Short response:
Suck it, Joel Shumacher.
Long response:
What an excellent movie. It was ten pounds of awesome in a five-pound bag. I would not say that it was better or worse than Batman Begins, because there’s no need to put them in competition with each other. Taken together, they form the best Batman movie series ever made. It’s better than the Burton series, and (needless to say) way better then the Shumacher series. I do believe Dark Knight was significantly darker than Batman Begins, which I didn’t know was even possible. Judging from the ending, the third one might be even darker.
The Joker was fascinating to watch. Heath Ledger could act like a pro and the fact that a dead man was playing a villainous clown on screen made the character even freakier. The two ways to play the Joker are harmless prankster and murderous sociopath. Dark Knight took the latter method about as far as it can go. I thought it was interesting that they never really dealt with the Joker’s origins. They were probably trying to make him more of a presence than a human. This was a wise move. I never cared for the proposed Joker origin stories. He’s just the Joker. I wonder how his absence in the next movie will be explained.
Everybody has been talking about how impressive the Joker is, but I was surprised at how well Harvey Dent was played. It’s rare that depictions of the character go much further than Two-Face, but a combination of good writing ad Aaron Eckhart ‘s skilled acting made the pre-scarred Dent really interesting and admirable. I kept forgetting that he was going to into Two-Face. This was probably the most horrifying depiction of Two-Face I’ve ever seen. The character is usually seen with some discolored skin and weird hair, but this time, the damage actually reached the bone. I was surprised to see him get killed off, because I thought he would end up being the main villain in the third movie.
All in all, greatness. If I were to complain about anything, it would be that there should have been more scenes with Batman in action. I know there were quite a few action scenes, and time had to be dedicated to developing the new characters, but Bruce Wayne was out of costume a little too much. Still, it was wonderful.