Why so serious?

I love reading movie reviews and I like writing, so I thought about writing a legit movie-critic-style review of The Dark Knight but I don't know if I can do it justice.

I think I will stick to skimmer-friendly commentary. There aren't really any spoilers (other than Heath Ledger is dead in case you've been living under a rock for 8 months!!!!!!) but if you haven't seen it, don't read this and don't watch any previews and don't go on imdb.com, one of my top 5 favorite websites.

I rarely go to watch movies in the theater, and now I remember why. The middle-aged lady who sat next to me kept muttering, screaming, and hyperventilating; at one point even crying. Why so emotional?

Heath Ledger really was as good as everybody says. But I just want to point out that it's easier to play a role like the Clown Prince of Crime when you have extreme makeup, and prosthetics, and a cool costume to rock out in. That being said, he so owned the part that I couldn't recognize the celebrity/actor "Heath Ledger" at all, which I was not expecting. And compare it to Nicholson's Joker. Maybe it's because Jack Nicholson is more of an icon, a salty icon, but in all Nicholson films you can feel his personality so much that I don't really separate Nicholson the celebrity from Nicholson the actor from Nicholson the persona. I love Jack but I've noticed that his mannerisms and speech patterns are basically the same in all of his movie roles AND in real life--so much so that maybe Nicholson just always plays himself and is really good at playing himself. (If anybody knows of a counter-example please let me know.)

Maggie Gyllenhaal vs. Katie Holmes: there was no continuity between the Rachel Dawes's of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, because Katie Holmes was nothing more than a decently good-looking female in Batman Begins. Maggie Gylls is definitely the better actress. But I have a problem with the characters in the movie saying she is beautiful, when really, she is not. At least not in the Hollywood/comic book way. A comic book love interest is a babe, period. That's just life.
In my honest opinion Katie Holmes is not beautiful either but she goes easy on the eyes. And it's funny how much Tom Cruise ruined her life. A downgrade cleverly disguised as an upgrade--he really had us all fooled.

Aaron Eckhardt as Harvey Dent/Two-Face: strong performance and well-cast for this role; at least, as Dent. But (and this was the only part of the movie that bothered me), his turn to the dark side after the Joker talked to him in the hospital was not very consistent with the plot or the character development thus far, and not immediately convincing. I don't know if that's the fault of the actor or the script or the direction.

The other complication with Two-Face is the interpretation of how his motivations and use of his lucky coin work together. DC purists would say that he never questions the "decision" of the coin toss; on-screen renditions (like Tommy Lee Jones, and I think one time in Eckhardt's case too) have shown Two-Face flipping the coin over and over until he gets the result that he "wants." Related to this issue is whether Two-Face has free will, or lacks agency. According to Wikipedia, the arbiter of all knowledge, in the graphic novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, Two-Face flips his coin to decide whether to kill Batman and declares him free; but it is later revealed that the coin had landed on the dark side, and Two-Face had chosen to let Batman go. I still haven't made up my mind about which should be the authentic Two-Face.

Cillian Murphy is one of my new favorite actors. I wish he had had more screen-time in this movie. His cameo was really comic relief more than anything else, and a humiliation to the Batman villian tradition. (Although, is Scarecrow really a legit villain?)

The Hong Kong night scenes were really beautiful. HK represent! I have stood in the very places where they shot some of the scenes. But I'm getting kind of tired of the typecast Asian-as-money-laundering-villain.

Funniest scene: when the Joker says to Gambol's three remaining henchmen as he snaps a pool cue, "We only have 1 opening in our gang. So, we're going to have auditions. Make it quick."

Best surprise: William Fichtner as vigilante bank manager. He's the man.