'No, no, you... you COMPLETE ME.'

I didn't get to check it out in the IMAX format, but I did get a chance to peep the 'Dark Knight' while out on vacation. As the flick has been out for almost two weeks, i'll spare you too detailed a review. Suffice to say that this was, as I called it, THE flick of the summer...comic-book or otherwise. It was nice to see the film live up to the years worth of hype surrounding it.

Funny enough, while Christian Bale did a fine job as Bruce Wayne/The Batman, my two favorite characters: Heath Ledger as The Joker and Chicago as Gotham City. Hands down, those are the film's two biggest strengths. While i'm not surprised I found that to be the case, I am impressed w/ just how good each functioned in it's respective role.

While I don't think i'd go so far to suggest an Oscar nod for Ledger (really, who gives a fuck about the Oscars anyhow), I will say that his performance was everything i'd want in a Joker. Where Tim Burton's version was a little more a campy Caesar Romero w/ the trademark psycho Nicholson twist, director Christopher Nolan taps into the darker source material of more recent graphic novels to generate something more frightening and substantial. Ledger proved fantastic at bringing said disturbed individual to life...one w/ an agenda based solely on getting their kicks via anarchy. It is extremely sad he'll never get a chance to reprise the role.

Taking my home-base pride out of the equation, i'd still say that Nolan used Chicago flawlessly as the perfect Gotham City for this tale to take place in. While the Batman's scope has expanded quite a bit over the years, he's always been the protector of Gotham, first and foremost. Via both story and direction, this film keeps that concept as one of it's pillars. Plus, you haven't been to the movies until you see a high speed chase on lower Wacker done up like this. Wow.

The are few minor flaws in Batman's first scene, the almost anti-climatic final standoff w/ the Joker and while Aaron Eckhart did a great job playing Harvey Dent, I found him to be a little short on gravitas upon his transformation into Two-Face. That said, I found the the overall film even more engaging/satisfying than the last and this is, w/out a shred of doubt, my favorite movie of the Summer/Comic-based film to date. A flick made for the BIG screen, don't miss this while it's in the theatre.