Excellent for what it is, but too twisted and unpleasant

Rating: 6/10 (12 September 2008)

Dark Knight is without a doubt a very well made movie and will please most all of the adult fans' of Batman. However, I for one am greatly disturbed by the content of a movie that will inevitably be viewed by most teenage boys and many children given that the main character is a very popular comic book hero. Heck, I had to look away during a number of scenes.
To give this movie a PG-13 might seem appropriate when compared to the ratings given to other recent movies, but this movie contains many, many scenes which are waaaaaaay too dark, sadistic, and disturbing for really anyone under 18 in my opinion. The makers of this movie wisely removed all traces of blood from the movie to appease the rating system, but come on, twisted serial-killer kind of horrific violence and terror (and lots of it) doesn't depend on the appearance of blood to be highly disturbing, especially to young children. If children today aren't disturbed by what they see in the Dark Knight, then that would help explain how events like Colombine can happen.
So if you haven't already routinely exposed your children to the darkest of depraved movie characters (a la Silence of the Lambs), then PLEASE think twice about letting them see this movie. It's screen time is composed of 90% sick violence and 10% positive message.