Number 1 (Plus or Minus 10 Thoughts on The Dark Knight)

1. Heath Ledger should win an Oscar for his role as The Joker. He created on of the most convincing and compelling characters I have ever seen in a film. He was perfect.

2. Christian Bale is the only actor who should ever play or ever should have played Batman. Michael Keaton is an alright Bruce Wayne, but look at the guy. You should never feel like you can beat up Batman. Val Kilmer is probably second best in my opinion but I think thats mostly because I continue to give him a pass because of his performance as Doc Holliday in Tombstone. George Clooney...no comment.

3. The people in front of me at the midnight showing who excitedly realized who Harvey Dent might become at about the 2 hour mark should not have been admitted to the theater. If you are going to casually stumble into the premiere of the second installment of a widely known story with widely understood characters, don't bother the rest of the theater with your ignorance. Go on a Tuesday afternoon.

4. Christopher Nolan is the best Batman director. I love Tim Burton but it is as if Nolan grew up in Gotham City and is simply relaying that experience to me on screen. I don't feel like Batman Forever and Batman and Robin even deserve mention when compared to Nolan's work.

5. Batman Begins was great. The development of Bruce Wayne / Batman and his relationship with the city of Gotham was phenomenal. The Dark Knight was better. Even after all the hype and anticipation, it delivered.

6. Maggie Gyllenhaal was a good replacement for Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. Gyllenhaal actually looks like an older Katie Holmes which made it work for me. But since she's only a year older than Holmes, I probably shouldn't tell her that.

7. I wonder who the villain in the next movie will be.

8. The trailer for yet another Mummy movie should not even be played in the same theater as The Dark Knight, let alone before the film itself. Wasn't Jet Li's last movie years ago?

9. I felt like Batman's deep voice was close to over doing it, but obviously he can't talk the same as he does as Bruce Wayne. I know Clark Kent just takes off the glasses and no one notices the difference, but this is Gotham. This city has a better class of criminal. They'd see right through it.

10. I, along with most of the theater I was in, stayed through all of the ending credits hoping that the film makers would give us something extra for our devotion. They should have, but they gave me more in ten minutes of The Dark Knight than some do in an entire film so I wont hold it against them.

-steven

ps- It is also my opinion that any negative review of this film is a writer's attempt to move up the ladder at work by bashing a huge film. I'm looking at you Armond White of the New York Press.