I was one of fifty three BAGILLION people who saw The Dark Knight on open last night. It was pretty freaking awesome. The characterization of the villains The Joker and Two-Face were beyond good… more like EPIC. The story can only really be summed up with one description: complex. Either that or dark. The Joker scared the PISS out of me… but it wasn’t some jumpy, loud explosion, or mass murder kind of scare. Sure, he killed a shit load of people, but he was a deeper kind of fear. The Joker was irrational, but a sense of being completely cogent of what he was. Every moment on the screen was tense, and any humor portrayed was funny and at the same time very, very, very not-funny. I think if this Joker were to come out of the movie screen into real life, I would scream like a girl and use small children and the handicapped as meatshields to escape. And yes - this DOES apply to you Dub. Im sorry, but this mother f***er was SICK.

The rest of the movie, which I was scared would pale in comparison to the portrayal of the Joker, was actually just as deep. SPOILER ALERT

Harvey Dent was just amazing. A-fucking-mazing. The story, the character… the sympathy. You started the movie a sceptic… saw a glimpse of possible moral ambiguity. He captures a criminal, and flips a coin to decide his fate - pre-TwoFace! Only to find out, his coin had one side, and he was never going to kill him. He was truly the White Knight. His fall from grace, and slip into madness, is tragic. His world view forever changed and corrupted by the Joker. He personifies torment, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Was it PERFECT? Well… thats a strong title, and I don’t think I can give it to the Dark Knight. It had it’s campy moments. Can you say Bat-Sonar anyone? Who the fuck believed that he turned every standard cell phone in gotham into a sonar device with god-damn firmware update? If that’s possible, please turn my XBox 360 into an apple pie machine with a firmware update Microsoft!

Also, some of the dialogue was a bit too melodramatic for me. At the end, commissioner Gordon talks to his son with what has to be the most unbelievable dialogue to an 8 year old kid EVER. I can’t be too harsh, however, as these moments were few, and scattered. Most of the drama was executed perfectly, such as Dent’s loss of Rachael, and his ensuing spiral. That was handled brilliantly.

Overall, this movie is pretty epic. Yet another movie that will drive me to a PS3 so I can view in beautiful HD. I realized that comparing this movie to other comic book inspired movies cannot be done - I started off thinking I liked Iron Man more… but they are so dramatically different. One is a clever, witty take on a billionaire drunkard who shoots lasers from his hands and flies - the other is a deep and poignant take on a self-loathing billionaire who throws bat shaped ninja stars and drives a tank. Man, thats like apples and tater tots! (er… um… oranges?).

Score: 4.8 / 5.0