The Dark Knight was good, but not great. I enjoyed the movie, and it had some good special effects. Heath Ledger was a very good Joker, but has been vastly overrated. I still think that Jack Nicholson played a better Joker.

The overall effect of the film can be summed up in two words - empty spectacle. Well acted, lavishly produced but utterly pointless. The mean spirited, cynical story does nothing but move the audience along to the next action set piece. And as irish points out, it's so completely full of holes that you really have to be there for the special effects alone to enjoy it. There is superior writing in the day time soap opera field. A lot has been made of the fact that the film is very dark and brooding and I'm plenty fine with dark and brooding as a mood, but for this film it appeared to be the entire theme, that was it, nothing more. There were a couple of pat tired monologues about the burden of duty that got lifted straight out of the just completed Spiderman triology. And even an embarrassing stab at a discussion of the responsibility of great power and the violation of personal privacy, but each time they came to such a crossroad, they truncated the narrative with another blast of brutal action and left the discussion behind.

Just saw this and I'm sorry to say I was massively unimpressed. Heath Ledger is very good, but the rest of the cast.....

Gary Oldman turns in the worst performance I've ever seen him do in a generally fine career.

Morgan Freeman is just the same character he's played in twenty other movies, only more sanctimonious.

Christian Bale is competent, but generally uncompelling.

Michael Caine acts like he's needing a downpayment for the nursing home.

The movie starts strong, with a great action sequence bank robbery, but quickly bogs down in a pretentious, overly preachy examination of the psyche of Batman. Which is all well and good, except it didn't need to be done at least five separate times, with no discernable advance of the theme or plot.

The action sequences pick up in intensity, but devolve into ever increasing use of CGI which made me feel like I was watching a video game and not a movie.

The film really needs an editor. At least 30 minutes of repetitive and redundant dialogue or pointless scenes could have been cut to the greater benefit of the film. There is far too much pretentious pseudo-philosophy, all of which is signalled by dramatic musical fanfares.

The internal logic of the film is ludicrous. Let me be clear. I'm prepared to suspend disbelief in a movie, and I'm doubly prepared to suspend it in a superhero movie, but the internal logic has to work, at least basically. There are at least 4 major points when it doesn't.

On the upside, Ledger's performance is very good, far better than anything I've seen in this kind of film. (Unfortunately, we all know he won't be reprising it.) In addition the film is dark and more adult oriented than is common in this kind of film, which I regard as a plus.

Overall, this film doesn't come close to the hype.

Dark Knight Too Dark We have finally done it! We've taken Batman away from the teens and pre-teens and turned him over to the adults. The Dark Night is not suited for the younger set, and I attribute that to Heath Ledger's outstanding, but monstrous characterization of the Joker.

Don't wait to rent this- see it in the theater. Chris Nolan improves on his impressive "Batman Begins" with a very dark version of the Batman legend. And yes, for all the hype Heath Ledger's Joker is quite scary. The film grapples with issues of morality, sacrifice, and definitions of justice- and for those who read the comic books as a kid (like me) you will find the film tries to stay very true to the legend. Solid supporting cast- Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman. . .only the actress who plays Rachel Dawes lacks charisma. Still- solid action scenes with characters who (for lack of a better word) can't stop crashing into each other and leaving wrecked people and buildings in their wake. One of the best comic-book films for grown-ups of all time.