Here's a review of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight.

As many have already found out, this is a truly impressive film, full of intrigue, action and intensity. The title itself is very apt, as this film feels as if it is set completely during a "dark night", where the criminals rule and inflict terror on the innocent residents of Gotham City. Of course, despite being a "Batman movie", the star of the film is the Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger. If Hollywood is going to ever recognize the efforts that go into large-scale big-budget action movies, this is the time. If Ledger doesn't receive a nomination for his portrayal of the demented terrorist, the only greater tragedy would have been his untimely death earlier this year.

When Christian Bale isn't attacking (physically? verbally?) his mother, he delivers another strong performance as Batman/Bruce Wayne. His blandness as Wayne gives him lots of room to work with as the Caped Crusader. As Wayne, he appears almost asleep, but as Batman, he never sleeps. He gives the character exactly what it needs: consistency and an uncartoon-like countenance that has been missing since Michael Keaton in the first Batman.

Filmmaker Kevin Smith suggested that The Dark Knight builds on Batman Begins the same way Batman Begins built on the earlier Hollywood incarnations of Batman. That's a pretty big leap if you consider the difference between the last of the "early Batmans" and Batman Begins. It's hard to argue with Smith, though, since The Dark Knight took a good thing and made it that much better. First, there's no Katie Holmes to encourage the viewer's imagination to drift to Tom Cruise. Maggie Gyllenhaal seems a natural fit for the role, in all the ways Katie Holmes didn't. The inclusion of Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent adds a new element to the movie, which unfortunately gets lost in Hurricane Heath and his creepy facepaint. There's probably an entire other movie lurking in the Dent storyline alone. Then again, at a solid two and half hours long, The Dark Knight practically is two movies. Christopher Nolan made a wise move by having Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman reprise their roles as not only Bruce Wayne/Batman's steadying force, but the entire film's. Without their presence, this may have come across as another "psycho does crazy stuff, but the hero wins" kind of story. They add depth and depth is good.

Predictably, the story incorporates a fair amount of societal issues, primarily in the main characters. The terror that the Joker unleashes on Gotham City and the resulting fear is akin to the fear in Gotham's inspiration, New York City, after its terror. The citizens want to continue to live their lives as normal as possible, but there are always reminders of the world they and their city live in. As this fear manifests itself into paranoia, people start to act on their paranoia and the real trouble begins. At the center of the trouble, of course, is Ledger and his Joker. It would also be impossible to look past Harvey Dent's "two-faced" political motives and actions without a reflection on the real world. Clearly, someone spent a good bit of time thinking through this movie and the effort shows.

The Dark Knight will smash box office records, as has already been demonstrated with its enormous opening weekend. This will turn into enormous first two weeks, first three weeks, first month, first quarter and so on. The question is, exactly how much money will it make and exactly how many more of these films might we expect. The twenty-first century superhero movie has finally come into its own, after a promising start of the Spiderman trilogy and the X-Men movies. With Batman Begins, Iron Man and now The Dark Knight, this could be a definite shift in movie-making for the foreseeable future.

By the way, it's important to note that I haven't seen the movie yet and really haven't gone to any great effort to read about it. Or is it really that important?