"Why..so..serious?"

Asks The Joker. Everytime you look at his face, you have to wonder why he ISN'T a little bit more serious. But then you remember.. he is The Joker, after all. He can't take things too seriously.. or can he?

Yes, that's right. I saw The Dark Knight last night (or morning). And I have to admit, I never saw Batman Begins. But from what I hear... this one was much better in a lot of ways. I really want to watch the first one, now, but.. the IMAX version of The Dark Knight? Hello.. I'm going.

First of all.. I must say, the two and a half hour movie didn't seem to phase me that much - the movie was that good. You know a movie was good if you don't even know that almost three hours has passed since you purchased that enormous popcorn and caffeinated Coke (and it DID successfully keep me and a friend awake for it).

Some people have complained about that, but I didn't have a problem with it. And the cast? Amazing. Christian Bale was perfect. Put him in a hot sportscar, and he is even more amazing. Not to mention that sweet Batmobile. Maggie Gyllenhaal was fantastic, too, I thought. She took over Katie Holmes's role in Batman Begins, as I found out. Heath Ledger.. WOW. After watching him in the movie, I don't think I can imagine anyone else playing The Joker. He was relentlessly disturbing, frightening, and exciting - all at once. II knew that there was a lot of hyper surrounding Ledger and his death, but his performance was honestly one of the best ones I have witnessed. Props to Heath!!!

Caine, Gary Oldman.. the list goes on. When most of the cast did such a great job, you have to just give props to the director.. we salute you Christopher Nolan!

I won't actually talk about anything else that happens in the movie, for all of the diehard Batman fans (I admit, I am nowhere close to being that). But, what's more exciting than seeing a big, anticipated summer film on its opening night? Definitely not sleeping.

Was the movie long? Yes. Did it feel like it? No. Was it the best movie this year? Oh.. probably.

In other words, go see it!!!!!