Holy sequels, Batman!

Wow. At 3 AM after viewing a midnight showing of The Dark Knight, that's all I could think to say this morning. Not only is this the greatest film adaptation of Batman ever made, it may now be the benchmark of what any comic-book movie should be. It's smart, moody, tense, suspenseful, exciting, multilayered--everything you'd want not only in a summer blockbuster popcorn flick, but also an intelligent film that does not require any suspension of disbelief. It's exactly what we'd always hoped for when we dreamed of our favorite comic book heroes coming to life on the silver screen.

The Dark Knight takes place about where Batman Begins left off. Gotham is still a haven for mob bosses, and crooked cops, but the tide seems to be turning. Batman (Christian Bale) has put fear into criminals who now think twice about their deeds as they prowl the streets at night, and new uncorruptable district attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), has publicly declared that he and the citizens of Gotham have the ability to reclaim their city. He is the "White Knight" that the city truly wants, the handsome photogenic hero that doesn't create any moral quandaries like the outlaw vigilante actions of The Dark Knight. This gives Bruce Wayne perhaps a glimmer of hope that he might be able to hang up his cape and cowl to lead a more normal life that has room for his childhood love, Rachel Dawes (Maggie Glyllenhaal). Evil always lurks in the shadows, however, and this time it's in the form of the Joker (Heath Ledger), a representative of true chaos and anarchy whose acts of crime and violence seem to have no clear purpose at all except as some sort of odd social experiment.

So much has been written about Heath Ledger's performance, and I won't add much more here. The hype regarding a possible post-humous Oscar is quite real. He lives the role of the Joker in a way that's almost a bit scary and creates a Joker that is a pure embodiment of the insanity that you feel reading any of Frank Miller's work on the comic book versions of Batman. Christian Bale, too, performs well not only in creating the imposing figure that is Batman, but also seems to be quite able to turn a complete 180 in shaping the playboy aloofness of Bruce Wayne. Michael Caine as Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox round out a supporting cast that is dependably strong. Even the replacement of Katie Holmes with Maggie Glyllenhaal was a nice change (although still a somewhat underdeveloped character). What surprised me the most, though, was the strength of Aaron Eckhart's role as Harvey Dent and the importance his character had in the entire movie. His evolution from pristine and heroic D.A. to what we all know ends up as Two Face is very true to what he was in the comic books, and very symbolic of the entire theme of the movie--that the line between good and evil, hero and villain, self-sacrifice and self-preservation is very fine and easily crossed given the right situation.

Also what I found good about this film was how they started to highlight Batman's intelligence and forensic capabilities--a true detective in the spirit of the original comics. In addition, you get to see how he continually tries to find ways to adapt and utilize technology in a way that's not over-the-top and distracting. It's all small glimpses of what we always read and see in the comic books that got my geeky heart all in a flutter. And if that weren't enough, they managed to throw in a bit of 007 with Lucius Fox in the role of Q Branch, and Bruce Wayne filling in for James Bond. Very cool.

The score, with some sustained off-kilter strings, really seem to heighten up the tension to the point you almost feel like those strings are about to break. At times, I thought I was watching an art house film, which is a good thing in my book.

My previous benchmark for the comic book hero genre of films has always been Superman. The Dark Knight will probably go down in my opinion as equal or even superior, but I think I'll have to give it a few years to breathe to see how time will effect my thoughts on this. What's interesting to me, though, is as I say that, you realize how polar opposite the movies Superman and The Dark Knight are. Perhaps that's the joy of watching these two films and comparing them. In the comic books, Superman and Batman are either portrayed as good friends in the fight against evil, but other times as foils in their opinions of what truth and justice really is. And in that same vein, these two films are quite different. Superman's way of bringing about justice is clean, Batman's is quite dirty and hard to stomach. It's as if you're asking the audience which camp you fall into. There's no clear right or wrong.

This has been a great summer for comic book movies. Iron Man raised the bar early in the summer, The Incredible Hulk kind of simmered, and now The Dark Knight has pushed it way up into the stratosphere. How Christopher Nolan is going to top himself in the third installment seems to be quite the challenge (and almost impossible)--I can't wait.

I don't care if you have little kiddos to watch at home. Get a babysitter. The Dark Knight is worth it.