Excellent Use of ALL Characterizations!

Rating: 9/10 (19 July 2008)

Batman has always been my favorite comics superhero, so of course I was delighted at how well done and how well received "The Dark Knight" was and has been thus far! I feel it not only more than lived up to the hype, it well exceeded expectations. Director Christopher Nolan did a wonderful job keeping together a record-setting blockbuster that could've easily been a block-BUST mess in the wrong hands.
Most surprising to me of all, however, was how well all the main characters - not just The Joker - got good amounts of screen time appropriate to their importance in the overall story. As much as I was looking forward to seeing the late, beloved Heath Ledger's incomparable "Joker", I was glad that the others - Batman, Harvey Dent, Jim Gordon, Lucius Fox, Alfred, and Rachel Dawes - were also kept in the forefront of the story in an intricate dance of balance and plot pacing. Much like spice in a good recipe, we saw enough of The Joker to make us wish for more of him, but without him totally overpowering the movie as a whole.
Whlle it looks like (and I'm hoping that) there will be more "Batman" movies from Mr. Nolan & Co., I doubt we'll see The Joker as a main character again anytime in the foreseeable future. Really, who'd want to follow Ledger's impeccably entertaining, disturbing, and complex portrayal?
The film also had a few other nice surprises for me, such as some great moments of dark humor - plus not all the amazing special effects were of the "big-bang! explosive!" kind; Harvey Dent's transformation was awesome.
So, by all means go see The Dark Knight - again, and again! My friend and I saw it twice Friday night (7/18); he went all decked out as the Joker which just added to our fun evening! He was the only one we saw dressed up in two theaters in Louisville - I guess the "competition" got wind of it and chickened out. lol
Nine (instead of ten) out of ten stars only for what I thought was some plot convolution in the first one-third of the film; otherwise, I heartily recommend it for kids of all ages 10 and up!
R.I.P. and God bless Heath Ledger 1979-2008