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So, as everyone is probably aware by now. The Dark Knight came out, and, seeing as my website is devoted to comic book nerdery, it only makes sense that I’ll be commenting on it. Every positive thing you could ever hear about this movie will not do it justice. It is an experience. Everything about it happens in a way that I can only describe as somewhere between “epic” and “completely fucking insane.”

But let’s get started.

Before the movie even begins, I was hit with the trailer for Watchmen, which, seeing on the big screen, felt amazing and beyond what I could have even thought. It only helped to set the mood for the epic atmosphere. But that’s not the movie.

You probably already know the plot of the movie. Joker comes into town, fucks shit up, and Harvey comes Two-Face. That’s pretty well all you need to know, since I’m going to try to avoid spoiling as much as possible, but some things I just want to share. Instead I’m gonna talk about other aspects of the characters that don’t pertain directly to the plot.

Let’s start off with the primary person here, Batman. Batman is basically the same as he was in Begins, but has a bit more experience under his belt. Batman doesn’t really have a lot of screen time. Most of the time is spent focusing on Bruce’s conflicts, as well as The Joker and Harvey Dent. Batman’s screen time, though, is more than adequate, considering the movie is almost three hours long. The battles are much better with Batman, and the new suit was actually introduced in a way that made it seem rather plausible.

Since the Manor was destroyed at the end of Begins, Bruce has taken to living in a penthouse with all of his Batman materials in bunker of sorts in an off-site area. It feels like a brightly-colored batcave and the sterility of the room was unsettling but rather fitting with the whole of the movie.

Bruce’s emotional conflicts play a large part into the movie because, as you may have seen in trailers, Harvey is dating Rachel– who I never liked, because I’m not a fan of obligatory love interests, but Maggie is better than Holmes. Bruce also has to deal with the Joker, who I’ll talk about later, and having to come to terms with the things that are going on within the movie.

Eckhart also plays a wonderful Harvey Dent, and his time as Two-Face was also wonderful. There was no point in the movie where he second-guessed his coin, thankfully. I was worried, based on my memories of Batman Forever that such a thing might happen.

But let’s talk about The Joker, because that’s the key person in this movie. This is NOT the Joker from the animated series, or from the 1980s movie, or from anything else you have seen with the Joker. Heath has taken the pure essence of The Joker– the malice, the hate, the insanity, the humor– and blended them into something utterly horrifying. This Joker is completely insane, but seems to know what he’s doing, and that’s what makes him frightening.

This Joker is a force in every aspect of the word. He appears from nowhere, he is no one, and all he does is bring destruction in the entire movie. Just watching him, I was astounded by him, how he moved. It was like watching a physical incarnation of chaos walking the streets.

It was The Joker, pure and simple. He didn’t look like The Joker, he didn’t have Joker’s History– he has no history– but he is The Joker, make no mistake about this. Getting past the scarred smile, and the long hair, and that he wears makeup, that is sometimes difficult. But it has to be done, or else you can’t appreciate just how much Ledger put into this role. The way he walks, talks, moves his hands, licks his lips and everything else. He didn’t feel like an actor in a movie. He felt like The Joker. It was a beautiful thing, really.

He was funny. It wasn’t “Two guys walk into a club”, but it was bleak, black humor. The kind of laughter that makes you uncomfortable afterward. The kind of laughter that you have because you’re surprised by the action, and you have no other reaction. I’ll share one scene.

In the trailers, and TV-Spots, there is a collection of criminals– crime syndicate people. You see Joker there, and typically they show him saying two things: “Here’s my card” and a presentation of a Joker playing card, and “… kill the Bat Man.”

The piece before that is what I’m going to mention. And is a perfect example of the humor.

Following blowing up a large number of things, the criminals have all gotten together to get their money moved to a secure location. The Joker isn’t going to have this. So he walks in, laughing sarcastically. Drawing is laughter out, to the point that you’re laughing just at how long it’s taking him to finish laughing. “And I thought my jokes were bad.”

A cohort for one of the crime bosses stands up. “I’m going to show you a magic trick.” The Joker says, taking a pencil out and standing it on a desk. “I’m going to make this pencil disappear.”

He grabs the cohort, and smashes his face onto the pencil and desk. “Ta da.”

The man falls to the ground, dead, and the Joker resumes casually talking to the crime bosses.

The whole theater laughed.

If you are a Batman fan, who enjoyed Batman Begins you will absolutely love this movie. You will love every bit of it.

If you aren’t the kind of person who enjoys these takes on the movies, I ask you to just give this one a try. It is, by no means, a translation of the comics. But you knew that. That’s why you probably aren’t seeing it. Or you’ll see it just to complain. But look past the things you don’t like, if they’re just superficial, like the Joker’s smile. This is probably the greatest comic book movie out now.

Sin City and 300 while accurate translations of the comic, do not have the same feel, the same emotions, that this movie carries.

My only hope is that Watchmen is even half as good.