"Dark Knight" is one for the ages

"The Dark Knight" is not a movie for children. Let's get that right out of the way up front.

The themes of the film are way too dark for younger viewers, and the appearance of one of the villains near the end of the movie will definitely give the little guys nightmares for weeks. That being said, the movie was absolutely awesome.

I have been waiting for this film ever since the end of 'Batman Begins" three years ago. In the final scene of that film Lt. Gordon (played by Gary Oldman), hands a card to Batman saying that there was a new bad guy causing some real trouble, and Batman flips it over, and the card has a Joker on it. I was hooked. I couldn't wait for the sequel to arrive, and now that it has, it did not disappoint.

By the end of the first scene of the movie, I knew I was watching something special. A massive bank robbery goes horribly wrong (or does it?), resulting in only one member of the heist crew still alive to drive off with the money. As the robber is leaving the bank, the bank manager lets him know that he has stolen from the wrong people (it's a mafia bank, after all) and the robber turns to the camera, removes his mask, and viola! It's the joker. He promptly sticks a hand grenade in the bank manager's mouth, with a piece of fishing line tied to the pin of the grenade. The other end of the string is connected to the getaway vehicle, and he drives off, pulling the pin on the grenade that is stuck in the bank manager's mouth.

This is a new villain for Batman: a remorseless human being with no reason for being evil, except for wanting to watch the world burn around him.

Thanks in part to the Joker, Gotham City has become a horrible place to live in the last few years. The city's rising crime rate is Batman's reason for being. He is there every night, striking fear into the hearts of criminals everywhere. He is Gotham's faceless hero. Their only hero. That is, until the new district attorney, Harvey Dent, is elected.

Harvey becomes the new crime-fighting hero, only this time he puts criminals away using the legal system and during the light of day. This has earned him the nickname "Gotham's White Knight". The war against crime is being won, with Batman fighting in the shadows, at night, and Harvey fighting during the day, in the public eye.

Christian Bale steps right back into the batsuit with no problem. He is as believable as ever as the Caped Crusader. (My only problem with his performance is that low guttural growl he speaks with when he is Batman, but that's just a minor nitpick.) We see his inner turmoil come to the surface as he comes to grips with the fact that he may never be able to quit being Batman, and thus he would have to give up the love of his life, Rachel Dawes — played, this time around, by Maggie Gyllenhaal — who is now dating the new DA Harvey Dent.

Whereas "Batman Begins" is about Bruce Wayne and his struggle to secretly become the hero that Gotham wants, "The Dark knight" is about Harvey Dent and his struggle to publicly become the hero that Gotham City needs, and subsequently put Batman out of business. Harvey Dent, played flawlessly by Aaron Eckhart, is a character who is likable at first glance, but when you get right down to it, he has a darker side, as well ¿ Another face, if you will.

Last but certainly not least, we come to the Joker. Batman's arch-nemesis. Evil incarnate.

Until last night, it was hard for me to think about the character of the Joker and not immediately think of Jack Nicholson's turn in the 1988 Tim Burton classic film. His Joker was the performance for the ages, the one to be remembered for all time ¿ or so I thought. Once I saw Heath Ledger's Joker on screen, I immediately thought "Jack who?" Ledger IS the Joker. His performance is one of such intensity, and restrained homicidal mania, that it is nearly impossible to take your eyes off him whenever he is on the screen.

There has been a lot of talk lately that Ledger should get an academy award nomination for his work on the film. To be honest, I thought that it was a ploy by the studio to hype the film, since Ledger's untimely death in January of this year. However, after actually seeing his performance, and not being able to take my eyes off him the entire time he was on screen, I would have to agree. He deserves an Oscar, or at least some type of nod at the ceremony, for his original take on this iconic character.

In my review for "Iron Man" earlier this summer, I compared it to what I believe to be the best superhero movie of all time, "Superman 2." Now I believe we have a new champion. "The Dark Knight" not only knocks "Superman 2" out of the top spot on my list as the greatest superhero movie ever, it may well be creeping toward the top spot on my favorite movies of all time list. Watch your back "The Big Lebowski," the Joker is standing right behind you.