Batman continues?

[drodgyn]

Dark Knight kick insurmountable amounts of ass. The only downside is that after that performance, it's depressing to know that there will be nothing more coming from Heath Ledger. And don't say The Imagination of Doctor Parnassus, because Terry Gilliam hasn't made a good movie since the early 90's, and that's not an insult against him, but instead the studios with which he works. But honestly, that is the best Batman movie I have ever seen, and considering that of the other 6 live action ones, 3 are so campy that it's impossible to take them seriously, this one is just insane. The Joker is less of a campy clown and more a real being of terror like he is in the comics. Although don't be surprised if you end up rooting for him at the end. Harvey Dent is awesome in this, but Aaron Eckhart often is. Maggie Gyllenhal, despite looking remarkably like a sleep-deprived version of her brother in drag, is a marked improvement over the slightly more attractive, but infinately less talented and more frightening Kate Cruise. Micheal Caine kicks ass as always.
Nolan does a great job directing, and since there was no 2nd unit director for this, you can see how much more comfortable he is with action scenes than he was just a few years ago. I still have a bit of a hard time taking Christian Bale's Batman fully seriously, but he's good. Jeff Simon, the jaded reviewer for the Buffalo News, said the movie was humorless. I guess he has no dark sense of humor, because I was laughing quite a bit. The icing in the cake is that the movie begins just after a trailer for Watchmen. I'm less worried about it now.