The Dark Knight (*****)

Wow.

I couldn’t move for the last 45 minutes of this movie. Maybe it was an hour. I’m not even sure.

When director Christopher Nolan restarted the Batman movie franchise 7 years after Joel Schumacher killed it with 1998’s gawdawful Batman & Robin, he did it in grand style by making the definitive Batman movie. Batman Begins was the first Batman movie that really nailed the essence of the character. It wasn’t just the best Batman film, it was a really, really good film. How could they top that?

That was the problem going into The Dark Knight. Hype, Heath Ledger’s death, and then the opening weekend box office blowout all fed into a perfect storm of unworldly expectations that nothing could possibly match. And in fact, it took me about 20 or 30 minutes before I really felt sucked into the movie. In setting up all the various plot elements for the film, plus giving us a brief cameo of a villain from the last movie, it takes a little while for the movie to get going.

Once the movie grabbed me, though, the intensity slowly throttled up until I was frozen in my seat, afraid to move in case I missed something. It’s a long film, and once I was tempted to look at my watch, but that feeling was quickly taken care of.

Christian Bale returns as Batman/Bruce Wayne. As in the first movie, he nails all three aspects of the character, the public Bruce Wayne, the true Bruce Wayne, and Batman. He again carries himself well in each role. As before, the main problem is that his growling Batman voice doesn’t always work. Sometimes it’s fine, but sometimes it’s so gutteral that it’s hard to understand.

Maggie Gyllenhall replaces Katie Holmes as love interest/DA Rachel Dawes. She commands a lot more respect in this role than Holmes did. The rest of the supporting cast returns from Batman Begins, including Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, and Gary Oldman (who seems to have a new career as a good guy) as Lt. and future Commissioner Gordon. I won’t say whether he finally reaches that post in this movie, but let’s just say that the commissioner from the last one is still in this one. Commissioner Gordon was all but ignored in the movies prior to Batman Begins; this time around, he is involved even more as Batman’s ally on the ground. All of the supporting cast do a superb job in their roles.

The two biggest newcomers to the cast are Aaron Eckhart as District Attorney Harvey Dent and the late Heath Ledger as the Joker. All the talk has been about Ledger’s performance. Eckhart has the easier task, as he is only following Billy Dee Williams’ nearly absent performance as Dent in the 1989 Batman (yes, I said Billy Dee Williams), as well as Tommy Lee Jones’ inexplicably one-dimensional turn as the character in Batman Forever. I guess it’s good that they didn’t cast someone whose first name ends with a “y” and whose middle name rhymes with “pee” this time.

Ledger, on the other hand, had to follow Jack Nicholson’s portrayal, which--while wildly praised at the time--is best described as “Jack Nicholson playing the Joker.” Nevertheless, Nicholson’s version left a lasting impression on the movie world. Ledger’s Joker, however, will never be described as “Heath Ledger playing the Joker.” The hype is true here; he is totally subsumed into this role. I would have had no idea that it’s Ledger underneath the scarred, crusty visage (which they never bother to explain; there isn't even a hint that his background involves falling into a vat of industrial chemicals; if anything, I’d guess that it doesn’t). His voice is perfectly maniacal. He is sleazy, twisted, conniving, ruthless, and yet somehow strangely logical amidst all the madness. I wanted to hear more of his insane laughter. Does his performance deserve a posthumous Oscar? I’m not sure. But he inhabits the role so seamlessly, I felt sad while watching the film knowing that even if Joker survives this movie (I won’t say if he does or not), he can’t be in another film. Not without recasting, anyway. And now I can’t imagine anyone else in this role. Jack who?

Eckhart does the crusading white knight district attorney role well. His turn to the darker side is a bit less nuanced, as he ends up growling a lot the way Bale does as Batman. There is one scene that tries to show Dent has a darker side to begin with, but it seems like they should have set that up a little bit more.

Despite that, the direction and script are top-notch again. And the film is packed wall-to-wall, which is what leads to the slow start as they set up 10 different story angles. I was pleased that the fight scenes were less jerky than in Batman Begins (which at times mimicked a Bourne movie style) and were, for the most part, easier to follow than they were in the last movie. Not that I didn’t sometimes lose track anyway, especially during a sonar-laden fight scene; a second viewing is definitely in order.

The plot managed to throw in a few curves I didn’t see coming, which I always enjoy when they don’t feel like cheats. These worked well. However, the story has so many layers and threads that, while I was able to keep up with most of it, I could see it a second time just to catch up with everything. It's a very dense plot. And the script even manages to get in a dig about the morality of unfettered wiretapping in the name of security.

The Batmobile chase in the lower streets of Gotham City is too reminiscent of the chase scene from Batman Begins, mostly because it’s in the same setting. But when the chase resumes aboveground and Batman flips a semi cab-first, all that is forgotten.

The Dark Knight definitely lives up to its name, as this film takes a decidedly darker and more vicious turn. And Batman Begins was no Heidi. This is not a movie for kids. It’s not explicitly gross, but the implied violence is cringing at times. Not that the film is completely humorless; Alfred and especially Lucius Fox have some great lines, and you can't help but laugh at some of Ledger's antics as the Joker. So the film does provide some moments of comic relief that don't feel shoehorned in; they actually make sense in the plot with the characters.

As I said before, the final hour (and this movie is 2 1/2 hours long) is intense. Certainly the most intense movie I’ve seen in years, maybe ever. Every muscle paralyzed as I watched the action build to what was presumably the climax. Without spoiling anything, this ticking time bomb scenario surprisingly revolves more around human nature--whether people in mob situations have the capacity for good or evil--than a simple "hero fights the villain to save the day" scenario. And while the resolution could have gone over to the cheesy side, it seems like they stepped back from the edge of the line and made it palatable (for an example that did not show such restraint, see the New York mob pelting the Green Goblin in defense of Spider-Man in the first movie of that series). But that wasn’t the end anyway. In fact, the most intense, chair-gripping scene is the one that follows and involves no bomb about to explode, no citywide disaster scenario, but is instead a hostage drama involving very few people.

Summer blockbusters are often described as roller coaster rides. The Dark Knight is no mere thrill ride. After some warmup laps at regular speeds, this film becomes a tightly packed NASCAR race at 500 mph. You’ll be exhausted after this movie, but in a good way. All I could say afterwards was, “Wow.” It’s not a perfect film, but few are. And it’s not for the faint-hearted. Don’t expect a simple popcorn flick, and don’t expect your typical feel-good ending either. The world that they leave in place at the end hints at an entirely different set of conflicts that promise to take the movie franchise in a whole new direction. But unlike the twist at the end of Superman Returns, the state of things in Gotham City makes a lot of sense and feels like a universe of possibilities rather than a dead end.

At the end of Batman Begins, the biggest question was: How can they possibly top this? The Dark Knight was the answer to that. Now, repeating that feat seems even more impossible. How can they possibly top THIS?

I can’t wait to see the answer.