time. He absolutely dominates this movie. Had he been The Joker in the first movie, Jack could have never played the part and the rest of the comic bad guys would have disappeared as well. In all but the last movie the villains are comic book characters who exist to provide the good guys with someone to defeat but with TDK we venture into psycho-land. Ledger is psychotically bad with very little humorous intent other than a twisted absurdity that makes you laugh just not in a good way. The odd thing is that from the moment you meet him on screen, you cannot take your eyes off of him.

When she asked about taking her boys to see it, I told the gal who cuts our hair, that she might want to think about it. There is no sex or profanity in this movie but it would scare the bejeebers out of an 8 year old who has an imagination. This guy is the stuff that bad dreams are made of.

Oh yeah, did I mention that

IT IS REALLY LOUD!!!!

All in all it was a good movie, definitely worth the $20.00 we spent at Fandango. I might even see it again if I could catch a matinée. (I'd take ear plugs)

(07.26.08 Edit)
Saw it again at the IMAX. I wish i had seen it there first. There are a number of scenes which are shot in IMAX format that are pretty incredible.