If you like action movies, and if you especially like Batman and are over 14 or have parents willing to take you to action movies, YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS MOVIE.

 

 

As the Joker and Two-Face are not among my top five favorite villains (especially after Tommy Lee Jones was allowed to deviate from Two-Face's basic character traits several years ago), I would have been somewhat unbothered by waiting until next week to see The Dark Knight.  However, due to a glitch in my friend Rubio's plans, an extra ticket was available and I had the privilege of seeing a midnight showing of this film on Thursday evening/Friday morning.

 

And I'm still reeling from the sheer awesomeness of it all.

 

As a spirit of vengeance, I don't spook too easily.  Hell, I can sense it when people are hiding around corners to surprise me; modern horror movies bore the hell out of me; and psychological thrillers have to be particularly well-crafted to disturb me.

 

This movie is a tightly-woven ensemble piece, is effectively designed and shot, and is so unbelievably scary that I'll be damned if I didn't come close to soiling myself as I watched it.  The entire audience I viewed it with cringed several times.  One person shrieked.  This movie is terrifying, and in the best way possible.

 

And much of the praise that has already been lavished on the late Heath Ledger's performance, I assure you, is well-deserved.  His Joker is not even in the same league as Jack Nicholson's--not by a long shot.  This new Joker is morbid, wily and deeply unsettling, whether he's using heavy artillery or even just a pencil.

 

A pencil, goddamn it!

 

Don't even ask me why or how it's possible--I'm still trying to figure that out.

 

But all characters in this movie are done exceptionally well, be they leads, supporting, or even the extras.  And this movie is the first time, in a very long time, that I have borne witness to a demonstration of a wonderful little thing called "Plot-Fu."

 

Plot-Fu is a term that I just made up to describe an interesting technique, wherein the actions taken throughout the course of a movie have some bearing on the evolution of a series of schemes...without the audience being necessarily aware of the shifts until considering the whole of it in retrospect.

 

The Plot-Fu is very strong in this movie, and making the shifts clear yet seemless is one of Christopher Nolan's many gifts as a director.

 

Now go see it!