Here we have Batman portrayed the way he is meant to be. Realistic, dark and gritty. It holds no punches and provides a nice ride with just a few annoying bumps along the way.

The Joker has always been Batman's greatest adversary. Or at least he is to me. They are similar in nature in that they feel they can do whatever is necessary to obtain their goals. But they are indeed opposites. Batman fights the good fight to bring to justice the evil of the world. He has a code of ethics that allows him to break laws as he wishes without remorse but prevents him from certain things such as taking a human life. Even sneaking into another country illegally, attacking a foreign police force, kidnapping a foreign citizen and then sneaking him back into the US poses no issues. This is fine and dandy when you are fighting the common street thug who's just out to make a quick buck to spend on his disturbing lifestyle.

Or to feed the family, whichever applies.

But to fight the Joker on his terms requires a bit looser morals that the Batman is incapable of having. In the past the Joker has been portrayed many different ways but to me the best was when he was the raving lunatic that cared for nothing in this world. This is the best way to portray the Joker and the Dark Knight delivers it in spades.

In fact, it smacks you over the head with one of those shovels to make the point.

The Joker has always been the ultimate test for Batman and his claim of moral superiority over the criminals he fights. True, he breaks the law on numerous occasions but he does so with the knowledge he is doing it for what he feels is right. It is just. He has a code of ethics that he sticks to and applies it when he feels is necessary. For instance, If he were to break up a mugging and a medic helps the robber before the victim then that medic gets thumped for it.

And to him it is the right thing to do, no question.

So we have Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker and given his untimely death there had to be some buzz about it before the movie's release. Some are even talking Oscar for the performance. Much like Jack Nicholson's turn as the Joker, Heath Ledger simply steals the show. This is a movie about the Joker and Batman is just there to try to stop him. In a way you could even say this is an example of an epic tale between good and evil, not just a comic book movie. It's just different because the hero wears a funny outfit.

Then again, so does the villain.

I have to say that Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker is by far the best portrayal of the character there is. This is because of a mixture of Ledger's excellent acting and the realistic approach the Nolan's have with this run of the franchise. This Joker is not a silly character but a terrifying one. He has no past. We do not know where he came from or why he does the things he does. His trademark face is not a deformity due to acid or toxic waste. He wears makeup to throw people off or maybe just because he feels like it. We don't know. His trademark grotesque grin is now hideous scars that he gives totally different reasons to explain them. Again, we don't know. That is the key to his terror. We know nothing of him or his motivations, therefore nothing he does can be understood.

It was an excellent decision that there is no origin story for the Joker. Because his evil is more in your face without one.

How do you fight such a man? At first Batman has troubles in dealing with the Joker because he cannot understand the motivations behind his actions. A nice homage to the comics is given when Alfred relates a story of his younger, more adventurous days of when he was part of a group of people tasked to find a troublesome thief in the Burmese jungle. This thief was killing and stealing to only drop the loot after the crime. The thief was doing it for the challenge and the fun of it. The way they eventually caught the thief was to burn the jungle down. Which leads us to an excellent quote from Alfred:

"Some men aren't looking for anything logical. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

This is the essence of the Joker.

To fight such a man you may have to become that what you despise. To truly stop the Joker requires the Batman to do the one thing he cannot do, cannot allow himself to do. He must kill the Joker.

Thus we get elaborate yet well written plans that lead into other elaborate yet well written plans. We see the Joker making his mark by robbing a mob bank with a complicated scheme that actually endangers his own life that barely works out. Once the Batman realizes he cannot do what is necessary to truly stop the Joker we get a complicated plan to capture the Joker.

Two points here. The plotline of faking Gordon's death but not letting the audience in on the scheme was not such good writing to me. It was suspenseful for the people that are not fans of the comic but anyone that knows how important Gordon is to the Batman mythos would know he was not dead. Either use a secondary character that actually is expendable to keep us guessing or let us understand what's going on. Don't treat the fans like we're stupid.

My other point during this plan is the fact the Joker in a way actually tries to taunt the Batman into doing the very thing he cannot do. Joker makes himself an easy target for Batman to run down. It could be over at that instance but in the end Batman cannot do it. Therefore Joker's reign of terror continues. It was interesting to see that the Joker really did not care if he lived or died, whether his careful plans came to fruition or not.

Even though he's been captured we now get to witness the true genius behind the madness of the Joker. HIs escape attempt was very clever writing and I couldn't say how else it could have been handled to be better. And this escape involves a different tack then what we normally see in these movies. The Joker has Harvey Dent and Rachel in separate locations about to die. Both cannot be saved. Batman chooses Rachel only to discover that the Joker lied about who was where knowing that Rachel would be chosen. So the only woman to learn the Batman's true identity and actually return in the sequel dies in that sequel. And it fits because that is part of the tragedy of Batman.

Being in love with Rachel and then her death has caused Harvey Dent to venture to the edge of insanity. And it is the Joker that shows up to push him over that edge to become yet another tool in his plans to wreak havoc. Having the city's "White Knight" go bad would be a huge blow to the city itself. The appearance of Two-Face in this movie worked out quite nicely. Treating Two-Face as a tragic story instead of making him just another bad guy was an interesting twist. He was always a tragic character but not always shown that way. It'll be fun to wait to see if he is indeed dead. But I'm not sure how I feel about the Batman taking the fall for Dent's crimes.

Then we leave off with a somewhat loose plan of the Joker's to see if one group of people would be willing to kill another group to save their own lives. Neither group chooses to do so ruining the Joker's premise that everyone is like him deep inside and it only takes something to push them to his level. Much like he did with Dent. But we did get a good quote out of the premise:

"See, I'm not a monster... I'm just ahead of the curve."

So I get to the things that bothered me about the movie. The one thing I've always feared about this run of the franchise is the possibility of gadget overload and we almost get that in this film. The weird technology of making all cell phones in the city act as sonar devices so that Batman can see through walls? Lame. The Batpod was almost silly. I understood the concept of it and the reasoning behind it. And the engines in the wheels was a nice touch. But all the explosives and guns that Batman uses. How can a man who has vowed to never take a human life actually use guns and high explosives to clear the road? In the real world he would be leaving a trail of dead bodies behind him.

That's it. The only problems I can think of.

Is this the best comic book movie ever? I can't say. At this point I'm torn between Spider-Man 2, Iron Man and this one. I like them equally for different reasons.

So we end with the true tragedy of the movie. The Batman has finally captured the Joker who says:

"You just couldn't let me go could you? This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You truly are incorruptible aren't you? You won't kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness, and I won't kill you, because you're just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this forever."

It is a tragedy because after Ledger's inspired performance can anyone truly replace him as the Joker? Until at least some time has passed and the Nolan's have moved on to other things? With Ledger's death it is a tragedy that we will never see him as the Joker again.

Ever.