(Don’t worry: no spoilers here.  Just my not-so-humble opinions.)

The Dark Knight was the movie I most anticipated this summer.  I loved 2005’s Batman Begins, with its dark, edgy tone that gave the movie a sense of realism and poignancy not seen in previous screen adaptations of the Caped Crusader.  Up to and including today, I read numerous newspaper and magazine reviews, and watched various “first look” and “making-of” featurettes on Christopher Nolan’s second attempt at Bob Kane’s comic creation, trying to get as much information as I could about the movie.  This was probably not the best way to go into such a hotly anticipated film, but I’m a Batman fan, so I was going to read/watch any and all scoop I could find.  And after seeing the film today, I can safely say that it lives up to the hype.  It’s not a perfect movie, but it’s good.  Really good.

First, the not-so-good stuff.  It’s long.  With previews and all the pre-film stuff, prepare to spend almost three hours in your seat.  Just when I thought the movie was wrapping up, it got going again, making it feel almost like two movies in one.  I did think to myself, “Man, this is long;” yet, I can’t see how any part could have been left out.  In short, there was a lot to take in.  Also, some of the dialogue at the end was not the greatest.  Granted, it’s a movie derived from a comic book, so some cheesiness is expected.  Perhaps it was a combination of the writing and the delivery that bogged it down.  Plus, at that point the movie had to end.  The dénouement was quick and rather sudden, but it had to be, due to the sheer length of the entire movie.

OK, enough of the criticisms.  Now for the good stuff.  God bless Christopher Nolan’s independence from CGI (Hey, George Lucas: take notes.  Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should!).  The stunts and action sequences in this film are amazing.  The scene with the 18-wheeler will blow you away: it looks real because they actually performed that stunt in the streets of Chicago using some good old-fashioned explosives, cables, and some really dedicated drivers and stuntmen.  And speaking of Chicago, the cinematography was outstanding.  This rendition of Batman was on a scale previously unseen in the franchise.  Gotham City is supposed to be the biggest and greatest city in the world, and The Dark Knight made it look just that.  The wide, sweeping shots of Chicago and the use of light and shade were superb, giving grandeur and scope to Gotham.  And that shot in the preview (also in the film) of Batman atop a skyscraper is actually Christian Bale standing on the Sears Tower, making the city look even more sprawling.

Enough can’t be said for Heath Ledger’s performance as the demented Joker.  I loved Jack Nicholson’s portrayal in 1989’s Batman, and comparisons inevitably will arise between the two.  But I think that’s unfair, primarily because the tones of the two movies are very different.  I have to admit that when I heard the news that Nolan chose Ledger to play such an iconic villain, I was skeptical.  “Why are they doing the Joker again?  How can someone possibly live up to the precedent that Jack set?” I thought.  Well, in my estimation, Ledger just set a precedent of his own.  His depiction of the Joker fit perfectly with Nolan’s vision and the dark, brooding, realistic tone of established in Batman Begins and further developed in The Dark Knight, just as Nicholson’s Joker fit perfectly with Tim Burton’s serious, but not-quite-real Batman (which I still love).  Ledger’s was an amazing performance: edgy, gritty, maniacal, yet not over-the-top or campy.  He’s just disturbing enough to make it believable.  (This is the setting I would have loved to see Jim Carrey play The Riddler, not the flashy bright-lights version Joel Schumacher directed in Batman Forever that sent the franchise spiraling down toward near-oblivion [not helped, of course, by the travesty known as Batman & Robin…ouch].)  I hope Ledger does receive some recognition for this role, not out of sympathy or pity or condolences, but because he earned it with the performance of a lifetime.

All in all, The Dark Knight was superbly done.  Well shot, well acted, well written, well directed.  I know Oscar voters aren’t kind to summer blockbusters, but the way I see it, this movie goes well beyond the standard formula of the usual blow ’em up action flick.  It’s intense, complex, unsettling, and easily the best summer movie I’ve seen this year (although Iron Man was pretty damn good, too).